Gundagai fullback Dane O'Hehir is hoping he hasn't played his last game for the club for the foreseeable future.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
O'Hehir is preparing to depart his junior club at the end of the season as he searches for a coastal change.
While a final destination is yet to be locked in, the 27-year-old is looking for a new challenge.
"I'm still figuring out where I want to go for the next stage but I want to test myself outside of Group Nine," O'Hehir said.
"I think a bit of a coastal move will be good for me.
"It's a lifestyle thing as while I love working and playing in Gundagai but being out of Gundagai is something I want to experience.
"Gundagai has been great for me but I've played my whole career here except for a couple of years overseas."
Before a move away after the school year, first he's looking for the chance to finish off another promising season with the Tigers.
READ MORE
O'Hehir returned last year to be part of Gundagai's premiership after missing their 2018 success after making the move to London.
He was planning on staying in the United Kingdom longer before COVID struck and now he's hoping for the opportunity to pick up where the Tigers left off.
"I know Group Nine are doing all they can to get us on the field but it is really out of their hands at the moment," O'Hehir said.
"It's really up to Gladys (Berejikian) and what she decides what we are allowed to do but we are still training individually, just going for runs and stuff where we can to keep ourselves fit so when the time comes, if it does come, we will be ready to go for hopefully a really good semi-finals series."
Gundagai were unable to play their last two games of the regular season against Young and Southcity.
They finished in fourth on the ladder, but O'Hehir is confident they had set themselves up for a big finish.
"I think this is one of the strongest finals series I've played in," he said.
"Usually you have your top two teams who are the standouts and I know Tumut have been really good this year but I honestly think any of the top five teams can win it.
"I know we had a slow start to the year, and have had our injuries, but I think we were peaking at the right time of the year and thought we could really give the competition a shake if it does come back and hopefully it does."
Gundagai are drawn to face Kangaroos at Anzac Park in the first week of finals.
However if lockdown extends another fortnight Group Nine will revert to a top four and will instead tackle Young.
Either game will be an elimination final.