NEW Temora co-captain Clancy Mackey admits he was caught by surprise when he was promoted to one of the top jobs at the Kangaroos this season.
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Mackey may only have a couple of season's experience in first grade but the 26-year-old is part of the furniture at Temora.
His story is one of perseverance and hard work, a couple of traits that make it easy to see why he was made captain alongside Gus McRae for season 2024.
Mackey made his first grade debut at just 17, but in the nine years since he would be lucky to have played any more than 25 games at senior level.
The loyal Kangaroo's career was halted by an ACL injury at 18 and then again at 24.
While two knee reconstructions would be enough to finish most careers, Mackey put his hand up to coach Temora's reserve grade team in the interim, where he eventually he was drawn back to the playing field last year.
It provided a launching pad to spring into the 2024 season.
"I started coaching reserve grade, thinking that I wasn't going to play again. But I got the taste for it," Mackey explained.
"I thought I'll just do everything right with my body to get myself back into it, make it a priority while I'm young and able to bounce back into it.
"I came back in halfway through last year, started in the reserves, come up to first grade, thrown in the deep end pretty quick, played the rest of the year in first grade and was lucky enough still to qualify for reserves and played deep into finals.
"I really enjoyed my footy.
"This year the focus was to drop the coaching and focus on myself and my own game, focus on just playing football. Put in a really big pre-season, kept myself real disciplined, I had my eyes on the goal of playing a full year healthy of first grade and it actually came as a surprise to me that the boys selected me as co-captain."
It is not a role that Mackey, a project manager at Temora Shire Council, takes lightly.
"It means a lot, the club means a lot to me so I'm honoured by that," he said.
"I absolutely love the leadership. It's just an honour, really, to lead the boys. I love the club, I love the people around the club.
"Leadership is something that comes to me a little bit naturally, I guess, without being cocky. Throughout work and growing up I was the captain of under 17s."
Mackey detailed that it had been a tough road back from his knee reconstructions.
"Absolutely. It does take a bit of a mental toll at the start," he said.
"I thought I wasn't playing footy again at the start, which did get me a bit down a bit but I was always motivated and disciplined to do all my physio and get my body right because I've always been into my fitness at the gym and stuff so I thought if I can just do all the little things right and get my body back to somewhere near 100 per cent, we'll just see what happens.
"Off the back of that and once I started coaching, I was like 'I'm coming back to play' so I ramped up my training, ramped up my running, ramped up my fitness. I just really took it on and worked hard to get to where I am."
Temora endured a tough start to the Farrer League season after an off-season that provided great hope. They suffered heavy losses to Marrar and The Rock-Yerong Creek before bouncing back last Saturday with a strong, come-from-behind win over North Wagga.
Mackey expects the win to have done the Kangaroos the world of good.
"Absolutely. We always knew that the potential was there," he said.
"We've been working really hard under Will (Reinhold) and Zac (Oliver), them boys are doing a fantastic job, and the young guys are really stepping up and starting to come into their own. It was always just going to be a matter of time.
"It's more about at the moment for us trusting the process, trusting our training and trusting our game plan.
"We did take some confidence out of that but also keeping in mind that we want to keep a level head and we know there is still bigger fish to fry."
Temora will get another serious test when they take on East Wagga-Kooringal at Nixon Park on Saturday.
Mackey believes it is a good opportunity for the Kangaroos.
"I think without a doubt. I do respect East Wagga as a team, they're going to be tough, they've got some quality players, they've got a lot of locals and also a lot of new guys that have come in that have played footy at a higher level," he said.
"Even the older guys like Nathan Scott, he's always been handy for them. Luke Gerhard adds another element of leadership for them. We respect them and we just want to focus on our game, trust our work, trust each other and just trust the process basically.
"We'll see what happens, take it as it comes and hopefully we can all do our best. I've got a lot of confidence in the playing group in that we're growing and this weekend is a good opportunity to show what we're really made of."
