In the time Mark Ewington had away from cricket, John Howard defeated Paul Keating to become PM, Pauline Hanson formed One Nation, Sydney hosted the Olympics, the ... OK, you get it: it was a long time.
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Ewington was lost to the game for 25 years, leaving it in 1994 after playing top-grade cricket in Launceston post-high school.
He wanted to see what life was like outside the Apple Isle, and found himself living on the Gold Coast.
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It was there that he fell for Nerieda Percy, a Gunnedah girl.
The couple relocated to Gunnedah in January 2000, and were married there in June that same year.
But while Ewington rekindled his love for AFL in Gunnedah, playing more than 100 games for the Bulldogs (he was a member of the 2017 and 2019 premiership sides), it was not until this year that he returned to the cricketing fold.
And what a return it has been.
The 48-year-old's first game back was a T20 win over Kookaburras on October 25.
The following day, he snared three wickets bowling medium pace in a big win over Mornington.
In Albion's next match, the current two-day clash against Kookaburras at Kitchener Park, he finished day one with 4-7 off 3.6 overs as Albion secured first-innings points.
Albion mainstay James Mack convinced Ewington, his Bulldogs teammate, to roll the arm over again. Mack has said: "He's been one of the better pickups I've seen as someone [playing] out of the blue."
Prior to his cricket comeback, Ewington said he never stopped thinking about playing the game again. "I love it. You grow up on it, you can't forget it."
One of the factors that kept him away from the sport was Gunnedah's notoriously hot summers.
He could handle a Tassie scorcher, but a Gunnedah scorcher ... nah, bugger that. "Coming from Tasmania ... a real hot day is 35," he said. "But your real hot days up here are 40. So that deterred me a little bit."
However, that was then and this is now - and Ewington is savouring the "camaraderie" of another team sport.
"I love being around mates, you know ... That's what the wife reckons: I just do it for the social side of things."
At Wolseley Oval on Saturday, Mornington will resume on 2-10 after Court House secured first-innings points in a low-scoring affair.
