It's been a milestone year for Dale Scott in the Pirates' black and gold, but he has one more to tick off - a premiership.
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He'll get that chance at Gunnedah on Saturday with Pirates taking on Moree in the second grade grand final.
It would be the perfect way to cap off a year which has seen Scott make his first grade debut and join distinguished company in playing his 100th game for the club.
The 30-year old was a relative late bloomer to the sport, only picking it up in his early 20s after "some of the boys talked me into going down and having a run".
With water polo his main focus, he hadn't played footy of any form really before. But from that first pre-season he said he knew "this was where I want to be".
Now he will forever more feature on the club's honour board.
"It's pretty special. Obviously it's a pretty proud club and pretty successful club so to be able to be involved with that sort of thing and some of the names that have racked up the 100, it was a pretty big honor to tick that milestone off," he said of the 100 milestone, which he celebrated in last weekend's preliminary final.
Scott said he didn't really have any idea about it, until their final game of the first round down in Scone.
"I had a conversation with one of the old boys who keeps a lot of our stats. He said 'you're in reach you just can't miss any for the rest of the year'," he said.
Two weeks on from that game, he found himself running on for first grade.
"I was pretty shocked when my name got called out for the first grade debut and in a pretty big game against Moree too," Scott said.
It was quite the turnaround having been dropped to the bench for second grade for the Scone game. He ended up starting that game, due to a late pull out, but reflects on it as a bit of a turning point in his season.
"I took it as a bit of a kick up the backside to pull my finger out and start playing the footy I had been," he said.
The assistant principal at Manilla Central for about 18 months now, Scott said footy is a nice escape.
"Monday to Friday here's pretty hectic and some long days, sort of with that role and those responsibilities. So the Tuesday and Thursday down there and games on Saturday, it's a good way out. It's a good time where I don't have to think about work and all those sort of things and everything else that's going on," he said.
Part of the Pirates side that was beaten in the decider by the Bulls three years ago, he's hoping they can return the favour.
"In 2019 we played them in the major semi and we beat them and then they came through the qualifying final and then pipped us in the grand final so I'm hoping we can sort of flip the script and and do it the way they did it but do it back to them," he said.
Kick-off is at 12.45pm.
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