If Matt Hannay had of stuck to the plan who knows where he would be now.
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But probably not in Gunnedah, and preparing to pack down for his first shot at the premiership he has long been craving.
When the wily veteran lobbed in town in 2008, he only intended to stay three months. He just came to spend a bit of time with his mother.
But the town quickly worked its charms on him and 14 years later he is still here.
"I enjoyed the country lifestyle and the people here. I got on pretty well with a lot of people and was pretty happy to stay," he said.
A bit of a cult figure around town, certainly around the club, the former Queensland Country representative was initially reluctant to be interviewed about the grand final. He was trying to stay away from all the hype, having been caught out by that before.
But it has been tough to avoid. You'd pretty much have to be a hermit.
Everywhere you turn there are signs wishing the Red Devils well as they look to break their 52-year premiership drought.
Indicating that the clash with Narrabri could be his last game, the 45-year-old, who hasn't missed a season since he made his first grade debut in Brisbane back in 1994, said the premiership would be a good way to finish his career.
"It'll probably mean just about everything," he said.
He has contemplated retirement before. After tasting premiership success with Coonabarabran in 2020, Hannay quipped that the going joke is that he has retired 25 times.
He was all set to hang up the boots last year but didn't want to finish like that (the season was called off just before the finals).
One of the toughest men in the game, he said his "heart and mind are still definitely there" but his body "just doesn't want to do it anymore". Particularly being in the front row "it's been pretty hard on it".
"We used to say after a game on Saturday, you've got to pay the piper to train during the week, now I've got to pay them twice, it takes me twice as long to recover," he said.
He has probably been fighting his body for a few seasons now but the lure of winning a premiership with the Red Devils has kept him going.
"Absolutely. I've been trying to look after myself as best I can this year to get through it.
"So I'm pretty happy we're there but the job's not done yet, don't worry about that," Hannay said.
"We've got 80 minutes of hell to get through."
There is a strong recognition of that amongst the playing group. As soon as they had won the major semi-final two weeks ago the talk was that the job wasn't done: "not even close".
One of a handful to have played a grand final before, he said it is really about doing the basics right.
"Nothing fancy, just go through your basics. You tend to win grand finals by stopping tries, not scoring them so it'll be a lot of defence, it'll be brutal there's no doubt about that.
"It will be huge hits, but I can't wait for that challenge."
He loves that stuff.
They are at full strength with Emori Waqavulagi and Junior Nasilivata both named. There was a question mark about their availability after coming off the field with injuries in the major semi-final.
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