He's played more than 120 games in the University of Newcastle maroon and white but Michael Handley cherished the chance to pull on the Calrossy navy and red again on Saturday.
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Handley captained the Old Boys Red team in their reunion weekend clash, leading them to a 36-22 win in front of a crowd of around 300 at Scully Park.
Speaking after accepting the symbol of their supremacy - the Cowper Perpetual Shield - he spoke of his honour captaining the team and the "pleasure" of singing the school song all together on the field after the game and the memories that brought back.
"It was awesome," he said of the day.
Graduating in 2010, Handley said it was great to get the chance to reconnect with former class-mates, and school-mates, but also get to know some of the younger Cowper generation.
"(And) Singing the Cowper song at the end was really hair raising stuff," the now 30-year-old said.
It wasn't the first time the alumni games have been played, but they were a lot more informal previously, than Saturday.
"It was nothing like this with a big crowd atmosphere," Handley recalled.
"It was just the people playing and a few little spectators."
"This is just great, to get the community and family's involved."
He was one of several players playing on Saturday that were recently involved in finals campaigns with their respective club sides.
Aligned with the Seahorses since he moved down to Newcastle to study civil engineering, the former Tamworth Magpie, has played around 130 games, 50 of those in first grade.
"[This year] A bunch of us kind of 30-year-old blokes that are now dads had a bit of a stint in third grade," he said.
"It was really good fun, and we went well."
The side was littered with Tamworth 'expats' with Handley teaming up in the halves with former school, and Magpies, team-mate Ben Roughley, and fellow ex-Calrossy students Blake Murphy and Hugh Wolfgang, Ned Hoath, Harrison Freeman and Stephen Johnston (all Farrer) and Josh Manvell also part of the team.
In a further connection to the region former Gunnedah second grade coach Tom Torrance was the coach while Armidale's Alex Frost played fullback.
They just missed out on the chance to play for the silverware, going down to Wanderers in the preliminary final.
Away from the footy field, it has been an exciting last couple of years for Handley, and one of change.
Earlier this year he became a father, with he and partner Harriet welcoming a daughter, Tully. He has also swapped the spirit level for the books, becoming a maths teacher.
That was another nice thing about Saturday, being able to "talk teaching" with some of his old teachers.
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