When the swimming complex he had coached out of for over three decades was shut to be demolished, Andrew Hunter found himself, as he put it, "a coach without a pool".
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Then Swimming NSW approached him about helping out at a few coaching clinics over the holidays.
Starting off a fortuitous chain of events, one of them was Tamworth City's.
Without a coach following Nicholas Monet's move to Queensland, they then asked him would be consider staying on for another couple of weeks.
That has now turned into a couple of months with Hunter being appointed the club's head coach until, at this stage, after the National Championships in April, which the club already has several swimmers qualified for.
Beyond that, it's a case of just seeing what happens.
"It just depends what happens and how they respond to me," Hunter said.
On the pool deck now for just over a week so far it has been really good, he said, aside from the weather. Being accustomed to the more humid heat of the coast, the dryer heat has taken a bit of adjusting to.
"The kids are great, the swimming club people are really good, and the people of the town are very very nice," he said.
"I run into people every morning and they want to say hello to me. None of them know me."
Born and raised in Taree, Hunter has been operating his own swim program, along with wife Gail, out of the Twins Towns Club at Banora Point since 1989.
Originally only intending to be there for 12 months, he ended up staying for 33 years.
A swimmer himself in his younger days, all up he has been coaching for, he counted, probably over 50 years.
This will be the first time he has spent an extended period of time in Tamworth before but he has been a frequent visitor over the years.
He first came back in the 1980s to play at a water polo country championships.
Daughter Megan also lived in Tamworth for a while and worked as a lifeguard at the local pools. She even one year was named Lifeguard of the Year.
From what he has seen in the short time he has been working with the swimmers, the club has some "very talented young people".
"It usually takes a while for people to accept somebody else but they seem to have accepted me," he said.
"So as soon as we get the element of trust going we'll see what the forward progression turns out like."
"It's like when a new coach comes to the football club, they either go well or they don't. It's the same thing here."
"It's just them being confident that I know what I'm talking about and me looking and assessing their abilities and seeing how I can make them more efficient."
It is a busy few weeks coming up for the swimmers with the NSW Country Regionals on January 21 and 22, the New England and North West Speedo Sprint Series Heats in Armidale on February 4 and 5, and the club hosting it's own carnival on February 12.
