It's been a long and tough road back to the top for Mornington.
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But on Saturday they rose from the ashes of winless seasons, consecutive bottom of the table finishes and a constant struggle for numbers to be crowned the Gunnedah cricket competition's 2022-23 champions.
The fairytale that they have been building towards the last three seasons was finally realised as they dominated reigning premiers Albion to win the JVJ McAdam Cup for the first time in 12 years.
The gloomy conditions were a stark contrast to Mornington's jubilation as they celebrated their first premiership since the 2010-11 season.
It was a reward for their resilience through what has been some "difficult" times as captain Justin Carter reflected post-match.
"From four or five years ago where we'd struggle to get a team and you'd get seven in first grade, to build up to what it is today is really good," he said.
It was a big part of why the win meant so much. Added to that was they had been knocked out in the semi-finals the past two seasons.
"Today it was a bit of a tricky wicket and I think we had the decent bowling conditions and our opening bowlers Rhyce (Kliendienst) and Nick (Millar) just bowled really well," Carter said.
Kliendienst struck the second ball of the match to remove Bailey Lennox for a duck. When Millar then bowled Damien Baldwin with his first ball it left the three-times defending champions in a hole they were never able to get out of.
2-1 quickly became 4-14, and then 8-35 as Millar proceeded to claim a man-of-the-match winning 4-16.
At one stage looking like they might struggle to even get 50, Albion managed to scramble their way to 60 thanks largely to Cam Waugh's quick-fire 19.
Playing in their first grand final since 2011-12, Mornington then had an early hiccup in the run chase losing openers Henry Johns and Ryan Smith inside the first four overs. But they were never troubled from there with Carter producing a captain's knock.
He finished unbeaten on 24 to see them to victory with Millar, who brought up the win in typical fashion - with a boundary.
"It was pretty good. I knew Nick had smashed that for four," Carter said of the winning moment.
Finding himself out there in only the third over, he said his approach was just to bat as long as he could. They had plenty of time to get the runs and he knew they had players down the order, such as Millar, that "could hit the ball if we needed to get runs quickly".
The weather was a bit of a concern. Finishing the regular season third if the game was to be washed out before they had either got the runs or batted 20 overs, as the minor premiers Albion would have claimed the spoils.
But the rain held off until after the game. There was a brief shower late in Albion's innings but they played through that.
For Albion it was the age old story of simply not enough runs.
"We just didn't bat that well and the best team won at the end of the day and that was Mornington," skipper Ash White said.
"Probably 20 or 30 short" to at least give themselves a shot, they were always up against it with the ball. But White thought generally they bowled pretty well.
"There was just a couple of overs there that we slacked off a little bit.
"You can't do that when they've only got 60 runs to get," he said.
He and Waugh each picked up one wicket with James Mack snaring two.