Before every game, even their trial games, Narrabri women's co-coach Mick Coffey would collect a pocket full of dirt from late former coach Will Guest's grave.
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And every game he'd "tip him" out onto the field "so he was there with the girls".
"I'm not religious or spiritual but it was just something I wanted to do," Coffey explained.
"I took him with me each week, also because I wanted him to be there because he went bloody close."
The much-loved figure's sudden death late last year rocked the club, particularly the women's side that he had coached for the previous three seasons and taken to their first grand final in 2022.
After defeating Gunnedah 26-12 last month to claim their maiden women's premiership, amid the jubilation, Will wasn't far from their thoughts. There was a strong sentiment that it was for him.
"100 per cent," co-captain Toni Gale said.
"I said that to my dad earlier in the week. I said 'this is for Will'.
"I know how much the grand final meant to him and how much effort he put into our team over the years."
She had the "privilege" of also working with him and calling him a mate, and admits it was very tough to rally at the start of the season.
"It was really hard to come back this year to the ground where everything was about Will," she said.
"But the girls really dug deep and instead of being sad we put all that determination into the game and that's what got us through today."
They carried him with them whenever they ran onto the field with his initials, WLG, featuring above the numbers on the back of their jumpers and also in the C & W Financial logo on their shorts.
Coffey, who is also the Blue Boars president, said there wasn't anybody who wasn't affected by it at some stage throughout the year, and isn't ashamed to admit that personally he found it really tough.
"I won't lie. It's been bloody hard through this year, holding those emotions together," he said.
"I'm a big enough man to say too I struggled.
"Will Guest was a great friend of mine, we'd talk rugby for hours every week. For years.. not just the last couple of years because he was the coach and I was the president."
It was Will that first got him involved with the women's side, getting him in to do a bit of work with the forwards around the set piece, and it was Will that pushed him into taking on the coaching job this season.
That plan was hatched on the bus home from the grand final last year with Will feeling like he'd done his time.
But Coffey always thought he would still be around, and there to turn to if he needed advice, particularly about backline plays - in his words all he did as a player "was pack scrums and tackle people".
Naturally the emotions flowed after the full-time whistle.
Gathering the side in a huddle in the middle of Ken Chillingworth Oval, and sprinkling the dirt he'd collected that day, Coffey said he didn't get to finish what he wanted to say because he was "blubbering like a baby".
"And then the girls were setting off and I thought I don't want to do this, we haven't even got the trophy in our hands yet," he said.
It was in a way some closure.
"I feel that I'm in a better place that this was his goal that he built a team towards," he said, adding that he's "just a glorified waterboy in the scheme of it".
Will wrote the script, he just added the finishing touches.
Something he'd never experienced before - being part of a team that had suffered a loss like that - Coffey says it is one of the most satisfying things he's done in rugby.
