The 15-year-old had no notion when he first rocked up to training that he’d be playing local Tamworth first grade let alone in the Premier League, and in what eventuated to be an historic grand final for the Mushies.

Their 4-nil win over North Companions stamped them the most successful side in Premier League history.

Being his first year of senior football Diebold thought he’d probably be playing in the lower grades.

“I didn’t expect to be playing first grade at the start of the year,” he said.

“I expected to be playing in the local competition and maybe the occasional game.”

But Mushies coach Tim Coates had other ideas and he ended up playing pretty much the whole season in Premier League.

“I enjoyed it, it was fun,” Diebold said. 

After starting off in the right midfield outwide, he moved up front for the latter part of the season and was a constant threat on Sunday.

“I was pretty nervous at the start,” Diebold said.

But once he got into the game the nerves  dissipated.

“It was good fun to play,” he said.

“It was good to have the players around me.” 

He put the polish on the win with a back heel shot from the left post with about five minutes to go.

“It all just happened pretty fast,” Diebold said.

“It was just a natural instinct.”

He had a couple of opportunities to score before that.

With about 30 to go he had a well-struck volley just shade the right post.

Sunday’s win took the Mushies first grade premiership tally to five and saw them for the second time defend their title.

They also went back-to-back in 2008 and 2009.

Skipper Chris Fenton was a part of both of those wins.

He has played in all five premierships, along with Brendan Fergie.

Fenton said they didn’t really do anything differently.

“I think it was the same as we’ve done all year,” he said.

“We sit back and see what they’ve got.”

He thought they had the better of Companions all over the park.

“We were first to the ball, won the 50-50 challenges and we finished our chances,” he said.

After looking threatening a few times in the first 20 minutes, Adam Watson eventually broke the Companions resistance.

“If definitely makes it easier. Once you get a goal you can relax into the game a bit more,” Fenton said.

He said the first half was where they won it.

More precisely the last five minutes, with Lachlan Browne scoring twice in injury time to break the game open.

Three-nil up took some of the pressure off in the second half.

Fenton believes one of the secrets to their success is having a consistent core of players.

“We had seven or eight from last year,” Fenton said.

That’s been a common theme.

“That’s what’s got us to all of them having the same group,” he said.

They were chasing the double but couldn’t quite get that with North Armidale too strong for them in the second grade grand final.