Four years after his son, Kieran, retired following North Tamworth's sixth straight premiership, the highly decorated No. 7 has decided to resume his career at the Bears.

Skeeter, who won a second division premiership with Bendemeer and played for Norths, would also love the man his boy has become.

Eighteen years after his father's death affected him so much that he had to repeat year 12 at Farrer and lost a lot of his passion for rugby league, just as NRL clubs were showing an interest in him, the 35-year-old has morphed into a devoted father of four.

It's always a pleasure to see him and his beautiful wife, Sammy, walking down Peel Street with their brood: Charlotte, 6; Teddy, who soon turns five; Willow, 3; and Annabelle, who recently turned one.

"The deal she [Sammy] made with me was, as long as she can continue to have babies ... then I can keep playing football," Fisher told the Leader. "So we'll see where that ends up."

In February 2020, when the Essential Energy business analyst announced his retirement, he said that Sammy being pregnant with their third child meant he had to prioritise family over footy.

It was Sammy who convinced him to lace up again.

But ahead of round one of the 2024 season on April 6, don't expect to see Fisher turning back the clock.

He said he would be focused on playing reserve grade with his younger cousin, Luke, with assistance given to first grade when required.

This older version of the Bears life member, who steered a great country football team with workmanlike guile and renowned pugaciousness, has a keen self-interest for wanting to play again.

"I think the motivation [to play] come from the wife, actually," he said.

"It was her suggestion that maybe I go back and play a bit of footy, just to help with a bit of mental health and a bit of a release of aggression and things like that."

"So you need to find some way of coping with that stuff," he added. "And maybe I'm not always the best at that, but rugby league definitely helps."

As already mentioned, Fisher did not cope well with his father's death. When Skeeter passed away, he lost his "biggest fan and best mate", the former Navy man said.

It was one of the two greatest challenges of his life - the other being the job of caring for Charlotte and Teddy, who were born with multiple congenital anomalies-hypotonia-seizures syndrome.

The rare genetic condition is characterised by developmental delay, among other serious health issues.

"It's a bit like a death without the death actually occurring, if that makes sense," Fisher said. "There's constantly a bit of a grieving and mourning process going on there.

"But we're not alone; there's always someone that's got harder things and tougher things to deal with. So that's the approach I try to take."

When Fisher retired, Charlotte and Teddy were too young to enjoy their old man's rugby league journey.

"Now they're a bit older, they can actually see Dad and recognise Dad playing footy and get a bit of fun out of it, too," he said.