RICHARD Clegg is celebrating what could be a special 10th season at North Tamworth Rugby League Football Club.
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The Bears centre, a plumber with a greenkeeper background, has been fixing defensive leaks and cultivating attacking raids on the field for his club for a decade.
At 29 years of age he has no thoughts of making 2019 his final season.
While some of his teammates might well finish up this year, he's savouring every moment of what could be a special year for him and the team.
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Unbeaten so far this season, they are shooting for a sixth successive premiership.
That will be an enormous feat in itself, breaking the five-straight premierships won by mighty West Tamworth Lions from 2009-13, but it would also put them in contention for the symbol of supremacy in country rugby league, the Clayton Cup: awarded annually for the side statewide with the best record.
Norths have won the Clayton Cup twice (1951 and 2014). Werris Creek, West Tamworth Robins and Gunnedah have also won it.
Speaking after Norths' 52-8 major semi-final annihilation of Werris Creek last Saturday, outstanding Bears captain-coach Scott Blanch said: "We've got a chance to do something special."
Clegg was sitting nearby Blanch at the time - sitting back savouring the moment, a dominant and clinical victory. He'd scored one of the nine tries for the Bears, backing up a Josh Schmiedel break to race 40m and score in the second half.
He was pensive, reflecting on his own performance as well as severely assessing the team effort, a strong and impenetrable defence combined with slick ball movement.
"It was a good effort but we seem to find a way to slacken off for 20 minutes every game," Clegg said.
"We want to find a way to get out of that. [It would] be good to put in a full 80 minutes like we did at Narrabri a few weeks ago.
Clegg and Bears prop Shane Wadwell both joined Norths in 2010.
Clegg played juniors at Wests and then had a year at Kootingal-Moonbi (where his father, Craig, still lives and trains racehorses).
The move to Norths has paid handsome dividends. He's played in all five grand final wins and hopes to make if No 6 in the grand final on Saturday fortnight.
The move from a greenkeeper at the Tamworth Golf Club to plumbing has also been good.
"Really enjoy it," he said of the chance to get down and dirty at work and then relax by playing the game he loves.
"We're all best mates (at Norths). It's a team built on mateship.
"I've got a few years left there, too, but first off we've got to finish this year first. A few of the boys are going to hang the boots up, though, but we do have some really good juniors coming through too. The 18s are through to their grand final in a couple of weeks too.
"But winning six in a row would be something special. [It] would be great to get the record back from Wests.
"We're not over the line yet though. There have been plenty of unbeaten sides that fall at the last hurdle. We don't want to be one of them."
