Tamworth Oztag coordinator Pam Potts says she could never have envisaged the sport would be where it is today when it made it's first tentative tag in Tamworth over two decades ago.
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If not for coronavirus, this week would have marked the kick-off of the 25th winter competition.
Played at Ken Chillingworth Oval and boasting 13 teams in the inaugural season, the sport has grown from those humble beginnings to over 125 teams in the just completed summer season across multiple competitions.
It has been "a steady progression" but well beyond what she and Rob Potts could have imagined when they first introduced the game, which was invented by former St George half-back Perry Haddock as a training tool for the teams he was coaching, to Tamworth back in 1995.
Seeking a better lifestyle, they had just moved up from Sydney to raise their first child.
"My ex-husband (Rob) had been playing oztag in Cronulla and Liverpool," Potts recalled.
"We came up here and thought there would be an opening to get started."
"He started playing footy (league) and started getting into the football clubs with it and that got us started."
Most of the teams were men's but they did have a few mixed teams.
"It was another alternative when it came to town, to what everyone else was playing," she said.
For Pam it was a bit of a steep learning curve. She had come from a netball and tennis background and "didn't know too much about the game back then"
"It's been a learning process for me considering I didn't know how to catch and pass," she said.
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About five years in they started up the juniors, which Katrina Davis took over the running of after a couple of years, and has likewise seen a substantial growth,
Now playing virtually year round and with three competitions to coordinate, plus rep teams, Potts admits it has been "weird" having a break, with the COVID-19 crisis putting everything on hold.
"After 25 years of doing it non-stop it's strange," she said. But it has been a good opportunity to reflect on what has been "a great ride".
"It's the people around you that make it happen," Potts said.
"We've got a good base of refs and admin staff that have been with us for a lot of years."
Recently they have also taken over the licence for the Port Macquarie competition.
"Katrina (Davis) has taken over the junior licence, and I the senior one," Potts said.
The winter competition was meant to be the first they had overseen.
At the moment the best they can hope for is a July kick-off with the most recent communication from Australian Oztag advising that they were extending the shut down of all competitions until July 6.
Potts had prepared for that.
"We have contingency plans in place for various start dates in the hope that when sport gets the green light, we can run a shorter version of a competition in the run up to summer," she said.
"Of course this will be dependent on Council field approval."
