On Sunday he was was the chief architect as they ended their 15-year title drought.

They have had a few shots over the ensuing years, most recently last year, but the silverware has eluded them.

But they are finally celebrating again after beating Kiwis 2-1 to cap off an undefeated season and deliver on the promise they have shown in recent years.

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Clifton has been at the forefront of that after returning home to Tamworth three years ago, and taking on the coaching duties.

He is one of two of the current side to have tasted premiership success with Souths before.

Then only a teenager, he was part of the victorious 2003 and 2004 sides, winning the best and fairest for the competition in 2003 as a 15-year old.

He moved to Tudor Wests in 2005.

Souths went on to make it three-in-a-row that year, incidentally by defeating Kiwis. Kiwis though got their revenge the following year claiming the silverware by virtue of finishing minor premiers after the two sides couldn't be split.

Neil Wood is the only of the victorious 2005 side still running around in first grade and said it is "really nice" to win one again.

"It makes me feel young again," he joked.

The now 41-year old knows as well as anyone what a long and hard road back it has been. He has been a prominent figure for the club on and off the field, serving as captain-coach for a few years among other roles.

He said it is really good to see them back on top and with the young talent they have got at the moment he expects them to be pretty strong again next year.

Backing up from helping Souths win the second grade title just a couple of hours earlier, he was a bit of a super-sub on Sunday, providing some spark off the bench in what was a tight game.

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Thrashed in last year's grand final, Clifton said they went into the game "very confident". Not only because they had been playing "excellent hockey all year", but they knew what playing a grand final was all about.

"It's different to every other game, it doesn't matter what you've done all year, you've just got to turn up and play strong, hard hockey," he said.

Relatively unchallenged this season, Kiwis really took it to them with scores locked at 1-all heading into the final quarter.

Clifton said it a was really a matter of "just riding it out".

"We probably had more ball possession more attack, more circle penetrations, more short corners, so just that weight of possession, doing those things," he said.

"In all honesty we probably should have won that a lot easier, but that doesn't happen in grand finals usually."

Kiwis coach Greg Doolan thought they played well in the first and third quarters.

"I thought we turned over a little bit too much ball in the second quarter so we couldn't get any continuity going forward and couldn't get any pressure on them, and the fourth quarter we started chasing the game too early, we didn't stick to our structure and our processes," he said.

Still he said they will take a lot out of the season going forward.

"That's one of the things that we've got to look to because it's good to be back (in the grand final) because we've been away for three years," he said.

"And there's good stock coming through so hopefully we'll stay there for a while."