Thirteen years ago Ben Coombes was a grand final hero as Tamworth upset cross-town rivals Pirates to win the Central North under-17s premiership, the speedster scoring a hat-trick.
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Many bumps and bruises and a few finals disappointments later, he is savouring his first senior premiership after leading the Magpies third grade side to a thrilling 13-12 win over the Harbour Knights in Saturday's New England grand final.
No certainty to play until virtually kick-off with wife Hannah due to give birth, Coombes then backed up on the bench for second grade and produced a decisive play as they upset the Knights to make it a title double for the club.
For third grade the win capped off an undefeated season, but the Coffs Harbour side really took it to them.
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There was at the most six points between the two sides throughout the game, with the Knights challenging the Magpies as they hadn't really been this season.
Emosi Veikoso was the late hero barrelling his way over, after the Magpies had opted to take a penalty tap, with seven minutes remaining.
After leading 6-5 at half-time they had up to then barely been in their half in the second half. Billy Urquhart added the extras to put them back in front after the Knights had driven over from a scrum to claim the lead with 13 minutes to play.
"They made us work today, it was a pretty scrappy game," Coombes said.
"[But] I think we deserved it, we've worked hard and for third grade we've been able to maintain a pretty consistent team all year."
"It was very good to come away with the win."
Beaten by St Alberts in last year's decider, Coombes said they started how they wanted to on Saturday with two penalties to Urquhart putting them up 6-nil midway through the first half.
But then their discipline "started to fail" them and enabled the Knights to get back into the game. They had two players binned in the first half, and another in the second half.
Simple turnovers when they were starting to build a bit of momentum also hurt them.
Fortunately their defence was up to the task and they were able to limit the damage.
"Our defence probably won us the game in the end," Coombes said.
"I was pretty happy with our defence, I think the coaches were too."
"We spoke big (leading in) about defence and discipline, and we got the defence right but not the discipline so much."
Unfortunately tensions did boil after the full-time whistle with the game marred by an ugly brawl involving players from both teams.
