Just as soccer has been a constant in Brendon Fergie's life since he was five, the veteran defender has been a constant, and composed, presence at the back for Oxley Vale Attunga for the better part of the last 14 years.
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A cornerstone of the Mushies' golden decade, which saw the club feature in 10-straight grand finals and win six premierships including three consecutive titles, after missing last season as he recuperated from a knee injury, Fergie is back in the red and eyeing off more grand final glory.
And every chance to, with the Mushies sealing the minor premiership and a return to finals football, with a 1-all draw with Tamworth FC on Saturday.
A far cry from their 3-1 win earlier in the season, Fergie said they "made it hard" for themselves.
"It should have been done easier, but another two weeks to go, so we'll see how we go," he said.
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The Mushies' defensive general, last season was his first year off since he first started playing as a five-year old.
"It was actually good, my body needed it," he said.
"It's good to come back with the 'old boys' though, play another year, be in the finals again."
Originally from Sydney (he moved up to Tamworth when he was 12), Fergie has played with the Mushies since he was about 18.
One of their returning old-guard, he said the plan was always to come back this season, the return of a few of his premiership cohorts just sweetened the deal.
Relatively untested in recent games, FC took it to them on Saturday and it took some big defence from Fergie and his comrades at the back to maintain the Mushies unbeaten record.
"They pushed another one forward, which made it hard for us, so we just sort of had to sit for the last 15 minutes," he said.
They had earlier gone up 1-nil courtesy of an own goal about 15 minutes into the contest. Both sides had a couple of good chances after that, FC eventually converting one through Ryan Davidson to level the scores at half-time.
FC coach Wayne May was pretty happy with what he saw from his side heading into the finals.
"Today I thought we were the better side. I thought we were a bit unlucky, a lot of scrambling in their goal mouth and we just couldn't get on the end of it," he said.
The continuation of what has been a good few weeks, they have in the last few games "started to play really good football", the result was all the more encouraging for the fact that they were without a recognised keeper and star defender Troy Hearfield, who May said, was a late withdrawal.
There were also some really promising signs in attack.
"We pressured them today, we put numbers forward," May said.
"We've been doing it at training, just working on putting numbers forward and into the box, and trying to keep the ball in that half.
"I think that worked out pretty well today. I think we did it, we just didn't score the goal that we needed at the end there."
They will face Gunnedah FC, who had a 6-2 win over Kootingal, in their semi-final while the Mushies will take on South United after Moore Creek shocked North Companions 3-1 to knock them out.
One point ahead of fourth-placed Gunnedah and three clear of Souths in fifth heading in, Companions' loss coupled with Souths' 3-nil win over Quirindi saw Souths sneak into fourth on goal difference.
