Paul Brady's competitive drive has never left him.
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After a rugby union career - which included stints playing in the Shute Shield for Parramatta and West Harbour - finished in Gunnedah with the Red Devils, Brady re-found touch football.
The game was not only a great family sport for Brady and his family but it was a competitive outlet.
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And when he took the game of touch football up five or six years ago, he almost instantly started looking at representative avenues.
"I'd finished playing rugby and was looking for something else to do and I'd always loved touch footy. I thought I'll try the representative pathway through touch and see how far it can take me," Brady, who is the Gunnedah Touch Association president, said.
It's taken the 44-year-old right through to representing NSW which he will do for the first time this weekend.
Brady will represent his state in the men's 40s team at the Touch Football State of Origin against Queensland in Coffs Harbour on Friday and Saturday.
When he first looked into representative pathways, he consulted players and coaches to find out how it all worked and what he'd need to do to get there.
It's not been easy to get to this point and the usual feelings of nervousness and happiness have rolled into one as the date approaches.
"It's been a long time, basically five years, and a lot of training, a lot of sacrifice and learning, developing - all those different things to culminate in this," told Australian Community Media on Wednesday.
"That's why I said it's exciting. Over such a period of time to come to fruition on Friday, it will be a nice little moment."
Brady reached the NSW side by first representing Gunnedah and then the Northern Eagles.
The GTA president plays on a weekly basis with wife Simone and said the benefits of the sport were far-reaching.
"I like challenging myself and I like competing against good athletes - it doesn't matter what sport it is," Brady said.
"I like learning new things and meeting new people. That's what sport brings more generally - you meet some fantastic people along with way.
"I've got two little girls and my wife and I are conscious of staying active and being healthy. Touch football ticks a lot of those boxes."
On the local front for Brady, he said the winter competition in Gunnedah was ticking along quite well.
"One thing we've incorporated is a junior element," Brady said.
"We've got juniors down there doing skills and drills playing games on a Monday night.
"There's over 50 juniors registered in that standalone certainly so junior participation, that's the real success story of this winter."