It's been a huge year for Maitland Blacks president Ben Emmett and pulling on the boots to play with his third grade teammate has been a welcome distraction.
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Steering the club through the emotion of dealing with Blacks favourite Dom Punch’s spinal injury in last year’s second grade grand final has been the priority.
So much so that playing his 500th grade game of rugby wasn’t on his radar, but there was no way the club was going to let him miss out on celebrating his 150th game for the Blacks on Saturday.
“I hadn’t really thought about any of this stuff a great deal until it was brought up by someone asking ‘what do I want to do for my 150th game?’,” he said.
“A mate of mine said you must have your 500th coming and I said no but I was out by a year as he had the dates.
“You don’t play rugby so you can rack up games. You play so that you can play the following week with your mates.”
Emmett said he gained so much from rugby but owed a lot to his parents and his wife for their support along the way.
“My mum’s coming down from the mid-north coast for the game. I learned from mum and dad that you’ve got to be tolerant parents, or more’s the point parents who are willing to make sacrifices for their kids, which my parents were.
“The other great support has been my wife who has seen me through a substantial number of those 514 games.”
Emmett’s 514 games have come with his junior club Glen Innes, Wests in Brisbane, Palmerston, in the Northern Territory and the Blacks, where he played in three consecutive Country Championship winning teams with the Newcastle representative team and the 2010 grand final against Hamilton.
“I was captain of the Northern Territory for six years, came down and played for Newcastle for three years and we won three Country championships for three years in a row,” he said.
“I had my last proper year of first grade in 2010 and we lost the grand final to Hamilton.
“I don’t know if you could I say I’ve aged gracefully like a bottle of red wine, probably more like an old bottle for port
“I’ve come back down through the grades, and I’m enjoying third grade and fourth grade.
“But it’s funny the thing I’ve probably got most value out of has been coaching juniors.
“It’s been really special playing a part in the development of the under 7s and now it seeing it genuinely bearing fruit is a wonderful thing.
“That’s better than any accolade you can get. Seeing those kids smiling and enjoying a game that has given me so much.”
Emmett’s son Patrick was in the first under-7 team and younger son Darcy has also also made his way through the ranks.
The brothers will play on opposing Maitland teams in the under-10 preliminary final on Sunday.
“The club has teams in under-10 to under-13 levels in preliminary finals and knowing we have three under-9 teams, three under 8-teams and 103 under-7 players it all bodes well for the future,” he said.
“We can’t rest on our laurels but it’s something that we are very proud of.”
“There is a saying around the club better blokes make better Blacks and better Blacks make better blokes.
“I don’t want to get too cocky about it, but if we can instill good work ethic and respect in the kids we have done our job.”
Emmett said he was thrilled that mates from Palmerston, Wests and Glen Innes will be coming down for the game.
“To have those guys here, particulary for my mates from Glenn Innes to come down as that’s where it all started, is fantastic,” he said.
“From a skinny 15-year-old winger in a second grade game in the sleet at Glen Innes, it’s been a long journey,
“I played for NSW Combined High Schools as a flanker but it was fairly obvious as I wasn’t very tall that wasn’t going to eventuate so I moved to the front row.
“I saw the light.”
