But fast forward just over four months and the two Maitland sportsmen will be trying to claim Touch World Cup titles for Australia.

Edwards and Langbridge have been named in the Australian open men's and open mixed teams respectively.

It's the same Australian teams they represented in the successful Trans-Tasman series against New Zealand last year in which they both played starring roles..

"I pinch myself every now and then," Edwards, who teaches mathematics at his old school All Saints College in Maitland. "It's pretty exciting.

"We've got to nationals this weekend with the Hornets. I've got a couple of training camps between now and July and the World Cup is in Nottingham, England. We leave Australia on July 12.

"It's pretty bloody cool."

A star on the basketball court with the Maitland Mustangs for more than a decade, Edwards' light has shone even brighter in touch football over the past four years.

"I've been playing touch footy since under-10s," the 28-year-old said. "I made the Australian team last year for the first time so it took a while for the opportunity to come."

"I had a bit of success with the Hornets which moved onto the Elite 8s with Country NSW Mavericks and that led to the NRL Premiership Touch with the Newcastle Knights. After that it was State of Origin and finally Australian selection.

"It all kind of just spiked in a matter of five years. It was pretty cool with how it all panned out."

It's a similar story for Langbridge, who is best known to Maitland sports fans as the hugely talented fullback in the Maitland Pickers back-to-back premierships.

The two will get gold absentee passes from the Mustangs and Pickers for their July campaign and then hopefully be back for another tilt at premiership success.

For Langbridge it will be a three-peat, but Edwards is still chasing a first title with the Mustangs after heartbreakingly narrow losses in the 2022 and 2023 NBL 1 East grand finals.

"It's still a 50/50 split on basketball and touch. Whatever I play I commit my all to," Edwards said of his sporting commitments.

"The touch has probably taken me a lot further than what the basketball has, particularly over the past two or three years.

"I still love the basketball and still love playing for Maitland. We've done pretty well over the last couple of years. We've been building for quite a while and it's good to see some of our younger ones coming through.

"I'm kind of playing a different role with the Mustangs at the moment. I'm leading the bench when they come on."

Edwards and Langbridge will be travelling together once again when they head to Coffs Harbour for the national titles.

"We're in the same Hornet's team so we did a fair bit of travelling together last year with the Aussie stuff and the training and what not," he said.

"He was always going to be in a (Australian) team, it was just which one was the question."

The Hornets lost the grand final last year 8-5 to Central Queensland Bulls, who also won in 2022.

Edwards was part of the Hornets 2019 title win but had to withdraw late from the 2020 victory.

"The Bulls are probably the top team of the last three or four years and we have been pretty much up there as well. We went back-to-back in 2019 and 2020.

"The worst we've gone in the last six or seven years is the semi-finals. We're definitely a strong region.

"They have a pretty good look at these things for the state teams and the Australian team.

"It's where the best of the best finally get to play against each other."

Edwards and his brother Connor have also been coaching and their Maitland Under-16 team were just pipped for the State Junior Cup North title.

"We were really unlucky, I thought we had done enough and were probably the better team re-watching the video and on the day," he said.

"I wouldn't say they overachieved, but they definitely did well for what we thought we had at the start of the year.

"We lost five of our main players to the Newcastle Knights system so we had a really young side."