Blake Ridges has enjoyed plenty of good times as a Trundle Boomer.
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Five-straight grand final appearances, four minor premierships in succession and, of course, titles in 2017-18-19, a three-peat only seen once before in Woodbridge Cup's history.
For a Trundle junior, the current run of success is the stuff dreams are made of.
Now Ridges, 26, is giving back.
A school teacher at Tullamore, Ridges will co-coach the Boomers as this Trundle playing group continues to re-write the record books.
And he'll do so alongside a player many say is the catalyst for the football boom at Trundle, population 666.
Having coached in the Boomers' breakthrough 2017 season and then again in 2018, too, Adam Hall is back at the helm in 2020, accepting the co-coaching role alongside Ridges after stepping back to concentrate on playing last season.
Since (Adam Hall) came back he's brought a lot of leadership and his kicking game has been phenomenal.
- New Trundle co-coach Blake Ridges on fellow, returning mentor Adam Hall.
Ridges doesn't shy away from the fact he'll need to learn a lot in his first season as a coach, but he's got the ideal mentor in the job lacing up the boots too.
"Since he came back he's brought a lot of leadership and his kicking game has been phenomenal. He digs us out of trouble with it a fair bit," Ridges said of Hall.
The pair will take over from Josh Miles.
"(Hall's) leadership around the club ... we were obviously good before because we made two grand finals prior (to 2017's win) but he added a bit of an extra spark," Ridges said.
"I'll learn a lot from his experience. He's coached for a lot of years now."
Ridges played the bulk of his junior footy with Trundle, only making the switch to Forbes when the Boomers' junior system collapsed.
The then-aspiring school teacher studied at CSU Bathurst and played rugby union with the students, too, but the Boomers were never far from his mind. He'd often make the five-hour round trip to play for the green and golds.
"Now, I thought it's probably time to give a little back," Ridges, arguably the best prop in Woodbridge Cup, said.
The best, but so too one of the smallest. Not that that's been a bad thing for Ridges.
"I can play long minutes. When we first won it we had a smaller pack and were a bit more mobile, and with us being pretty decent defensively it helped tighten up our middle," he added.
If we do our job right we're a fair chance of winning.
- New Trundle co-coach Blake Ridges
It'll be a mantra the Boomers take into 2020, too - if it ain't broke, don't fix it, after all.
Ridges said Trundle won't worry about the rest of the Woodbridge Cup clubs at all leading into the new year, or throughout it in fact.
"We don't know what's happening in other teams until we play them. If we do our job right we're a fair chance of winning," he said.
"I think we'll lose a few but most are keen to come back. It'll be nice to have the same-ish squad. A few of the youth boys could step up there too.
"I don't think there'll be a lot of weakness."
So does that mean another title, too?
"I hope so. The pressure is on us a bit to succeed again but I think we can do well," Ridges said.
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