Rocherlea has been able to lure back-to-back Alastair Lynch Medallist Josh Ponting home after seven years away.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The most decorated footballer in the state during the past two seasons will leave North Launceston after four TSL flags - absent for the 2015 win - to be a playing assistant coach at the NTFA club.
Ambitious coach Andrew Cox-Goodyer had eventually enticed good mate Ponting back to the Suburban Tigers in 2020 after a bit of probing.
"I had been joking every now and then," he laughed.
"One day he just thought it was the time to step back and relax a bit more. We had a bit of chat to him, we worked out a deal that suited him and that got him over the line."
The 25-year-old will rejoin the club for the first time since his junior days while in the zenith of his own game.
Ponting captured the 2018 and 2019 awards for the best player in the State League and also took out the Darrel Baldock Medal for this year's grand final performance in Bombers' fifth triumph over their past six seasons.
Cox-Goodyer could not imagine a better recruit and a more perfect fit for Rocherlea in search of its first senior premiership since 2016.
"It's just pretty surreal to get him to come back to the club like this," he said.
"It was probably going to happen one day, but I don't think we thought it would happen during the peak of his career.
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
"He just came off two State League best and fairests, so we have nabbed him at a pretty good time. This will be really good for the club."
Ponting did not ask to take on the Tigers' coaching reins, but to focus more on playing.
But Cox-Goodyer entering his second year found a balanced leadership role for the high-profile recruit who understood the club culture.
"When we did approach him, he sort of mentioned he'd like to help out in the coaching department - and we'd be silly not to with all his experience he's got," he said.
"We understand that he went to North for a few years and picked up a couple of things.
"We have also got Paul Holmes on board coaching, who was in the North system for a lot of years.
"So there will be a lot of things that we can bring from their game plan into our style of football."
But that is where talk ends when it came to Northern Bombers and next year his brother Brad joining Ponting.
The pair, who have mortgaged individual honours after Cox-Goodyer won the 2017 Lynch Medal and the 2019 TSL player-of-the-year, have been instrumental in each other's TSL success.
"That's all he's known - he came through their juniors and played seniors every since. He's pretty comfortable there," Cox-Goodyer said.
Subscriptions are available here.
Sign up to our Sport email here.