North Launceston's Harry Bayles has come a long way since the Bombers' 2021 grand final.
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Playing as a small forward, the now 20-year-old was an emergency for the clash.
Two seasons later he's playing a new role and is a member of the Bombers' leadership group leading into Saturday's grand final against Kingborough.
At the time, Bayles was described by coach Brad Cox-Goodyer as "pretty unlucky not to play" in the 2021 clash having kicked four goals in the development league's preliminary final loss.
The former Scotch Oakburn College student played 10 senior games in his debut season and 17 last year while moving to the wing, before settling into his role off the half-back flank in 2023, putting his foot skills to use.
"It's been a pretty easy transition when you've got blokes like Fletcher Bennett who's been down there for a while," Bayles said.
"He's got such a mature head and helps in any way he can so he made the transition from when I was in the forward-line down to the back-line quite easy."
This season hasn't been smooth sailing for Bayles, who now works at his former school.
He missed six weeks with a stress fracture in his leg, returning in round 19 before rolling his ankle "pretty harshly" at training the following week - missing another fortnight and putting him under an injury cloud for the finals campaign.
However, he's returned strongly for the Bombers and now feels 100 per cent.
"The club has been really good to allow me to have the time off, the club physio Joe McCormack has been awesome with me and I'm now 100 per cent," he said.
"There's been a lot of recovery - in the gym, on the bike, swimming. It's frustrating but it's part of footy and I'm lucky enough to be here at the end of the year, which is when it really matters."
During his time off, Bayles and fellow injured teammate Declen Chugg spent some time in the coaches' box alongside the Bombers' staff.
They helped step into the shoes of forward coach Brenton Gale while he was on holiday, something Bayles was grateful for.
"I loved it," he said.
"Being up in the coaches' box, you see a lot more and you learn a lot of things as well," he said.
"Going from the coaches' box down to the ground and being able to say what I saw out there and look for things to help the players with what the coaches were looking at was really good."
North Launceston will be playing in both the development league and senior grand finals on Saturday at North Hobart Oval.
The seniors start at 2.30pm and the development league, who play North Hobart, start at 11.30am.
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