A year after first linking up with Orange Emus, Josh Bass has become such an important part of the first grade side coach Nigel Staniforth didn't hesitate to tap him on the shoulder.
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With 2023 captain Sam Greatbatch giving rugby a miss in 2024, Emus needed a new skipper.
Instead they got two, with Bass sharing leadership duties with president Charlie Henley.
The centre, who moved from Dubbo Roos at the end of 2022, said he was embracing the added responsibility.
"It's a bit of a step up but looking forward to it," he said.
"Nigel let me know about a week ago just to see if I was keen on doing it and obviously I was pretty keen to get involved and help out.
"I'm definitely ready to take a step up and continue leading the team around the park.
"But also I guess off the field as well, having a bit more of an impact around the club and helping out where I can."
Going one better
Twice in two years Emus' Blowes Cup season has ended in heartbreak at Ann Ashwood Park.
While many expect them to to up there as a contender again in 2024, much of the off-season chatter has been around their rivals.
Master coach Dean Oxley will lead Bathurst Bulldogs' for the final time as they look for a three-peat in their 150th year while out west Forbes Platypi have made some moves.
Closer to home, cross-town rivals Orange City have a new coach in Greg Lee and there is significant optimism building at Pride Park.
Bass said it was refreshing for Emus just to get down to business.
"It's been good to just concentrate on ourselves and knuckle down, he said.
"We have a very similar team to last year. We think that we'll just build on last year and hopefully we can go one better."
Not to say they haven't been targeting areas of improvement.
"We started in January to work towards this season," Bass said.
"The team's ready and we've had a couple of trial matches to iron out a few connections and what the team's going to be looking like as well as our structure.
"We've concentrated on fitness this year.
"So getting around the park and being more mobile which will assist with our structure this year.
"We hope that will put us a foot forward to take on Bathurst this week."
Bulking up
Bass has singled out new face Corey Hooper as one to watch with the Orange product tipped to add some bulk to the small Emus pack.
"He's a bigger body and I think we need that this year," he said.
"We didn't have too many bigger bodies, we were sort of a smaller team last year.
"We're a smaller team again this year but having him on the park as a bigger body will be good in attack and defence to get us over the advantage line."
