THIS time last year Alex Ronayne was celebrating a Group 20 premiership with the Tullibigeal-Lake Cargelligo Sharks.
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Fast forward 12 months and he was celebrating again, this time with Dubbo CYMS after being a key player for the Fishies right throughout the year.
"It feels unreal, that's two years in a row now after last year at Lake but that last final whistle gave me goose bumps, it was just unreal and crazy, I can't really explain it," he said.
A versatile player who was invaluable for coach Tim Ryan, Ronayne spent the majority of his time in the second row but also spent a number of matches in the centres.
Lining up on the right-hand side in the grand final, Ronayne had a huge game in defence, with coach Ryan giving him the specific job of pressuring Parkes star Dennis Moran.
He barely gave the former Parramatta Eel a moment's rest while he also was a constant threat with his running game and scored a try late on after supporting Daryl Cubby well.
"Timmy (Ryan) put me over on the right side, I'd played centre a lot but he put me in the second row and gave me a job to do with marking Dennis all game so I just did what I had to do," he said.
"It's a very professional team, Timmy makes us work hard and that's what we did today, we just kept our structure."
After being one of the stars of Group 20 in 2013, where he was joint-leading try-scorer for the Sharks, Bourke-born Ronayne made the move to a higher level with the Fishies.
After playing a starring role all season and forming part of an exciting batch of youngsters within CYMS, Ronayne admitted on Sunday afternoon he was loving life with the Fishies.
"I came across to CYMS and I've got some best mates here and I'm just really glad to be part of it," he said.