FORBES veteran Ben Robinson had an inkling 2016 was going to be special for the Magpies.
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The 28-year-old is incredibly the oldest member of the now Group 11 premiers, with nine players in the team 20 or younger.
Seven players starred for Forbes in the Group 11 under-18s premiership win in 2014, while two players who ran out on Sunday were eligible for the juniors this season.
With captain-coach Jake Grace 24 and the Maggies best player, Zac Merritt, still only 27, many Group 11 pundits believed Forbes was building, but 2016 was probably a bit before the club’s time.
Not Robinson.
“I had faith in the boys this year. We had a good feeling in the club. Zac started it last year and we built on it this year,” the 10-year first grade prop said.
“It’s a good bunch of blokes and we believed in ourselves.”
Forbes lost its penultimate regular season game 46-26 against Macquarie – taking away the Magpies’ hopes of a top two finish and placing the side in danger of missing the top five all together.
A narrow, 22-20 win over Parkes in the final round then spurred the club into a five-game winning streak, culminating in a spectacular grand final win at Caltex Park over the previously undefeated Dubbo CYMS.
“We lost that game to Macquarie over here, people were writing us off,” Robinson said.
“We knew we were coming good, we just had to have a good dig. That’s what we did, and that’s why we’ve come away with it.
“I think it’s tenacity. We didn’t give up.”
Amazingly, in Robinson’s decade long proping up the Forbes’ front-row, the Magpies have only ever made the first week of the Group 11 semi-finals.
He’s now a premiership winning player with Forbes – a rare group considering the club’s last first grade title was in 1987.