Timana Tahu's heard all the tags before.

Wellington's battle with drugs is widely publicised, after all, but the dual international isn't a fan of the negativity.

So Tahu, all 196 NRL games and 121 tries, is determined to make a difference, the best way he knows how: on the footy field.

The 38-year-old has signed on to be a Wellington Aboriginal Corporation Health Service ambassador and will lace up the old boots as well.

For Tahu, it's all about positive change - for the people of Wellington.

"The biggest thing is the community, they got a bad name a few years back as the ice capital of Australia," Tahu said just outside the Kennard Park home sheds.

"(The tags) didn't sit well with me. Drugs are everywhere ... and to have that negative spin on one town, I wanted to come here and shed some positive light.

"This town, this community is trying to do something. They're trying to better themselves but they're being name-tagged."

Not fairly, either, not according to Tahu. Not based on what he knows and saw at the footy on Saturday.

A bumper crowd packed into Kennard Park for the top-of-the-table clash with undefeated Group 11 leaders Dubbo CYMS.

Tahu ran out in the centres and his life was made tough marking up against Jyie Chapman. It was a great match-up.

But Tahu had the last laugh, his Cowboys storming to a 28-10 win - a monumental one in the scheme of things, given Wellington hadn't beaten its fierce Dubbo rivals in almost four years.

The biggest win though? Tahu says that was off the field: "I came here today and everyone is happy," he continued.

"It's a community that wants to see entertainment and this is a time where they blow off steam. They work hard all week and then come to the footy. We need to remove that stigma and hopefully I'm one of the guys that can help do that."

Like Justin Carney out at Nyngan, and a decade ago when Mick Sullivan landed at Orange CYMS, ex-NRL players landing at bush clubs have the power to change.

CYMS jagging the signature of Sullivan at the end of 2009 proved a turning point for the green and golds and helped usher in a halcyon period for rugby league in Orange.

CYMS played in seven grand finals and won five titles during his time at the club but the 2013 Hawks-CYMS decider - 5000 people at Wade Park, a record gate of $50,000 - was undoubtedly the high-water mark.

Now, when people talk about footy in Orange and returning to good times they talk about both clubs building up and a return to 2013.

Tahu is hoping those in Group 11 circles will look back and talk about Wellington in 2019 - just without the negative tags.

The Cowboys haven't won a first grade grand final since 1994 and that 25-year drought is one of the longest in the competition.

But with Tahu, Moran and Waddell pulling the strings and Cowboys products Dutfield, Stanley, Lousick, Black and Naden all growing extra legs this year there's no reason this can't be the season it finally rains in Wellington.

Football wise, the move has had its critics.

Will Tahu be there for training twice a week? Which local missed out so Tahu could play? It's all about the money ... the keyboard warriors have been bashing away now for close to a week.

They said the same thing when Sullivan linked with CYMS, too. Used to get all huffy and puffy when Sironen signed with Blayney, all those years ago. Some still do. But it's time to look bigger picture.

Tahu's here to win. It's all he knows. But it's how he plans to effect change, too.

Three years ago Wellington was being belted by 100 points by CYMS. On Saturday they knocked off that same club, emphatically, too.

It's a turnaround that proves change is possible.

Tahu said the 18-point victory was for the crowd, the community. The very same people tarred by that ugly 'South Pole' brush.

The volunteers at the club, the players at the club, the fans of the club, none deserve that. They're making that loud and clear in 2019.

Might be time for a new 'tag' for Wellington, the little rugby league town fighting back.