Mitchell Andrews hasn't laced up a boot in Western Division since the Forbes Magpies won the Group 11 premiership in 2016 but on Sunday, at Blayney's King George Oval, the 22-year-old looks to kick-start what he hopes to be a fruitful winter back in the bush.
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The Magpies' product has spent the last three years training and playing at the Newcastle Knights and after back-to-back seasons with the under 20s he notched 19 games of reserve grade in 2019.
He's now got his sights set on an under 23s campaign with Western, followed by a Group 11 season at his old stomping ground at Spooner Oval.
The representative side of things kicks off against Greater Southern Region Tigers on Sunday and the outside back's hoping the gains he made at Newcastle will pay dividends.
"Just the professionalism it takes to play footy full-time was the biggest takeaway for me," Andrews said.
"It takes a lot to get up every day for 26 weeks out of the year and look after your body.
"The level of training and fitness and how everyone's just so competitive."
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While his role at Western and Forbes won't quite be a full-time gig, it's likely that the dedication and work ethic he built at Newcastle will make the transition back to Group 11 a fairly seamless one.
Sydney's a common destination for prospective country footy players to wind up at but Andrews is happy he spent three years at Newcastle, where he felt like it was a good fit for him.
"It was perfect for me," he said.
"I'm not sure how I would have handled Sydney - coming from a small town like Forbes - Newcastle was good for me."
Despite being a Manly Sea Eagles fan at heart, Andrews became a fan of stacks of Knights players including a couple of fan favourites who left huge impressions.
"Nathan Ross took me under his wing a little bit," Andrews said.
"I was pretty luck there ... the Ross-dog taught me a few things.
"Shaun Kenny-Dowall was the ultimate professional too. He was up doing yoga at 6am every morning."
Andrews left Forbes in 2016 as a dynamic, young first grader and after three years training and playing at a professional level, it's expected he can make a huge impact on the black and whites in 2020.
He got his first taste of life back with the Magpies during the run to the West Wyalong Knockout semi-finals last weekend and he can't wait for the season proper to start.
"I'm excited to get back and play in front of my family and I can't wait to get back and play with my mates who I played with a couple of years ago and grew up with," he said.
Family was one of the driving factors in Andrews' return and there will be a real connection during Sunday's bumper day of footy at Blayney.
Two members of the Andrews family will be in action, with Mitch's sister Kaitlyn also part of the Western women's side which is also doing battle with the Tigers.
Kaitlyn will start that match from the bench.
Western takes on the Tigers from 2pm on Sunday.
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Jake Humphreys
Sports nut at the Central Western Daily.
Sports nut at the Central Western Daily.
