Greg Buckley laughs when he talks about his approach to cricket now compared to roughly a decade ago when he first arrived in Dubbo.
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The man from England's north was someone who left nothing on the field and was intense whether he was batting, bowling his spin, or niggling the opposition.
The Buckley that returned to Dubbo cricket this season and played in the weekend's RSL Whitney Cup grand final may be a little slower and a little more mellow, but he proved to still be the man who can make a difference for RSL-Colts.
The Englishman took six wickets on day one of the decider clash with CYMS to set-up the convincing six-wicket win for his side.
Colts captain Marty Jeffrey may have said Buckley still has "an aura" around him, but the man himself said it's now a case of just simply doing what he knows he's capable of.
"I've not been playing that much. It's a sore body, that's what I've got to deal with," Buckley smiled after being named man of the match.
"It's just muscle memory these days. I don't over-think it, but it's just an old man's body that gets me now.
"I'm more relaxed and not as intense as I used to be. I like seeing the young blokes come through and have a crack with the boys.
"I don't take it quite as seriously but I want to win."
Buckley's performance on Saturday was all the more impressive given he hadn't played an RSL Whitney Cup match since January 21.
The former Western Zone and Orana Outlaws star spent some time back in England but made sure he returned to his adopted home before the grand final.
It was always expected he and fellow spinner Mitch Bower would get through plenty of overs for Colts and that proved the case after the seamers removed Dan Holland (7) and Harry Bayliss (10) early on.
Buckley picked up the crucial wickets of Thomas Nelson (3) and Tom Barber (34) while his patient approach also resulted in a number of other CYMS batters making errors and getting caught on the boundary.
"Mitch and I were going to bowl the majority of overs through the middle," Buckley said.
"On a big ground it's going to be hard against two spinners and we bowled good line and lengths and we knew we could make it hard for them."
Buckley added it was simply a case of being patient and waiting for the opposition to slip up.
"One hundred per cent," he said.
"We've had this conversation last final. 350 was never going to be the total you're chasing, finals are always low-scoring gritty games.
"We just said we'd build pressure and we knew those boys like to hit boundaries so that was our game plan."
As well as his six wickets, Buckley also hit 30 from 29 balls late on Saturday afternoon to help put his side firmly in control of the match.
He was particularly strong off his pads and admitted the temptation to get the match done on day one and start the celebrations was tempting.
"I was trying," he laughed.
"The game plan was to not lose wickets but still be positive. In my heart, I wanted it done last night (Saturday) and you could probably see that.
"But we had full confidence we could get that total. We knew there would be tough periods and we were happy to play ugly cricket but we were pretty confident."
Colts returned to the crease on Sunday afternoon and 47 not out from Jeffrey helped secure the win inside an hour of play resuming.
The celebrations then began as Colts marked 12 first grade grand final wins in the past 19 seasons.
Buckley has been a big part of that success but this season marked his first summer back in Dubbo since 2018/19.
"I missed out the last few years so it's been nice to see the old boys get back into it and it's special," he said
"I knew at some point I'd be back here and it was always going to happen."
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