ANTHONY "Herbie'' Hoban is the ideal role model for prospective Waratah footballers to follow.
Originally from the tiny wheat and sheep town of Pyramid Hill in Victoria's north country, the diminutive 167cm and 67kg Hoban became a symbol of Waratah's rise from a middle of the road side to back-to-back premiers in the late 1990s.
Hoban's 232 games for Tahs, NTFL representation against South Fremantle and the VFA and selection in the Arafura Games World team in 1998 added up to a successful time in the Top End.
A rover by trade, he won back-to-back Barr medals as the best and fairest player in Victoria's Northern and Echuca league in 1988 and again in '89 before deciding on a move north to Darwin with good mate Paul "Pooh'' Carroll.
They had been reliably informed the Top End footy season coincided with the summer of cricket in the southern states.
The appointment of Richmond great and 1982 Norm Smith medallist Maurice Rioli as the senior coach at Waratah also convinced Hoban to pull on a red and white jumper in his first NTFL season, 1989-90.
Tahs played regular finals football under Rioli, reaching the 1991-92 and '92-93 preliminary finals in an era of missed opportunities when they lost narrowly to Darwin and Wanderers.
"It was the other side of the country and I'd never been to Darwin before, so we thought 'why not' and it all happened from there,'' Hoban told the AFLNT.
"Initially there was only Pooh and myself, but when we went down to Victoria for the winter season we told a bunch of our mates and another six to eight players came back with us at the end of 1990.''
Hoban recalls Waratah always being thereabouts in the Rioli coaching years, particularly when reigning Nichols medallist Willie Rioli swapped the green and gold of St Mary's for the red and white of Tahs.
"All of a sudden we had the best player in the competition on board in '89 and that was a big plus,'' he said.
"After that initial run of finals footy under Maurice things sort of stepped up again when Billy Martin came along as coach and we were always a chance to grab a premiership.''
That happened in 1998-99 when Martin's Waratah beat St Mary's by 66 points in the grand final, Victorian goalkicker Frank Matthews winning the Chaney Medal as the best player on the ground.
One year later they repeated the dose against a Palmerston side beginning to emerge from the doldrums with future AFL stars Mathew Stokes, Trent Hentschel and Alwyn "Froggy'' Davey in the Magpie side.
The '99 flag snapped a 22-year premiership drought, ironically the same number of years Tahs' another flag drought has lasted since they beat Palmerston by 40 points to secure their 15th Premier League flag.
"We were very confident about what we could achieve in '99 and with Palmerston a year later. That game against the Magpies was a tough one with a number of young players in their side going on to play AFL football,'' Hoban said.
"But in 2000 they weren't quite ready and we had a lot of bigger and harder bodies and a good side that got us over the line.''
And what of the Tahs side of 2021/22 and their quest to again snap a long premiership drought?
"They can go all the way, there's no doubt about that,'' a confident Hoban said.
"It's a matter of getting everything right on the day, because they've got a really good bunch of blokes at the club this year.
"Obviously there are some very good sides left in it, Nightcliff being one of them after winning the last three flags and finishing on top of the ladder again.
"But if we can play to our strengths we can go all the way. I don't want the tag of being one of the last premiership players at Waratah, it's time for this year's side to be up and about and experiencing what we experienced all those years ago.''
