"WHEN we won the premiership in 1999 it was also Tony Wynd's last game and I thought 'what a great way to go out', he was a great club man and he gave back so much to the club, and to have the opportunity to go out like that was pretty lucky," those were the comments about one club great from another, Mark 'Merv' Armstrong after 're-retiring' following the Queanbeyan Tigers AFL Canberra first grade premiership on Saturday.
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For the 300-gamer coming back to the Tigers after a five-year retirement was only ever going to be "helping out", but finishing up with a fourth premiership medal was clearly a special moment for the big man, who got a bit emotional after the final siren.
"It's been 15 years between the third and fourth premierships, so they probably have similar qualities, but the win on the weekend was very special," Armstrong said.
"It's a fairytale to go out in that manner, but part of me feels like I retired five years ago, I just came back and helped."
Armstrong answered Queanbeyan's cry for help after they lost 42 players as a result of withdrawing from the NEAFL competition.
Player-coach Kade Klemke said the AFL Canberra Hall of Famer has a mountain of experience including being part of the Tigers three-peat in 1998, 1999 and 2000, captaining the latter and was player-coach for nine years.
"I was worried about numbers and he was worried about numbers, so I called him up and asked for a favour," he said.
"I never thought he'd have the impact that he did- it was his best game last week, showed glimpses of amazing play, to think how good of a player he was.
"He just has so much knowledge, he's played and coached a lot, so he just has so much knowledge."
He played just eight games, winning all of them, including the big day in September, but said the 40-year-old is more than happy to retire on a high hinting his recovery times are not quite as quick as they used to be.
"I really enjoyed the weekend, but I'm still a bit sore, especially because we didn't have the usual recovery," Armstrong said.
"Over the last 15-day period I'd had an increasing workload and I had a couple of full games where I had to do a lot more work."
Armstrong's sons Jack, 12 and Michael, 10, were present to congratulate their father after the win, which he said added to the emotion of the day.
"Michael said he can't remember my last game [in 2010]- he was only five- Jack said he can sort of remember it- he was seven- but they've really enjoyed watching me play and Jack keeps telling me I should play next year... it was quite nice to have them there [to watch the grand final], we have a photo with the cup that I'm sure will be treasured," Armstrong said.
