The sign, a relic from earlier days of the Cowra Blues, stared at me as I entered the change rooms for the first time.
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"Winning isn't the only thing... it's the only thing."
Judged by that metric, I'm an obvious failure as senior men's coach.
One win, 10 losses, and a draw negotiated by default due to inclement weather.
In Australian Rules terms, my mind goes racing back to former Essendon great Tim Watson, who resigned mid-season during his second year as coach of St. Kilda in 2000.
He left that year with a record of two wins, 19 losses and one draw - winning 11.4 per cent of his games. By contrast, I finished up my year with a percentage of just over eight per cent.
While the senior men's Cowra Blues were returning for the first time after two years where they forfeited mid-season (2017) or couldn't get a team together (2018), the weight of history was certainly on my mind: Five premierships in 10 years was, and still is, a staggering return.
It was probably never something I was going to replicate.
The era of 2006-2016 has been and done, and only a handful of highly-skilled locals played for me throughout this season.
Additionally, two years is a long time to go without footy action and while some people had moved away, others were returning to a sport they hadn't played in years. Additionally, five to 10 players were brand new, their exuberance not yet matched by their experience.
And of those who were seasoned players, only Chris Day, Frank Bright, Scott Leary, Jesse James, Josh O'Brien, Corey Webb, Alan Rider, Ben Houghton and Paul Basham would be a constant presence throughout the season.
Meanwhile, injuries, university and travel curtailed the seasons of several others.
Training numbers for the men's team only made it above 10 on a few occasions, and it was only thanks to the commitment of our women's players we were able to maintain a consistent training schedule throughout the year.
I was warned about things like training numbers by the Cowra Blues' committee, and in moments like this I realised how tough it would be to play out the season, let alone make finals.
But the lack of wins obfuscates the personal development and relationship building that occurred throughout 2019 because of these challenges.
If sport is about our communities as much as we profess it to be, then our year was a raging success.
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Players like Joseph Waters and Paddy Ryan went from learning the ropes to playing crucial roles for the team, while skipper Chris Day took his game - already well rounded at the start of the season - to another level.
Positional changes also helped some players flourish: Paul Basham and Scott Leary found continuity in the back-line while Dimas Bakini quickly evolved from defender into a player with genuine ability to play a variety of midfield roles.
Even more significantly, Alain Bizimana, a player who could barely kick a football at the start of his time with the Blues, by the end of the season was starting member of our backline and a deserved winner of our Most Improved Player award.
I could ramble on: More than 40 individuals ran out onto the field for Cowra throughout this year, most of whom live in Cowra, and their best efforts ran the gauntlet from the inspired to the dangerous.
But most significantly, the care and concern these players have for each other goes beyond individual efforts and translates into actions, with Frank Bright's 400th game a key example of this.
The Mulyan Oval scoreboard flattered us after half-time was brought on early - the Bathurst Bushranger Outlaws led 6.11.47 to our 1.2.8. Only stubborn defence and wasteful scoring from the Outlaws had stopped our day going from a losing one to a soul-destroying one.
But the group came together, magnets were moved around, and while Frank's 400th wouldn't be the winning affair that we wanted it to be, it would demonstrate the fight and dare of the Blues.
The third quarter was outstanding, with the Blues wrestling the game back on their terms and winning the quarter by two points, kicking 3.2.20 for the term to the Outlaw's 2.6.18, with hard gut running, strong tackling and bold ball use fuelling the turnaround.
It gave the undermanned group enough momentum to believe they could take the win, but the Outlaws regained control in the last to ensure a 60 point victory as the Blues flagged, leaving them with another loss, but one that could leave them confident that they left everything out on the park for a legend of the club.
At this time of the year, when the footy season ends, the narrative turns to the achievements of the premiers, and how the also-rans can get better.
It's a narrative reproduced from our major broadsheets through to community newspapers, and frankly, it projects an ambition that often distorts the aims of local sport.
It can be seen in the desperate searches for marquee signings, and in the requests for volunteers, with individuals (of all codes) who have battled for years to keep their club afloat wondering out loud when their communities will have their back.
Every teams wants to win, and no one wants to lose. However, there is often a habit of forgetting that a lot of us play sport, not because we want to be like those we see on TV, but because of the mateship and shared enjoyment that it promises.
And at some point in time, when our bodies let us down, it will be the only reward we have left to claim, in anniversaries and reunions where we collectively celebrate the emotional roller-coaster of team sport.
The senior men's Blues are destined for better things next year, and the year after that; they have a good young group that cares about each other and is ferociously competitive regardless of the scoreboard.
But no one will take this year from them, a year where they discovered who they can be and what they can do, where the results couldn't contain the relationships that were built.
Ben Rodin is the Cowra Guardian's Sports Journalist and was the Cowra Blues' coach for the 2019 season.
