Once a fullback for St George before the grand, old Sydney club went into oblivion, John Hessing played with the Dolphins from 2004, introducing his sons to the game, Daniel started first grade as an irritating nuisance of a flanker at 15 years of age and Rhys a blond-topped, knee-high ball-boy.

Tomorrow, breakaway Daniel, 28, and centre Rhys, 20, will be back at their old Dolphins headquarters at Tuncurry’s Peter Barclay Field in the blue strip of Wallamba as the Bulls strive to capture the premiership in the club’s first grand final appearance in nine years of Lower Mid North Coast rugby.

In the intervening seasons, Daniel Hessing was the coast’s equivalent of George Smith, mobile, tireless, fearless, a great tackler, buried in the breakdown, so close to the action that he was often the invisible hunter, almost riveted to the ball.

In a decade he became simply the best forward in the Lower MNC, representing the MNC Axemen. His only impediment in the eyes of the selectors was that he was 80kgs, not 100kgs, though it never hindered Hessing.

Rhys learned simply by watching his brother, wire strong and yet another exceptional tackler, last year appearing for the MNC Colts at the NSW Country championships.

For the Forster Dolphins this has been a winter without precedent, unbeaten in their 16 games. One one more victory will provide them with a fourth successive championship season.

Their near fatal mistake came in the major semi-final against Wallamba earlier this month when they attempted to overpower the Bulls through their forwards rather than capitalise on the speed of their backs. It was only the accuracy of their goal-kicking prop, Lee Crozier, which enabled the Dolphins to squeak home, 21-15, requiring the Bulls to qualify for tomorrow’s grand final by overcoming the Manning River Ratz 34-23 in a bruising preliminary final.

The Dolphins will be back to near full strength with the return to the pack of breakaway Brad Murray (hernia) and hard-driving utility forward Chris Simon (hamstring injury) although enterprising winger Zac Palmer is unavailable. With the prize at stake, the Dolphins appear to have the sizeable, ball-winning forwards necessary for the scrum, lineout and breakdown play to provide a steady flow of possession for their back line general, Matt Nuku, to his reveal his rare skills.

Through halfback Liam Brady, five-eighth Nuku, inside-centre Mark Hagarty and, more recently, the guile of outside-centre Mark Colless, MNC Axeman winger Jesse Logan and fullback Jonathan Paff, the Dolphins have a try-scoring backline the equal of any of their combinations in a decade.