LEE Crozier is a big man with a prodigious boot, but one strike tomorrow will provide a unique moment in the Lower Mid North Coast Rugby Union competition for the Forster-Tuncurry Dolphins' goal-shooting ace.
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The moon-walker's immortal words: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" may carry a trifle more historical relevance, but Crozier's goal-kicking motto: "Two steps back, two left. Head and chest over the ball", has certainly had an enormous rugby bearing within the newly constituted MidCoast Council area.
A single conversion of a try by the competition-leading Dolphins against the similarly unbeaten Wallamba Bulls at Tuncurry's Peter Barclay Field tomorrow will provide Crozier with the two points he requires to become the first player to register 1000 points in the Lower Mid North Coast competition.
Now 33 years of age, Crozier was captain of the Hamilton Hawks Colts in Newcastle in 2003, a team scoring tries but unable to kick goals, when, fed up with others' numerous failures, he told his team: "Bugger it, I'll do it myself."
Neither the Hawks nor the Forster Dolphins have regretted his decision. Since the MNC Zone was split in two for the 2008 season, Crozier has contributed 998 points to the Dolphins' five premiership wins of 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Crozier was a prominent district run-scorer for Taree West Cricket Club, but with age as his 12-months-a-year sporting life palled, his appetite for rugby points lured him from cricket runs and increasingly into the game he began as a first grade hooker in Newcastle at 17 years of age.
Both Forster and Wallamba have enjoyed prosperous seasons with four wins apiece, the Dolphins leading the competition by one bonus point.
New coach Lee Sullivan is quietly altering the Bulls' standing in the Nabiac area and the competition itself as a team of good-time blokes who like a drink at Mat's local pub, who enjoy a win - none more so than their initial defeat of the Dolphins a couple of years ago - but who at times have lacked the direction necessary to claim a premiership.
Big prop Aaron Gordon runs a strong pack of forwards, a captain of few words but who brooks no nonsense. It stings him that they have never won a major trophy.
In the back row the Bulls have the outstanding Hessing brothers, Daniel and Rhys, tremendous tacklers and foragers, both MNC representative forwards. Rhys is potentially the best lineout winner in the competition.
The powerful Chris Tout is the organiser of the back line at five-eighth with inside-centre James Dinnan responsible for running in four tries in the recent game against Old Bar while at No 8 the former Forster-Tuncurry Hawks rugby league player, Daniel Aldridge, is proving a force.
In other games Old Bar are at home at Trad Fields to the resurgent Gloucester Cockies, welcome winners against Myall Coast after a barren three-game start to the season with Chris Marchant a three-try scorer last weekend, while Myall meet the Manning River Ratz at home at Hawks Nest.