The Newcastle-based, high-flying lineout forward, Ethan Hamilton, is wrestling with the dilemma of whether to resume his rugby union career with the Gloucester Cockies this Autumn.
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All too aware that the Cockies need his rugby prowess after the club's failure to field a men's team in the Lower Mid North Coast's Kennards Hire premiership last year, the strapping lock is still unsure which way his rugby path will lead him.
At 23 years of age and weighing 100kgs, agile and mobile, Hamilton is in the prime of life.
But driving to Gloucester from Newcastle for training as well as for games in the Kennards Hire Lower Mid North Coast premiership will be time-consuming for the University of Newcastle student as he strives to gain his communications degree.
"He's still tossing up which way to go, to play here in Newcastle or play for Gloucester," Don Hamilton, his father and former long-term, 150-game Gloucester rugby front row stalwart, said recently.
"It's a hard decision with the university course he's doing and knowing that his old club at Gloucester is searching for players."
Gloucester is a cattle and dairying town which often comes under pressure to field both a rugby union and rugby league team so every quality player has special value.
It is why yet another Gloucester young-blood, the former dashing Mid North Coast Axemen's representative, Ryan Yates is so relevant in speculation about his immediate future following a disturbing leg injury.
The Lower MNC rugby union minor premiership will begin on April 4.
Elsewhere, in Forster Tuncurry two of the Dolphins' genuine rugby legends have put the club's concerns to rest by announcing they will continue playing first grade football this year.
Both Mid North Coast Axemen representatives in years past, tight-head Ben Manning and utility back Thomas Harris have played for the Dolphins in 16 successive seasons since rugby was jolted back into life locally in 2004. In the process, both men have enjoyed seven premierships.
In that period, the near-indestructible Manning, responsible throughout for holding the all-important scrummaging position of tight-head, has played 223 games for the club.
Likewise, until his major leg injury in a water skiing accident, Harris possessed brilliant speed and was the most electrifying centre in the competition.
Following his recovery from the injury, Harris adapted so well to a variety of positions nearer the scrum base that he won the outstanding player award of the Lower Mid North Coast premiership last year. He has appeared in 221 games.
