THE City of Orange Hawks’ 1999 Group 10 premiership-winning team held their 10th anniversary reunion in Sydney over the weekend and it highlighted how time can change things.

Only two members of the Hawks line-up that beat Blayney 30-16 at King George’s Oval back on September 5, 1999 were unable to make the reunion.

Players came from Queensland, Perth and Orange to enjoy the two-day get-together, which included a harbour cruise and lawn bowls day at Paddington Bowling Club.

Captain-coach Paul Upfield says it was tremendous seeing his old team-mates again and reliving their former glories.

“It was great. We’ve all changed and we had caps made up, ‘the older we get, the better we were’,” Upfield said.

The Gold Coast resident asked his former team-mates over the weekend what winning the grand final meant to them and this brought back memories of a pre-grand final dinner Upfield put on at his house two days before the decider against the Bears.

“We had a dinner at my place and spoke about what it meant to win the grand final ... and then I asked them 10 years later and they were quite different,” Upfield said.

“They were worried about their parents and that they’d lose it rather than win it (at the dinner).

“But now, they look back on it with fond memories.”

Winger Wise Cutter scored three tries in the grand final and claimed man-of-the-match honours, while second-rower Steve Ekepati crossed for two tries.

It was the club’s first premiership in 44 years as previous incarnate EMMCO won the 1955 Group 10 title and Upfield says the ’99 premiership victory was massive for Hawks.