Gosper and Law didn't catch the runaway St Pat's try-scorer, in fact the blue and whites put a score on CYMS that day.

But in cutting down his run to the posts the pair of CYMS forwards showed the sort of never-say-die attitude that convinced Mick Sullivan to join the club ahead of the next season.

Further more, it convinced him CYMS could win. And win often.

History shows the former NRL livewire was on the money, too, with a drought-breaking Group 10 top grade premiership for CYMS in 2010 followed by further titles in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.

And it all stems from the Law and Gosper chase in that St Pat's clash in '09, during a really tough campaign for a young CYMS side described as 'a shit team'.

"Some say it was arrogance and others will think it's a deep belief, but I always went in knowing we'd do well," Sullivan said, 10 years on from that 2010 season.

"I watched the squad before I took it over, I remember it vividly at St Pat's. They got beaten by 70. They were coming second last ... but I saw Benny Gosper and Nic Law chase a guy, when they were down by 60-odd, all the way to the try-line.

"They always had that tenacity. I said that day 'yep, I'm right to go' ... but I made it clear to the boys; they loved a drink, but I said to them 'the beers taste better when you're winning' and it was pretty simple."

And the winning beers have flowed ever since. Although the 2010 decider was closer than many thought it would be.

On the back of that desire Sullivan saw at the end of 2009, a more polished CYMS lit up the regular season a few months later to claim the minor premiership and home ground advantage in the finals.

Premiership sides are invariably the teams with the best defence - and CYMS boasted just that in 2010, leaking the fewest points of any of the seven sides in the top grade - Blayney and Oberon weren't in Group 10 a decade ago.

But it was this CYMS side's attack that Sullivan recalls with a smile.

Scoring 434 points in 12 games - a tick over 36 points per game - and then thumping Mudgee, the defending premiers, 52-18 in the major semi-final, CYMS' attack was scintillating.

"There were different points that season where we put teams to bed in five minutes," Sullivan revalls.

"As a coach, to sit back and watch a country footy team explode, it was impressive."

And most though the decider would go the same way. It didn't. The Dragons made their second trip to Wade Park in three weeks a more staunch outfit.

As the lone survivor from CYMS' 2002 grand final loss on the bell in Mudgee, five-eighth Matt Williamson admits to having a few nervous moments eight years on with the scores at 16-all.

At that point Mudgee had scored four tries to CYMS' three, but an off day with the boot from Warick Colley would prove costly.

And after a Sullivan field goal and then a late, converted try from Josh Nixon sealed the 23-16 win, Williamson was all smiles.

The club's 22-year grand final drought was over. Williamson won the Dave Scott medal as man of the match.

"We had a good pack and I just got used to following guys like Benny McKenna and Garrett Field ... and playing outside Sully made life pretty easy," Williamson said.

He said Sullivan, who arrived at the club with over 100 NRL and Super League games next to his name, changed CYMS forever.

"He made a world of difference. He is just a winner," Williamson said, a late addition to CYMS' side in 2010 after committing to his golf at the start of the season.

"I had to finish the club championships at Wenty. I was never big on pre-season training anyway," he laughs.

"It took a bit of work to get Matty out there," Sullivan recalls.

"Everyone said 'you won't get him, you won't get him' but I made a few calls, then more than a few calls.

"I just asked him to come to training and kept poking the bear ... the bear definitely woke up at the back-end of the year. He was phenomenal."

That will to win is something most people point to when referencing Sullivan's time at CYMS.

Described as a competitive person in just about all facets of his life, his desire to be better fuelled one of Group 10's most dominant eras.

But more fuel was put on the fire that day in 2009 when he watched CYMS' top grade players give their all for little-to-no return. Winning become everything.

"I hadn't experienced those times ... but I didn't want to," he said. "The players said we were shit, and I fed off that.

"They said we were beaten by 100, which I couldn't fathom. It was something I couldn't see in that playing group. To see the hurt they had from that, it drove me more and more. I went in with every belief we're going to win. And I think the players then fed off that, and then drove that culture in the years after that."