He built one of the great Illawarra League careers on always answering the call, but Helensburgh great Steve McCallum's latest call-up was easily his least expected.
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The plumber-by-trade will always be remembered as the man who broke the drought, skippering the Tigers the 2015 premiership more than two decades after the club had last claimed the ultimate prize.
Like a lot of the best ones, the first couple of retirements didn't quite take, but the man many consider the greatest Tiger of the lot thought he'd hung them up for good.
He was even using the extra time on his hands to become an on-call fire fighter up at the Burgh when he got a call from fellow 2015 premiership-winner Azan Turoa - a long-time firie.
The end result was a spot on the Australian Fire Fighters rugby league team that will take on the ADF in the curtain-raiser to Tuesday's Anzac Day showdown between the Roosters and Dragons at Allianz Stadium.
While every retired hard-man always thinks they always have one left in them, McCallum didn't expect it to come in front of 20,000 people.
"You retire at least five times in your career don't you?" McCallum joked.
"I've still got my full-time job as a plumber, but I'm on-call here at Helensburgh. It was only a week or so ago Azan mentioned it to me and, next thing, he's got me involved somehow.
"It should be a good day, I've kept myself pretty fit so it shouldn't be too bad. It's something you never expect to happen but you're certainly not going to miss the opportunity if it comes your way.
"I'm pretty pumped up about getting out there. They reckon there could be 20,000 people there while we're playing because it's a sellout for first grade.
"Just to experience the day is going to be pretty special. We'll get up and for the dawn service here at home and then head in, it's a great opportunity."
While it's hard to know what to expect from the game itself, McCallum says neither squad will in the mood for backward steps.
"If you ever play footy, you're always playing to win," McCallum said.
"I reckon this will be no different. The ADF are going to be out there to give it to us and we're not going to want them to get on over us either.
"It's the inaugural game, hopefully it happens every year, and we want to take the first one out."
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Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
