When Matt Dufty left the St George Illawarra Dragons at the end of the 2021 season, and then the Canterbury Bulldogs a year later, it appeared we had seen the last of the fullback in the NRL.
One of the most naturally gifted attacking players of his generation, Dufty scored 45 tries across 94 NRL games and when he was on, was just about impossible to stop.
But there were issues which seemed to have marked his cards.
Reported attitude problems, obvious defensive weaknesses. They are pretty big ones in the grand scheme of what makes up an elite NRL player.
When prop Blake Lawrie and outside back Zac Lomax famously went on the Matty Johns Show on Fox Sports after Dufty's departure and pulled the royal stuffing out of coach Anthony Griffin, they also had plenty of stabs at Dufty.
It's hard to say whether they were really joking or not.
So, when his one-year stint at Canterbury ended, a return to the NRL seemed a pipe dream as he relocated to Warrington, where he scored 47 tries across 88 games.
But then he took a chance on a 2026 return, taking up a NSW Cup deal with Wayne Bennett and the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
That's all it was supposed to be too, but when he tore the Dragons - his old club - apart in the pre-season challenge, eyebrows were certainly raised, and the question of ‘what if' became quite a real one.
And then, like it was meant to be, like a scriptwriter from Hollywood put it together, Jye Gray went down with an injury last week that will keep him out for a month.
Whether South Sydney should have been successfully able to argue that moving any of Latrell Mitchell or Jack Wighton to fullback would have upset the club beyond reasonable doubt is up for dispute, but the dispensation to play Dufty was granted.
That means the former Dragon has four weeks to show his stuff, and it starts on Saturday afternoon, at Homebush, against his old club.
Like I was saying, the script. You wouldn't dream it up.
But it's what comes next on that script which will ultimately determine whether Dufty's punt of returning to the NRL will be worth it or not.
The next four weeks will decide whether the now 30-year-old can eek a few more years out of his NRL career, or whether he is more likely to be a NSW Cup player until he retires.
With the NRL about to jump to 18 and then 19 teams over the next two years, Dufty couldn't have picked a better time to have a second crack at the NRL - players are going to be stretched thinner than ever before, and the talent pool might just give a mature age fullback with NRL experience another chance to land a Top 30 deal.
Dufty has certainly been putting his best foot forward in the NSW Cup.
After a shaky start against the Newcastle Knights where he missed five tackles and made just 95 metres, he has been scintillating.
His last four games - against the Roosters, Western Suburbs Magpies, Canterbury Bulldogs and Parramatta Eels - have seen 5 tries, 6 line breaks, 4 try assists, 20 tackle busts, 2 offloads, just 3 missed tackles and 267 metres per game, headlined by a 326 metre effort against Canterbury.
The numbers are outstanding, and maybe just as importantly, South Sydney have won their last three NSW Cup games while giving up just 12, 10 and 16 points.
The fullback is not the one doing the tackling, but sure is the one organising the line - and when you look at the fact South Sydney conceded 52 and 30 points in the first 2 weeks, the improvement is obvious.
Maybe even more so given Dufty's noted defensive issues, and even if Jye Gray is going to walk straight back into his jersey once fit, the Rabbitohs may well offer the 30-year-old an upgraded deal for the remainder of the season to have him as cover if he impresses over the next month.
That's not to say the NSW Cup is the NRL.
It's not.
But it is the closest thing to the NRL we have, and the proving ground for a player like Dufty to show he still has what it takes.
The next four weeks, starting with the Dragons clash, are the most important of his career.
Make it work, and it's very very likely clubs will come knocking. Maybe his old outfit the Dragons, who are desperate for a fullback, maybe the Perth Bears, maybe even the Cronulla Sharks who could use a William Kennedy replacement even if Liam Ison is going to become the number one option in the coming years.
There certainly isn't a shortage of fullbacks at the top of the competition, so spots available for Dufty are not going to be numerous, but there will be something if he impresses over the next month.
Just maybe his career script has one final dramatic twist.
