John Sainsbury and Mick McCarthy were honoured at the Diesels annual presentation night at the Ex-Services Club.

They were given the vaunted ‘Diesel of the Year’ prize.

While it’s been a long time since they have taken to the field – it hasn’t stopped them putting in the effort for the Diesels.

“You don’t go looking for these things, you do these things for your football club,” Sainsbury said.

With 40 to 50 people joining the Old Boys Club for their events, it’s been an extraordiniarly successful season for the former players, which in turn has helped the club.

Sainsbury said half the battle for the club was getting to the grand final – something last achieved by the Diesels 2010.

“We had a chance to win it, we didn’t,” Sainsbury said.

“We’ll win the grand final next year … getting there is half the battle.”

Sainsbury said things were already looking up for next year and was relishing the Group Nine season last year.

“You do these sorts of things because it’s a club thing,” he said.

“We did what we had to do for the club and we enjoyed every bit of it.”

Meanwhile, fellow Diesel of the Year Mick McCarthy was similiarly modest.

“I don’t know why they gave it to me,” McCarthy said.

A winner of the Clubman of the Year award way back in 1984, McCarthy put his efforts into the Old Boys fundraising machine.

“I decided to get involved last year … it’s always the problem, you just know you’ll never have enough people for the committee,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said seeing the club reach the final match was a reward for his efforts.

“Seeing them in the grand final was excellent,” he said.

“Nobody gave them a hope of winning and it was theirs for the taking until the final minutes.

“They were disheartened only for a short time before resolving to come back next year.”