"Coming back from league, too, my first two years was learning a lot about the game, and then learning off Bernard was really good."

Mason has traversed the east coast to end up at Daceyville under Daryl Gibson. A country kid from Mitchell, he won a scholarship to Brisbane's famed rugby nursery Anglican Church Grammar School and captained their storied 2014 1st XV, who won the GPS premiership and produced half a team of professional footy players.

Among his team mates - a group he still counts as mates - were Kalyn Ponga (Knights), Izaia Perese (Reds and Broncos) and Jaydn Sua (Broncos), as well as rugby pros Harley Fox, Liam Wright, Angus Scott-Young and others.

While Ponga went on to State of Origin honours and a $3.6 million deal with the Knights in the NRL, and Perese was courted by the Wallabies before being poached by the Broncos, Mason has moved three times in the past five years, first to the Storm where he was Cooper Cronk's understudy, then to the Reds and then, finally, to the Waratahs ahead of the 2017 season.

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He worked hard to bring his technical game up to speed after a year in league and was ready to fire this time last year, but Foley's shadow loomed large. Hegarty's versatility also trumped his own specialist skill set, he says, winning out for the available bench spot every week.

"Last year was the most frustrating year of football I've had, just not playing at all through Super Rugby when I thought I was ready to play. But again, it goes back to biding your time and trusting it," he says. "There's always communication with the coach about what's going on and what you need to do to be there. Last year we won so many games we probably didn't want to change it up too much, and I'm happy for the team and for 'Nard (Foley) that he was going really well."

This year it's a whole new ball game. Hegarty, also tired of sitting behind the best No.10 in the country, took up an offer from the Reds. Crucially, Mason will also find himself the beneficiary of Australian rugby's new rest policy for Test players.

"It's a big opportunity for him this year, with the World Cup and the load management of certain players in the team, it's going to be a year when we're going to have to use the whole squad," NSW attack coach Chris Whitaker said.

"He's got good skill set, a good pass, good kicking game, I suppose now he just needs the confidence to step up into that role. It's obviously intimidating when you've got the likes of Bernard, Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau, so for him to step up and take that leadership role, it's something we've tried to encourage with him. He's doing it well at training and last week against the Highlanders he did it well as well."

From Mitchell and a bedroom full of Johnathan Thurston posters, to the Waratahs, with a few pit stops along the way. Twenty-mine-teen, they're calling this year. Mack Mason might just run with that.