Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat - billionaire US capitalist Malcolm S Forbes.
He might have been talking of boardroom battles but Forbes could just as easily have had Te Puke Sports in mind as the club iced their greatest day on Saturday, ending 21 years of heartbreak.
During a sizzling Baywide premier season finale at an overflowing Greerton Park, Te Puke's misery at having come close before staggering at the last hurdle vanished as they fought back from 12-3 down at halftime, and 15-3 soon after, with a near-flawless second half to edge Whakarewarewa 21-18.
Unfancied before the game, with all the talk about how big Whaka's winning margin would be, Te Puke refused to lie down in a tense countdown to fulltime, with second-five Simon Rolleston's towering drop goal from near halfway releasing two decades of pent-up pressure.
As Te Puke's fans poured on to the pitch, coach Jeremy Cotter, a rugged tight forward who never won the big one as a player, admitted the Baywide title had come at the end of the strangest season, in which all the early indications were that the side would struggle to hold their spot in the top division.
"I'm still pinching myself right now, it's surreal," said Cotter, tears welling in his eyes as other club stalwarts shed unashamed tears of joy after 21 previous seasons of disappointment.
"This year was never going to be it, especially after the start we had, where we lost both the preseason games we played and defaulted the third because we couldn't get a team, and then lost three of our first four competition games.
"At that stage, the planning was around how to avoid relegation. Today is a testament to the hard work this team's put in during the year and the preparation that's gone on this week."
Whaka deserved their lead at the break, which came via a sizzling Hayden Baird solo try, a second try to Harold Koia and the boot of first-five Kelly Haimona, with his Te Puke opposite Nick McCashin suffering a case of the yips when his team could least afford it, missing three of four penalty attempts from handy positions.
Haimona extended the lead to 15-3 before Cotter and his assistants, Andy Miller and Craig Jeffries, made two crucial calls, injecting replacement halfback Craig Donovan and hooker Simon Chisholm into the fray.
The impact was immediate, with a Donovan break giving McCashin a shot from in front and seeing Whaka flanker Liam Coleman sinbinned for a professional foul. A quarter of the game left, and the momentum had swung Te Puke's way.
A burst up the left from McCashin and Gideon Uelese saw Chisholm mauled over, closing the gap to 15-11, before a massive shunt from a close-range lineout and Te Puke's 10-man maul saw Chisholm emerge from the rubble with the ball, with McCashin's kick making it 18-15.
Haimona responded in the 65th minute, nailing a 36m penalty from wide out, before Te Puke's sledgehammer scrum pounded Whaka, with Donovan cheekily pinching the ball to set Rolleston for the matchwinner.
Cotter said their season's catchword - belief - was the catalyst, although holding on to the ball in the second half and making a few tackles had helped.
"We needed some composure to put Whaka under pressure, we had the wood on them up front and were scrummaging huge. Both subs we put on had a big part to play as well but that was always intended."
The pillars of that scrum were props Maurice Broughton and Mark Nicolaas - with Nicolaas, forced out of the 2009 final loss to Tauranga Sports with an injured ankle, saying Cotter had reinforced their role during the week.
"Personally I'd had a couple of shaky weeks but Cotts made me believe I can scrummage, although having big MoMo anchoring things on the other side meant we were going to be hard to shift."
Jeffries was plotting a big few days of celebration and rubbished the pre-final perception that Te Puke were never going to win on.
"We've boxed above our weight this season and Cotts and Andy [Miller] are the two stars."
Kiwifruit might well languish unattended and dairy herds ignored as Te Puke's celebrations hit full noise.