"I'll be honest, I don't think we were ready to win the final in 2006. We bowled Cadets out for 130 and I thought 'we're in here'. We ended up getting 110, we came up short," he says.
Not willing to settle for second best, Stewart decided to postpone his retirement another year and it proved to be a good decision.
In 2007, Central were unbeaten all season, getting redemption against Cadets in the semifinal before dispatching Mount Maunganui in the final to claim the title.
"We had no superstars, nobody scored all the runs or took many wickets, we just scrapped away.
"They batted first and got 140-odd and we got it for the loss of four wickets. It was a cool moment after what happened the year before."
Stewart says it felt like his team needed to lose a final to win one, but this year's Central Indians side has the quality and motivation to pull it off at the first attempt.
"When I'm coaching junior teams now I tell them to remember the hard times, the losses, and how that felt. You don't get these opportunities very often so it's important to make the most of them."
