He's been training and tutoring various sporting sides since he was 14 and it shows no sign of abating for the 62-year-old former real estate salesman. If anything, he has increased his workload while streamlining and enhancing his methods.

Hickey is not only the head coach of not only the Gunnedah Swimming Club but the Gunnedah Rugby League Football Club's first grade men's side, which is preparing for a tilt at the 2019 Group 4 rugby league premiership.

It seems a natural and daily progression for him to be coaching the town's young swimming stars and then the talented young Gunnedah Bulldogs.

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Guiding, mentoring, training and improving the town's youth is something he was born to do. Rugby league "saved" him as a teenager, he asserted.

"I grew up without a father around," Hickey admitted. "I didn't have a man around to kick me up the arse when I'd get into trouble. But rugby league did [that]."

He grew up in era when St George enjoyed their legendary run of 11 straight premierships in what is now the NRL. "At the same time John O'Neill was here and just on his way down to start with South Sydney," Hickey said. "It was the biggest thing in Gunnedah at the time."

While Ron Clarke and Herb Elliott, great Australian runners, were his heroes, and American boxer Muhammad Ali his all-time great idol. O'Neill and then Ron Turner (Cronulla) showed young hopefuls such as Hickey that there was a pathway to Sydney first grade.

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"I used to watch Ron train at the Police Boys Club," Hickey said. "He was a great man, I admired him a lot.

"Then along came John Donnelly. I was mates with his younger brother and then got to know him and we trained together. Rugby league was my passion but we played all sports. Cricket, basketball. I had my own basketball side when I was 14 and 15, and coaching them as well as playing first grade basketball."

At 15 he also started playing in the under-18s for Gunnedah with the likes of John Lennan. The next year he was picked in the Group 4 rep side and then Northern Division's under-18 side.

"The first year (in the Northern Division side) I played with the Cleal brothers (Les and Noel) and the next [side] with the Wynn brothers (Peter and Graeme)."

A hooker, he was always looking for ways to improve his game and watched "a lot of Pommie football". "I experimented with a lot of the way they played to improve my game," he said.

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After playing first grade and never playing in a losing Gunnedah side, he was dropped to reserve grade the next season, lost the grand final to Tamworth City and he decided to head out and "see a bit of Australia".

He ended up in Darwin and played football up there, then trialled with South Sydney under Jack Gibson, before returning to Gunnedah when "they offered me a bit of money".

Gunnedah lost the 1978 first grade grand final to Dempsey Joy's Tamworth City side 15-7 and just before the next season started, Hickey accepted an offer to play in Perth with Mossman Cottesloe.

That was a fun year, he said, the standard of football was better than he expected and was made even better when his Mossman Cottesloe side won the grand final against an Applecross side containing former West Tamworth Robin, Peter Benson.

He came home, and then went to Wests in Sydney with John Donnelly, only to be the last man cut from their squad. He returned to Gunnedah, where he injured his back and never played again.

"I was done and dusted by 23," he laughed. "I avoided it (football) as much as I could but I was living just across the road (from Kitchener Park) and wandered over to see what was happening.

"I got caught up doing stuff for them. I was also fed up with the doctors so I thought if I could get myself as fit as possible, I'd have a chance to get back. That was a challenge."

Bicycling, swimming and running all became daily parts of his life over the next year or two. He also watched coaches like Mac Mercer with the young sprinters in Gunnedah. "I watched what he did, he was amazing," he recalled. "I learnt a lot from him."

Learning comes in various forms but Hickey also learnt that you can only absorb so much from books. He sad you have to experience it for yourself, watch coaches in daily operations, hear and see what they say and do with their young charges.

Which he did, building an outstanding team of triathletes to win state, national and international honours from Gunnedah, the Koala Capital. He is also a top triathlete, finishing fourth in the sprint race (60-64 age group) at the world championships on the Gold Coast last year. 

While doing that, his 28 years in real estate provided him a great financial base for him to attack his greatest test: He and wife Donna moving to a small township, Ngukurr, in the Northern Territory, where he was the full-time sport and recreation coordinator, overseeing sports such as boxing, basketball, triathlon, swimming and AFL.

"You go from Darwin to Katherine and then another 100km to Mataranka (which is about 420km south-east of Darwin) then head to the Gulf (Of Carpentaria)," he said of getting to Ngukurr.

"You've got to cross two rivers to get there. They now have bridges. (They) weren't built when we there so you had to go over the bars and hope the water wasn't too high. We stayed at what was originally the Roper River Mission, where all the Aboriginals took refuge there in the old days.

"It's the best thing I've ever done. The people are strong. Met some of the most wonderful people. They told us we'd never get the Aboriginal kids to swim in lanes, all of that sort of stuff. But by the time we left, we had 30 kids who were very good triathletes. They could do the lot. We took them to the Northern Territory Academy of Sport and had them tested."

They all tested as high as any athlete had been tested at that facility, Hickey said. "That made me proud."

The Hickeys returned to Gunnedah last year after two fulfilling years of doing something for others and living in Australia "at its rawest".

"We had a granddaughter and it would have been unfair on Donna not to let her be here to be a part of her [their granddaughter] growing up," he said.

So they were back in Gunnedah. And although Hickey knocked back a request to coach his daughter's oz tag side, he did take her up on her invite to coach the ladies rugby union side. I had a great time," he said. "They are a terrific bunch of girls."

Then the opportunity to coach the Gunnedah Swimming Club and then the Gunnedah Bulldogs "popped" up. "That was what I wanted to do," he said. "I enjoy the challenge and challenging others. I love coaching the kids, love helping them improve. And you hang around positive people doing positive things."

He  hopes that  positivity will be a part of the Gunnedah Bulldogs in 2019. They lost the grand final to North Tamworth last year and Hickey believes they have the talent to win the Group 4 title for the first time in more than 20 years.

Gunnedah won their last first grade premiership at Narrabri in 1998 when the Peter Ryman-coached side beat Wee Waa 33-14.

"They are a terrific bunch of young men," Hickey said of the 2019 squad. "They've worked hard in the off-season and deserve to win a comp. I just hope I can help them get what they want."

He's attacked coaching the side based on his belief that the best training can be skills-based. "I put it [running the side] in the hands of the players. The first thing I did when I was appointed was form a four-man leadership group.

"They all had great skills and [I] asked them to run sessions. In particular Reece Jaeger and Matt Baker. They've had experience in Sydney, Illawarra and Newcastle, playing for NRL clubs.

"What they have been doing is fantastic. Matty has just returned to us [from Newcastle's first grade comp] and is a big, strong kid, quick and with great skills. He's also a really good person, I have a lot of time for him - and Reece too."

Hickey has been running players in different positions than they are used to, just to show them how different and difficult other positions are and to make his team as flexible as possible. "I just want to get them to the end of the year in a position to win it," he said.

"All the shift work does make it hard but if we can get them all together on the paddock at the same time, I think we'll win it."