A 2019 season that saw the Grasshoppers enjoy six wins was cause for optimism come this year, however, and that optimism was met with a 2021 season that Rokewood-Corindhap fans could not have imagined 10 years ago.

Nine wins from 12 games, a finals berth and immediate addition to the top four.

"Our playing group have been really committed," co-coach Brad Macgowan told The Courier.

"There's something special brewing at Rokewood ... it's evident every time you're in a room with the whole group, the way the players interact and relate with each other and the whole community, there's just something really special about it.

"There's a feeling amongst this group that everyone really wants to be there and is really committed and willing to do whatever it is they can to help the team and each other to be successful."

Just like it did in 2019, Rokewood-Corindhap won its first three games of the campaign, but it was a round four match-up with Waubra that was really going to show where the side was at.

A 25-point three-quarter time deficit painted a bleak picture, until a fourth-quarter onslaught saw the Grasshoppers kick six goals to one to steal a three-point win.

Speaking after the game, Macgowan said it was a huge win for the club.

"It was a fantastic comeback and it was an exciting game. There were pretty excited scenes after the game because the reality is Rokewood have never beaten Waubra in a senior game of footy before," he said.

"We had people coming up after the game shaking our hands and the old guys with tears in their eyes.

"It's just a sign of the fact that Waubra has been such a strong team for so long, so for a team like Rokewood to be able to have some success against them, they were rapt."

From that point the Grasshoppers went 5-3 and while the losses were disappointing, the impressive part of their growth was not letting those defeats affect their confidence and cause them to go on a losing streak.

It was a part of their growth as a contender that was important for co-coach Shaune Moloney.

"It's about losing a game of footy and deciding that you're going to learn from that and be better next week," he said.

"It's alright to lose a game of footy but you don't want to be a loser, you don't want to go 'okay, they're just too good for us', never would we want to be saying anything like that down at Rokewood.

"We go 'okay, we've lost this game of footy, they were too good for us today, tomorrow we train, we get better and we close that gap bit by bit.'

"That's what we've done over the last three years, we've been getting beaten and learning as much as we could from it and feeling it, having it hurt, and saying 'next time, we'll close the gap a bit more.'"

It's a system that held the Grasshoppers in good stead as the season wore on, as they continued to improve and challenge the league's best.

They handed Buninyong a big loss and the following week, led Gordon late in the fourth term before an Ashley Munari goal stole the game by two points.

Considering the domination that Gordon enjoyed over majority of the rest of the competition, this result highlighted the potential of this Rokewood-Corindhap group.

The inclusions of Cam Richardson and Matthew Aikman (North Ballarat), Sam Carr and Laityn Withers (Redan), Jack Buttler (East Ballarat) and Joshua Morgan and Jordan Gercovich (Sebastopol) among others, helped lift the Grasshoppers into premiership contention.

With the inclusion of a healthy Joel Bragagnolo next season, who only featured in six games in 2021, the core is set for another tilt at the top four and an inagural CHFL premiership for Rokewood-Corindhap.