And his old rivals have never let him forget it.

Simmons is partaking in his 300-kilometre fundraiser Royce's Big Walk, which will take him from his home town of Gooloogong to Penrith on foot, raising money for Dementia Australia research and local rugby league.

No doubt he'll be keen to rest his weary feet and have a chat with some old footy mates when he gets to Bathurst Panthers Leagues Club on Saturday evening.

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Some of those old footy mates will include Railway players from the winning 1980-81 teams, who will in all their glory celebrate the feats that a young Simmons came so painfully close to achieving.

And one of those Railway team members, who was also in the Charlestons side that beat Simmons' Cowra Magpies in the 1979 decider, is Royce George.

"Royce George reminds me every time I get within 100km of Bathurst," Simmons said.

"So I've got an idea of what's coming."

While the Penrith Panthers legend is proud of his time in local footy that saw him rated one of the best prospects of the area along with the likes of Melbourne Storm's coaching champion Craig Bellamy (then at Oberon), his grand final memories are not among his fondest.

In 1977, he was the Magpies' 17-year-old hooker who admits he was years away from learning the art of winning a fair share of scrums, back in the days when they were a legitimate contest for possession.

His side was chasing its first premiership in 23 years and led 6-5 with just over a minute to go when Simmons was penalised for feet across the scrum.

In those days a shot at goal was allowed from a scrum penalty and Blayney's goalkicker Michael Toohey stepped up to the mark 45 metres from the goalposts and coolly potted the two-pointer to give Blayney a 7-6 victory and stun the majority of the West Cowra Oval crowd as Simmons looked at the ground in despair.

The next season Royce decided to have a season with Canowindra alongside mate Greg Coleman and, you wouldn't believe it, in his absence Cowra won that elusive premiership with a 12-9 victory over Lithgow Workmen's Club.

He headed back to Cowra in 1979 to play under captain-coach Billy Hilton and the Magpies found themselves in a third successive grand final - only to taste defeat again, 11-9 against Charlestons.

"They called me the Magpies mock," Simmons said. "The two times I played they lost, the time I didn't, they won."

The next season he was a Penrith Panther.

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