By Ellen Anderson.<\/p>\n
AFTER a lifetime dedicated to cricket, Phil Rodgers has reluctantly hung up his umpire counter.<\/p>\n
His cricket journey began at the age of six, playing with his two older brothers for Stawell based Cornish Town Cricket Club and since then, he has graced the cricket field every season since.<\/p>\n
However, with Phil’s health now a priority, he has made the tough decision to retire from the sport he loves.<\/p>\n
Having been deeply involved in cricket throughout his life, with family members sharing his passion, Phil reflects on the mental toughness the game demands.<\/p>\n
“It’s a tough mental game on people, it brings out the best in people, I believe,” he said.<\/p>\n
“One day you can go out and make a hundred and think you’re terrific, but the next game you’re out first, and you’ve got to wait another week to get a hit. In some ways, only the tough survive in cricket.”<\/p>\n
Phil’s return to the Ararat area and his work in the mental health system positioned him perfectly to join Aradale\u2019s Cricket team.<\/p>\n
“I worked in the mental health system in Melbourne, in Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital, then came back to Ararat in 1980 at Aradale as the staff officer.”<\/p>\n
“There was a lot of pressure put on me to play for Aradale as they were a bit of a struggling club then.”<\/p>\n
Despite his modesty, Phil acknowledges his reputation as a talented cricketer, which prompted him to accept the challenge.<\/p>\n
Upon joining the club, Phil implemented changes by integrating young players to strengthen the team.<\/p>\n
“Within a couple of years, we\u2019d won the B grade flag and got into the A grade, ending up winning three flags for Aradale in A grade,” Phil proudly recalled.<\/p>\n
However, after suffering a heart attack during a game at Pomonal while playing for Aradale, Phil transitioned to umpiring and also coached the Aradale Junior cricket team to their premiership victory.<\/p>\n
Phil’s final game just weeks ago was a poignant moment, marked by a guard of honour from both teams.<\/p>\n
Fellow umpire Andrew Wood said Phil was one of a kind.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is one of the greats of the area and his contribution towards cricket in the area, both at club and committee and umpire levels will be missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope we will still see him around at games from time to time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Beyond personal achievements, Phil cherishes the friendships he has made.<\/p>\n
“The thing I’ve enjoyed the most is the camaraderie of all my teammates,” Phil said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFTER a lifetime dedicated to cricket, Phil Rodgers has reluctantly hung up his umpire counter.
\nHis cricket journey began at the age of six, playing with his two older brothers for Stawell based Cornish Town Cricket Club and since then, he has graced the cricket field every season since.
\nHowever, with Phil’s health now a priority, he has made the tough decision to retire from the sport he loves.
\nHaving been deeply involved in cricket throughout his life, with family members sharing his passion, Phil reflects on the mental toughness the game demands.
\n“It’s a tough mental game on people, it brings out the best in people, I believe,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-2263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_9307-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-Av","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}