BRODY BUNCH PROUD AS
From the family dairy farm to cricket’s field of dreams, the rise of Brody Couch has been built on hard work and resilience, writes Toby Prime
COUNTRY boy Brody Couch, the oldest of five, is the son of an American mother who married a southwest Victorian dairy farmer with links to Geelong Football Club royalty.
Couch is the newly-minted state cricketer who overcame a careerthreatening knee injury as a teenager and long-distance travel to reach first-class level.
Couch is the modest achiever who completed his VCE studies while covering “hours and kilometres” to pursue his cricket dreams.
He’s the sort of kid with a humble and hardworking upbringing you’d happy for your daughter to meet.
It’s the first question asked to the fast bowler’s mother and her voice breaks.
“You’re going to make me cry. I wasn’t expecting this,” Karin Couch said. “I’m proud of all my kids. I’m pretty blessed. Right down to No.5, they all give 100 per cent at whatever they set their minds to.
“My mother’s pretty emotional, too. I think maybe it comes from having a lot of love in my heart and being really thankful.
“I’m just very fortunate.”
Couch, who turns 22 early next month, grew up on a dairy farm in Nirranda, population 56, according to the 2016 census.
Cats legend Paul is a distant relative of the right-armer.
“Our local pub was the Boggy Creek,” Karin said. “Every Friday or Saturday night, we’d finish milking and go down and have tea and drinks there.”
Remarkably, Couch is not the only state cricketer from Nirranda.
Tim Ludeman and Jake Haberfield also came out of the cricket club situated just a short drive from the Twelve Apostles.
And in the past 12 months, South Australian pair Joe MedewEwen and Sam Kerber have also graduated from the region into domestic cricket.
“That group of kids, they sort of pushed each other along because they were all training together and working together,” former Western Waves regional manager Stephen Field said. “I still think kids who have to counter the travel component … the ones who actually get through to the other end and get to Premier Cricket, they’re very resilient.
“Minor setbacks don’t upset them. They just keep forging ahead because they’ve already had to endure quite a bit.”
Brody said he owed his development to his upbringing and the support of Field.
“Without the commitment from Mum and Dad, I just don’t think I would have been able to have this opportunity,” Brody said.
“Obviously with Stephen Field and all the work he’s done for the Western Waves and the region and pushing cricketers from this area, pushing their case for higher honours.
“He was behind in investing all this time and effort into creating more opportunities for us.”
Parents Karin and Corey, a life member at Nirranda Cricket Club, would rise before the sun and milk their 200-head of Jersey cows - and again at night - while raising five children.
Karin, who was raised on a dairy farm in New York State, met Corey in America and later holidayed around Australia. She has never left.
Brody is the oldest, then there’s Jackson, 20, Ella, 18, Ruby, 16, and Ethan, 12.
Life on the farm is where Brody developed his work ethic, Karin said. Often one parent “would stay home and milk and the other one would drive to cricket, wherever it was”. “You just do what you have to do to get the job done,” she said.
“It’s reward for effort, OK. We’re probably lucky we didn’t have kids that you drove all over the countryside for that took that effort for granted. We were lucky enough that we had good grassroots kids that the village brought up to be good humans.”
Karin said growing up in a large family also helped Couch learn the importance of teamwork.
“At the end of the day, every job would get done,” she said.
“It didn’t have to get done on that exact time, there was always give and take, there was always something that had to be handled that you weren’t expecting and the kids learnt to deal with that.
“If they don’t have breakfast at 8am and they have it at 8.20am, well too bad. If they miss the bus that morning because I didn’t get to the house from the dairy quick enough from feeding calves, well too bad. I’d just drive them to school.
“You just learn resilience and you learn a lot of life lessons from day dot.”
Couch was always a talented cricketer.
He would be one of the youngest in pathway teams but was often overlooked for the city kids.
“He sort of sat on the fringe because it was always the metro kids filling the spots until they formed Vic Country teams,” Karin said.
MyCricket shows Couch made his first XI debut with Nirranda as a 13-year-old on Australia Day, 2013. His father played in that game, too.
“He was actually the youngest player to start Div 1 here in Warrnambool,” Karin said.
Field said his initial impressions of the “super athletic” Couch were that he could “whack the ball a mile and he bowled reasonably quickly”.
He said he recognised from a young age that Couch would be a first-class player.
“That was pretty obvious,” Field said. “He just worked so hard on his game and had great support from his region coaches and then when he came down to Geelong, that really helped him progress another step.”
But a genetical knee problem threatened to derail his career at a young age. Couch’s knee would repeatedly dislocate and he was forced to sit on the sidelines for six months one winter.
“It was year 9 or year 10,” Karin said. “He was potentially facing having to have a full year off all sports just with the structure of his actual knee. He could pop it in and out. I, for a while, thought he wasn’t not going to make it because (of) his body.”
The Geelong paceman last week overcame all the setbacks to become the 865th player to represent Victoria in the Sheffield Shield.
Karin and Jackson were in the SCG stands as Couch took his first wicket when experienced NSW opener Daniel Hughes edged a drive to Peter Handscomb at second slip.
His American family appreciate the significance of the achievement but are yet to get a handle on the summer sport.
“To try to explain to them that (he’s) playing for Victoria, there’s nothing I can compare it to except for he’s pitching for the Yankees and that the next level above that is playing in the Olympics or in a national All Stars team,” Karin said.
Field said Couch had been supported by band of committed volunteers “who are consistently trying to do everything they can for the kids, noting they’re not going to have the same sort of facilities and opportunities necessarily as some of the metro counterparts”.
“His home club deserves a lot of credit because they work very hard, and they still do,” Field said.
“It’s a great little club, great little community and they deserve a lot of credit for enabling and progressing players like Brody.”