Comeback hand in glove with a nudge
NORTH Geelong has a lot more to thank Aaron Muncey for than just the great service he provided the club as a swing-seam bowler almost 20 years ago.
A gentle verbal dig from the former Grovedale and Magpies player recently played a crucial role in convincing noted GCA gloveman Peter Kenyon to return to the region’s top tier after last playing “ones” in 20062007.
“He reminded me that I was a long time retired,” said Kenyon, a four-time first X1 premiership player with the Magpies.
“With my boys involved in the under-11s and Milo program last year, I found myself hanging around North a bit, so I thought as long as I enjoyed it and I didn’t make a fool of myself, I’d have a go again.
“My wife said, ‘I knew you’d get caught up with it’, while my dad was super-stoked because he’s hated me not playing.”
Alongside the enormity of Kenyon’s return to the region’s leading competition, what made the 43-year-old’s achievement all the more noteworthy was stretching his dismissal count to 300 with the first of his five scalps against St Joseph’s.
“That was only brought up not long ago,” Kenyon said.
“Roger (Allen) was pretty sure I was on 299, so I just wanted to get that one catch, and get it out of the way.
“It just so happened that I got a bag full. Now I’m going to try and keep that standard.
“I’ve probably set the bar a bit high now, with five in my first game back.”
Kenyon played the opening round of the season in the seconds before he missed Round 2 on a family holiday.
A groin injury sustained by newly recruited batsmanwicketkeeper Curtly Balshaw meant he would be limited to batting only, opening the door for Kenyon to regain the gloves against the Saints.
“Sam Hall messaged me a few days earlier and said I was playing in the ones,” he said.
“I was overthinking things in the first round, but everything is coming back now, all I’m doing is waking things up.
“I was making things more difficult for myself than I needed to, I realised I just had to get there and take the ball.”
Kenyon has been fortunate to play with some of the greats at Osborne Park.
He started in the fifths with Laurie Winch and Alex Andjelkovic, before Glenn Ward elevated him to the firsts, where he kept to bowlers including Peter Quick, Glenn Wiese, Ross Aylmer, Andrew Vivian and Muncey.
He credits Graeme Beaumont with much of the Magpies’ mid-’90s success, early in his first X1 career, while he speaks with affection about two of the club’s legends.
“Neil Alford and Alf Clark were two of my idols growing up,” Kenyon said.
And while a renewed pleasure in playing is important to the super-efficient gloveman’s return, there’s an unmistakeable determination to help the current crop of players understand what’s required to take the top prize.
“I’ve always been competitive, I play to win and I’m pretty old school,” he said.
“The people at North Geelong are great people and if these young players walk into those clubrooms as premiership players they’ll see the next level of those people, they’re super passionate.”