INNER STRENGTH ENDURES
BY his own admission, 21-year-old Brayden EngelenBaker has been the 12th or maybe 13th best player at Grovedale in recent seasons.
Growing in confidence, developing in stature and with some impressive early performances behind him, it appeared that 2018-19 was his for the taking.
But just as the emerging son-of-a-club-legend looked destined to step out of father Mark Baker’s shadow, he was struck down with a serious back injury in an off-season workplace accident in 2018.
After a heartbreaking diagnosis, a summer out of the game and a physically — and mentally — gruelling period of rehabilitation, the elegant stroke-player is back.
Ready to resume his love affair with the game at the Tigers, Engelen-Baker spoke with GCA writer WES CUSWORTH about the return to his cricketing destiny.
I had two bulging discs and I had really seriously damaged the ligament running alongside the lower part of my spine. Getting in and out of the car was one of the most painful things to do. Unless you’re lying flat on your back there’s not a lot you can do. There was no way I could physically go back to the work that I was doing. There was a stage in January where I sat down with the physio and doctor and they said I might have to prepare for the worst, that if it didn’t get better that I might never be able to play sport again, because it might totally ruin my back. The CT scan showed that it wasn’t healing. When you’re young you feel invincible and maybe you don’t help yourself as much as you should. That was a really scary time, so I certainly don’t take the opportunity to play again for granted. There were a lot of painful hours through rehabilitation. Those months of sitting at home, unable to do anything, it was pretty debilitating.
We have such a tightknit group and club as a whole. I’m really good mates with a lot of those blokes in the first and second XI, so I went with the approach that there’s no use sobbing around home thinking “poor me”. I ended up going to nearly every training session and was there for every game. At the end of the day I love the club and I want them to have success. So any way that I could help them or be supportive, I was going to try to do. I was hoping to see them win another premiership but as we know the firsts and seconds both fell at the final hurdle.
Yeah, grand final day was hard to watch because I definitely felt like I could have played a part.
I’m fortunate that I could name a lot, but it would start with the big three — Barry Tsitas, Gareth Yelland and Chris Young. Chris and I built a really good relationship last year, while Barry was really positive and thankful that I was there being supportive of the team week in, week out.
I remember someone telling me that the first couple of games are your easiest because people don’t know where to bowl to you. After that, teams start to figure you out a little bit then it’s a bit harder. I found that I’d make plenty of runs in the twos, but when I’d go up to the ones, because we were so strong and I was forced to bat middle or lower order, and because I hadn’t batted there, I found it hard to transfer my opening skills to batting in those middle overs. I felt that I could’ve opened last year, it was my chance to really break through.
What Dad’s achieved both on-field and off-field speaks volumes about the person that he is. It’s great having him around, he has helped my game as much as anyone has.
Everyone is really appreciative of him taking on that role out of the blue. He’s a really level-headed, deep thinker about the game. He’s won three premierships at the club and he’s exactly what us younger guys at the club need. Luke’s a really good mate of mine and obviously a very, very good batsman, who has played at a higher level when down at Geelong in Premier Cricket. He does have a lot of maturity for someone fairly young. He leads from the front, he speaks well and I think he’s been great for the group. I can’t speak highly enough about the way he’s put the group on his back and is leading into the new season. Having been such a successful club in the modern era there is definitely a buzz around that motivates guys to push themselves for success. I love the idea of being out there with some of my best mates and striving to win. There’s definitely that hunger to be playing again and hopefully contribute to another Grovedale premiership.