KEV’S PLAYING CAREER

Q How old were you when you left the Far North to pursue cricket?

A I went to Brisbane when I was only 18, probably a tad early and I went to the Wynnum club, who offered myself and Phil Minniecon a game and the wicket at Bulimba Park wasn’t all that good for batting, so under advice from Jack McLaughlin, who was a state selector, he said ‘well we have to get you off that and on to a club you’re on good batting wickets’, so I had two years under the Colts system and our home ground was the Gabba and then went to Norths. I enjoyed every minute of the Brisbane Grade scene. Unfortunately in 1972 I broke my ankle pretty badly and that sort of put the kybosh on things for 12 months and it was very hard to pick it up again but I did go back and play with some of the Norths teams of the ’70s that had six state players in the team so I was very lucky.

Q How did you make your way from playing cricket into coaching?

A I took a business opportunity at age 28 to go to Ipswich. We leased a sports centre, but it gave me the opportunity to play grade cricket in Ipswich. I captained Brothers to a premiership, but it gave me the chance to represent Queensland Country against the Indians and England so that was a thrill. It was there that I met a guy called Rick Mahoney and he and Jack McLaughlin were tied up with Rothmans and as a result we’d go west coaching kids in all the Darling Downs areas and we had a lot of fun but I learnt a great deal from those guys because when we returned in 1983 to Cairns, Clive Skarott he talked me into coaching some Cairns junior side and Far North junior sides so that kept me involved in coaching right through to a couple of years ago.