Port Adelaide Cricket Club’s Matthew Weeks part of A-grade’s first premiership since 1967/68
PORT Adelaide Cricket Club veteran Matthew Weeks has no doubt this past fortnight has been the most special of his life.
PORT Adelaide Cricket Club veteran Matthew Weeks has no doubt this past fortnight has been the most special of his life.
Not only did the 31-year-old all-rounder play in his beloved Magpies’ first A-grade two-day premiership since 1967/68 on Sunday, March 30, but his son Lewis was born a week earlier.
For the first-time father, who joined Port as a 10-year-old, stuck with the club when it faced extinction from the top flight and has been its captain, they are two milestones he will never forget.
“It’s been the greatest time of my life,” Weeks says.
“There’s two special things that have happened that I’ll forever be indebted for — to have my first child is just unbelievable and Sunday was the greatest cricketing moment easily.”
Weeks says Port’s grand final win was built on belief, a relaxed approach and even some spiritual intervention.
The Magpies were in line for a bottom-four finish at the start of February, only to string together four consecutive wins to reach the decider.
When Port was chasing down Tea Tree Gully’s total of 166 on the weekend, Weeks sought assistance from his dad Robert, a long-time Magpies volunteer who died in 2009.
“There was a few times when it got close I looked to the sky and basically asked for his help to get us over the line.
“He may have helped as there was a decision (against a Port batsman) that was turned down.
“He’d be really proud of us but shaking his head because I don’t think he’d believe it.”
Weeks played two first-class and six one-day matches for SA from 2004-09 and won a Bradman Medal for Port in 2009.
But he weighed up leaving the club in the mid-2000s when the Magpies were a perennial wooden-spooner and faced expulsion from A-grade competition if they did not lift their game.
“You consider it (leaving) because you hear bad things about where the club’s at ... but I was playing with my lifelong mates, guys who are basically your brothers, so it didn’t seem right.
“I’ll never forget (former Port assistant coach and SA cricketer) David Kelly said ‘when you die, these are the guys that’ll be at your funeral’.
“That has stuck with me.”
Weeks is unsure if he will play on next season and at this stage is simply keen to enjoy the moment.