Rod Marsh death: Greg Chappell, Jeff Thomson among former teammates to pay respects to Aussie legend

Greg Chappell remembers a chunky 13-year-old who loved a yap, Jeff Thomson enjoyed his larrikin streak. The stories about Rod Marsh flowed like the beer at a mini-wake for the Aussie legend.

Rod Marsh’s closest mates sent him off the way he would have wanted, with beers not tears and a night full of famous old yarns.

The colour and flavour of a unique sporting life was celebrated with some grand old tales when Greg and Ian Chappell and fearsome quick Jeff Thomson sat down for a drink in Sydney on Thursday night and Dennis Lillee joined them via Facetime from his property in Western Australia. Marsh passed the following morning at 6am.

Sensing Marsh’s iconic life was coming to an end they decided to send him out in a style he knew well.

Rod Marsh, Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee retired at the same time.

“It is a sad day, but he would not have wanted us all to sit around moping,’’ said Greg Chappell, who by chance was in Sydney with Thomson for a sportsman’s function.

“We had our mini-wake for him last night and we rang Dennis. We realised we were better off celebrating his life than mourning his passing.’’

Greg smiled at the memory of his first encounter with Marsh when he was given absolutely no hint of the bond that would develop between them.

“I go back to playing him in the 1961 national schoolboys carnival in Brisbane when he was a chunky 13-year-old who loved a yap,’’ Chappell said.

“I didn’t see him again until Shield cricket and it was his yapping that convinced me the bloke I had seen in Brisbane and taken a dislike to was back again. He did not endear me any more when I first saw him in Shield cricket.

“It just proved to me you cannot always rely on first impressions. It wasn’t until I started playing with him that his strengths shone through. We just had a great relationship, not just after he was playing but afterwards.

“Rod’s honesty was his core value. He just couldn’t tell you a lie. He told you what you needed to hear and not what you wanted to hear. He would hit you between the eyes with it. He was our spiritual leader in many ways.’’

Marsh was often the man in the middle – or had a ringside view - of so many things that mattered in his eras.

Marsh and Chappell remained close after they finished playing.

He was there when Lillee and Thomson destroyed the Poms, he scored a century in the Centenary Test, was at the other end when David Hookes had his jaw broken in World Series and shook his head disagreeing with Trevor Chappell’s underarm delivery, though as Rodney Hogg points out, “didn’t try and over-rule Greg Chappell because he respected his authority as captain.’’

“He was our spiritual leader,’’ Chappell said.

“We spoke of what a great team-mate he was simply outstanding keeping back. I saw a photo today where he was diving so far to his right he was past Ian at first slip. I’ve not seen anyone cover the ground he did.’’

Fittingly, Australia is touring Pakistan where Marsh was not that fussed about the local beer and had a chat to the Australian Embassy about his plight.

Soon after, an esky arrived carrying “Emergency vaccines’’ to the Australian dressing room and, once opened, revealed several dozen chilled Swan Lager.

Marsh passed away on Friday morning aged 74.

Thomson always enjoyed Marsh’s larrikin streak and remembers him consuming a tour record of 45 cans of beer on a flight to England for the 1981 Ashes tour.

“I got along really well with Marshy even though he was not a guy I rang regularly like Dennis or Greg,’’ Thomson said.

“But I remember being a pacesetter for him on that flight. He got off the flight and we had to get him to stand in a group press conference.

“He had these false teeth which we were trying to get in and they were popping out. The Pommy press didn’t sense what was happening. They were funny days.’’

Kerry O’Keeffe paid a touching tribute to Marsh on Fox Cricket as an inspiring and empathetic figure in his life.

One of the great wicketkeepers of all time shows his style.

“I just loved playing with him,’’ O’Keeffe said.

“Every Australian tour I went on he was the wicketkeeper. Every Test I played he was the wickie. We played a lot of golf, we drank a lot of beer. When I was down in the early 90s, I couldn’t deal with post cricket life.

“He rang me from the cricket academy and said, ‘Skull, I’m giving you two weeks work a year. Make it a platform and build something. You’ve got some ability.’ And that’s why I’m here today because of that call from Rodney.’’

Originally published as Rod Marsh death: Greg Chappell, Jeff Thomson among former teammates to pay respects to Aussie legend