Williamstown champion Craig Sheedy calls time on his decorated cricket career

NINE years after he returned to his junior club Williamstown for what was supposed to be a brief stint, Craig Sheedy has called time on his Sub-District Cricket career.

Craig Sheedy of Essendon has retired from cricket after a decorated 30-year career at Essendon, Carlton and Williamstown. Craig with his wife Sharon and son Cooper, 9, at Windy Hill stadium, Picture Yuri KOuzmin

CRAIG  Sheedy’s return to Williamstown was supposed to be brief.

After being plucked from the Seagulls as a 16-year-old, Sheedy spent 15 seasons with Essendon and Carlton in Premier Cricket.

Handed the Seagulls captaincy in 2006-07, the champion all-rounder envisaged a short stint back at his junior club.

But Sheedy found it too difficult to leave the Sub-District Cricket outfit.

“Once I finished playing Premier Cricket, I was always going to go back to Williamstown for a year,” he said.

“One year turned into nine. Williamstown is a fantastic club with great people, really well run, so it was pretty easy to hang around. It makes life a lot easier.”

Now 40, Sheedy has decided to close his illustrious career.

Bowlers will be pleased to see the back of him because he has caused them more pain than a persistent telemarketer.

The Seagulls, though, have lost a giant — a key plank in the club’s batting order at No. 3, a medium pacer who wasn’t out of place with the new ball in hand and their skipper for the past nine seasons.

But when his enthusiasm for the sport which has taken up his Saturdays during the summer months for the past three decades started to wane just after Christmas, Sheedy knew it was time to make a decision.

“I think mentally I’d had enough,” the Essendon resident said.

“I know I could play some good cricket for a few years yet, but I just thought the time was right. It was becoming a real effort to play.

“The seasons seem to get longer and longer.”

Craig Sheedy sends one down for Williamstown. Picture: David Smith.

Filling a role as a top order batsman and first change bowler, the workload simply became too much.

“You’re always in the game, which is a good thing, but you certainly feel it a lot more as well,” said Sheedy, who estimated he had missed “four or five games” in the past 30 years.

“I was just starting to get a bit frustrated and things like that.”

Sheedy was a fine performer at Premier level after arriving as a teenager at ­Essendon in 1993-94.

He made 204 appearances for the Bombers and Carlton, highlighted by four centuries.

Sheedy was the competition’s leading bowler in 2001-02 when he was with Carlton, collecting 53 wickets at 15.2 apiece and earning selection in the Team of the Year.

“It was always good playing against some of the best players in the country. That was always a bit of a buzz,” he said.

“You always wish you could have played a little bit higher and played for Victoria. I didn’t quite get there.

“I’m happy with what I’ve done.

“You can always look back and find something to say you could have done better and there’s always something you could have done better I suppose.”

Sheedy helped Williamstown claim the ultimate prize in his first season back in 2006-07, the Seagulls defeating rival Altona by six wickets in the decider.

That year, Sheedy hammered 835 runs and took 30 wickets and was named captain of the Sub-District Cricket Team of the Year and club champion.

In 2010-11, after logging 799 runs and 25 wickets, he was awarded the competition’s highest individual prize — the RM Hatch Medal, later renamed the Val Holten Medal.

“With cricket, I don’t really think age comes into it,” Sheedy said.

“With the bowling side of it, it can be a bit different. You can start to slow down and the body starts to shut down a bit.

“I don’t think it changes too much with the batting.

“Cricket is 90 per cent in your head and 10 per cent in the rest of your body.

“As long as you’re right in the head, you can play as long as you want I think.”

But Sheedy, who confessed he was looking forward to some time at the beach this summer, left the door slightly ajar for a comeback.

“If I go through next season and I really miss it and am desperate to go back and play, I will probably go back,” he said.

“But at this stage, that’s it.”

Williamstown Cricket Club coach Mathew Inness and captain Craig Sheedy. Picture: Nathan Dyer

SHEEDY’S GREATEST BATTLE

CRAIG Sheedy has copped plenty of bouncers and barbs during a decorated ­career.

Through meticulous preparation and hard work, he has often prevailed.

But early in 2004, he was given news no one can prepare for.

He had cancer — the insidious disease that changes lives. Forever.

Sheedy discovered a lump in his chest he had checked and cleared the previous year was in fact Hodgkin lymphoma — a cancer of the lymphatic system that forms part of the immune system.

“It was a difficult year, that one,” he said.

“I was misdiagnosed, so the cancer was growing ­inside me for an extra year before they actually got to the bottom of it.

“When I actually found out I thought I was in a bit of trouble there for a bit.

“I was lucky enough to get through it.”

Sheedy was playing Premier Cricket for Carlton at the time.

Craig Sheedy rocks onto the back foot for Williamstown. Picture: Mark Wilson.

When the season started a few months later, he was ­determined not to let the illness prevent him from taking to the field.

But there was one condition.

Matthew Drain, who coached Sheedy at Carlton, approached Cricket Victoria with a simple request on ­behalf of his mate.

“He actually went to Cricket Victoria and asked if I could not field, but still bat and bowl,” Sheedy said.

“All the clubs ended up agreeing that would be no worries.

“I actually missed three games that year and still played when I was having the chemotherapy.”

Without the goodwill of opposition teams, Sheedy would have been forced to take a break from the game he treasured.

In the end, he was sick for nine months, which ­included six months of chemotherapy.

Sheedy also spent 31 days in the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre having radiotherapy.

“It was an experience,” he recalled. “You see some pretty ordinary things in Peter MacCallum.

“I’ve got a good family and got good friends and they helped me get through it.

“It was a bit of a tough time, but you come out the other end and now you look back on it as a bit of a life ­experience.”