Premier Cricket: Fitzroy Doncaster champion Peter Dickson decides to play on

Champion Fitzroy Doncaster batsman Peter Dickson has been wrestling with thoughts of retirement since the Lions’ preliminary final exit. Now he has made a decision.

Peter Dickson gets on the front foot. Picture: Brendan Francis

One of the great Premier Cricket careers will continue into a 20th season.

After flirting with retirement, Fitzroy Doncaster champion Peter Dickson has decided to play on into 2019-20.

Dickson, who turns 37 in January, said he was “definitely leaning towards not playing” next season after the Lions’ preliminary final loss to Geelong last month.

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He had multiple calf setbacks last summer and logged five scores under 15 after Christmas, but made the decision last week that he “didn’t really want to give it away”.

Peter Dickson captained Fitzroy Doncaster to the 2015-16 and 2016-17 premierships. Picture: James Ross/AAP

“It was just one of those decisions where I had to meet with the club and see what direction the club wanted to go and they still felt like a bit of experience was needed,” Dickson said.

“I think as a player I’ve still got something to give and probably more than that, it’s probably just the experience I can maybe offer out on the field to help the younger guys.

“Hopefully that will be a large part of my role next year. I don’t know if I’ll play all the games but I’ll try play as many as I can and I probably won’t play the T20s.”

Dickson will enter next season needing a further 299 runs to become the ninth player in the competition’s 112-year history to reach the 10,000 run milestone.

He entered Premier Cricket’s top 10 run scorers in October when he hit his 15th First XI century after debuting in 2001-02.

Dickson had met with local clubs before deciding to remain at the Lions.

“I spoke to all the people I’m really close to and who I’ve listened to and have mentored me over the years and most of them gave me the same answer,” he said.

“That was probably what pushed me into staying, along with meeting (coach) Mick (O’Sullivan) and (captain) Ejaaz (Alavi) and they really wanted me to play on.

“If they had have said to me, ‘you’re going to be 37 next year and you didn’t have your best season last year’ I would have totally respected that.

Peter Dickson goes for a cover drive. Picture: Andy Brownbill

“I went into the meeting being prepared to be told if that was the case, I would’ve understood that decision … fortunately I probably got the answer that I wanted from them and that was to play on.”

A conversation with former teammate Matt Frith also proved to be a turning point.

“He just said to me, ‘you don’t really understand because you haven’t been anywhere else for so long, but you just don’t find clubs like Fitzroy’,” he said.

“He said, ‘I just think you should play on when you have such a great thing happening at the club’.

“I started thinking, all these people I really trust and respect, they say are all saying the same thing and I’m starting to feel like I want to play again.

“Even (fiance) Eliza — we’re getting married and she said, ‘why don’t you play on again, you really love the club and you can go play local cricket after that’.”