He took up the sport in the late 1980s at the behest of his workmates at Kmart, neither a batsman nor a bowler when he started out at Brierly.

Slowly but surely, he forged a career for himself, with stints at Woodville in Adelaide’s premier competition and West Warrnambool punctuating a lengthy career with Brierly-Christ Church.

This Saturday, the 44-year-old will step out for the Bulls for 200th time as they take on Merrivale in the final round of the Warrnambool and District regular season.

“I didn’t really know what I was, to be honest,” Love said of his first foray into cricket.

“I just enjoyed playing in a team sport.

“A good, social club like Brierly fitted in really well (with what I was after) and I just progressed from there, playing in the old B grade and A reserves.

“I worked my way up into A grade and in ’98 went over to Adelaide and played with Woodville for a couple of seasons.

“It was just a bit of a change – a bit of a life change, really – and just to gain a bit of experience at a higher level. My brother (Matthew) came over as well and played with Woodville a couple of seasons.”

Love, who has made upwards of 2600 runs and taken more than 160 wickets in his time with Brierly, has also been a country week representative and twice made WDCA finals – once for the Bulls and once for the Pathers.

He returned to Brierly after a two-year stint with West Warrnambool and co-coached the team with Steve McCabe in 2005-06 and 2006-07.

He has stayed put since, and said one of his great joys now is getting to play alongside 14-year-old son Campbell on occasion in one of the senior teams.

The pair played some division two games together last summer, and with Love returning to the top grade this summer and Campbell breaking through for his first division one appearance, they’ve also played alongside each other at the top level a handful of times.

“We’re concentrating on our juniors and bringing them up through the ranks,” Love said. “(Coach) Nathan (Murphy) has done a terrific job. It’s exciting times at Brierly with the juniors doing so well. Hopefully, in a couple of years’ time, I’ll be sitting back watching them succeed with the cricket.”

Murphy lauded Love’s contribution at Brierly.

“He’s quite a handy cricketer and he’s quite a good person to have around the club,” the coach said.

“He’s a good, quality person and that’s first and foremost what you need.”