NOT every father has the chance to pull on the whites alongside their son.
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For Casey O'Keefe, it was incentive enough to come out of retirement.
O'Keefe, 46, was crowned the Grassmere Cricket Association's Sunday division cricketer of the year on Friday in just his second second back from a seven-year hiatus.
It capped a memorable season. O'Keefe contributed heavily with bat and ball as Wangoom Red lifted a premiership.
To do it alongside his son, Ethan, made it all the more special.
"He played juniors and then sort of wanted to get back into it again," O'Keefe told The Standard.
"I wanted to go out and have a hit with him, before I got too old.
"We've been mucking around in the Sunday competition having an absolute ball."
I wanted to go out and have a hit with him, before I got too old.
- Casey O'Keefe
The experienced football umpire initially retired "seven or eight" years ago and was unsure if he'd get the chance to play alongside his son.
"I'd drive him around to games and watch and I thought 'I'd come back and give it a go if he was still playing', but then he gave it away," O'Keefe said.
"Then he wanted to have a hit again when he turned 18 and I thought 'why not?'.
O'Keefe put his success down to consistency.
He posted 222 runs with the bat and clinched 23 wickets.
"If I didn't make any runs, I managed to get a couple of wickets and that's probably where I polled all right," O'Keefe said.
Hawkesdale star James North capped a premiership season with the association's top individual honour.
North said the Cats' strong start laid the foundation for their third-straight flag.
"We normally don't win much before Christmas but we got off to a good start which helped us," he said.
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"We've got a really tight group and we just enjoy playing cricket. It used to be hard to get numbers but we've just pulled together well."
North was a breakaway leader, polling 17 votes. His haul was six more than teammate Lachie Glare and Grassmere batsman Justin Coates.
Woolsthorpe youngster Jackson Hansford - who is just 15 - was recognised as division two's best.
Hansford averaged 35 runs and snared 13 wickets en route to the honour.
OTHER AWARDS:
Division one
Batting average: Justin Coates (53.5)
Batting aggregate: Justin Coates (428)
Bowling average: James North (4.92)
Bowling aggregate: Tyson Umbers (29)
Wicketkeeping: Hamish Gleeson (17)
Division two
Batting average: Nick Sinclair (60.75)
Batting aggregate: Daniel Pender (488)
Bowling average: David Patterson (10.5)
Bowling aggregate: Daniel Arnott (16)
Wicketkeeping: Nick Mullen (10)
Sunday division
Batting average: Adam Larkins (57.67)
Batting aggregate: Nick Kermond (238)
Bowling average: Casey O'Keefe (14.8)
Bowling aggregate: Casey O'Keefe (21)
Wicketkeeping: Tom Melican (10)
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