Phil Avery, 50, won the Hawthorn Amateurs‘ reserves best and fairest in 2022. His son Eammon, 21, won the seniors best and fairest. And it’s not the first son Phil has played with, writes PAUL AMY.
An encouraging wife. A dedication to fitness. “Gadget arms’’. “Cat-like features’’. A rebuilding club. A league medal. A premiership. And sons driving him to play “the long game’’.
They’re all elements of Phil Avery’s many seasons in senior football.
Combined, they form a remarkable journey at a club in the lower reaches of amateur ranks.
In the year he turned 50, his story made for history at Hawthorn Amateurs.
Avery won the best and fairest for the reserves – and his son Eamonn, 21, won the best and fairest for the seniors.
They played together in the senior side during the season.
Last Friday night they stood together as the major trophy winners for the men’s teams.
“It’s unprecedented, I reckon,’’ Hawthorn Amateurs president Sam Waldron says of the prospect of gold-leaf lettering going on the honour board for father and son in the same year.
“I’ve never heard of it happening anywhere. It was a special thing for them to play a couple of senior games together. How cool to play footy with your dad … and then it goes to another level when they both win a B & F.’’
Former president Ed Sill calls it a “remarkable achievement, one of the best things about the 2022 footy season’’.
Avery says he was “speechless’’ when he and Eamonn topped the vote counts. He did it despite playing only nine games in the reserves.
“I still find it hard when people reach out to say congratulations – it’s one of those things you’ll talk about in 10, 20, 30 years,’’ he says. “Very proud.’’
Hawks coach Mark Murray reckons Avery deserves an award just for being able to play senior football at age 50.
“It’s crazy,’’ he says. “I’m 50 years old as well. To think he was able to play in our senior team and hold his own, yeah, crazy.’’
Sill, now president of Box Hill Hawks in the VFL, is enjoying Phil Avery’s long stay in amateur football.
They go back a long way.
Sill was part of the group that brought the club out of recess as Hawthorn Amateurs in 1995; as Hawthorn Citizens, it folded in 1989 due to a lack of numbers.
Avery had been playing at Bulleen United (now Manningham Cobras), but he knew some people involved with rebuilding ‘Citzs’, he lived close to the ground and he decided to make a move to Rathmines Road Reserve in 1996.
Bar the Covid year of 2020, he has not missed a season since.
The club quickly saw it had a good footballer.
In his first year Avery won the best and fairest.
In his third year he claimed the club and competition best and fairests, and played in the senior premiership team.
By 1999 he was captain.
More accolades came to him in future years, notably life membership and selection in the 20-year team, as well as off-field roles, including football director and committee member.
Sill says Avery was an excellent player.
“He had catlike features, Phil,’’ he says. “He could hit, bounce and run. He’s never going to be defined as the best kick to ever pull on a boot – he has his own unique style – but he always had great athleticism.’’
Hawks coach Mark Murray notes the “gadget arms’’ that allow Avery to spoil and then swoop on the ball.
Avery says age is starting to make greater demands on his body. To meet them he continues to run and cycle, figuring he can get through a game of football if he stays “half-fit’’.
“You get a few more hamstrings than when you were younger, but I haven‘t had any of those big injuries, like an ACL,’’ Avery, a manager at the Australian Catholic University, says.
“About 15 years ago I landed on my coccyx – if you’ve never done that before, it bloody hurts – and I’ve lost count of how many breaks I’ve had on my fingers. Overall I’ve been pretty lucky.’’
He hopes his luck holds. He intends to be around for a while; he has another son he wants to play with at Hawthorn Amateurs.
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For all his awards, Phil Avery regards playing with two of his four boys as his greatest accomplishment in football.
It happened for the first time in 2016, when he lined up with his eldest lad, Moss, in the reserves, father presenting son with his jumper after selection.
A couple of seasons later he ran out with Eamonn, who, like his father, has developed into a defender.
This year Phil Avery answered the call to play in the seniors when injuries set in and coach Murray needed to bolster his backline.
Murray also promoted his veteran to the top team for his 300th game in the final round of the season.
The selection was based on merit, he says. “He just happened to be the next player in line,’’ Murray says.
Eamonn, 21, was again alongside him (Ed Sill watched on and says Avery, even at age 50, showed he was still a decent Division 3 amateur player).
Avery sees similarities in the way he and Eamonn play.
“We try to get the ball to the ground and run away – hopefully,’’ he says.
“He was always a bit smaller than the other boys. He’s probably 6’3 now and he’s got stronger, filled into his body. He’s turned into a good player.’’
A VAFA Division 3 team-of-the-year player, in fact; that was in 2021, when he slotted in at full back.
“He’s like a more athletic version of his dad,’’ Murray says of Eamonn. “He gets all the big jobs and he does them well. He’s got a lot of good footy in him.’’
There’s another Avery coming through – 14-year-old Magnus – and Phil Avery likes the idea of playing football with him too.
“If I don’t, I’ll never live it down,’’ he says. “I feel like I need to look at the long game and honour that.’’
Avery says his family has been front and centre with his football.
His wife, Nicole, encouraged him to keep playing and their five children grew up watching him. Eamonn was a water boy and a boundary umpire.
“My wife was always big on making sure I had an outlet. And footy was it for me,’’ he says.
“While I wasn’t as raucous as some other guys at the club, going out til all hours, you’d have your moments.’’
Murray says with a laugh: “Phil’s wife might be our greatest asset. When they had their first kid she said he had to have something outside the family and he had to have footy. She needs to speak to every wife in Melbourne. Because that’s not what my wife says!’’
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Phil Avery says he loves Hawthorn Amateur Football Club.
It has many good people, he says, and a community focus.
This year, embracing the growth of female football, it fielded a second women’s team.
And for some time it has operated a program called ‘Wings’, raising money to provide mental health services to players, officials and supporters.
It followed the death of two former players and a former player’s father.
Avery says his club has taken the lead on a critical community issue.
“The generation I’m from, mental health was viewed as a weakness when I was growing up. Through the club I’ve gained greater awareness of this sort of stuff,’’ he says.
“It’s helped me understand different situations people go through, and that it’s not a weakness in any way. I’m more conscious of it and I can look out for these things. It’s awesome what the club has done in that space.’’
Waldron says Avery is an exemplary clubman.
Often after a reserves game he’ll serve as goal umpire for the seniors.
He looks out for teammates too, “young and old’’.
“He’s a bit of a father figure for some of the boys, particularly the kids from the country with their parents back home,’’ Waldron says. “He’s a good person to have around.’’
Sill says: “The Avery connection at our footy club is just fantastic. They’re wonderful human beings. They make it a better place.’’
Paul Amy is a sports reporter and editor for Leader Newspapers. He was also a long-time contributor to Inside Football and is the author of Fabulous Fred, the Strife and Times of Fred Cook.
from
https://dentoncountynewsonline.com/afl-the-avery-family-connection-bolstering-vafa-hawks-code/
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