Representing his state: Bryan Doyle delivers his spin in a Victoria Country match against Queensland Country in the early 2000s .
Bryan Doyle’s influence on the sport of cricket in the region is clear for all to see.
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A Victorian representative player and member of the Central Park-St Brendan’s seven-time premiership ‘‘dynasty’’ side, Doyle’s remarkable career and service to cricket in the Goulburn Valley has undoubtedly earned him a place among this coveted list.
His cricketing journey started at Dookie, of all places, a town that lacked a cricket club at the time Doyle took up an interest in the sport.
“I grew up playing tennis, we didn’t have a cricket side,” Doyle said.
“We formed a side when we were about 13 or 14 — the town was able to put together a number of players and that consisted of quite a few young guys and then a few older fellas.
“We became part of the Cricket Shepparton association and started off in E-grade, we won a premiership in our first year which was pretty cool.”
After helping form the club at Dookie as a teenager, Doyle later made the move to Central Park with a few of his mates, including star bat and fellow Central Park-St Brendan’s legend Rohan Larkin.
“Rohan and I won a premiership in B-grade at Central Park and then went into A-grade and were runners-up the following year,” Doyle said.
Two short years at the Tigers was all it took for Doyle to develop a match-winning partnership with Larkin, whose prowess with the blade combined nicely with Doyle’s spin mastery.
After a successful couple of years, the pair decided to pack the kit bag and head to Melbourne for more competitive cricket in the late 1980s.
Legend status: Central Park-St Brendan’s seven-time premiership side celebrates its 2007 premiership triumph.
“Rohan and myself started playing in Melbourne Country Week and represented Shepparton, we were in the provincial comp and played on some of the best grounds in the best competition down there,” he said.
“On all the grounds that we played — Carlton being one of them — we were asked by them to come down and play district cricket and the following year Rohan and I went and played for Carlton.”
Doyle would spend no less than a decade at the Blues and his consistent performances with ball in hand would have him earn a number of caps for the Victorian Bushrangers in the mid-90s, running out alongside the likes of Paul Reiffel and Merv Hughes in Victoria colours.
Making the trek down the Hume Hwy for games and training week in, week out, Doyle decided a move back home to the club that helped shape him was in order and he returned to Central Park in the late ’90s in a playing coach capacity.
At the turn of the century Doyle captain-coached the club to its first Haisman Shield.
The club’s first premiership and Larkin’s return to the club a year later, would create the foundation for the Tigers’ dynasty side which would dominate the Cricket Shepparton arena for the years to come, including a record seven-straight A-grade premierships from 2004 to 2010.
“It was pretty phenomenal,” Doyle said.
“We had a really strong team back then, it was pretty cool, there were a few younger guys coming through as they do, but we had the nucleus of a strong side for a long, long time.
“We developed some great friendships and great relationships winning those premierships as you do. It was wonderful, they were the best years of my life to be honest.
“I went down to Melbourne and played 10 to 15 years down there, played with some incredible players, but my time at Central Park through that dynasty was the best cricketing time of my life.”
But Doyle’s mark on cricket in the region is felt beyond his historic premierships and representative honours.
In 2019, the Tigers legend was immortalised with an induction to the Greater Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame and Cricket Shepparton’s T20 medal for player of the series is now named in his honour.
“I’m extremely lucky,” Doyle said.
“Lucky to have represented Victoria, but also really lucky to have played a few years in the Shepparton association, it’s hard to believe there’s been 100 years of cricket in the region.
“There must be thousands of cricketers that have come through the association, so to be able to be nominated for this is amazing — you could blow me over with a feather really.”
