Mooroopna through and through: Cats stalwart Brodie McDonald set to bring up game 300 this weekend

Ever since he first took the field in Mooroopna blue as a nine-year-old fill-in, McDonald was immediately hooked by the game and has since returned to the club every season.

Now at the age of 30 he will play his 300th game for the club, as the Cats take on an unbeaten Katandra side in a box-office Cricket Shepparton Haisman Shield clash.

The fourth Mooroopna player to reach the 300-game milestone (following legends Robert Barker 425, Simon D’Elia 327* and Andrew Young 314), McDonald said it was an honour to join the exclusive club.

“It feels really good to reach this mark and it is a massive honour to be alongside some of the greats of our club — I’m really happy with myself to be honest,” McDonald said.

“This weekend I’m just looking forward to another really good challenge, we’ve been a bit inconsistent this year, so we’ll really need to be at our best against a side like Katandra.

“If we do put that full game together I’m confident we can have a nice win and celebrate before Christmas.”

A Mooroopna boy through and through, he explains what it is that has kept him at the club for more than two decades.

“I’ve always lived in Mooroopna so that helps,” he said.

“I just love cricket and always have, being at Mooroopna I’ve been able to play with my best mates and have also played a lot with my brothers as well which is very special.

“It’s a very family-orientated club which has always been very appealing to me, I’ve got a young family now myself and getting the chance to bring my two daughters down to run around it just makes the experience of cricket all the more special.

“At Mooroopna it doesn’t matter if you are the best player in the A-grade or playing in the C-grade, everybody treats each other the same, and that’s why the atmosphere around the club is so great.”

Over the journey, McDonald has forged a reputation as one of the top cricketers in the region.

Featuring in Mooroopna’s A-grade on 130 occasions, McDonald has scored a whopping 2265 at an average of 20.59 with eight half-centuries and one century.

For the club as a whole he has scored 4882 runs from 285 innings to be its eighth highest scorer in history.

With the ball he has been equally impressive, taking 134 wickets at 20.28 over his time with Mooroopna.

A career filled with incredible highlights, McDonald said the back-to-back Haisman Shield titles in 2020-21 and 2021-22 stand head and shoulders above anything else.

“The last two years have without doubt been the most enjoyable for me, winning two Haisman Shield titles,” he said.

“It came after 10 years of hard work playing with the A-grade and building a team capable of getting the ultimate prize.

“And to do it with a few of mates I played juniors with like Sam O’Brien and Brady Mulcahy and last year to be alongside my older brother Paul, words cannot describe how special that feeling was.

“We definitely had a few beers after those games.”

As for what the future holds for McDonald, he said he would not be giving up the game any time soon.

“I might as well get up to 400,” he said.

“I’ve got my two and four-year-old daughters who love the game already, so who knows, I might be playing cricket with them in 10 years’ time.

“I only just turned 30 so I hope I’ve still got a few good years left.”