‘Well played son’: Father’s heartbreaking tribute to Ben Austin at the cricket ground they loved
When umbrellas went up, almost all were in the black and white of Ben’s favourite football team, Collingwood.
The club’s premiership cup even stood sentinel beside Ben’s cricket bat and footy, won in 2023 and on loan for the day as a special tribute by the AFL club.
Mourners filed into packed stands at Junction Oval to farewell junior cricketer Ben Austin.Credit: Ferntree Gully Cricket Club
Since Ben’s untimely death, cricketing greats across Australia and around the world have honoured him by wearing black armbands at matches.
Jace now wears his son’s cricket cap almost everywhere he goes. As they embraced the grieving father on the field this morning, some of those closest to the family touched the cap.
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“You didn’t just run, you bounced,” Jace said, speaking of his son’s bright 17 years of life. Ben was always running, so resting won’t come easy, Jace said, but he knew his son’s spirit would live on in his community, in his two little brothers Zach and Cooper and in the game he loved so much.
That love, more than his runs on the board, is now Ben’s legacy. “Well played, son,” said Jace.
Tracey laid a kiss on the coffin of her “miracle baby” as his friends carried it into the hearse for a final lap of honour around the oval.
Fourteen and not out, Ben is still that boy running onto a cricket field. And, for his club and his family, he’ll be there in every game to come.
