Andrew McNeill - The Angry Man
Peter Langston | February 12, 2024
Happy birthday to the Angry Man, AJ, Andrew McNeill (#419). A 1st grade skipper, a club treasurer, an inflictor of purple bruises at training and a proper bastard to drink with, he is a living Armidale Waratahs Cricket Club legend.
Most people don't realise AJ played any other cricket for Waratahs except 1st grade but he actually debuted in 2nd grade, where the opposition requested a change of uniform to brown corduroys. He also played the short lived Twilight Cricket - short lived describing one opposition batsman still experiencing trauma, headaches and anxiety when he meets anyone with a Scottish sounding name.
AJ’s 201 First grade wickets place him among the greats of the grade and although fifth in aggregate (Cooke, Smith, Joice, MacKenzie), his strike rate/season of 29 is only topped among the quicks by only by Tom Cooke (34).
He was deadly.
Among the comments pasted on the Waratahs Facebook page calling out his birthday was this, from a then very young lad in short pants, upon whom Rattler made a deep impression.
"I still remember as a youngster one day at training watching him bowl from the long run to some poor victim, that I have never seen a bowler as fast as him. And that includes watching test matches etc. Frighteningly quick..." The fact Martin Hadfield went on to be an Paramedic gives the comment even greater gravitas!
For those who can only remember him pawing at the ground at the top of his mark, snorting fire and issuing oaths, this tale may ruin his reputation but it is instructive. Wally Sattler tells of having a quiet word to the Angry Man, after the former's departure for Easts, asking him to refrain from bouncers against a youngster filling in for the Daffy's. Its a mark of the man that he bowled flat out to the kid but didn't drop one short. Those who remember his season as 1st grade skipper, during a time when Waratahs was rebuilding, know of his patience with younger players, particular guiding new bowlers just breaking into the top grade. His ability to bear the load of being the side's only established 1st grade bowler after Joe Harrison left mid season meant his 212 overs were the most ever bowled in a season.
An enigma, as optimised by being a Rabbitohs supporter living in Brisbane and loudly supporting the Blues in Origin series, the list of stories about him is longer than his run up.
In recent years, his courage and tenacity in the face of serious health problems hasn't stopped him turning up post Waratahs club functions and never letting down his mates.
Happy birthday to the unique Andrew McNeill.
