Central Park-St Brendan’s teen Keiran Hogeboom is making his mark on game

But how’d he get the injury?

“I was fielding at point, dove on a ball, a square drive hit me high on the hand,” Hogeboom said.

More importantly, is his hand okay to play this weekend?

“She’s all right,” he said nonchalantly.

It was a stupid question.

Hogeboom, 18, lives and breathes the game of cricket and a bump on the palm isn’t likely to keep him off the turf.

After all, the Central Park-St Brendan’s all-rounder has chucked himself in the deep end more than most this season.

His miscalculated dive in the Victorian Country Cricket League under-21 final for Northern Rivers on Sunday was a small price to pay for the success that followed and it’s that winning mentality that makes him a glove fit for Central Park.

“The culture is really good and the dynasty back in the past is something you look at and go ‘I want to be a part of that’,” he said.

“Being in the rooms and seeing all the flags up on the wall, especially the A-grade flags, because they’re the ones that mean the most to the club and the people around it.

“I guess it’s like a family, the club, more than anything. Across all the grades, we get back and watch each other, eat dinner at the rooms and stuff like that ― it’s really good.”

Hogeboom, a left-hand middle-order batter and right-arm off-spinner, has been a handy inclusion to the Tigers’ A-grade nucleus for the past two seasons.

The teen has chimed in with 29 runs and 10 wickets in the 2023-24 Haisman Shield season and, while he hasn’t set the league alight individually just yet, there’s a glint in his eye that reveals a lot about him.

Because, like the cracks in the pitch he rolls out, Central Park has creases to iron.

“It’s been up and down (this season), you can say. We’ve had our patches where we’ve been really good, but we’ve had our patches where we’ve been really bad,” he said.

“I think we need to fix those down patches, especially with the bat ― that’s probably been the biggest thing so far.

“In the two-dayers we haven’t really performed at the standards we set ourselves with the bat, but with the ball it’s been really good.”

For a youngster like Hogeboom, there’s no shortage of guys to look up to.

He has Jarrod Wakeling, Dwain Vidler and Ramadan Yze in his ear at the nets when his line and length may stray and Tyler Larkin to assist with batting technique ― not a bad leadership group to learn from.

But Hogeboom has always been savvy with the stick at his grip.

“Mum and Dad will tell a better story, but I would’ve been no more than two, and I had a broom hitting a soccer ball around the backyard ― that was probably my earliest memory,” he said.

“I went down and watched Dad play when I was a bit older and got into cricket there, watching it on the TV and then I started playing when I was about eight in under-12s.”

Hogeboom first donned whites for the now-defunct Kialla Knights Cricket Club and then switched to Central Park.

The young Tiger earned his stripes in the youth grades and lower divisions until his mid-teens when the chance arose to play with the big boys and strut out to the middle in the Haisman Shield.

As far as first knocks go, Hogeboom’s debut was solid.

“I do remember it (my A-grade debut). It was just before Christmas against Numurkah here at Deakin,” he said.

“We batted first, Rhiley Lau made a hundred, I came in at the end and made four not out or something.

“Mum filmed my first runs, she still shows everyone that, and then I got about 2-40 off my nine overs which was good.”

Slowly but surely, Hogeboom assimilated into Central Park’s first XI and has proven he’s a more mature cricketer than his driver’s licence would suggest.

So much so that he recently joined a rare coterie of teenagers to play Goulburn Valley Bush Bash League cricket, earning an unexpected call-up from the SRP Mud Dogs.

“I was actually at graduation practice, ‘Skeeter’ (Peter Holland) sent me a message in the morning at about 8am,” Hogeboom said.

“He said ‘did you want to play Bush Bash this weekend’ and I’m like ‘yeah, sure’.

“I got the call up, went down to Bendigo on the Sunday and got whacked unfortunately, but it’s all a part of the learning curve.”

Hogeboom’s lips curled in a wry grimace when recalling that ‘‘infamous’’ over.

Jarvis Delahey Crushers bat Reinhardt Engler took a liking to Hogeboom’s off-spin, smacking 17 runs off his one and only over in the competition.

Rather than bowing his head, Hogeboom treats it as a lesson drawn.

One wonky over won’t derail his trajectory as a player, just like losing last season’s Haisman Shield final isn’t a slight on his or his team’s ability.

That’s not to say it doesn’t still sting.

“(I want) redemption from last year for the team standpoint and I’m the same,” he said.

“Coming so close to winning a Haisman, but just not getting across the line is number one, but then also improving as a team and all that stuff.

“For me it’s more developing, learning and getting better every week. Just improving what I’m good at and the things I’m not good at which is good having those older guys to learn from.”