Can Phil do it?
Can Phil Bourke do it? Now that’s a question that only time will provide the answer to.
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The Cobram Tigers reserves co-coach began playing footy at the age of 10 when his dad coached an under-14 side at Waubra, near Ballarat.
He loved the game and this passion has remained with him. Did he ever think back then that he might still be playing at the age of 49 and possibly 50? Absolutely not.
Phil’s playing years began at a similar age to most young boys, playing juniors and seniors in Ballarat, and later arriving in Numurkah after securing work at the Kraft factory. Initially he played reserves and then seniors between 1995-97 at Numurkah, where he met Adam Rudd, who in 1997 went to Cobram as assistant coach and encouraged Phil to follow him a year later.
“It was a good move because we won the flag that year,” Phil said.
“I played at Cobram from 1998 until 2005 and when I turned 31 thought I would retire, I was feeling a bit stale. Simon Rudd played with Yarrawonga and suggested I give them a go, so I went there between 2006-07.”
Phil went back to Cobram in 2008 and there he remains today.
“The Cobram club is a home away from home and a great place to be. It has a good family culture and strong junior program which is paying dividends for the club,” he said.
Phil played mainly at full-back in 2011 when the side lost the grand final, after which he officially retired.
Next he co-coached the reserves with Mathew Ross-Soden, and owing to lack of numbers he came out of retirement and began playing again.
He continued to play in the reserves and in 2019 was a runner for the senior team, but the lure of getting back on the ground with the boys was so strong that he thought ‘why not, I am fit enough’.
Phil was approached by president Mick Hoban to coach the reserves for season 2023 and, thinking it over, he spoke to Mick Verner about joining him as co-coach.
The side is currently sitting sixth on the ladder.
“We have a tough run home and will play the top five teams before the end of the season,” he said.
“But, we are doing all right. We have a mixed side of oldies such as Manny Artavilla, Reece Hartridge and Glen Seddon, all a bit like me in their mid to late 40s, and a crop of good young ones.
“If we had enough boys I wouldn’t have been playing the last few years, yet when I go out on the ground I only feel 25.”
Phil is quick to acknowledge his wife Maria for her support and encouragement.
“Whenever I go out on the ground, her words are always, ‘make sure you are not injured’. Not like when I was younger when it was always ‘make sure you win’,” he said.
“Maria is amazing. She does everything to ensure I get to training and the game each weekend.
“She and our daughter Stella (3) come to the football club to watch the games and have a meal on a Thursday night and love it because of the atmosphere and friendships.
“It’s not easy for her, working several days a week, taking calls for our business Bourke Removals and looking after Stella when I am not available, so I appreciate everything she does to allow me to still play football.”
The man has just turned 49 and the question remains, will he be out on the ground playing for Cobram next year when he turns 50?
Let’s wait and see. Yet I would say with his amazing record of few serious injuries over a great many years that yes, indeed he will!
ECMO — a lifesaver for Sarah
In 2017, just one month away from giving birth to her first baby, Strathmerton’s Sarah Hawthorn began to feel most unwell, suffering nausea one morning before attending an appointment for a routine scan.
Never in her wildest dreams could the healthy young woman of 33 have anticipated what was to follow as the scan indicated that all was well and she would deliver a healthy baby.
However, Sarah became extremely ill and was finding it hard to breathe. She visited a doctor at his rooms near the hospital and he suggested that Sarah, an asthmatic, use a puffer as she was allergic to penicillin and it was difficult to prescribe drugs for a pregnant woman.
Two days later her lips turned blue and she was taken to hospital in Cobram.
Dr Chrissie took one look and ordered an ambulance to take her to Wangaratta Hospital.
En-route, the ambulance was stopped and a Mobile Intensive Care paramedic travelled with Sarah the rest of the way.
Soon after she arrived at the hospital, medical staff made the decision to arrange for her to go to Melbourne by air ambulance.
Sarah had been intubated in Wangaratta. She was in an induced coma and transported by a fixed wing ambulance to avoid pressure on her lungs.
The last thing Sarah recalled the following day was being wheeled into theatre. In the following weeks, everything was a blur, including the birth of her son Axle, who was delivered via caesarian.
Monitored closely at The Alfred over two weeks in an induced coma, Sarah was then started on ECMO — a life support system for people with organ failure which can prevent the lungs or heart from providing enough oxygen to the body.
The Alfred is renowned for its expertise in this area and has a highly specialised team.
In fact, the medical professionals have found the ECMO equipment has proven beneficial to seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
While still in a coma, Sarah was put on ‘high flow’ ECMO, which was taped to her head which had been shaved. However, the high flow failed and her lungs collapsed.
Sarah was found to have influenza and sepsis, a life-threatening complication of infection. At one stage, her family was advised that she may not make it through the night.
However, despite being in a coma for three months with ECMO controlling her body temperature and body functions, she did survive.
Axle needed special vaccinations to be able to visit his mum and left Wangaratta Hospital at four weeks old with dad Robert.
When he was six weeks old he went to Melbourne, where a nanny looked after him when Robert was at the hospital.
After being in ICU on ECMO for four weeks, it took a full week for Sarah to wake up and be weaned off the apparatus. After one week in the ward, she went to rehabilitation.
“I was in a wheelchair and my goal was to be home for Christmas,” Sarah said.
“I couldn’t roll over, I couldn’t toilet or shower. But at the age of 33 I wasn’t going to have a nurse shower me, I was too proud, so on the third day I got up early and did it myself.”
Finally back home in a wheelchair after nearly four months, Sarah began physio at Cobram hospital and went ahead in leaps and bounds.
She started walking with crutches until she was strong enough to walk on her own and has now been attending The Alfred twice a year since 2018.
In March 2018, Sarah was interviewed for 60 Minutes with the families of two other ECMO patients, a 10-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman, both of whom did not survive.
Today, Sarah is a loving mum to her delightful boy and lives a relatively normal life but suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, a debilitating condition.
She is grateful to be able to Facetime a specialist Sydney physio, who is helping considerably.
She helps out with the family transport business, their beef cattle, school for Axle and is secretary at Strathmerton Lions Club, to which she is incredibly grateful for its help while she was so ill.
“Being home with Axle for four years has been a gift and I think because of what I went through I am a different mother, more understanding and present with him,” Sarah said.
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