Mr nice guy Phil Neal will run onto the sacred turf of his home ground to celebrate game # 400 for the South FC on Saturday.
The Alma Oval has been his home since his first game in 1993 under Coach Peter Johns. In the following 398 games Phil has achieved just about every honour a player can achieve in local football, and done it without anyone having a bad word to say about him!
Neal joins Broken Hill games record holder Centrals Brett Morris who sits on 416 games - a mark outside Phil's reach this year. Both Players are one Club players in Broken Hill and both had mini stints out of Broken Hill, Brett with Wagga Tigers and Phil with Merbein in 2000.
It is most fitting that on Phil's milestone day Brett will be the Emergency Umpire for A grade and Phil's Premiership Coach of 1996 & 1997, Peter Nash will be one of the three umpires. Shane Chapman, will also be in charge and he was the first senior umpire to see Phil at the Tribunal - you can read that tale in Saturday's Budget. The other central umpire will be 50 metre Frank Nutt....will he march Phil 50 just for old times sack?
Rain hail or shine this day will be a huge celebration for the Neal family and the SFC and more Budgets will be available at the gate...its not every day we get a 400 game icon..and on the same weekend that Essendon's Dustin Fletcher reaches 400.
Phil's secret to success is pretty simple - eats lots of KFC when your under 20 and single! A huge dose of pride, passion and dedication doesn't go astray either.
We salute you Phil Neal
Last Modified on 28/05/2015 22:17