Gavin Midgley, centre, has played for Inglewood for more than 40 years. He recently turned 65. Photo: SUPPLIED
If the man they call Brick laces up his boots for one more season next year it will be his 50th playing senior rugby.
And at the age of 65, Gavin Midgley still hits as hard as his nickname suggests.
He has just finished another season of club matches and says he will not make a decision about what to do next year until closer to the season, but bringing up a half century must hold some allure.
Gavin "Brick" Midgley began playing for Inglewood United Rugby Football Club in Taranaki in 1981, and he still plays, turning out as hooker or prop for their second team.
His senior rugby days go back further, to North Auckland.
"I started playing senior rugby up there when I was 16, so next year if I play it would be 50 years playing senior rugby."
Midgley's family has long since given up asking if he will quit, although the thought of retiring did cross his mind - three decades ago.
"The closest I got to that was when I was about 35 and I thought, 'That's enough, I've had enough of rugby'.
"But we were going through a shortage of props about that stage and I thought I'll stay on and play."
And he has been playing ever since.
Former club mates include Taranaki reps and All Black Dave Loveridge.
Many of these men have long since retired, but they still catch up.
"[They think] that I'm mad still playing," Midgley said.
"It keeps me fit so that's half the reason I keep on playing anyway."
That, and being part of a team.
Over summer, Midgley said he rode his bike on Taranaki trails to keep the body in shape, when he was not at work at Fitzroy Engineering - the New Plymouth company he moved to the region to join in 1981.
He has played up and down the grades over the years, finishing top-division rugby with a championship win in 2006, aged 47.
"The weekend before semis we played Waverley or Border in the Taranaki competition and I think we had three or four props get injured that day," he said.
"The coach turned around to me at half time and said, 'It looks like you better bring your boots on Tuesday night for practice'."
Midgley did and he played 30 minutes of the semi-final and 60 minutes in Inglewood's grand final win.
The next oldest player in Midgley's team is 39 and the youngest are in their teens.
Teammate and now team manager Kane Anderson said Midgley's seen off a new generation.
"This guy who use to play in our team a couple of years ago - he's my age, 31, and Brick used to play with his dad."
Midgley's a rugby man through and through, and had filled all sorts of roles at the club, Anderson said.
"He's always the first one at training. Sometimes he beats me. He's always the first one on game day.
"He just loves rugby so much. It really has been his life for the last 40-odd years."
And despite his age, Midgley could still take the hits - and dish them out.
"He's pretty hard-arsed for a 65-year-old. He doesn't shy away from any contact," Anderson said.
"He just puts himself out there as best as he can, 100 percent.
"The only thing that lets him down is he hasn't moved on from the early 2000s-1990s-style rugby when lying on the ball was okay.
"He gets penalised a bit for not clearing the ruck."
Midgley's famous for not getting injured and a recent calf complaint did not keep him from his Saturday run around.
Nonetheless at his stage of life, Midgley does suffer the odd niggle.
"We've got a pretty good guy who does physio for us - a guy I used to play with," Midgley said.
"He's got into the physio side now and as long as we haven't done anything too bad he can work the injury out with a good rub down."
Midgley said the game had changed a lot down the decades, and he had seen a few eras.
"We were playing a better brand of rugby through the 1990s, probably, when Auckland was pretty strong.
"I think that was a better running-type rugby. Now, we pretty much play league, as far as I'm concerned. We've just got a couple of extra players on the paddock."
