At 40, Kyabram’s Paul Parsons is showing no signs of slowing down in the Haisman Shield

But that’s not his style.

Instead, he is fourth on the Cricket Shepparton Haisman Shield run-scoring and champion player charts, boundaries still spilling from a bat that’s been swinging around Goulburn Valley ovals for decades.

Five and a half rounds in, Parsons has peeled off 237 runs at 47.4 as Kyabram sits second on the overall ladder and has booked a one-day final berth to round out the year.

“It has been a good start for the team this year so far, it's been enjoyable,” Parsons said.

“The team’s contributing in their own way at the moment. Personally it's been okay.”

Parsons has been a constant at the top of the Redbacks’ order for 16 years, starting in the Kyabram District Cricket Association era before the club transitioned into Cricket Shepparton’s rank and file.

Yet, his craft as a ready-made A-grade bat was learned elsewhere.

He began his cricketing journey at Stanhope as a bowling all-rounder, but once the frame filled out and the strength arrived, he moved up the order and discovered a refreshing philosophy.

Hit it hard, hit it early, and see what happens.

“I started to open the batting or bat at three from 17-18,” he said.

“I enjoy batting up the top and then I go pretty hard early and roll the dice, I guess.”

Twenty years on, that dice still feels loaded.

But back then, Kyabram was still to learn about Parsons’ talent.

When his family sold the farm and moved from Stanhope to Kyabram, the house backed onto the local oval.

It made sense to join the team just a boundary throw away from the porch - which his brothers did - and after a while relenting out at Stanhope, Parsons followed suit.

Since then, he has captained the Bombers’ A-grade side, served on committees, and now presides as club president, building the environment he still contributes so richly to.

And his presidency is warranted; few cricketers today have a personal catalogue as broad.

Parsons has witnessed the past two generations of talent roll through country cricket, from juggernauts he battled early to the sons of those same cricketers he now stands beside.

He remembers mixing it with Brad and Blake Campbell as well as Brad Mueller as a youngster, before eventually sharing a change room with his son Kyle — now one of the competition’s most gifted left-handers.

So which Mueller is better?

“I only saw the back end of Brad, probably the last part of his career, but he was very, very good,” Parsons said.

“Kyle's probably better in a different way; he bats slightly different. His dad was right-handed, he's left-handed.

“Kyle is an immense talent - it’s a pleasure to play with him, actually.”

The cycle repeats elsewhere, as Parsons once played alongside former Central Park-St Brendan’s great Rohan Larkin.

Nowadays, he pads up against his son, Tyler.

Parsons ranked several Tigers’ legends such as Larkin, Brendan Scott and Ramadan Yze as some of the fiercest competitors he’s played against - though there was a certain Numurkah icon who always seemed to have Kyabram’s number back in the day.

“I remember playing Mark Brown — he was a very strong bat,” Parsons said.

“Every time we played him he pretty much made 100 against us, so it was a rude awakening when we came across (to Cricket Shepparton).”

Through years of clashing willow with worthy adversaries, two premierships have Parsons’ name inscribed on them.

One with Stanhope in the early days, and one that he thought might never come.

The 2023-24 Haisman Shield grand final win over Mooroopa was pure vindication, a 38-year-old who believed his window had closed suddenly holding the trophy he never imagined would arrive.

“It was a lot of hard work to get there and be part of it,” Parsons said.

“I didn’t think at my age I would’ve — I was 38 at the time, so probably I that might have passed me by. That was definitely a highlight from a team perspective.”

As for personal accolades, Parsons isn’t short on those either.

The hard-hitting right-hander tied for the 2011-12 Jack Stone Medal, the KDCA’s most prestigious individual honour, while a few years prior, Parsons made history with the blade.

His 174 against Sunraysia in 2009 stands as the highest individual score ever posted by a KDCA batter at Melbourne Country Week, a marathon innings that, while he didn’t know it at the time, would shape the future of the association’s success.

“It sort of saved us from being relegated — on the last day I made 174 and stopped that from happening, and the next year we made the grand final,” he said.

“It was a sliding doors moment for the league at the time and was good to be part of it.”

So what comes next for Parsons?

Kyabram has a one-day final and two-day business ahead, and though he admits the Bombers are “nowhere near the finished product”, the goal remains linear.

“Obviously the end game is to win the Haisman Shield - that’s what everyone sets out to do,” Parsons said.

“I’m 40, I’m not getting any younger, so they’re going to be harder and harder to keep winning.

“The team is striving to win that ultimate one at the end again. Hopefully we’re there abouts when the whips are cracking.”

If history’s any guide, he’ll be front and centre when they do.