We must dig in and get through to tea — Michael Clarke's eulogy for Phillip Hughes

It's eight years since then Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke honoured his friend and NSW teammate Philip Hughes with one of the best sports eulogies, after Hughes died tragically on field.

Phillip Hughes was an Australian Test cricketer who died on the 27th of November 2014 after being struck by a cricket ball in a first class game. It devastated the cricket world — these accidents are impossibly rare, and this was a young and talented man in the prime of life.

The memorial followed on the 3rd of December. Then Australian captain Michael Clarke’s speech was superb, in the most difficult of circumstances. You can read it on Speakola with full transcript, or check out my notes below.

“So rest in peace my little brother. I'll see you out in the middle.”

I’ve never been able to work out if Clarke wrote this himself. It’s such a personal and perfect piece of writing. His delivery is great too, holding it together, but gripping a lectern and clearly struggling with some of the more emotional lines. The one that always gets me relates to the spirit of the man Clarke calls his ‘little brother’ — ‘We must listen to it. We must cherish it. We must learn from it. We must dig in and get through to tea.’

Here’s a bit of a breakdown of the rest of the speech: