Brad Cady had just detailed his closest brush with death, when his thoughts swung to his "biggest supporter" in life.
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When the 32-year-old's hand was crushed in an irrigation bore pipe on the couple's Emerald Hill property in January 2017, his wife, Jenna, was with him every step of his recovery.
And it is Jenna who has "rode the wave" with Cady, as he put it, while they endeavour to turn the irrigation property near Gunnedah into a cotton and grain legacy enterprise that benefits their children, Angus, 3, and Hamish, one.
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But before he and Jenna, who hail from Bathurst and Quirindi respectively, married and began raising a family, the Albion captain was ruing doing the "wrong thing" in a rush after his repair job of the irrigation bore pipe resulted in a bolt snapping. His left hand was pinned against a concrete slab underground by the whole weight of the bore column.
"It was just ripping my hand off. Like, it opened my hand up from the top of my finger to my wrist."
Luckily, Cady had his phone on him. "And with my other hand I could ring the ambulance and ring my neighbour to come and try and pry the pressure off my hand."
He had been trapped for about 30 minutes when he was freed and then airlifted by helicopter to Tamworth Hospital.
"I was just glad I had my phone, or otherwise I would've been there all day. Because it was in the morning. My wife was at work. She probably wouldn't have even come out and looked for me, really, if I didn't come home; she just would've thought that I was working late. It was a bloody sh*t fight, really, but I was lucky."
His ordeal, however, was far from over. Once at Tamworth Hospital, the prognosis was negative: he was told that two fingers required amputation. But because he could still slightly move his fingers, he "sort of pushed back a bit" against the advice.
He said his father, Peter, had phoned Jenna and said "whatever you do, don't let them cut any of his fingers off, or cut any of his hand off", until it was crystal clear amputation was necessary.
Tamworth Hospital staff, Cady said, then wanted him to be driven to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle for treatment. "But we pushed back a bit more and they flew me to Newcastle, and the hand got operated on the next day and repaired."
Cady made a full recover. "Bloody good outcome considering."
In 2019 he married Jenna, then joined Albion for the 2018-19 season.
The former NSW junior cricket representative, who played grade cricket in Sydney, was named Albion captain the following season and led the side to back-to-back premierships. This season he is again skipper, with Albion meeting Kookaburras in a two-dayer at Kitchener Park on Saturday. Captaining the side was an "honour", he said, as the club had "a great culture".
Cady sprung from a farming family. "It was pretty hard growing up." And he describes himself as passionate, driven and accommodating - traits that have no doubt served him well since his 2010 relocation to Gunnedah to run a mechanical and engineering business at the mines.
He still runs Cady Engineering but, as designed, it has become secondary to his farming operation. Because central to everything he does is his desire to "set something up" for his boys.
"Look, it looks all rosy now," he said of his life. "But, you know, I work seven days; it's been a lot of work, I must admit, and a lot of sacrifice. We're starting to get into a good position now, so it's definitely been worthwhile."
He added: "And I couldn't have done it, or continue to do it, without her [Jenna]."
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