The "glass shoulders and bad knees" have not helped.
But what has kept veteran Green Island all-rounder Mark Joyce going for the best part of 20 years is the wonderful culture at the club.
The 37-year-old will join the exclusive 400-club when the Swamp Rats host Carisbrook-Dunedin at Sunnyvale today.
Dion Lobb is the only other Green Island player to reach 400 senior games for the club.
It is quite an achievement. And like Lobb, Joyce is a throwback to a generation when people joined a team and stuck with it.
He made his debut in the 2000-01 season. Longevity has certainly brought its rewards.
The right-hander is the club’s all-time leading scorer with 8391 runs, including three centuries and a high score of 172 not out.
He has also notched 42 half-centuries and taken 156 catches in the field — both club records.
He needs one more wicket to overhaul Grant Payne’s total of 649 in order to move into second position on the all-time leading wicket-takers’ board.
He has the best figures of six for seven, has snaffled 16 five-wicket bags, helped win 11 senior banner and three national titles. Joyce was also named Dunedin Club Cricketer of the year in 2009-10, 2010-11, 2012-13 and 2018-19.
It is lengthy list of achievements but he will not be adding much more to it.
Joyce has been hinting at retirement for a while but plans to follow through this time.
He has shoulder surgery scheduled for May and it is time to let go.
"I’ve already had three surgeries on my left shoulder so it is probably time," He said.
" I have not officially told most people but they all pretty much know because I’ve joked about it enough times."
"I’m running on glass shoulders and bad knees at the moment."
Joyce went close to representing Otago. He was selected in the Volts line-up in 2009 but was named 12th man.
"I look back at the generation I played with and you’ve got bowlers like Nathan McCullum, Mark Craig and Will Somerville and they all went on to play for New Zealand.
"Nick Beard was another high quality bowler from my generation, so I wouldn’t say I had any regrets. I managed to play overseas [in the United Kingdom] and make a lot of mates playing cricket."
Joyce focused on obtaining a trade and is a qualified electrician. He works for Electrix as a project supervisor.
He is married to former Southern hockey representative and captain Vicky Clarke-Joyce (nee Clarke).
The couple have two children, Connor (7) and Indie (4).
Green Island has collected seven titles in the past 10 seasons and has dominated the club cricket scene for several decades.
But that dominance has worn off this season following a raft of experienced players retiring.
"You can’t replace a bowler like Lobby straight away or the experience and runs of someone like Anthony Harris.
"We’ve lost [former coach] Alun Kennedy who has moved to Australia now.
"What he brought to the team off the field and the management you just can’t replace straight away."
"I know on the field a lot of teams have not liked us in the past. When we get on that field we try to play hard cricket because we wanted to win.
"But the culture off the field is probably what has kept a lot of guys playing for so long.
"I think in the last couple of years probably half our team has been over 30 compared to other teams where you are lucky if there is one or two over 30 still playing."
"I don’t think we’ve been able to pick our strongest side this season, either through injuries or guys going away for various reasons. That has probably made it quite hard, and I guess that old-school mentality if you commit to something is not quite there these days with the younger generation to an extent."
Joyce said he will miss the camaraderie when he retires but plans to stay involved and chip in where needed.
That commitment sort of sums up his cricket career. He batted in the middle and had to adapt to the game situation, whether that meant stonewalling for a draw or blasting boundaries in pursuit of a target.
When he bowled it was usually in a containing role or to give the likes of Lobb a spell.
Whatever was needed — qualities which are disappearing from the game.
Joyce is uniquely placed to offer an opinion on the strength of club cricket and he has concerns for the game.
"Cricket is kind of a dying sport in some respects. It is hard to keep the younger guys involved once they leave school unless they’re the more elite type of players.
"You don’t see the player who just loves cricket as much as you used to. I think you see that with the number of teams there are throughout the grades.
"I’m not really sure how you fix that."
