A big, hulking presence with dreadlocks, muscle packed into every inch of him, lips coated in zinc and wielding a Gray Nicholls bat often to the opposition's detriment.

If bad things always come in threes, the news of Symonds passing after a car accident in Queensland has once again rocked the cricket community which has collectively farewell the likes of Rod Marsh and Shane Warne prematurely.

At 46, the initial emergence of Symonds' passing felt unbelievable given the father of two had so many years ahead. From the outside looking in, it appeared Symonds had finally found his perfect cricket balance in retirement between fishing trips around Queensland and indulging cricket fans with his insights during the Big Bash.

There was always a feeling that Symonds was born in the wrong decade from a cricket sense. The Queenslander's larrikin nature fitted more with the like of the 1980s teams under the watch of Allan Border.

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However, his attributes on the field were almost tailor made for the Twenty20 game such was his ability to simultaneously be lethal in the field, bowl medium pace and off-spin and offer a destructive batting option.

For an era of cricket fans, there was nothing cooler than Symonds in the early and mid-2000s.

Test cricket carried, and in some cases still carries, a stigma of being a stuffy game which dragged across five days where boredom was more likely than a result at the conclusion of it all.

Symonds, or Roy as everyone came to know him, was a breath of fresh air that the game needed and fans adored.

The two-time World Cup winner was annoyingly good at everything for a start. After all this was a guy who was sought out by the Brisbane Broncos and Wayne Bennett to make it in league.

There was his bowling, where you would watch Symonds trundle in and deliver these seamers which skidded off the surface and had an uncanny ability to leave the batsmen seeming rushed.

If that didn't work, he'd shorten the run-up and roll off-spinners which made up for their lack of spin with accuracy, ball after ball. For someone who struggled to land the ball on a pitch as a weekend warrior, watching Symonds in control of two disciplines seemed unfair but nonetheless impressive.

His best moments with the bat came when Australia needed them most, especially in the Test arena. There was the breakthrough 156 in the 2006 Ashes at Melbourne and his highest Test score of 162 against India at Sydney in 2008.

Both innings were quintessentially the same, Symonds arriving with Australia in need of runs and exiting having left them in a position of strength.

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Both knocks demonstrated the best of Symonds' ability. The combination of brute strength to leave the ball zinging away to the boundary combined with a deft touch via the cut-shot or sweep often left the opposition unable to conjure a solution.

That he could gracefully move in the field, synchronising a pick-up, gather and release within a second spoke to his all-round athleticism. My junior coach used to say always judge the fielder before you set-off, but such was Symonds' propensity to hit the stumps, it's a wonder any opposition player ever ran at all.

Barely a year after that milestone at the SCG, Symonds was gone from the Australian set-up after being visibility frustrated in the wake of 'Monkey-gate' and Cricket Australia's notable lack of support. That incident spiralled into a few off-field issues involving alcohol and one fishing trip too many, meaning the Queenslander was gone from the game.

While Cricket Australia always put those incidents down as not fitting in with their professional culture, you cannot help but wonder if a different stance would be taken today.

One where Cricket Australia would staunchly defend one of their most popular players in the face of racism rather than bowing to the money and power of the BCCI.

The likes of former Australian captain Mark Taylor and many others have regaled tales in the wake of his passing that all fall within the same common denominator.

A man that loved his friends, was fantastic company and valued the things off field that make life worth living. In an era which became increasingly professional, Symonds appeared to play to live and understand at its essence, cricket was just a game.

"He was just an entertainer," Taylor said on Channel Nine.

"He wanted to go out there and have fun."

Maybe that was what endeared Symonds to the Australian public, maybe they saw a little bit of him in themselves. A good friend, a devoted husband who lived and breathed the values that he held dear.

While it feels like he was taken far too soon, we should be glad that we got to witness Roy in full flight.

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