Jack Thompson reads '63 Not Out'

With all the talk about the one-year anniversary of Hughesy's passing, it's been a tougher than usual week for the Redbacks.

I know quite a few of the boys and I have found it hard to turn on any social media accounts; his face will inevitably pop up somewhere, and that's still not an easy thing to deal with.

Around this time last year, we were set to play a Sheffield Shield game in Tassie as our first game back after the accident. This was going to be too hard for most of our players, and as a result about half the boys decided to pull out of that game. Our minds weren't quite there to focus on cricket; we had just lost our mate.

Blue and Red pic.twitter.com/oUN4tXEA9I — Adam Zampa (@zamps63) November 28, 2014

I went home, back to country New South Wales, after the accident, and didn't really pay too much attention to the Adelaide Test, which was being played at the time – it was a highly emotional game to watch, and no doubt play.

This year I think having our Shield game at the same time as the Adelaide Test is going to be a good thing for the boys here at the Redbacks – it means we can have our minds on the game and not on the television screen.

We've found in the past if we have our minds on Hughesy too much it tends to affect the way we play.

For that reason, our tribute in the Shield game will be the wearing of black armbands – as a group we decided that a minute's silence was going to be a bit too tough to deal with.

Myself, Phillip and Kane Richardson were club mates at East Torrens. Hughesy only played a couple of games there but he made friends pretty quickly.

East Torrens dedicated their one-day win to Hughes // @zampstagram

Being a fellow New South Welshman, he was actually a major reason why I ended up in South Australia. He moved across from New South Wales and that got him back into the Test squad, which was what his aim was.

So he used to call me every now and then and say it would be a good move for me.

I probably wouldn't be where I am at the moment if it wasn't for that advice.

The famous Hughes cut // Getty Images

But I'm far from the only one he had an influence on at South Australia – through the relationships built and maintained at the Redbacks, he really did have a major impact on all the guys.

Whenever he came back from a tour with the Australian side, it was almost like a weight off our shoulders, it gave us this massive increase in belief.

He always had that energy around the dressing room, whether we were batting or bowling, even if we were having a bad day. I remember New South Wales were smashing us one day – they scored about 1-200 in a session, and we came into the dressing room and there's Hughesy, just having a dance! He definitely knew how to keep things in perspective, and that was something from him that I think rubbed off on all of us.

The cheeky Hughes grin // Getty Images

He played with us for three seasons and I'm sure if he was still with us he'd be captain and leading by example, like he always did.

There was no better example of that than when we were playing against Victoria last year, the match before the accident at the SCG.

The Bushrangers rolled us, beat us by an innings, and we copped a massive spray from our coach at the time, Darren Berry, who pretty much said our batting effort had been pathetic.

We were having a few quiet beers that night and Hughesy texted 'Chuck' (Berry). There was no showboating. No arrogance. He just said, "What happened today is on me. I'm the leader of this batting group. I'm responsible. And you won't see it happen again".

Sure enough, the very next match was when he made that 63 not out.

He never looked like getting out that day.

WATCH: Hughes's final innings for South Australia

It is still tough for everyone in our squad to talk about. It pains me to think about what guys like Tom Cooper, Travis Head, Kane Richardson – guys that were really close to him – what we're all going through at the moment.

But it's one of those things now where if I'm thinking about Hughesy, or any other of the other boys are thinking about him, it's easier just to talk about it rather than hide behind it.

I had a conversation with one of the other boys just yesterday about what it was like having a beer with Phillip.

He would never shut up about his family and his animals at home – you've probably read it in every article, but it's true; he literally wouldn't talk about anything else other than how he just got a new cow, or how his family was going back in Macksville.

The funny thing is, somehow he actually made us interested in all of it. He used to get his phone out and show us photos of his new cows, and that was him to a tee – all about his family and his animals.

WATCH: A special tribute to Phillip Hughes

What happened 12 months ago has definitely thrown a different light on cricket for all of us.

You'd struggle to find a photo of Hughesy without a cheeky smirk on his face, and that's how we remember him.

And we still say that it's just like he's on tour with the Aussies – and that he's going to walk back through the door any time soon.

WATCH: Phillip Hughes cut shot master class