A change of attitude, allied to crucial early-season momentum, has carried the team to a first final in eight years
Alex Malcolm23-Mar-2025Confidence is an intangible. So is a winning culture. But those who have seen it know what it looks like.It was something that struck Brendan Doggett the moment he moved to Adelaide in the winter of 2021.”I noticed big time when I first got South Australia four seasons ago, that there wasn’t much belief,” Doggett told ESPNcricinfo. “There wasn’t much confidence in the squad.”Doggett had just left Queensland, having played in a winning Sheffield Shield final in April of that year, helping secure Queensland’s second Shield title in four seasons by taking 3 for 37 in the second innings.Related
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That he didn’t see any belief was hardly surprising. South Australia had just finished last in the Shield for the fourth consecutive season. They would make it five by the end of Doggett’s first summer there. South Australia have not won a Shield since 1996. Since then, South Australian cricket fans had seen just two domestic white-ball titles, a lone One-Day Cup in 2011-12 and a BBL title for Adelaide Strikers in 2017-18.When Ryan Harris arrived in Adelaide in the winter of 2023 as South Australia’s new bowling coach under Jason Gillespie, he saw the same thing. Harris was returning home, having left the state during his playing career in 2008 to join Queensland, where he won a Shield as a player in 2011-12 and enjoyed great success with Australia before beginning his coaching career in that same Queensland environment.
Ball-by-ball, in the contest, no game is ever too far away from winning. Someone do something special. Play the long gameJake Lehmann on mindset
“When Ryan came along as bowling coach last year, he sort of instilled in us bowlers that we can win from anywhere,” Doggett said. “We’re always going to fight, no matter our position. And I guess the belief sort of started from there. We got glimmers of hope last year where we were going to win matches from being a long way behind, and then that just continued on this year, with him taking charge of the whole squad. He’s kept that same mentality of always fighting, always trying to find a way to win from any position. And that’s probably been the big shift.”
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There was optimism in Nathan McSweeney’s voice as far back as last September when the newly installed South Australian captain spoke about his new coach and his team’s prospects.”He’s got a great relationship with the group, and his passion for the state is second to none,” McSweeney told ESPNcricinfo on September 19.”Last year, I think there was times where we just let ourselves down in a session, with the bat or ball. I feel like we’re not that far away, and hopefully Ryno can help progress that.”What Harris wanted to build was a squad mentality. He had seen what Western Australia had done in using 25 different players to win a hat-trick of Shield and One-Day Cup doubles over the previous three seasons.What he had observed in South Australia was a culture of individuality.”What’s done is done,” Harris told ESPNcricinfo on September 19. “We haven’t had success. That’s no secret. And we want to do that.Nathan McSweeney’s optimism was in evidence right from the start of the season•Getty Images”We want to individually have success and do well but ultimately, if it comes to selection and you’re not necessarily in that team, which is not always easy, you make sure you deal with your disappointment and you get over it, and then you get back into supporting team mode.”I think that’s part of what’s not been great here in the last few years. That’s probably 1% but that can play a huge role in bringing groups apart. So that’s one thing I’ve probably focused on a lot.”
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From little things, big things grow.It might not have seemed like it at the time, but just five days after Harris and McSweeney made those comments, South Australia produced perhaps their most important win of the season, and potentially the previous 13 years, in the context of setting them on the path to a drought-breaking title.In a One-Day Cup clash at Cricket Central in Sydney, their opening match of any form for the season, South Australia had been bowled out for 166. The three-time defending champions in WA were 133 for 3 after 25.5 overs and marching towards a bonus point win.Nathan McAndrew, Wes Agar, Henry Thornton and Ben Manenti combined to take 7 for 31 and South Australia won by two runs.At the same venue a few weeks later, South Australia were 23 for 4 in the fourth innings of their first Shield game against New South Wales, needing an unlikely 389 to win on the final day. McSweeney batted the day to finish 127 not out. Alex Carey also made 111. South Australia survived comfortably against Nathan Lyon to secure a reassuring draw.Two weeks later, they set Queensland a similar target on the final day in Brisbane and bowled them out in 73.3 overs to win their first Shield game of the season.The very next match they bowled Victoria out with just 16 minutes to spare on the final day and break a nine-year drought against their border rivals.”I’ve been a big believer of you learn to win, and then winning becomes a habit.” Doggett said.South Australia kept winning. In December they won the equal-closest Shield game in history off the last ball of the match, taking 4 for 4 in nine balls in Hobart when Tasmania were poised to chase down 429.Alex Carey’s three Shield centuries have been a key factor in South Australia’s progression to the final•Getty ImagesIn the next game in February, after the BBL break, they won the shortest game in Shield history, bowling defending champions WA out for 120 and 66 at the WACA to win in Perth for the first time in eight years.On March 1, they broke the title drought at Adelaide Oval, winning the One-Day Cup for the first time in 13 years by defending just 268 against Victoria who had been 74 for 1 in the chase.Eight days later they beat them again in the Shield in Melbourne, chasing 300 six-down on the final day to secure their first home final in eight years.Jake Lehmann was the hero making an unbeaten 105. Just moments after hitting the winning runs he summed up why South Australia had made winning a habit this season.”It’s just a fighting mentality,” Lehmann told ESPNcricinfo. “Ball-by-ball, in the contest, no game is ever too far away from winning. Someone do something special. Play the long game. All those small little things.”Training has definitely lifted. Our competitiveness at training now has definitely gone through the roof. I think it’s on the back of that squad mentality and blokes who are not playing that are making lots of runs in second XI, lots of runs in club cricket, taking lots of wickets.Nathan McAndrew has been a huge figure in the attack•Getty Images”Selection has been tough, and I think that’s lifted training and Ryno’s really driven that. Those boys run in and put their best foot forward every week.”Lehmann, 32, had been acting captain for the last four games of the previous season and is one of only two surviving members from South Australia’s last Shield final appearance who will play this week.But he started this summer playing in South Australia’s second XI. He made 173 against WA’s second XI to win back his place when the Test players departed in November. Now he enters the Shield final as one of South Australia’s form players, having scored 67 in the One-Day final, 105 not out and 130 not out in his last two Shield games.”For me, it’s been a long way,” Lehmann said. “To win that One-Day final, I think we had played in four of them already, in two Shield finals. Hopefully, it’s just a growing group. And I think the difference this year is we’re probably going to have four or five blokes who are not going to play in the Shield final, like we had in the One-Day, that could easily be playing for us and have played a role throughout the year.”I think that’s the strength of the group. We’ve got a really good squad mentality, and it’s just feeding through.”Winning has become a habit. South Australia is riding the crest of a wave. The whole state is along for the ride. There is a growing sense that a 29-year drought might finally be broken against Queensland at Karen Rolton Oval this week.Doggett knows better than any of them what is required.”Nothing really changes.” Doggett said. “In the same breath, I think we need to acknowledge the fact that it is a Shield final, that it is going to be a special week, the whole build-up to it.”These things don’t come around too often, as many South Australians would know.”So yeah, acknowledge it’s going to be a big week, and it’s going to be a big game. It’s going to be really exciting.”But always falling back to our processes, our training standards and what we’ve done for the whole season.”