Here are the best GPS First XI stars never to play a Test

Who are the best 10 GPS First XI players to never play a Test. And could the discovery player of the BBL, Brisbane’s Paddy Dooley, do what they never did a play for Australia? Story here.

Excellent Souths opener, recalled Test batsman Matt Renshaw and BBL star Paddy Dooley.

Could Brisbane Grammar School old boy Paddy Dooley join a select group of ex-GPS First XI players desperately unlucky never to have played for Australia.

Bob Paulsen (Churchie), Sandy Morgan (BSHS), Andrew Courtice (BBC), Peter Anderson (Churchie), Wade Seccombe (TGS), Ben Cutting (BGS), Jim Maher (Nudgee College), Jim Bratchford (BSHS) and Chris Hartley (BBC) are arguably the best players from GPS cricket never to play Test cricket.

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And sometime in the future, will Paddy Dooley, the 2014 BGS First XI Premiership winner who has been the discovery player of the Big Bash League, join that list of elite players who have never donned a baggy green cap?

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Long respected in club land playing for Western Suburbs, Dooley’s skills have now been seen nationwide.

With his windmill left arm orthodox spinners, the Hobart Hurricanes recruit was so impressive this summer that former Test selector and Aussie champion Mark Waugh would have taken him on the tour of Pakistan.

Paddy Dooley playing for the Hurricanes in the Men's Big Bash League (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

“He has not played any first class cricket, but there is a bit of mystery about him,’’ Waugh said while commenting in Fox Sports earlier this month.

“He has some tricks which I think you will need against the Indian batsmen. He bowls accurately and just does enough either way,’’ said Waugh, admitting it was a “left field’’ idea, but one he believed in.

Paddy Dooley playing for Western Suburbs. Pic John Gass

Then Waugh’s fellow Fox commentator, former leg-spinner from the 1970s Kerry O’Keeffe, added: “His angle of release, it is the best angle of release by a wrist spinner in Australia.’’

High praise indeed from two high profile former Test cricketers who remain students of the modern game.

Dooley’s path to the top from Queensland is not helped by the presence of Australian leggie, Nudgee old boy Mitchell Swepson, and highly rated The Southport School old boy Matthew Kuhnemann.

Paddy Dooley’s sister Josie in action. (Photo by Sarah Reed/Getty Images)

Last season he rose to second XI level, but the lawyer from HWL Ebsworth was not called upon by the Queensland selectors this season.

But if you have people like Mark Waugh and Kerry O’Keeffe putting him in elite company, then who knows.

A young Josie Dooley beat her brother Paddy onto the big stage. Picture: Chris McCormack.

Let us see if 25-year-old Dooley, the brother of expertising WBBL player Josie, can climb the mountain.

At least now, courtesy of his Big Bash exposure at the Hobart Hurricanes, Dooley is at Base Camp No.1 and on an upward climb.

Qld Wicket Keeper Chris hartley attempted stumping.

GPS FIRST XI STARS MOST UNLUCKY NEVER TO PLAY FOR AUSTRALIA

Chris Hartley (BBC): Hartley takes No.1 billing when it comes to unlucky sportsmen and women - not just cricketers - never to play for their country. How Matthew Wade played Test cricket as a gloveman ahead of Hartley is anyone’s guess. Hartley was a wonderful keeper, elite batsman and fine skipper who should have played Test cricket.

A young Chris Hartley, second from left, with fellow Queenslanders at the national cricket academy, Mitchell Johnson, Shane Watson and Nathan Hauritz.

Ben Cutting (BGS): The younger generation will see the name Ben Cutting and scoff at suggestions he should have been a Test player. But before T20 cricket starting harming the careers of fast bowlers, Cutting was a genuine fast bowling enforcer who took wickets for fun at Sheffield Shield cricket. So much so that he was actually 12th man for Australia at a Gabba Test. That is how well he went in red ball cricket. The South Brisbane star was the real deal and good enough to play a Test for sure.

Ben Cutting, left, after being selector in the Queensland team in 2005. The other player is Darren Clark.

Wade Seccombe (TGS): Seccombe at least had the joy of making the 2004 Ashes touring party, although he never played a Test. He was the best in the business and was so superior to Brad Haddin (Australian gloveman) at the start of Haddin’s first class career, it was not funny. Australia’s Test wicket keeper of last century, BSHS old boy Ian Healy, had the highest regard for Seccombe, as did the battery of international fast bowlers he kept to - Carl Rackemann, Craig McDermott, Andrew Bichel, Michael Lasprowicz, Adam Dale, Mitchell Johnson, Ashley Noffkle. Say no more.

Peter Anderson (Churchie): The GPS system has produced some elite wicketkeepers - including Seccombe, Hartley and Australian players Ian Healy and John Maclean (both BSHS old boys). But none were more skilled than Anderson. The former Queensland Shield gloveman was like poetry in motion, someone who effortlessly floated behind the stumps while exhibiting amazing glove work. He was good enough to play Test cricket, and only the emergence of Healy blocked that pathway.

Excellent Souths opener, Aryan Jain, a current Qld 2nd XI player, with recalled Test batsman Matt Renshaw and BBL star Paddy Dooley.

Bob Paulsen (Churchie): Paulsen was an ace leg-spinner who easily made our Churchie greatest ever side published 12 months ago. He was a ripping leggie who once took eight wickets against the touring West Indians while playing for Western Australia.

Jim Maher (Nudgee College): The former Australian World Cup opener was unlucky to have played in such a strong era of Australian cricket. Displacing either his former house mate Matthew Hayden and Hayden’s side kick Justin Langer (WA) must have been akin to scaling the Berlin Wall.

Nudgee old boy Jim Maher sweeps for Queensland.

There was no way through despite Maher’s progression to a Test standard opener. Indeed there was a three or four season patch when Maher, who largely played with Northern Suburbs, played really straight and balls would rocket off his bat, and it was in that period the former Nudgee College premiership star had the runs on the board to play Test matches.

Andrew Courtice (BBC): The University of Queensland opener played in an era when Test bowlers played more for their states than they did games for their country. And bravely Courtice stood up to them all in, a gutsy, steady paced opener who played as much for the team as he did himself. In 49 Shield games he scored 2758 runs at an average of 34.91, but that average would be worth 40+ these days given the modern cricketer enjoys big bats, small boundaries and all the protective equipment under the sun. No disrespect to players like Julien Weiner (Victoria), Paul Hibbert (Victoria), Rick Darling (SA) and more recently Ed Cowan (NSW) who all earned their Test caps, but if they were Test openers, then Courtice should have been as well.

Former first class cricketers (L-R) Sandy Morgan (Queensland), left, Peter Carlstein (South Africa), Bert Sutcliffe (New Zealand), Grahame Corling (New South Wales (NSW)) & Graham Chevalier (South Africa) get together for Air NZ's World Golden Oldies Cricket Festival.

Sandy Morgan (BSHS): The brother of one of the Brisbane Broncos fonding fathers, Paul Morgan, Sandy played for Easts and University as an allrounder. Morgan was an elite Sheffield Shield player who was unlucky to play in the same era as the great Doug Walters and the talented Graham Watson.

Churchie old boys, former Shield players Sandy Morgan and Dennis Lille

Jim Bratchford (BSHS): Bratchford is the godfather of unlucky Queensland omissions. A former Queensland Sheffield Shield captain, he played 52 matches as an allrounder and would not have let Australia down had he been given a chance in the 1950s.

Footnote: Footnote: We strongly considered Ben McDermott (Churchie) for the above list. McDermott absolutely deserves a mention after playing himself to the brink of an Australian touring party after an amazing season last year. But the youngster has had a modest 2022-23, although he is still young enough to rise up given his skills with the bat and with the gloves.

Chris Lynn (Nudgee) was also an extaordinary talent, and in another era - and without injury - he could have developed his game to be a Test contender. But of course the Toombul Bulls star became a “See Ball, Hit Ball’’ T20 specialist.

And two others.

Bill Buckle (BGS) both opened the bowling and was a tremendous schoolboy batsman. A schoolboy shot put champion, Bill scored 200 odd for Queensland against Victoria and got a lot of runs against the English touring side. But he got glandular fever and that really affected him.

And Ray Reynolds (Churchie) was brut to bowl to who would have been good enough for Test cricket if called upon.

Our coverage of GPS First XI cricket will continue this Saturday afternoon at www.courmermail.com.au

Chris Hartley celebrates scoring hs first Qld ton by playing street cricket with his sisters Justine, in red, and Caroline outside their Kenmore home. pic Lyndon Mechie