Sheffield Shield: Wade Seccombe tells how smart plans and big hearts gave Queensland the title

It was the curse that wouldn’t go away, so when Queensland finally broke through for its drought-breaking Sheffield Shield final win, it was always going to be a celebration for the ages.

Queensland coach Wade Seccombe looks back at Queensland’s first shield crown.

The 25th anniversary of Queensland's first Sheffield Shield win, against South Australia at the Gabba, flashed by last month with little fanfare due to the global pandemic.

But there was no isolation among Queensland fans during a boisterous victory in March, 1995, and the celebrations that followed.

Wade Seccombe, a young wicketkeeper then and now Bulls coach, recalls how the Bulls used plans ahead of their time, how Jimmy Maher kept his white on all night after the final day, and one player who deserved far more international cricket exposure than he got.

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John Buchanan introduced computers to cricket coaching that season and logged every ball. Did you feel like groundbreakers?

It was a changing era. That was Buck's first year. I remember our opposition was starting to get worried about what the computer said about them. Back then there were many groups in society still getting up to speed with computers and thinking ‘what is this computer thing?’

Dean Jones admitted swiping a Buchanan tape tagged ‘Victorian batsmen’ lying near the nets and getting very angry when he saw it revealed he could not cover drive. What do you make of that?

I'm not sure but who is to say that would not have been Buck deliberately leaving it outside the Victorian dressingroom so they would see it and worry about it. He had a habit of leaving team plans under the opposition door. I'm sure he did it on purpose.

Wicketkeeper Wade Seccombe is swamped by cricket fans after Queensland claimed its first Sheffield Shield title.

You also did personality profiling that summer where you broke down opposition players. What was your favourite plan?

You would do things like not engage Steve Waugh in any banter because you knew he wanted to dig in but the classic one for me was Matthew Mott, a good friend of ours who went from Queensland to Victoria. Motty is a classic ‘mozzie’ who needs conversation and to be having fun. So we just ignored him on and off the field, even just going to lunch. By day three he had enough and came up and said ‘I know what you are doing but can you stop doing it’ so we kept going for more comic value than anything.

The final against South Australia seemed to become a five-day celebration. You must have relished the chance to relax and enjoy it?

There was a wonderful build-up to the game but it felt like it was going to be our game and to dominate early really helped us relax. One big memory for me was when Allan Border got out for 98 and I was next in. I made a real point of just standing there and watching him come off the field, and acknowledge the crowd who were going off and AB walk all the way off before I walked on the ground.

The crowd engagement seemed like no other game?

Amazing. It wasn't just cricket fans. It was all of Queensland.
Something as silly as the hill going around the team as calling for them to give us a wave and Stuey Law letting the suspense build up before he did it and then they would erupt. There were people outside the gates waiting to get in when you turned up in the morning.

Any special memory of the celebrations?

The dressingroom was a lot of fun. We did not leave until late at night. Then we went to the Cricketers Club and City Rowers as everyone in Brisbane used to. Jimmy had his whites and cricket spikes on in City Rowers. I would hate to see what that dance floor looked like the next day. He did not sleep that night and when Queensland Cricket opened the next day, Jimmy was there in his whites waiting to have a beer with Barry Richards. He played it hard on and off the field.

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The titleholders: (top left to right) physio Lindsay Trigar, Martin Love, Dirk Tazelaar, Carl Rackemann, Michael Kasprowicz, Matthew Hayden, coach John Buchanan; (front left to right) Andrew Bichel, Wade Seccombe, Allan Border, Stuart Law, Jimmy Maher, Trevor Barsby, Paul Jackson.

Could you feel the pressure of Queensland never having won the Sheffield Shield crown?

I was only 22 and played only a handful of games so I was a little immune to the scars others had. So I could just think ‘we should win this?’ but I'm sure not how Carl Rackemann, Allan Border or a Dirk Tazelaar would feel because they had had so many campaigns and got so close.

In that team there were a lot of players who could, with a bit of luck, have had long lasting international careers. Was there anyone who stood out to you?

Martin Love. Tough time for batters in Australia in that era. The cupboard was just full. He played a few Tests but he could easily have played 50. He frustrated the hell out of opposition bowlers because he just didn't react to them. They would swear and spit at him and look him in the eye and he would just turn his back on them. Nothing flustered him. He just never got caught up playing on emotion. He played the game in front of him, an incredible skill.

When you think of the dressingroom after the game and all the ex-players that came in, is there any face you particularly remember?

Ray Phillips. It was two-fold. Razor has always been close to the team and he was really quite emotional at seeing the team win. He's a ripper, Razor. The other thing was we needed Razor desperately because he was the Fourex rep at the time. We probably sprayed and spilt more beer than we actually drank and we needed Razor to bring the truck over from Milton. That may have been why Razor was so popular.

Carl Rackemann holds aloft Queenland's first ever Sheffield Shield.

What about Carl Rackemann?

It was just so fitting he took the final catch. Just that image of him leaping up and getting his mitts around that ball …

Do you know Carl still hasn't officially announced his retirement?

He said he never announced when he started so why should he have to announce when he stopped? But maybe this anniversary could be the big moment.

Did you keep any little offbeat souvenirs?

I kept the front page of The Courier-Mail and got it laminated. I wish I had a few more bits and pieces.

There will be staff cuts in your coaching staff at the Bulls next summer. Will that put more pressure on you?

I think the workload will go up but that is the joy of coaching. As head coach you do get caught up in running programs and managing players and staff and you get off the training paddock and your assistants do a lot of the leg work. It is the time to get out there and do more on the paddock which is great because that is the fun part of coaching.

Queensland coach Wade Seccombe has fond memories of Queensland’s first shield win.