Hayden, Border, Maher: Where the history-making Queensland Bulls of 1995 are now

It’s 30 years this week since the Bulls won their first Sheffield Shield, breaking a 68 year drought, in the 1994-95 final. This is where Queensland’s cricket heroes are today.

Bulls stars Matthew Hayden, whips one away while down on one knee and, inset, Carl Rackemann holds the Sheffield Shield aloft.

Trevor Barsby was having a quiet beer at the Geebung RSL recently when it suddenly became a very cheap - and cheerful - night.

It’s 30 years this week since Queensland won their first Sheffield Shield, breaking a 68 year drought, and Barsby’s epic 151 against South Australia at the Gabba in the 1994-95 final was the highlight that time has not dulled.

Ironically the Bulls play the same opponent in this week’s Sheffield Shield final in Adelaide.

Three decades have not dimmed the memory of those who were there to lap up the first of Queensland’s nine Shield wins, supported by ground-breaking computer analysis of coach John Buchanan and shrewd mental tactics shaped by psychologist Phil Jauncey.

Queensland’s coach in 1995, John Buchanan.

“A guy came up to me (at the Geebung RSL) and said he was told I was Trevor Barsby the cricketer,’’ Barsby said.

“He took out his phone and showed me footage of me hitting a cover drive to the fence off Jason Gillespie in that innings and a spectator fielding the ball and throwing it back. It was him.

“He said he spent the full five days there despite telling his wife he was at work and he got away with it until she saw him fielding that ball.

“He shouted me beers all night. He was so happy. I am still blown away at the interest in that game. Sometimes I am sitting at the trots at Albion Park on a Saturday night and someone will come up and start talking about it.’’

Some friendships formed in the heat of battle endure to this day.

Only last week Barsby and opening partner Matt Hayden shared text messages about the good old days.

“Haydos and I were texting about how we would annoy the opposition when we would laugh at the end of the over about me trying to play a cover drive and edging it over slips. Or walking at somebody and hitting it over their head. They used to get the shits.’’

Barsby used to have a cigarette before going out to bat and Hayden used to like walking through the fumes because it somehow took the Kingaroy him back to his country cricket origins.

Trevor Barsby and Allan Border celebrate with the Sheffield Shield trophy.

Jim Maher, who was 20 at the time of the final, sensed the win meant different things to different players.

“Players like Mocha (Carl Rackemann), Tank (Trevor Barsby) and AB (Allan Border) knew the enormity of it because they had suffered through previous campaigns. And they didn’t have many chances left. That is the thing I was most proud about. That us young blokes helped to give the stalwarts the farewell they deserved.

“When we go away with Bulls Masters people remember it all the time. They remember things that we even don’t. One of the last trips we went on we heard the story from Carl Rackemann about the couple who used about six different forms of transport - cars, buses, rail and horseback among them - to get to the ground from way out west.

“We passed them in the Cricketers Club and they said “we can die in peace now.’’ They were in their 80s so they might well have been watching Queensland teams for 60 years. I was 20 at the time. That was the real moment when I thought “holy hell’’ this is actually bigger than I thought it was.’’

Originally published as Hayden, Border, Maher: Where the history-making Queensland Bulls of 1995 are now