South Australia cricket coach Ryan Harris sets sights on sustained success for our Sheffield Shield heroes

Victorious South Australia cricket coach Ryan Harris has declared his Sheffield Shield heroes aren’t done and can create an era of sustained success, writes Andrew Capel.

“We’re not done’’.

That was victorious South Australia cricket coach Ryan Harris’s strong message to his players after the state snapped a 29-year Sheffield Shield drought by sensationally beating Queensland in this year’s final.

Harris has declared his Shield heroes aren’t one-hit wonders and that he plans to turn the team into a perennial powerhouse.

“We want to have sustained success,’’ he said as the celebrations of breaking a near-three decade Shield drought continued.

“We’ve got to make sure we maintain it, not win one and then relax. We want to make sure we are now competitive for as long as we can be and hopefully this (winning) drives them.

“Winning is good, winning is nice, it doesn’t always work out that way obviously but that’s my job over the next few months, to make that sure when the players come back (to training) in June they are hungry again and continue to do all the things we have spoken about, that we go out and fight, play hard and play well.’’

Victorious SA coach Ryan Harris applauds the massive crowd at Karen Rolton Oval after his team’s Sheffield Shield final win against Queensland. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

SA this season ditched its unwanted reputation as Australian domestic cricket’s easybeat by claiming the domestic double for the first time in its history, winning the One-Day Cup for the first time in 12 years before snapping a 29-year Shield drought.

The state’s stunning success came after it finishing with the wooden spoon in 10 of the previous 15 Shield seasons, including five straight from 2017-18 to 2021-22, and was a massive feather in the cap for first-year wonder coach Harris.

“I challenged the guys, asked questions of them and they responded beautifully,’’ he said of the spectacular turnaround.

“We spoke about being professional cricketers and how hard you have to work to get results - and they’ve been unreal.

“One thing I said to the boys when I took over was that it was going to take a squad effort to win a competition like this, the Sheffield Shield, and it’s been a great squad effort, a lot of guys have stood up.

SA batsman Jason Sangha celebrates after hitting the winning runs during the Sheffield Shield final against Queensland at Karen Rolton Oval. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

“I’m just so proud of this group, the belief they’ve had this year, the way we’ve done it, not just one or two blokes, everyone. What we’ve achieved is really special.’’

Former Australia Test paceman Harris has quickly instilled a winning mentality into SA cricket based on hard work, fight and belief.

“I moved back here (from Queensland) to win trophies and to win two (in one season) was unheard of here, but I knew we had the talent in this group,’’ he said.

Asked how he managed to quickly turn SA from chumps to champs, Harris said he had several key philosophies.

“Belief and fight are two of them,’’ he said.

“We talked a lot about winning. We probably hadn’t talked a lot about winning in the past but I’m probably one to point out the elephant in the room.

“And we learnt to fight to the very end, no matter what the game situation.

The South Australian team celebrates its Sheffield Shield victory with fans in the Rundle Mall. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

“But the biggest one was training with purpose. When we trained I was adamant the players had to train to get better.

“There’s no point coming to training if you’re not ready to train with purpose. If a player turned up and was a bit sluggish or was just going through the motions then I’d send them home or tell them to go to the gym, do something else.

“We have a pretty good bowling group and every time they bowl to the batters at training they have to get better (because of the quality of bowlers they are facing) and put real value on their wickets. Little things like that make a big difference.

“They are things I’ve learnt along the way through playing, where I had two phases of my career.

“When I was a bit younger I was a bit of an idiot before I later worked it all out, trained harder, got fitter and ended up playing for Australia. That’s how I coach these boys.’’

Originally published as South Australia cricket coach Ryan Harris sets sights on sustained success for our Sheffield Shield heroes