Sitting here trying to think of an interesting topic I thought it’d be a good idea to reflect on some of the cricket coaches I’ve encountered in grade cricket over the past forty years. From the time I started as a young player at Souths right through to today, there have been some real characters along the way.
I am not trying to judge any of these guys and no doubt may have missed a few names here but essentially this story is about guys who have either coached me or against me in years gone past and ONLY in grade cricket.
As a teenager in the 1970s, I came through the Souths club in an era where they were a very strong club – not unlike a modern-day University. Spirit was excellent and socially it was great to be a part of it. The club had engaged the services of the legendary Qld Sheffield Shield batsman Sam Trimble as the club coach. He was lured across from Wests to fill the role and did so with great effect. As a kid, I was fortunate to have both Sam and his coaching partner Brian Gaskell as mentors and they both taught me the fundamentals of the sport. Back then when players had finished their First Class careers many hung in and played a further couple of seasons in Grade Cricket and by the time I was coming through Sam had decided to drop down and be captain-coach of Souths 2nds. I found it hard to not address him as Mr Trimble as I did as a junior but eventually worked out that it probably sounded a bit better calling him Sam.
A few years before playing under Sam in grade cricket and in the days where you would play juniors in the morning and then hang around in the afternoon to watch the seniors I remember another Souths club legend and Qld opening batsman Ian Seib. Seiby was Souths club coach and he always used to take the time to help us juniors. I never got to play alongside Seiby but will always remember his kindness and the help he gave me as a junior. A great fellow indeed.
Souths at that time had a fine captain and wicketkeeper in Rod Rice so to obtain an opportunity to play First Grade I went to Sandgate/Redcliffe. In the early 80s, not all clubs had official coaches but Sandgate had Kenny Dixon doing that job although not in a formal way. Dicko who is still a Queensland Bulls selector has always been a very dedicated man who knows the game and was a great help to younger players like myself. It was an enjoyable time to be playing grade cricket in Brisbane and wasn’t too long before all clubs would have either player-coaches or full-time coaches. At the time all I was concerned about was playing the best cricket I could.
The most formidable of all of the player-coaches in that era was John Bell who I first met as a schoolboy cricketer was at Wynnum but years later when I played against him he was captain-coach of Wests. Much has been written about “Dinger” Bell – he was controversial indeed and a hard taskmaster. He was outspoken but he was a winner and he was very good to me with advice which I was always thankful for. He was an excellent wicketkeeper-batsman that’s for sure and he still coaches in his beloved Ipswich to this day.
Up until 1990, there was a Queensland Cricket Association Colts (under 23) team competing in the Premier Grade competition. The Colts was made up of young players who were clearly First Grade standard but perhaps were at a very strong club or maybe had incumbent players ( keepers and spinners usually ) ahead of them so they were on loan by their clubs to Colts for a season or two to help their development. It wouldn’t be the worst idea to revisit such a concept.
Anyway, Colts always had an older player as a captain-coach. Someone who had finished their career and was happy to still play and develop young cricketers from an on-field position. It was a really good concept. The three guys who were in charge of Colts when I played against were Ian Greig (former England captain), John Buchanan (former Bulls and Aussie coach) and Peter “Sting” Charles (Norths pace bowler).
Greigy, whose son Andrew was a very good cricketer, still coaches at Churchie School in Brisbane and he has volumes of great stories to tell. He is a beauty. He is such an interesting guy to talk cricket with.
Sting, was as funny a man I have ever met. A fine left-arm quick who also opened the bowling for Qld Country against the West Indies had the quickest sense of humour on earth. He used to travel with the Wanderers on country trips and specialised in dancing with himself entertaining all and sundry. He was an excellent cricket coach and was taken far too young. RIP Sting.
Buck, who is now back again coaching Wests after a massively successful coaching career that started at University still loves contributing to the game. His major strength, in my opinion, is his man-management. His legacy to Bulls teams from his time coaching them can be found in the respect Bulls players mostly show to others.
No description of this era of Brisbane grade cricket would be complete without mentioning former Toombul coaches Harry Frei and Jimmy Taylor. Harry was as tough as nails on both the cricket and footy field and his great mate and former umpire Jimmy Taylor could talk underwater with a mouth full of marbles. The game finished, have a beer and talk all night. It was, how it was.
I spent 5 years away from the Grade scene working with the Qld Country setup and it gave me the chance to act as a player-coach with various country clubs. In 1994 whilst recuperating from knee surgery I got a call from WEP Harris from University asking if would like to be club coach at Uni. My knee was cooked and despite my keenness to keep playing, I thought that whilst recovering I may as well grab the opportunity as I knew coaching was where I was heading in the future.
What a summer it was! WEP Harris was just a machine of a person. He was so supportive and lived and breathed University. The work that WEP did to run Uni was fanatical and we won the Club Championship from being second last the previous summer.
The last couple of clubs where I was a player-coach were Wests and Redlands Tigers. By this time every grade club had coaches in some capacity, there was plenty of engagement between clubs either on the field or after play over a beer and a chat about the game.
When I finished at Wests Peter Cameron took over the coaching role and he lasted many seasons, in fact, he would probably be one of the longest-serving club coaches in Brisbane. Cammo was a very good batsman and a top bloke who gave his all to Wests. He was highly rated at the Bulldogs and always good to have a beer with after play.
After nine summers as player-coach at Redlands it was time to move on and as the years have gone by it gives me so much pleasure to have seen a couple of former team mates kick on as coaches. Firstly Blair Copelin, a strong right-hand opening batsman who had carved out a solid First Grade career over the years did the job and then Nick Hurford, originally from Wynnum, took them to a flag a few years back.
Blair has long since been the Head of the Gregory Terrace School cricket programme and has had countless excellent young cricketers come under his wing for guidance and Hurf is one of my favourite stories – he just keeps on playing. His passion for the game is up there with the best and he is a very good coach.
Just thinking back to my early Tigers days we had an older Kiwi guy named Roly Rasmussen as an assistant coach. He was gold. He would never miss a session or a game and his wife Jill played in the women’s team also. I think he originally did some work at Toombul but he was good value for us at Redlands until he, unfortunately, passed away.
Where to go after Redlands and after my playing days had finished?
Back to Souths for a few years and join forces with Baba Sourjah. I’ve had plenty of laughs with Baba and we tried hard to get things moving but it just did not click. It will click again as Souths are a great old club and now under Kepler Wessels they have a chance to put it all together again which would be great for the competition.
One fellow whom I met back at Souths was Lance Roudenko who runs his own coaching business and academy. Lance has mentored plenty of very good young grade cricketers over the past dozen years and also had a short stint as Souths Club Coach a while back. Lance is now heavily involved in the Wanderers Club also so he is a big contributor to the local game.
Across those years I met countless other coaches whom I always looked forward to catching up with when we were the opposition.
One of my favourite coaching opponents was the former Zimbabwean fast bowler Eddo “Chicken farmer “Brandes. Great bloke, very knowledgeable and always up for a beer well after play. Eddo coached the Sunshine Coast Scorchers for many years before I joined them and I believe he still does some work with them.
On the subject of the Scorchers, I remember a little bit about the late Phil Kellard who was one of their first coaches. He was a hard man who demanded effort and was quite a popular character and very well respected as a coach. Come to think of it the Scorchers have always had good blokes as coaches. Jeff Thomas, Ian Moffett right through to current long-serving coach Ash Holznagel who was my assistant coach when I first coached them.
I got along very well with Mark Coles their Kiwi coach who ended up coaching the Pakistani ladies team. Colesy had white line fever but I liked him a lot! Another Scorcher who we lost in his playing prime was Nick Fitzpatrick who grabbed the opportunity to coach Toombul and now runs his coaching business ACI. In recent years they also have got guys like Craig Peck and Jimmy Henry onboard which augurs well for the future of Coast cricket.
Not to be forgotten either is Chick Leeder from Toombul. What a ripper of a fellow. Still around at Oxenham Park is Chick. Others such as Brett Mortimer and Michael “Duck” Mainhardt from Norths and Vic Williams (Sandgate) are always up for a chat around the grounds. It’s great to see “Cliffo” Peter Clifford back as a club coach after his umpiring stint.
I loved catching up with Ross Wallace when he was coaching the Gold Coast Dolphins. The Dolphins are in good hands with Chris Swan.
Uni has been very good over the past decade and a conversation with Peter Clarke is always highly entertaining. His views on simple sports psychology are enlightening. I think he is very good in this field indeed. A real character.
How good is it to see the success this year of the Ipswich club?
Great for the competition and hats off to coach Aaron Moore and his staff and players. It was a real pity the Grand Final could not be played.
I enjoy coaching at Valleys along with my mate Peter Drinnen where we have former West Australian bowler Matt Petrie as our specialist fast bowling coach. It is a great atmosphere built from what Heath Pedrola started years ago and it culminated in the last 2-day flag coached by Ben Schuhmacher. Pedders was a highly respected competitor and the players all loved Schuey.
There are plenty more coaching characters along with these names. Be great to see some others write some stories and bring back old memories.
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