Shield of dreams for the next generation
Queensland’s young gun cricketers lifting the spirits of sporting state
IF you’re a true Queenslander, you will care about the Sheffield Shield decider.
People who know me well enough know I am about as tragic as a Queensland Bulls diehard comes.
Being an average cricketer who struggled to spend a day in the field, I can’t begin to imagine the toll it takes on these players to get out there for 40 days of the year, let alone to do it for another few days for a crack at the title.
But I want them to win the Sheffield Shield final as much as I want the Maroons to lift the State of Origin shield every year.
A Shield final doesn’t come around every year, but the good young group the Bulls have got at the moment could put them up there consistently.
It has been six years since Queensland got there and I remember it fondly. The young buck in the squad was Joe Burns and Luke Feldman was a sub stuck behind an experienced, or to be harsh, ageing but clever pace attack.
I was returning on a holiday from Melbourne for the Formula 1. On the flight up I kept my fingers crossed the Bulls didn’t close it out too early.
My mate dropped me off at the Gabba and I towed my luggage upstairs, and within 20 minutes the boys had wrapped it up and ended the Bulls second-longest title drought.
Of course that was nothing compared to the wait for our first title in 1994-95. I was too young to remember the fanfare of it all. But I wasn’t around when the State of Origin concept was born either. Before that we were the easybeats against NSW arrogance and that’s why we’re so passionate about it. We went through the exact same heartache in the Sheffield Shield.
My late great-uncle, John Morton, is probably responsible for instilling that in me.
From about the late-’80s, every year he would pen a column insisting this would be Queensland’s year.
By the early 1990s, it was becoming a bit of a running joke as the Bulls got closer and closer but never came up trumps.
He must have felt pretty satisfied when finally they did it and not only that, but to see the bulk of that team go on with it for the next decade.
The back end of those glory days were what most of the current Queensland team would have watching when they were kids.
Luke Feldman might remember all of those years. He was probably there with about half the state apparently.
A new dawn is on the horizon for Queensland Cricket and if you’re a true Queenslander, you’ll be a part of it.