'I was an idiot': Harris recalls life lessons ahead of SA return

By his own unblinking admission, Ryan Harris was an "idiot" when he turned his back on South Australia 15 years ago and headed to Queensland to further his cricket aspirations.

Not that accepting the three-year deal offered by the Bulls proved detrimental to his hopes of a career that had begun as a medium-pace-bowling allrounder and evolved to become the Redbacks' leading Sheffield Shield wicket-taker in the summer before he quit Adelaide.

Indeed, the move became the catalyst for then 28-year-old to transform from handy first-class cricketer to spearhead of Australia's Test team where he formed a formidable new-ball partnership with Mitchell Johnson.

The reason for Harris's searing self-assessment was the reputation that had dogged him in his home state as a bloke who was quicker to get to a party then he was in the nets, and whose thirst for celebrating outweighed his hunger to succeed.

"I was an idiot, there's no doubt about that," Harris told cricket.com.au as he prepares to return to his home town as the Redbacks' newly appointed bowling coach from June 1.

"But I've learned a lot, I've lived a lot and I've matured a lot.

"I've got a lot more experience both with cricket and in life.

"I'm not that party animal … I went pretty hard, and I still enjoy having a beer now and then, but nowhere near the extent it was.

"That's part of me maturing and learning along the way as we all do when we grow up, and it's probably a message I want to bring to coaching as well.

"I want to make sure the boys still enjoy themselves, but not to the point like I did because it nearly cost a career, that's basically my life story around cricket.

"It nearly cost me my career, but thankfully I got a lifeline and I made it work."

 

While the lifeline in the guise of Queensland's medium-term contract compared to the short-term deal an understandably skittish SA was prepared to dangle, it was his preparedness to not just grasp it but haul himself to higher ground that has shaped his approach to life and cricket ever thus.

Initially, it was exposure to the Bulls' hard-nosed professional culture, as characterised by super-fit fast bowler-turned current Queensland men's team bowling coach Andy Bichel, that opened Harris's eyes to the physical sacrifices and mental strength needed to succeed at the highest level.

Harris did not get to play at Queensland alongside the former Test quick who by that stage was battling a debilitating shoulder injury, but he tapped into Bichel's vast knowledge and sees him as a template for his new role as senior bowling coach.

"I wish I had spent more time with Bic as a player, but just having him there and speaking to him about what he did and the best way of going about bowling fast, I got a lot out of that," says Harris, whose coaching experience to date has been largely in under-19s teams and pathways programs.

"The way he speaks to players, the way players respect him, the way he respects the players … he's firm, but he makes it fun.

"And although I'm going into a different set-up that's not Queensland, I think I can take a lot of that as well as the theories I've developed from being part of a really successful organisation and bring them to an organisation that is starving for success, and is close to having success I believe."

In some ways, Harris's coaching journey – which he hopes will one day land him a senior role in his own right, similar to his former SA teammate and imminent boss Jason Gillespie – mirrors his maturation as a player.

Image Id: 7825E0FE2A9649D5A3995F356FB53ABC Image Caption: Gillespie and Harris playing for South Australia in 2007 // Getty

It was not until he'd established himself as an international bowler, in the autumn years before a litany of knee injuries forced him into retirement barely a week into Australia's 2015 Ashes campaign, that he understood coaching was his future.

It was a realisation partly driven by the reality he'd not studied since secondary school at Trinity College in Adelaide's outer-north, and was therefore approaching post-cricket life with a blank resumé.

But it also ensured he took a different view of the game in his final on-field years, rather than singularly focusing on delivering the perfect ball which he famously managed at Perth during the 2013-14 Ashes whitewash when he knocked over England skipper Alastair Cook.

"I wasn't a natural captain, in fact I never captained in senior cricket, so it's been a big learning curve for me to look at the game in a different way," Harris says.

"For me, it was quite an easy game when I was bowling.

"My plan was really simple, to try and hit the top of the stumps but late in my career I tried to think of myself as a captain in my own mind and work out who was going to bowl next, and what the plan of attack might be.

"It's not about just going out there and bowling that one ball or two balls, it's about reading the play, mixing the batter's feet up, just doing things like that.

"I wish I would have had more knowledge on that, but I didn't.

"Then when I got to sit with people who watch the game really closely – Darren Lehmann (former SA teammate turned fellow Queensland coach), Andy Bichel, and Ricky Ponting who I spent time with in the IPL – they just see it in a different way.

"Now I don't expect to see the game like Ricky does because he's a freak, but I've had to try and learn what the next move is, and I never really used to do that too much as a player."

In addition to absorbing insights from Lehmann, who Harris initially played alongside at Adelaide Premier Cricket club Northern Districts, the man whose 27 Tests yielded as many wickets (113) as Glenn McGrath and more than Gillespie (105) and Brett Lee (102) at the same point of their careers owes a debt to former national high-performance boss, Pat Howard.

It was Howard who, during a few of Harris's late-career injury lay-offs, invited the Test quick to speak with groups of Australia's emerging pathways players and liked what he saw.

After calling time on his playing career aged 35, Harris undertook coaching studies and (with former Test teammate and current Victoria coach Chris Rogers) took Australia's under-19s to the 2018 and 2020 World Cups, as well as stints as Test team consultant bowling coach under Justin Langer.

In 2021 he was appointed Queensland Cricket's pathways manager but, with Bichel ensconced in the senior coaching role Harris aspired to, he began looking further afield and applied for the Australia women's job vacated by Matthew Mott last year.

Image Id: 59A25FDA8E0D40E8BA904BA64476DF03 Image Caption: Then Aussie under-19 head coach Harris with current Redback Nathan McSweeney at the 2018 U19 World Cup // Getty

He was unsuccessful in that bid and also knocked back a couple of approaches from rival state outfits before he was sounded out by SA Cricket Association high-performance boss Tim Nielsen when Queensland's second XI was playing in Adelaide earlier this year.

Harris admits he had not previously considered the likelihood of returning to SA, but after six weeks of mulling it over – much of which was spent convincing his wife, Cherie, on the merits of moving back to the home town they both left in 2008 – he saw the collective benefits of the shift.

One of those is the complement of bowlers SA have assembled under Gillespie, including the trio of Wes Agar, Spencer Johnson and Jordan Buckingham currently in New Zealand with Australia A, plus Henry Thornton with whom Harris worked in the National Performance Squad.

Harris's view is that SA's current pace bowling stocks, which also feature experienced duo Brendan Doggett (ex-Queensland) and Harry Conway (NSW) as well as David Grant who was sidelined over recent months through injury, is not dissimilar to the attack assembled by men's domestic cricket benchmark Western Australia.

"'There's obviously a bit more experience in guys they've got over in WA, they've got a lot of good bowlers but I think SA are on that path if we can keep everyone fit and together," he says.

"I look at the SA list and I see it as really encouraging and exciting.

"I've had that role in pathways coaching, so have an idea on how to nurture and give the advice and information to younger guys.

 

"So trying to get the make-up similar to what WA have, but in our own way, is definitely something I'll focus on."

Another key factor in Harris's homecoming is the presence of Nielsen and Gillespie in the SA system.

The former was assistant coach at SA when Harris arrived on the first-class scene and administered the then 22-year-old a few figurative "kicks up the bum" to pull him into line, before the pair crossed paths again after Nielsen was appointed Australia men's team coach in 2007.

Gillespie and Harris shared the new ball for SA when the current SA coach was in the twilight of his playing career and, while they've not been in regular contact of late, Harris has followed his former teammate's coaching progression – from Zimbabwe to England and back to Adelaide – with keen interest.

"I like the fact that Tim's still there, I have great respect for Tim Nielsen who's known me since I was a young bloke," Harris says.

"Back then, I looked up to him and he mentored me probably without him knowing to some extent, and then he coached me when I first started playing for Australia so I've had a long affiliation with him and I respect him a huge amount.

Image Id: 0461CCB34DE24A7FBA6D30546BA487B4 Image Caption: Harris with Brad Haddin and Darren Lehmann in 2017 // Getty

"And also 'Dizz' (Gillespie), I really like what he does and what I see, and I know there's a lot of stuff I don't see that he does really well.

"I learned off Darren Lehmann a lot, I've learned off (current Queensland coach) Wade Seccombe a lot, I learned a little bit off Justin Langer the couple of times I was around him, and now it's time to learn off Dizz.

"I think I can add value to that SA squad, and one of the things I look forward to is – whether it's over a beer or a soft drink – getting involved in those different discussion points and theories about the game and how best to approach it.

"There's always an exchange of ideas on what someone else thinks and what you believe, and it's never an argument.

"It's a discussion, and I look forward to having plenty of those with Dizz."

Harris appreciates the irony in, having quit SA when a rival state offered him the security of a three-year deal, leaving Queensland in the absence of a senior coaching opportunity when his former team dangled a three-year contract.

But the 43-year-old hopes it turns into a longer stay "unless I learn I'm no good at it", with the immediate aspiration of helping deliver success to an outfit that enjoyed none during his Redbacks playing days and very little since.

He also acknowledges he would like to follow the path traversed by his most influential mentors and take on a head coach's job.

However, in keeping with his approach to coaching since taking the first exploratory steps on wonky knees nearly a decade ago, he's in no desperate hurry to get there.

"For me it's about getting in and always learning," Harris says, conceding his immediate concern is breaking the news of the impending shift to son Carter (almost eight) and daughter Evie (six) and finding schools for them in a city where they have many cousins and friends but have never lived.

"I treat coaching the way I played where you've got to earn your stripes, if you earn your stripes you've got to perform well, and if you're good enough and consistent enough, then you go higher.

"That's the way I treated playing for Queensland and SA and then Australia, and I feel the same here.

"I've done my apprenticeship now with the pathways stuff, it's good enough to give me the opportunity to go and work in state cricket in a high-performance set-up.

"Then, once I've done that for however many years it takes, if it feels like I'm good enough and I'm confident enough and an employer thinks I am, then that's the day I become a head coach.

"So I guess it's a bit like this job, I never really put a date on when I wanted to do it by.

"The time has come now when I feel like I'm ready, and I guess the same will be the case for a head coaching role.

"I knew once I finished playing that coaching wasn't something I could just walk into and have a career.

"I've had to work hard for it, but this job is exactly what I want to do and it's a really exciting squad and opportunity."