Finding Dorey: Big quick's remarkable rise

"He gave me the speech of, 'what are you doing after this?' Like, 'have you got anything else you're doing work wise?'

"It was a speech (that said), 'it looks like you're not going to make it in cricket'.

"That speech, really? After one game."

It's that awkward interaction with one of his senior teammates that remains former Western Australia paceman Brett Dorey's standout memory from his state debut in 2004.

WA had won the soggy, rain-reduced one-day clash with Victoria and Dorey had bowled three overs, taking 0-16.

"That initiation was pretty tough early on," Dorey told the Stories After Stumps podcast.  

His long-time teammate and good friend Ben Edmondson agreed that it wasn't easy to be a new player in the WA system.

"It was your proper old-school changeroom," Edmondson told Stories After Stumps.

"It was quite jarring. You'd make sure you didn't sit in someone's spot, otherwise, you'd be pretty much on the outer."

Although Dorey was new to the squad, he wasn't young.

He made his state debut as a 27-year-old after a long and winding journey that took him to the other side of the world amid giving up the game for several years.

After representing WA at Under-17 and Under-19 carnivals, the massive Dorey showed plenty of promise with his ability to swing the ball from a very uncomfortable height.

Even at under-age level he was getting close to his eventual height of six-foot-eight, or well over two metres, which earned him a myriad of nicknames: Big Fella, Behemoth, Four Storey Dorey, Honk.  

But injuries cruelled the gentle giant and by his early 20s he'd given up the game, moved to England and begun life after cricket.

Calling the west London pocket of Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith home, Dorey made ends meet with work as a security guard, a job that had been suggested to him given his considerable size.

The work saw him minding the teenage children of a rich Russian family before he was employed by billionaire and socialite Lily Safra who needed someone to "stand out the front of her house and do nothing … as she'd have celebrities over".

Before long though Dorey, accompanied by his brother Adam, moved to Austria for the ski season and lived a carefree lifestyle on the snow-capped slopes.

"(We'd) drink every night, snowboard every day, and then go to work (in a bar) until midnight, and then just do the same thing day after day for six months," Dorey said.

A career as a cricketer could not have been further away at that point, especially when Dorey was involved in a serious collision on the alps with a German skier.

His knee was ripped open; he was rushed off the mountain on a skimobile and transferred to a hospital where he gained a dozen stitches for his troubles.

When Dorey decided the fun was over not long after, and started to plan his journey home to Perth, childhood friends Stephen and Ryan Shuttleworth were quick to encourage him to return to the Fremantle Cricket Club.

But life on the other side of the world had changed him.

"I was fat. I got heavy," Dorey said. "I got up to 125 kilos. Compared to my playing weight, there's an extra 30 kilos on top."

A big pre-season saw him shed the kilos, and regain his love of the sport, and he began the 2003-04 season in Fremantle's second XI.

He lasted two matches (with scores of 85 and 53 and figures of 3-37 and 4-18) before he was elevated to the ones.

A year later, he'd make that fateful state debut against Victoria.

And a year after that, Test legend Mark Taylor would hand him his ODI cap as he prepared for his first international match.

Listen to the full episode 'Finding Dorey' on the player above or by searching for Stories After Stumps on all podcast platforms.