Spirit & superpowers: Inside the Vics' record-breaking season

Chris Rogers was ropeable.

From the first five balls after tea on day one of a Sheffield Shield clash last November, Sam Harper dispatched none other than Mitchell Starc to all corners of the SCG, taking 22 runs.

From the heritage-listed Members Pavilion, Rogers was watching on with admiration, and just a single thought running through his head as Starc stood at the top of his mark for the final delivery of his over.

"It was like: Don't get out last ball," Victoria's coach tells cricket.com.au. "Then he got out last ball.

"I remember being furious for about an hour. Then I calmed down, and thought about it."

First, Rogers stopped to consider the impact on the day's play of Harper's very deliberate assault.

"Actually, it gave us 22 runs – that's 20 or 30 per cent of your (expected) runs in a session – and he did it in five balls," he reasons. "It got us so far ahead, it gave us all the momentum."

And later, as he reviewed it in the context of his playing group's quiet ascension to the top of the Shield ladder, he realised Harper's five balls of carnage were more than the sum of their parts.

All the cultural touchpoints they had championed inside their walls – of self-belief, of team spirit and of backing each other – had burst to life in what would come to be viewed as the batter's breakout moment, and one of a number of factors that, when tied together, have been transformative for this Victoria side.

* * *

The first of those pivotal moments came under Adelaide's sunny blue skies in early October. Culture is easy to talk about, but its true meaning can only be forged over time, through hard lessons. This was a crop of players whose development had stalled somewhat after making back-to-back Shield finals in 2021-22 and '22-23.

The Victorians were facing defending champions South Australia for their round one Shield clash. As Peter Handscomb, deputising as captain in the absence of Will Sutherland, addressed his charges on the Adelaide Oval outfield on the morning of day two, Henry Hunt and Jake Lehmann were set to resume batting having both posted tons the previous evening.

"We're in a circle," Harper says, "and they were three wickets down – which doesn't happen much in Shield cricket with the wickets we're playing on these days. Usually you're almost starting your second innings by the morning of day two.

"We needed to bat twice and take 17 wickets to win that game."

Handscomb planted a seed: to win, Victoria were going to have to risk losing. The following day, at 9-343, they trailed the hosts by seven runs. Time was of the essence. Handscomb declared.

"The buy-in from the group, that was the most pleasing thing from my perspective," he says. "Everyone was like, 'Yep, let's do it, let's risk putting ourselves in a bad position here, knowing that if we play the way we want to play, we're a good chance to win this game'."

His gamble looked a shrewd one when they knocked SA over for 223 on the final morning, leaving 231 as the target. In the back of the Victorian players' minds, however, was a damning recent record in run chases; they had lost six of their past 11 games falling short of achievable fourth-innings targets. And when 84 runs were still needed and teenager Ollie Peake was left batting with the tail, a familiar script looked to be unfolding.

"I remember speaking to Benny (Rohrer, the Vics' batting coach) and asking, 'What are we getting wrong here?'" Rogers says. "'How come we're getting into these positions and just failing the test?'"

That Peake (70no), along with Fergus O'Neill (33no), was able to shepherd the team home was an early vindication of the raps on the teenager's temperament beyond his years. But more importantly, a scar-free 19-year-old, the competition's youngest player, had unlocked his team's potential.

"For the result to happen after a process like that," recalls Handscomb, "that instils a bit of belief."

The belief has persisted through equally challenging moments. Just a week or so later, against NSW at the Junction Oval, the Blues had swanned to 0-90 chasing 255 in their fourth innings. Recognising Todd Murphy shaped as the major weapon against the visitors' left-hander heavy top-order, Rogers spoke to the off-spinner between overs.

"'Look, this is what I would try if I was you'," he recalls saying to Murphy. "'I would move Marcus Harris to deep backward square, two-thirds to the rope, and see if you can get a top edge', and he went, 'Nah 'Buck' (Rogers), I think I'm going to get him caught at mid-on – I reckon he's going to try and take me over mid-on'.

"Dead-set, he said that about Blake Nikitaras. And he did."

Nikitaras was caught by Harris trying to loft Murphy over mid-on, the first of his three victims in a NSW collapse of 4-8. The Vics stormed to victory as Boland took the final five wickets.

"It was just a little moment that stood out," says Rogers, "that these guys are figuring it out, they're understanding the game, they're understanding the finer details."

Months later, when Victoria were 5-11 in reply to Queensland's 149 on a seam-friendly MCG deck in February, both Handscomb and Rogers recall how their faith in engineering a comeback never wavered. The skipper's first-innings 67 lifted them to virtual first-innings parity and while they ultimately lost a cracking contest, the confidence of the group rubbed off on their least experienced player; debutant Dylan Brasher got them to within 36 runs of an unlikely win.

Then, in perhaps the single most important match of the Vics' season, it was Harper and Murphy who deepened their side's conviction. By then the Vics were three from three but their opponents, already boasting Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon, had added nearly 800 Test wickets to their 'ins' column, with Starc and Josh Hazlewood joining them for a pre-Ashes tune-up.

"It felt like, 'All right, if Smith, Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon – basically the Test team – does us, well, we're still three and one'," Harper admits.

Seven-Test spinner Murphy argued otherwise. In a small room adjoining the SCG's away changerooms, he addressed the team, rationalising that it was the visitors, in fact, who held the edge.

"'Our strength is that we're a really tight unit, let's use that to our advantage'," Harper recalls Murphy saying. "They had some guys prepping for the Ashes, which was their priority – and fair enough as well – so we just tried to stay tight, tried to hunt as a pack and see what we could do."

The impassioned nature of Murphy's rev-up stuck with those in that room. "It's one thing to say it," coach Chris Rogers says. "The other thing is the delivery – and he nailed it."

The next day, Campbell Kellaway walked out to open the batting against Starc and Hazlewood. The 23-year-old, facing arguably the sternest test of his career, survived to lunch before Starc, just weeks away from embarking on his 31-wicket Ashes demolition job, let loose with a ferocious short-ball barrage.

"'I hope you don't have aspirations to play at the higher level, mate'," Kellaway, speaking on The Grade Cricketer podcast, remembered Starc telling him in between blows to his fingers. "All I could do was laugh. He'd just bowl quicker if I chirped him back."

But Kellaway had the words of Murphy – not Starc's – ringing in his ears.

"'We're all in'," went Kellaway's own recollection of Murphy's speech, "whereas they had some star players playing, but guys who don't play Shield cricket every week."

Later the same day, Harper's rapid cameo of 54 from 40 balls hurried Victoria towards 200 at almost four runs per over, and when Handscomb hit a captain's hundred to take them to 382, they never looked in danger of being headed on a wicked SCG pitch. The visitors flew back to Melbourne with not only a 100 per cent record, but a statement win under their belt.

"To go up and beat a team of that calibre by 300 runs at the SCG," Harper says, "that's probably the one where we felt like we stamped our mark on the competition."

* * *

Harper has been around professional cricket for a decade now, which is time enough to see players and coaches come and go in the Victoria setup. What stands out to him, and those like Handscomb and Scott Boland who have been there even longer, is more what has stayed exactly the same than what has changed.

The Vics' secret sauce, not only in producing one of the best regular-season Shield campaigns of all time, but also during more challenging periods since their last title win seven years ago, has been their enduring spirit. It's what Murphy channelled when speaking before the SCG match, what Mitch Perry embodies with his exuberance after taking a wicket, and even what O'Neill's "dross" chat has done to make teammates giggle in the changerooms.

It's a culture that has ever-so-slightly dulled the hard edge of generations prior, allowing words like 'vulnerable' to enter the conversation in line with contemporary thinking.

"One thing that I think Victorian cricket as a whole has done well right throughout the last 10-15 years – whilst the personnel has changed – is the way we've aligned our values and aligned what we're chasing," Harper says. "Maybe with the BBL and more blokes playing with each other, it's dialled down from the aggression from someone like a James Pattinson. But the core and the heart of how the Vics play has stayed extraordinarily similar. Desire to win, celebrating each other's success – we've just continued to create a really tight-knit group."

Handscomb saw that more openly soft side to his group reveal itself when Kellaway and Peake recounted with humour to The Grade Cricketer podcast the frightening challenge of facing NSW's loaded pace attack.

"In those times when you're facing Starc bowling 150 (kph), you are shitting yourself," he says. "It's awesome that those guys at such a young age are able to recognise that and vocalise that, rather than try and hide behind some bravado of (saying), 'Nah, that's not that fast'. You're allowed to say it's fast, you're allowed to say it's scary. They had some of the most incredible learnings getting thrown in the deep end against essentially a Test attack."

And while the fabric of Victoria's culture has persisted, Handscomb himself was at the centre of one notable fork in the road when, in 2023, the Vics replaced him as captain with a 23-year-old Will Sutherland.

The move came off the back of Sutherland inspiring the side to four consecutive wins to finish the preceding home-and-away season and earn a Shield final berth. At the time, Handscomb was in the middle of what would be the first of three straight winters playing for Leicestershire (he will return for a fourth in the coming weeks). He had moved with his family to Melbourne's northern outskirts, while he had also recently been recalled to Australia's Test set-up, playing four matches on that year's India tour.

In short, he was becoming a less visible presence at the Vics' St Kilda headquarters, in spite of his indisputable output; only three men have scored more first-class runs for Victoria than Handscomb's 7,896, and this Shield season is shaping as his most productive in a decade.

Sutherland was a natural fit to lead a group that now skewed younger than the one Handscomb, eight years his senior, had been leading when Victoria won the last of four Shield titles in five seasons in 2018-19. Still, the allrounder felt taking over from the well-respected veteran was the kind of delicate task more suited to his father, James, the ex-Cricket Australia chief executive.

"In my own head, I probably created a bit of a narrative that (Handscomb) was a bit salty," Sutherland says. "I actually chatted to my old man about it. I said, 'What do you think about this? Pete might have a grudge against me'. He said, 'Well, how do you know? Have you actually asked him?'" Sutherland caught up for coffee with Handscomb. "When I asked the question," he says, "I could tell straight away that there was absolutely nothing there, and it was (him giving his) full support."

Handscomb has filled in semi-regularly as Sutherland has battled a series of physical issues. When they both play, the dialogue between them in the slips cordon is constant.

"Not thinking that I know everything is an important thing," Sutherland says. "Being a bit vulnerable in the changerooms and waiting on those older guys is a big one. It can be OK to delegate, or say to Pete (in the field), 'Can you take over for a couple of overs?' or 'What do you reckon here?'"

Handscomb pauses when asked about the captaincy switch. "It was a tough decision – but a good decision at the time," he says. "It kind of felt like 'Sutho' was more in touch with most of the squad. He just has that natural leadership, he's someone you want to follow – he can inspire you through his actions. Whereas I'm probably a bit more softly spoken and have conversations behind closed doors."

For the then 23-year-old still making his way in domestic cricket, Sutherland's task was complex. On the one hand, his reputation as one of the squad's hardest trainers and strongest personalities was more important than ever. "I've always said to Will, 'I'm less interested in you as a captain on the field than off the field'," Rogers says. "'I think your superpower is what you do with the group in the bigger picture'." 

On the other, Sutherland's ambitions to lift his batting and bowling to international standard (he played two ODIs in 2024) has been stifled by injury. It was Boland, quietly one of the most influential voices in Victoria's group, who simplified the demands being placed on the new skipper.

"The best advice I got when I got the captaincy was from Scotty Boland," Sutherland says. "He said, 'Runs and wickets are still the most important thing. That's your job. If you take care of that, everything else will follow from there'."

As it has turned out, Sutherland and Handscomb have proved a formidable leadership combination: the former as the spirit animal for Victoria's emerging crop of players in their 20s; and the latter the more reserved wise head, reliably churning out the runs to lead by both carefully-chosen words and example.

The end product speaks for itself: Victoria have surged into the Shield final boasting more regular-season wins than any team since the formidable 1999-2000 Queenslanders, while a host of players have thrived in the environment they have created. From mainstays like Handscomb (a competition-leading 688 runs), Boland (26 wickets at 14) and O'Neill (30 wickets at 20), to those enjoying breakthrough summers like Sam Elliott (33 wickets at 17) and Mitch Perry (32 at 22).

But of all the leaps taken by Victorian players this season, none have been as enchanting as Harper's.

* * *

Twelve months ago, after averaging 24 across the season, Harper was dropped for the final round of the 2024-25 Shield. The 'keeper-batter's returns had been around par when lined up against his career mark of 25.29 from 57 first-class matches. But for Rogers, those numbers were unacceptable.

"It seemed to take him by surprise – which took me by surprise," the former Test opener says of his call to drop Harper for the first time in 38 Shield games. "It was a bit like, 'Well, Sam, we're not quite seeing your evolution. You are batting six – so we're asking a bit of you – but we expect to see improvement for the opportunities that you're getting'."

Those in Victoria's inner sanctum say the quality of Harper's glovework was never in question. His ability to consistently apply his elite ball-striking in long-form cricket was.

"I was really disappointed," Harper says. "I felt like I was actually batting pretty well, albeit I think I was only averaging 25 at that time. I'd made a 40 (44 off 33, against SA) the week before and felt like I was pretty close to playing a damaging, pivotal innings. And then I found myself out of the team."

Further puzzling Victorian selectors was Harper's high median score when compared to his mid-20s average. The punchy right-hander was getting starts, then, in Rogers' words, "just making a mistake".

"We watched him in the nets and we felt like it was excellent," he adds. "The way he hits the ball is high skill. But he just wasn't performing."

Harper was reinstated for the start of the 2025-26 campaign, but it took until that seminal showdown with the Test-laden Blues at the SCG to kick-start a golden run. His 22-run assault on Starc put him on track to his first half-century in 19 innings and comfortably the best summer of the 29-year-old's career.

In the very next match, a pink-ball outing against Queensland at the Gabba, Rogers asked Harper to open in a bid to combat the increasingly dangerous new-ball period. It was a masterstroke; he duly struck 85 from 115 balls, and prompted a blossoming of a talent that had never previously been fully realised.

"(Rogers) didn't ask me to go and be a technical, Rahul Dravid (style) opening batter that sees off the new ball," Harper says. "It was more, 'We're playing on some sporting wickets week in, week out. Go put some pressure on the bowlers'. Which I really enjoyed doing."

After decimating Big Bash bowlers to be named Player of the Tournament, Harper returned to the whites in style. In his second game back, he posted 119 and 141no against WA, becoming the first wicketkeeper in 100 years to score hundreds in both innings of a Shield game, and the first gloveman to do it as an opener.

From the fireworks against Starc to the twin hundreds in Perth, the gloveman has morphed seemingly overnight into one of the competition's most dangerous batting propositions. But his rise has been about more than just a breakout few months; like the team with which he has enjoyed so much success this summer, Harper has discovered his cricketing identity. Consider: in the 2021-22 Sheffield Shield season, his strike-rate of 33.5 was the lowest in the competition among batters with at least 200 runs; in 2025-26, his mark of 81.3 is the highest.

"To see the reward of 10 or 12 years of hard work, to have a week like that, was extremely pleasing," he says of those centuries against WA. "I've been backed in this year by our whole playing group and by 'Bucky', giving me the freedom to play the way I want to play."

* * *

In 2015, when Victoria clinched the first of three titles in as many years, a 23-year-old Handscomb was the youngest member of the side that beat WA in Hobart.

"I was really lucky to win a Shield early in my career," he says. "At that time, you think, 'This is great. I'm going to win however many Shields, we'll keep doing it, this is never going to end'."

The following season, he was there again, hitting the winning runs in Victoria's second straight crown against SA in Glenelg. He made his Test debut later that year and was a part of two more successful Shield campaigns in the next three summers.

Victoria's younger players have asked the likes of Handscomb, Boland and Marcus Harris what it was like to be part of that era of dominance. The difference, according to Handscomb, is not that stark.

"There are a lot of similarities between that changeroom I walked into and the changeroom now," he says. "In terms of that old Victorian way of 'win from any position no matter what happens' and never giving them an inch. When you couple that with a bit of vulnerability, it's quite powerful."

The senior Handscomb-Harris-Boland trio make up three-quarters of the current squad's Test-capped players. The other is Murphy, the only Victorian to receive a Baggy Green since the start of 2022. Four of the other five states have produced at least two new Test players in that same period. In Kellaway, O'Neill, Peake, and perhaps others, there is hope there will soon be an uptick in those numbers.

First, though, Handscomb wants his younger teammates to enjoy the ride.

"If we can win the final," he says, "to see the happiness on their faces and to let them enjoy what it means to win a Shield final, it will be very, very special."

Sheffield Shield 2025-26

Final: Victoria v South Australia, Junction Oval, March 26-30

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 Victoria Men VIC	10	7	2	1	0	0	8.56	9.3	60.86
2 South Australia Men SA	10	4	2	4	0	0	7.61	9.2	44.81
3 Queensland Bulls QLD	10	3	4	3	0	0	8.18	8.2	37.38
4 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	10	4	4	2	0	2	3.73	8.5	36.23
5 NSW Men NSW	10	2	4	4	0	0	6.94	8.6	31.54
6 Western Australia Men WA	10	1	5	4	0	0	2.95	9.2	22.15

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points