'Criminal to quit': Ol' man Cam finds his fountain of youth

March 24, 2024. Cameron Gannon was basking in the afterglow of his first Sheffield Shield final triumph. Splayed out on the WACA Ground turf with teammates and family around him, he had every reason to be deliriously happy; after running drinks in the two previous Shield deciders, he had just spearheaded the hosts to victory with eight wickets, including 5-23 on the final morning. Even the last one to fall had belonged to him, with Joel Paris's screamer in the gully delivering Gannon a moment he instantly knew would be one he'd be recounting for the grandkids.

Looking around, he saw so many people who mattered so much to him. Through four years, Perth had established itself as home. Over on the centre wicket, the very stage he'd just dominated, his eight-year-old boy Henry played with a bunch of the other sons and daughters of WA's threepeat heroes.

"I would love it if everyone could experience something as special as that," Gannon tells cricket.com.au. "But I guess the rarity of it is what makes it so amazing."

Gannon had turned 35 that January.

There were becoming fewer and fewer players still running around from his formative days in Australian domestic cricket, a generation earlier. And with that Shield triumph, a one-year contract extension on his original three-year deal with WA had officially expired. From the outside looking in, it appeared the perfect moment to walk away, into a new life he was already sketching out.

Yet looks can be deceiving. Gannon had spent more than 13 years working to get to the point he had finally reached. And that wasn't exclusively about cricket.

"I'd worked out some things around my role (in the WA attack) and my game plan," he says. "But I also think I discovered the self-belief I'd been lacking all my career; I became comfortable with who I am, which is incredibly powerful.

"It would've been criminal to quit after making that kind of revelation."

Gannon was also feeling fit. His body was holding together well. And he was relishing learning new ways and means of improving as a fast bowler. He put pen to paper with Western Australia for another Shield season. Then 12 months later, he signed on again.

In those two campaigns, Gannon collected 70 wickets at 24.74 – the fourth-most in the competition – and since turning 37 at the beginning of 2026, those figures are better still: 18 wickets at 22.94.

"My wife and I have had a number of conversations about, well, when do I stop?" he smiles. "And she seems to think that I won't."

* * *

July 2026. It had been more than six years since Gannon pulled on a maroon training top and charged into the practice nets beside Allan Border Field in Brisbane. And while there was plenty that was fresh about the experience – including the upgraded facilities themselves – there is also much that is familiar.

"Eerily so," he says. "Like a Monday morning gym session in the NCC (National Cricket Centre). Or running in and bowling to Jimmy Peirson. 'Nes' (Michael Neser) taking the piss out of me yet again for something stupid I said 10 years ago.

"It's amazing how many old stories come up from when we were all kids, essentially."

The first meaningful step towards Gannon's potential return to the Bulls was taken last November, when Queensland Cricket's high-performance boss at the time, Joe Dawes, got in touch.

"He asked me if it was something I would consider," he says. "At that point, I was just like, 'No, I think I'm alright'."

But the seed had been planted, and for Gannon, it wasn't just cricket that had gradually started his mind swirling. He and his wife Leah had settled into life in South Perth so seamlessly that they had toyed with the idea of selling their Brisbane home and making the move permanent. And why not? They had friends, a wonderful community, and their kids, Henry and Nora, were as happy as they were.

"It was a massive decision for us, but I think in the end, we were always moving back to Brisbane – our families are here," he says. "Now, whether that was when cricket was over, or when there was still some left ... I didn't feel like it would ever really be up to me; I always felt like I was one of those players who was never going to have that much of a say when it was done.

"But lo and behold, circumstances change."

The WACA was looking at offering Gannon yet another 12-month contract extension, but when he explained his situation to then head coach Adam Voges and high-performance manager Kade Harvey, he was graciously afforded the time and space he needed to make his decision.

"I didn't actually have a contract on the table from Queensland," he says. "So it was either move back and play for Queensland for another year, or be happy with what you've done, retire, start the transition process, and be there for the kids while we go through the change of new schools and living in a new city – because it essentially is a new city for them."

Queensland seized the opportunity. With Mark Steketee facing a lengthy rehabilitation from hamstring surgery and Michael Neser entrenched in the Test squad, the right-armer's experience (239 wickets at 26.34 in 68 first-class matches – every one of them in the Shield) amid a young group looked invaluable.

Gannon signed while Johan Botha was still on deck as head coach. The pair had worked together previously and the paceman was happy to renew that acquaintance. But what happened next was serendipitous. James Hopes, who replaced Botha in June, was Queensland captain in Gannon's maiden season – 16 years ago – and the two men have significant shared history.

"He was one of my mentors when I started," Gannon says. "He's taught me a lot. Our wives worked together, we live about 600 metres from each other, and we played for the same club (Norths)."

In 2024, Hopes was instrumental in recruiting Gannon to Hobart Hurricanes, where they won the club's first Big Bash title. The new Bulls coach was delighted when he learned his former teammate had been reacquired.

"It's a shrewd pick-up," Hopes said. "He was involved in a very successful West Australian team and has come back with good ideas about things.

"The no-fuss approach, the way he works batters over – he knows what he's been brought here to do, and he's boots-and-all in, trying to do it."

* * *

"Once you get into September, there's a different smell in the air. There's a different feeling. You're getting close to playing cricket..."

This is how it has always been for Cameron Gannon. The love. The passion for the game.  As the son of an Air Force warrant officer father and an American mother, his family moved from Sydney to Warwick – around 150km south-west of Brisbane – when he was a child. He remembers backyard cricket games, smashed windows, throwing catches against a tipped-over trampoline, and bowling against the brick walls of the family home; all sepia sketches of a wholly Australian childhood.

Many of the finer details were filled in from there by a sporting grandfather, who was a very good golfer and a mad-keen cricketer.

"So that's kind of where it all started for me," Gannon says. "And then it just never stopped."

As an 18-year-old he first played Queensland Under 19s in December 2007, only a few months after his current Bulls squad mates, Charlie Lachmund (July) and Steven Hogan (September), were born.

He sees the ghost of his younger self and those of Neser and Steketee in this exciting new generation of Bulls quicks. It's in their enthusiasm, and the way they make each other better. He listens to Jem Ryan and hears himself at the same age; the unfiltered chat he deems "endearing" in the 22-year-old quick whom the Queenslanders are likening to Scott Boland.

"The good news is that the young group we have coming through, they probably have their head screwed on a little bit more than we did," he laughs. "It might be just the nature of sport and the development that has happened in the game over the last 15 years, but the kids coming in now seem to be more ready for it, at least physically."

Gannon's breakthrough season came in 2012-13 as he and Hopes led Queensland to a Shield final in Hobart, where hosts Tasmania claimed the silverware after a draw. He took 31 wickets at 23.51 through that campaign (one fewer than Hopes), but his career trajectory veered wildly in the days that followed when he was reported for a suspect bowling action. Biomechanical testing confirmed his elbow extension was illegal, so he rebuilt his action in the months that followed and was back playing domestic cricket before the year was out.

"It was tough. I'm glad that period of my life is done," he told Cricinfo in 2024. "But it taught me some valuable lessons ... if I hadn't done the work back then I wouldn't have these opportunities now."

The work continued in Perth. Gannon is a voracious learner – he graduated from Griffith University in 2021 with a commerce degree in financial planning and economics – and alongside WA teammate Paris he set about arming himself with more than his trademark outswinger, and further educating himself in his craft.

"I fundamentally changed the way I bowl a few years ago, and it coincided with the success I was having," he says. "You listen to people like Patty Cummins and Sean Abbott talk about how they run in and just bash fourth stump, and (from there) they let the ball decide.

"And it just becomes that simple. That's more or less what I started trying to do. I try and bowl the seam as straight as I can, and obviously I'm not perfect, so it doesn't come out that way ... and then it'll nip either way, or then if you need something more, there's a three-quarter ball or that more traditional big wobbler that people seem to be bowling. And then hopefully, you don't forget how to bowl the 'outie' as well, which has happened a few times (laughs).

"I feel like if you're not trying to improve, your days are numbered. As soon as you stop trying to get better at something, then it becomes really hard – not to just be effective, but to keep up with the relentless march of the game. I feel like we've seen such ridiculous progress in white-ball cricket over the last few years, but I think red-ball cricket is doing something similar – it's just way more subtle, so people tend to miss this stuff."

In that context, Gannon's is quite the survival story. While looking elsewhere around the competition for possible blueprints for longevity, there was a fellow paceman he landed on.

"I've watched Pete Siddle for years, and I had a conversation with him not long ago," he says. "I feel like there are certain people you play against where every time you do, you're learning something new, and 'Sidds' was one of those for me.

"I've always been fascinated by the transition he made from being a guy who tried to kill me in my first Shield season and bowling 145, 146kph, to the crafty, cagey seamer (he became)."

While he was in Perth, Gannon borrowed from the Siddle playbook and took up cycling. He joined a "dads' group" made up of those he'd gotten to know from Henry's school, and set out every Tuesday and Friday, covering off 80km a week. He has brought the habit home with him to Brisbane, where he has linked up with another cycling mate and is currently learning the routes around his home in the city's northern suburbs.

"It's a great recovery but it's also building your legs without putting them through the punishment of going for a run," he says. "And it's getting away from cricket, so it's become not just an unloaded conditioning tool, but I guess a mental health tool as well."

* * *

This week Gannon flew back to Perth with the Queensland squad for a Shield opener he suspects was written in the stars.

"The WACA (Ground) against my old team, Shield round one," he smiles. "That was always going to happen."

After tailoring his training for an October 8 start date, he is as ready as he could possibly be, and he is acutely aware of exactly what is required of him.

"In terms of my role, Hopes has been really clear: I'm to be a stabilising force for the team," he says. "There's no real difference from what I was doing in Western Australia ... my job is to be a rock, to be consistent – just bowl good balls, and play as much as I can."

There is much Gannon has learned over the years about match preparation that he has been sharing with this quite green Queensland pace attack; in the squad selected for the WA trip, he has more first-class experience than the rest of the quicks combined.

It is, of course, a big part of why he was recruited, though not the sole reason. Gannon, all 199cm of him, has evolved into a reliable, canny paceman through a decade in which he has taken 151 first-class wickets – almost two-thirds of his career tally.

"It's one of my favourite parts of the job, helping to bring along the young, talented cricketers we have," he says. "I've found it's had a positive effect on my cricket personally, and the way I carry myself on the field.

"And there's a lot I can pass on to the younger guys in terms of not getting too excited and going too hard, too early – there's a lot of tapering you need to do leading into the season. We're blessed with such amazing weather (in Brisbane) that it can be really easy to shoot your bolt too early, and then all of a sudden it's late July, and you're peaking.

"So I approach it slightly differently – just try and hold a little bit. I really like bowling, and I still like training, which is one of the reasons I'm still going..."

Gannon is hitting on something else here, too. Just lately, he has been giving more thought as to why he has had such success in the twilight of his career. And as much as the technical lessons have both simplified and improved his game, he points towards another factor as fundamental.

"Cricket is so much fun," he says. "Even when it's hard, it's fun. I'm hanging out with my best mates, and just kind of wandering around the field on the best grounds in the country, some of the best in the world.

"I can't ask for much more than that. So for me, the key driver is enjoyment."

Blend that with his natural competitive fire and it is impossible for him not to peer six months down the line. Gannon was 24 when he played for the Bulls in that 2013 Shield final, and just 13 matches into his career. The bank of information he'd acquired was nothing against what it is now. Another crack at a Shield decider with his home state, with Hopes as head coach, would represent something of a full-circle moment, though he is wary of saying as much.

"It's very easy to romanticise a return to your home state after a protracted absence," he says. "So I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself here, but every time you start a season you're thinking about that game at the end of March that decides everything.

"Lifting a trophy, and etching your name into another little piece of Queensland history, would be awesome."

And after that? Does he go the way of Siddle, and push towards 40? Or does he hang up the boots and move behind a desk, where a second career – this one as a financial planner – awaits?

"I'm enjoying what I'm doing at the moment too much to really consider stopping, but my wife and I have made a deal," he grins. "When I feel like I'm starting to mortgage my body, then we'll have an honest conversation about what we're doing and whether we continue.

"So there's definitely a plan in place, and moving back to Queensland is certainly helpful when it comes to what the next step looks like.

"But we're not there yet."