SamHarper

Wicketkeeper-batter Sam Harper was one of the high achievers in many of Victoria's underage teams both with the bat, gloves and as a captain, earning selection in Australia U19 teams to tour Sri Lanka (2014) and at home against England (2015). 

Harper broke into Victoria's Sheffield Shield squad in February 2016 and wasted no time making an impact with a record nine dismissals on debut, underlining his ability with the gloves. He would be made to work for his spot in the Shield set up however, playing 10 matches across his first four seasons while battling Peter Handscomb and Seb Gotch for the position behind the sticks.

In 2017 he was sidelined for an extended period after suffering a serious concussion: keeping up to the stumps he was accidentally hit in the helmet by Jake Lehmann's follow through of a powerful pull shot. Harper spent almost a month in a dark hospital room afterwards and initially needed a walking frame, later calling it "the worst three weeks" of his life.

In 2020 during a Big Bash match with the Melbourne Renegades, Harper was hospitalised again after hitting his head on the ground in a freak collision with Hobart's Nathan Ellis. Harper was running at full-speed to complete a single, only noticing at the last moment he was on a collision course. When Ellis bent to field the ball, Harper leaped but flipped and landed awkwardly on the Marvel Stadium surface.

He was hospitalised with concussion for a third time in January 2024, by now playing for the Melbourne Stars after a trade for Adam Zampa ahead of the season, when an attempted ramp shot went wrong in the MCG nets and he was hit on the chin, suffering dizzy spells for several days. 

With his career at a crossroads amid modest returns in all formats ahead of the 2025-26 season, he hit a hot-streak that would change his fortunes. Thrust into BBL|15 as opener as an injury replacement, he slammed 55 from 36 balls and didn't look back, producing a career-best 371-run campaign to average better than 60 with a strike-rate north of 155, and was crowned the Player of the Tournament. That form would translate to his first-class game. When the Sheffield Shield season resumed in February 2026 Harper was averaging 24.86 with three first-class hundreds from 64 matches. Five matches later he had doubled his tally of centuries, the last of which was a brilliant knock for Australia A in India, and was a shock call-up to Australia's Test squad in the 2026 tour of South Africa following a finger injury to Josh Inglis.