New South Wales head into this week’s Sheffield Shield fixture against South Australia knowing the stakes are high on two fronts – a place in the final and life after Greg Shipperd.
Late last week the veteran coach was told his contract would be terminated a year early. He will, however, remain in charge for the remaining four Shield rounds and the closing stages of the One-Day Cup, where NSW are still in the hunt for silverware. The timing has left an uneasy mood in the dressing-room.
“Yeah, it is different. I think that’s probably where my head’s at in terms of trying to describe it. It’s a different feeling,” batter Kurtis Patterson admitted. “But it is professional sport. No one’s safe in their job forever. It’s the nature of the beast. Shippy’s taken it really well and I think out of respect for him almost, we all need to knuckle down and take it the same and kind of get on with our jobs.”
Patterson, set to win his 100th Shield cap for the state, added: “It’s been a bit of a tough week I think for all of us. Shield cricket’s difficult and it’s another curveball we’ve got to deal with. But I guess just really feeling for Greg and to his credit, as everyone would expect, he’s taken it like a legend that he is.
“I think yesterday probably a few blokes were a bit unsure of how the day was going to go, but we just knuckled down, got straight into it and trying to do our best to win this game against South Australia.”
Since Shipperd arrived midway through 2022-23 NSW have climbed from wooden-spoon finishers to third the following summer and fourth last term, while reaching the One-Day Cup final in 2023-24. Several players have pushed on to higher honours: Sam Konstas jumped straight into the Test side and Jack Edwards recently won his first T20I cap against Pakistan. Emerging names such as Joel Davies, Lachlan Shaw and Ryan Hadley have also begun to look at home in senior cricket.
Patterson believes the squad Shipperd leaves behind is in far better health. “We were struggling there for a while,” he said. “I think we lost a bit of our identity and lost the idea of how to win and structure games in cricket to set yourself up to win. There’s no doubt Shippy was the right man for the job when he came in. He’s got so much experience and that counts for something.
“He certainly has turned us around. We’ve been competitive in Shield cricket without being as consistent as what we would like. This [season] is a nice opportunity to change that around [and] it starts this week.
“There is a lot of talent there and it feels like the last six months a lot of that talent has clicked in one format of the game or the other. So I’m sure whoever gets the job is going to have a nice platform to build off.”
On his own milestone, Patterson – averaging 27.81 this season – reflected: “As a cricketer, you’re always tormented, you always wish there were a few less Shield games and a few more Tests in there,” he laughed. “But I grew up idolising this cricket team and to play 100 games is something I never thoug” – he caught himself, shook his head and smiled – “something I never thought would actually happen, to be honest.”
NSW will hope sentiment quickly turns into runs and wickets. South Australia, only a handful of points behind, have the same designs on a final berth. Win here and the Blues keep their season – and, for a little longer, their coach’s tenure – well and truly alive.
