Ryan Harris puts out stern message for South Australia, saying that his side ‘Haven’t achieved much at all’ .
Like London buses, they appeared all at once for South Australia last season during an amazing few weeks for a state that has long supported the table, particularly in four-day cricket, after waiting 13 years for a one-day trophy and 29 years for the Sheffield Shield.
As a result, they enter the 2025–26 season as the two-time defending champions. They play Victoria in the Sheffield Shield on October 4 and New South Wales in the One-Day Cup on September 20.
During the preseason, head coach Ryan Harris delivered a straightforward message: “That was great, but we need to do it again.”
“We spoke about what lies ahead of us,” Harris told. “We want to make sure that we don’t get comfortable in what we’ve done because, although we’ve had a great achievement last year, we haven’t achieved much at all yet.
“We have mentioned that we don’t want to be the hunted. Obviously, when you win, people want to beat you, no doubt. Our terminology is we are still hunting. We’ve had one year of great achievements, [but] we haven’t really achieved anything yet. If we sit here in three or four years’ time and we’ve won a few more, then we’ve been a pretty good team.
“[The players] like the feeling of winning. Obviously, we haven’t had a lot of it for a while. The boys really enjoyed it. They knew it was hard work. We had a little bit of luck go away last year, but we hadn’t always had a lot of luck go away in the past. You need a little bit of luck to win. They’ve trained as if they’re preparing to win again.”