Sheffield Shield Season Review | Australian Cricket Coach Andrew McDonald (31.03.26)

And I'll start this cricket coach, Andrew McDonald,

is with me in the studio now.

Andrew, good to see you.

Thanks for having us, Jared.

Nice to catch up.

What did you make of the shield, final?

I was in thrulling.

It wasn't another wicket that offered plenty for the bowlers

and it was compelling viewing.

It was happening to be up there on Friday and Saturday.

So, yeah, magnificent game of cricket.

Unfortunately, Vick's didn't win,

being a former Victorian player,

but I also played for South Australia.

So it was one of those ones where I couldn't really lose,

but to see Alex Carey sort of Frank the summer

that he's had an incredible sort of,

I think it was a match winning 100 in amongst the scores.

As you saw, there was a lot of starts

and that wicket offered plenty with the ball,

but yeah, compelling game

and I'm sure we'll dig a little bit deeper into it.

It was a great final point to Alex Carey's summer wasn't.

He got the accolades that he will deserve

for his keeping and his batting and the ashes

and then that he's still going at the end

and that's two shield finals in a row

that he's made the decisive century in.

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to be said

around maintaining your excellence across a period of time

and particularly on the back of such an intense summer,

which was the ashes, but to see him performing,

managing and adding in with Nathan McGandrew

and then even the catch off Oli Peak later in the game,

diving sort of full stretch left.

He's under fatigue under the summer that he's had

to push through to maintain his excellent excellence

is a lot to be said around the way that he prepares

his physical traits, but also that sort of mental hardness

to be able to do that and perform.

And I know how much he loves playing for South Australia.

I love how much he loves going back there.

He can't always go back there because he's got other demands,

but yeah, an incredible game for him

and amongst others for South Australia.

And there were some good performance for Victoria as well,

but unfortunately they couldn't conjure up a win

to sort of frank their season.

It's the shield final, still an important game.

I think so.

I think the pressure, you know, the spotlight,

the pressure, I think Chris Rogers

have sort of stated around saying that it's almost

like the sixth test match of the summer

and he sort of went down the path of some,

you know, should there be DRS and things like that.

So there's a huge importance on it,

but the C-players under extreme pressure in those moments

gives us as selectors and coaches a real window

to what they potentially would be like at international level.

So I think there's a huge connection there.

I think the shield season has been so competitive,

so we even, there's quality crickers there.

And sometimes we don't appreciate how good the talent is there

and that underpins our Australian team

and I hope people have seen that through this summer

where we were stretched in an ashes.

There was opportunities for players to stand up

from Shield Cricket and some great stories with Doggard

and obviously Michael Neser being two of those

Scotty Baham, not that far back.

So Shield Cricket does underpin

a lot of our success at the test level.