The Queensland carpenter enlisted to rebuild Redbacks

In summers past, a series of frustrating travel setbacks compounded by the re-appearance of a worrying injury threat might have left Brendan Doggett fretting over how he'd come to endure such a run of wretched luck.

However, the firebrand fast bowler - who three years ago seemed destined for international honours after his remarkable ascent to Australia's Test squad - now holds a far more holistic view, of which cricket is but a part.

And when the 27-year-old observes he's in it for the journey rather than simply the destination, he's not talking solely of his decision to turn his back on close-knit family and on-field success in Queensland and make a fresh start 2000 kilometres away in Adelaide.

Image Id: 52957842023141D5B9374C776336F7AB Image Caption: 'Hopefully I can bring a little bit of that Queensland success with me' // Getty

It's not that Doggett's lost the hunger to run in hard, bang the ball in and have rival batters ducking and dodging at the other end.

To the contrary, his choice to quit the reigning Sheffield Shield champions was partly due to a desire to lead a bowling attack, and to be the bloke to whom the skipper turns on hot afternoons when batters are set and the pitch is flatter than the fielding team.

And should that toil bring him once more to the attention of national selectors, he would throw himself at any opportunity to represent his country.

But there was a deeper calling that led the carpenter-turned-cricketer to leave behind his woodworking tools and a half-renovated Brisbane home, albeit months later than he initially planned to make the move.

"In all honesty, I don't really want to be known for my cricketing ability," Doggett told cricket.com.au last week after completing his first centre-wicket match bowling stint for almost six months.

"I just want to grow and become a good person.

"It's more a life experience than anything else.

"Me and my fiancée (Jacqueline) are pretty fresh in our lives together with no kids or anything, so we thought we'd make the move while we can and have a look around and get to know something different.

"It was really hard to leave family, I grew up in Queensland and I'm Queensland through and through but that's another reason I wanted to do it.

"To see something else and get coached by different people, and be amongst different personalities.

"So the opportunity to come here and turn some stuff around (for under-achieving South Australia), I see that as a far greater achievement for me than staying in Queensland and being part of a dominant team.

"Hopefully I can bring a little bit of that Queensland success with me, and help them to win a Shield or the one-day competition."

The seeds for Doggett's southward migration were sown in England in 2018 when the proud descendant of the Worimi people of NSW's central coast was (along with his older brother, Sam) part of the Aboriginal XI touring party to commemorate 150 years since the first Indigenous Australia team played in the UK.

When the Aboriginal XI men's team played Sussex at the Hove County Ground, they were addressed by then Sussex coach Jason Gillespie who last year returned to South Australia to take over the helm of the success-starved Redbacks.

The obvious symmetry in their respective stories – Gillespie being an Indigenous man who routinely battled serious injuries to become one of world cricket's pre-eminent fast bowlers – was appealing, but it was heartfelt words more than historic symbolism that moved Doggett.

Image Id: 1D1E06F9DFAD4413A733B224EC6589B1 Image Caption: Doggett was part of the Indigenous team that toured the UK in 2018 // Getty

"I was in those Indigenous squads when I was still a carpenter, so having Jason Gillespie coming into talk to you I was like 'holy shit, this is unbelievable'," Doggett recalled.

"He definitely had an early influence on me, probably without knowing it but just from me sitting there and watching him on TV when I was growing up, and then here he is talking to me and the group.

"So that was definitely an attraction and played a part in me coming here."

Not that getting from Brisbane to Adelaide was as straightforward as either party had envisaged.

Doggett originally intended to drive down in convoy with fellow Queensland allrounder (now his Adelaide house mate) Nathan McSweeney, but the day before their planned departure SA shut its border to NSW which was an essential through-point on their road route.

The itinerary was then simplified to plane travel a week later, but COVID-19 again intervened and Queensland was added to SA's list of pariah states which saw Doggett's proposed arrival date of June 21 eventually kicked back to mid-August.

Knowing he could hardly saunter back into the Bulls' pre-season training sessions to keep himself in trim, Doggett instead mapped out a fitness program he could undertake at home amid his renovation work while also allowing himself the occasional joint work-out with near-neighbour and ex-Queensland allrounder, Ben Cutting.

Doggett figured that at least the enforced lay-off might help settle the back injury he developed at the end of last summer's successful Shield campaign - his first 'full' season in more than two years due to quadriceps and back problems – and he could hit the ground running once he got to Adelaide.

But the back issue has proved more troubling than expected, and he has instead eased into work with his new team which means the timing of his first outing in SA colours is as unclear as the domestic summer schedule itself.

"It's a crack, so we don't know what we're going to do about it," he says matter-of-factly of the latest report on his spine.

"It's a bit of a weird one because I don't have any pain in there but the images we get on it, it looks horrific.

"I've been managing it for four years, but it's probably at its worst point now so we just wait and see what happens.

"I'll try and play as much as I can while I'm pain free, and then if any pain comes up we'll just put the brakes on and go from there."

Having signed Doggett for three years, and being more aware than most of the peril that comes from pushing a fast bowler too hard and too often, Gillespie is happy for his new strike weapon to gradually work himself into match condition.

"We're in no rush, we just want to make sure he's raring to go," Gillespie told cricket.com.au.

"We know he's a bit of greyhound so we want to look after him as best we can because we've got a lot of cricket coming up in a relatively short space of time and he hasn't bowled flat out yet, so we need to be mindful of that.

"We recruited him for three years, and we want to get the most out of him.

"We want him firing throughout the summer and the back end of the season when hopefully we're challenging hard for a trophy.

"He's going to be an incredibly important member of this bowling attack but we need to manage him carefully because he's high-end speed, and runs in fast."

When Doggett is fully fit and match conditioned, his role in an SA outfit that managed to bowl out an opposition once in 11 Shield innings last season is unambiguous.

With the retirement of swing king Chadd Sayers, who led the Redbacks attack for the best part of a decade on increasingly busted knees, the key member of two Queensland Shield title wins has been enlisted to bring raw speed and aggression on surfaces that offer little to bowlers.

And that's precisely what Doggett signed up for, having gained early inspiration from indefatigable former Bulls quicks Michael Kasprowicz and Andy Bichel, with the latter remaining a close confidante after taking up a role as Queensland bowling coach in recent years.

Image Id: D1FA408A1DAA45669F68111A4C2174AE Image Caption: Doggett taking the Sheffield Shield title-sealing wicket in April // Getty

"That was my role at Queensland, but it's also a role that suits me," he said of the 'enforcer' job description.

"I'm not someone that's going to nip the ball and swing the ball and bowl top-of-off all day.

"I'm going to try and bowl as fast as I can, bowl bouncers and be aggressive and try and create something out of nothing almost.

"I love that role, and that's what I did at Queensland and really enjoyed it so I don't want to change anything about my game coming here."

What he would like to alter is Adelaide's early spring weather which continues to hold the sort of winter chill Doggett rarely encountered growing up in Queensland's Darling Downs and playing his early cricket at Toowoomba and Rockhampton.

But he holds fond memories of Adelaide Oval where he claimed his career-first five-wicket bag (5-77) in his fifth Shield game, en route to 28 wickets for the 2017-18 season that saw him added to the Australia Test squad for the series against Pakistan.

It was a meteoric rise for a young man who had started his senior career playing strictly 12.30-5pm on a Saturday afternoon which left him sufficient time to complete a few "cashies" (carpentry jobs for cash) in the mornings before donning his whites.

While he's happy to have a few years off the tools while forging a new path in his adopted state, he believes it was the solid foundation earning a meagre living outside professional sport that allows him to keep its vicissitudes in clear perspective.

And it will prepare him for life after the game, regardless of whether he claims that Australia cap that loomed so tantalisingly close three summers ago.

"If I'm doing well and playing my role, and if that's good enough to play for Australia then I figure that whole process will take care of itself but it's definitely not a goal at the forefront of my mind," Doggett said of his international aspirations.

"It's more about who I am after cricket.

"You just want to be a good person and look after your family, and that's the priority for me.

"I'm not saying that I don't want to be there (playing for Australia) or that I don't care, obviously it would be a dream come true and I do think about it.

"But I just make sure it doesn't consume my thoughts, because it has done in the past and then with injuries and stuff, you just get down in the dumps.

"You can put too much on wanting it, and it just ruins your mentality.

"So I've learned a few lessons through my time sitting on the sidelines that it's just a game and there's a lot more that happens outside of cricket.

"It's how I ended up here.

"I wasn't working as an apprentice carpenter on $8 an hour going 'I'm going to make it as a cricketer one day', I was on $8 an hour going 'this is the best thing ever'.

"I wasn't even earning enough to get taxed, and I just wanted to turn up and learn the tricks of the trade and become a good carpenter.

"So I believe that if you keep your head down and work hard, things will happen.

"I feel like I've got a time limit on my cricket career now with my back injuries, so this move is an opportunity that arose that probably wouldn't come up again.

"I've just jumped in the deep end and taken it, and we'll see what happens."