Renegades heading 'in the right direction': Harper

They may have been upstaged by a star-studded Brisbane Heat outfit, but the Melbourne Renegades are taking solace that they a no longer the KFC BBL's cellar dwellers.

After three seasons anchored to the bottom of the standings where they lost 31 of 42 games, a distinct focus on local experience and targeted recruitment of overseas players ensured a return to finals for the first time since their BBL|08 crown.

Ultimately, their run towards another fairy-tale title was cut short by a rampaging Heat side featuring three Australian stars in their top four, but for the Renegades the signs are strong for a sustained run at playoff action.

Wicketkeeper-batter Sam Harper was just 22 when he was part of that maiden BBL title in his first season for the club and has ridden the waves during the Renegades' fall from grace in the seasons since.

Pleasingly for the now 26-year-old gloveman who has shown glimpses of his incredible 360-degree stroke play in the past, is that he was able to put together one of his most consistent run of T20 scores in the second half of BBL|12 that included a new career-best of 89 and three half centuries in his 264-run campaign.

He also kept the likes of state captain Peter Handscomb out of the side for most of the season.

"Batting No.3, there's a bit of responsibility there and I turned 26 this BBL so I've played five years now since we won it," Harper said following their seven-wicket defeat to the Heat.

"I think that excuse of being young and up and coming (with) potential is gone now, it's time to deliver some good results for us.

"It was nice to contribute in some games and I'll definitely take a lot out of that into next year."

Key to their rise up the standings was getting more out of their overseas recruits, which was at least the case during the first half of the season with Andre Russell (101 runs and four wickets in four matches), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (eight wickets at an economy rate of 6.63) and Akeal Hosein (13 at an economy rate of 6.45).

And while that fell away towards the end of the season as Martin Guptill (165 runs at 15) and Matthew Critchley took a little while to find his feet, Harper said they now had a core group of local players that would hold them in good stead for the coming seasons.

"In the next few months the club will be happy with how the season went (after) the last few seasons didn't go our way," he said.

"We got some really good overseas in this year which was key for us especially early in the tournament and then Will Sutherland had a breakout year – albeit (he's) doing really well in Shield cricket – this is probably the T20 year that he really came through and showed what he could do.

"(Shaun Marsh), if he can keep his body together … he's probably one of my favourite domestic players ever, it's so much fun playing with him.

"So if he can give us another six or seven games next year, and as we saw (on Sunday), if we can make the finals and then get the likes of him in our team, he's just huge for us.

"'Richo' (Kane Richardson), 'Finchy' (Aaron Finch), 'Sos' (Marsh), (Jon) Wells and Tommy Rogers (are) here next year, so we've got a really good core group.

"We've got pretty distinct individual roles now that Sakes (coach David Saker) has given us, I feel like as a team we're going in the right direction, we probably just needed another 10 runs (against the Heat)."