Sustained success 'ultimate goal' as Voges recommits

While he may be a future Australian coach in waiting, Adam Voges is going nowhere anytime soon with the eight-time championship-winning coach committing to domestic powerhouses Western Australia and the Perth Scorchers for another two seasons.

Voges, who as head coach has led WA to the past five Marsh One-Day Cup and Sheffield Shield titles, has re-signed with the state and their KFC BBL club until at least the end of the 2025-26 season.

The 44-year-old is highly regarded both within WA Cricket and across the nation having also led Australia A during two first-class and three 50-over matches against New Zealand A last year.

Voges, who represented Australia 58 times across a 16-year career and holds the third highest Test batting average of all time (61.87, minimum 20 innings) behind Don Bradman and now Harry Brook, has slotted seamlessly into coaching after hanging up the willow in February 2018.

He won his first title as head coach the following year when WA defeated Queensland in the 2019-20 Marsh Cup final in his second season at the helm.

While WA and the Scorchers boast a plethora of internationally experienced players across their two squads, one of the defining features of Voges' tenure – along with High Performance general manager Kade Harvey – has been the ability to blood new talent.

Batters Teague Wyllie, Sam Fanning, Jayden Goodwin and Nick Hobson, as well as allrounder Cooper Connolly and bowlers Corey Rocchiccioli, Hamish McKenzie, Mahli Beardman, Liam Haskett and Bryce Jackson have all made their debuts in the past three seasons.

The former state captain who led the men's side a record 110 times is described by his players as "so passionate" about WA Cricket and someone who they'd seen lead by example during his playing days.

"He's obviously been involved for a long period of time as a player, captain and now a coach," fast bowler Joel Paris said of Voges following their Marsh Cup triumph last Sunday.

"What he's done is he's put a great team around him, his support staff is amazing – Tim Macdonald, Beau Casson and some of the other Academy coaches are doing an amazing job with the group.

"So his passion is one of the main things and one of the drivers for him and we certainly relate to that as a playing group.

"I'm sure his focus will be to try and get the team playing as well as they can and win as many trophies, and I'm sure if an opportunity comes up for an Australian role in the future, he'll be wanting to put his name up for that.

"But I can guarantee you right now he'll be doing everything he can to try and get us that third Shield."

After securing a Marsh Cup three-peat – the state's first in the format – with victory over NSW in Sydney last Sunday, Voges' side remain in the hunt to replicate the feat in the Sheffield Shield, currently sitting third in the standings with two rounds remaining, 4.45 points behind second-placed Victoria who they face in the final round.

"We've achieved a lot together over the last few years while living by values we can all be proud of," Voges said in a statement announcing his re-signing.

"I certainly have the hunger and drive to take this group forward, and I'm confident the team is just as committed to achieving our ultimate goal of sustained success."

Harvey added that while Voges' tactical nous was first class, his ability to unify his players and staff had been just as impressive and major factor in their sustained success, which included the state's first Sheffield Shield title in 23 years in 2021-22.

They then went back-to-back in the Shield, BBL and Marsh Cup the following season, making Voges the only head coach to have successfully defended a clean sweep of the three men's domestic titles.

"He has empowered the players to take control of their own careers and helped to instil strong leadership throughout the whole squad," Harvey said.

"We're pleased to have him on board for another two seasons and look forward to celebrating more success in the coming years."

Under Voges' leadership, WA and the Scorchers have also had Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Cameron Green, Lance Morris and Josh Philippe make their debuts for Australia.

But while he's certainly been touted as a future coach of the national side, Voges said higher coaching honours wasn't "something I genuinely think about too much" as he was "really young and still learning about coaching".

"The Australian cricket team has been incredibly successful in all formats, Andrew (McDonald) is doing a wonderful job," he said after his two-year contract extension was announced on Thursday.

"I enjoyed the opportunity I got at the start of the summer to work with the Australia A program and so to have a little taste that was great.

"That was all I needed for now and get back to working hard in WA, so we'll keep doing that for the next little period."

Sheffield Shield 2023-24 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 Western Australia Men WA	10	5	2	3	0	0	5.53	9.4	47.93
2 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	10	5	2	3	0	0	6.06	8.3	47.36
3 NSW Men NSW	10	4	3	3	0	0	6.31	9	42.31
4 Victoria Men VIC	10	4	4	2	0	0	4.74	8.2	38.94
5 South Australia Men SA	10	3	6	1	0	0	5.19	9.3	33.49
6 Queensland Bulls QLD	10	2	6	2	0	0	3.54	8.3	25.84

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points