Grassroots game helped new SA coach rekindle the love

In an era where top-level playing experience has increasingly become a prerequisite for similarly high-performance coaching roles, Mick Delaney's journey is as uplifting as it is unlikely.

Delaney, who was last month appointed coach of South Australia's women's program, never made it to first-class ranks and admits he'd likely have abandoned cricket altogether for a career in construction if not for the redemptive powers of the grassroots game.

The 36-year-old former pace bowler had graduated from country cricket in New South Wales to SA's senior men's list a year before his lifelong friend and one-time Canberra housemate Nathan Lyon undertook the same journey.

South Australia 2024-25 contract list: Hollie Armitage, Jemma Barsby, Darcie Brown*, Emma de Broughe, Josie Dooley, Emmerson Filsell, Paris Hall, Eleanor Larosa, Tahlia McGrath*, Courtney Neale, Annie O’Neil, Bridget Patterson, Maddie Penna, Kate Peterson, Megan Schutt*, Courtney Webb, Amanda-Jade Wellington, Ella Wilson

 

Ins: Hollie Armitage, Emmerson Filsell 

 

Outs: Anesu Mushangwe (ACT), Sam Betts

 

* Denotes Cricket Australia contract

But despite blazing a trail from the ACT to Adelaide that Lyon would so successfully follow, and then joining the now-Test legend at local Premier Cricket Club Prospect, that's where the pair's respective career trajectories seismically cleaved.

Beset by back and shoulder injuries, as well as an approach that wasn't quite as professional as that of his spin-bowling buddy, Delaney was cut from SA's list after three seasons that yielded no senior call-up in any of the three formats.

Accepting his ambition to be a professional cricketer would not materialise, Delaney returned to Canberra where he spent two years as captain-coach of Western Creek and concedes he "probably fell out of love with the game a bit".

So he turned his back on Premier Cricket and instead signed up for a season with his original home club at Orange in NSW's central-west where he rediscovered a passion to play that eventually led him on the path to full-time coaching.

"I played with the club I grew up playing for, had a season where it didn't really matter too much because I was there to have fun and that was probably the thing that gave me the kick a little bit to get back into it," Delaney told cricket.com.au.

"After the year in Orange I went back to Canberra, coached Ginninderra (in Premier Cricket) for three years and then started working for Cricket ACT.

"It's perhaps a silver lining that my playing career sort of finished at age 23 so then I was able to get straight into coaching.

"I probably started coaching cricket ten years earlier than most people do."

After five years with Cricket ACT, including a role as head coach Jono Dean's assistant when the Canberra Comets returned to the national Toyota Second XI competition last summer, Delaney rejoined SA as Head of Female Development and Pathways earlier this year.

Then, when highly successful women's team coach Luke Williams switched roles to combine his Adelaide Strikers' WBBL job with an assistant gig in the Strikers' men's set-up, Delaney was chosen to head up the women's program at his former stomping ground.

Given Adelaide Oval was yet to unveil its $535 million redevelopment when he was cut from the SA playing list in 2013, Delaney can see significant improvements in resourcing and amenities in the decade since he was toiling away in the practice nets.

But the bigger change has come from within.

"I was a country kid that probably didn't know what professional was, or what it needed to be when I was recruited here by South Australia," he said.

"I just loved playing the game and enjoyed life as well, and that probably hurt me in certain ways."

Now, having worked as project manager for a commercial building firm and managed a drilling company during his estrangement from full-time cricket, Delaney's coaching philosophy espouses a need to savour the journey as well as zeroing-in on the destination.

"The reality is, even at the professional level, you're playing a game you'd probably be involved in anyway because you just really enjoy the sport," he said.

"So let's always remember that.

"We're playing a game we started playing for fun, and would probably still be playing whether we were getting paid or not.

"So it's a pretty unique and fortunate position to be in, being professional athletes or coaches in this system."

Delaney also acknowledges he's fortunate for the ready access he will have to his predecessor who guided SA's women's team to consecutive WNCL grand finals in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and is one of the world's most sought-after T20 coaches.

While Williams wasn’t on hand when the SA squad commenced pre-season training this week in order to give Delaney "some clear air", he has indicated his preparedness to share whatever insights and experiences the new coach might need.

Another source of wisdom will be SA's newly appointed general manager of cricket Simon Insley who has just completed his tenure as New Zealand's men's team's high-performance boss at the ICC T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and USA.

Delaney and Insley's paths crossed while the latter held the high-performance job at Cricket Tasmania from 2019-22, where he also oversaw the rise of the state's women's program to become the WNCL benchmark.

And Delaney will also tap into the knowledge of incumbent assistant coaches Darius Wyatt and Nicole Bolton, with Bolton's vast international experience focused on improving SA's batting output.

"Nicole's fantastic, she's super organised and has some really clear plans on what she wants to do especially with the batting group," Delaney said.

"She'll have complete ownership over that group which will be awesome.

"There will be things I want to change and things I want to implement in the way I think we should go about it.

"We're not going to blow the place up and think we need to fix everything and change everything, because they're doing most of the things really, really well already.

"It's just how can we change our game style a little bit, how we can implement some different training methods and there will probably be a little bit of a philosophy change in how we go about the game.

"But that's about it really.

"The win for us this year is just embedding our game style and making sure that we're taking the game on a little bit more, pushing the game forward and putting pressure back on the opposition.

"But we look at people like Kate Peterson and Emma de Broughe and Courtney Webb, and they've all played Australia A over the last 12 months.

"If we could get one of those, or all three, into an Aussie game at some stage over the next one or two years then it means our program is moving forward as well."

Given the skills set he honed during his playing days, it's no surprise Delaney is excited by the chance to work with perhaps the most potent array of pace bowlers on the Australia women's domestic scene.

In addition to national regulars Tahlia McGrath, Megan Schutt and Darcie Brown, SA boasts a seam attack including Peterson, Courtney Neale and Ella Wilson as well as rising star Eleanor Larosa.

The pace stocks will be further boosted by the signing of another local quick, 19-year-old Emmerson Filsell who has represented SA at under-age level, to further supplement last season's leading wicket-taker, leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington.

"I think one of the challenges I'm going to find this year is understanding that our spinners and batters have a role to play because I love the quicks so much," Delaney notes with a laugh.

"We've got some youngsters and so much growth in there, most of them are only high teens or early 20s and we know that pace bowlers probably don't hit their straps until their late 20s.

"And the best thing is they've all got their own point of difference, none of them are the same.

"I love building bowling groups where you've got four or five different types of bowlers in the team rather than just rolling out the same stuff."

One of those key "points of difference" that has the new coach brimming with optimism is 18-year-old Larosa who was a member of the Australia under-19 team that played a tri-series competition with England and the host nation in Sri Lanka earlier this year.

Apart from Lauren Cheatle of late, left-arm quicks have been something of a rarity in the dominant Australia women's outfit and Delaney believes that unique advantage coupled with an all-round capability earmarks Larosa as a player to watch.

"I think Eleanor Larosa could be a superstar," he said when asked which of his squad might prove a breakthrough talent next season.

"For someone who's still so young and a left-armer who can bat, she's going to be a very good player and someone I can see playing for us and potentially the international team for a very long time.

"And (top-order batter) Emma de Broughe is probably another one.

"She won the Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year last season and that wasn't by chance.

"She's put some fantastic performances on the board, and I just love the way she goes about it.

"So those are two players I see potentially having huge improvement, but the best thing about the whole group is that most of them are young and they've got real ability.

"It's just about trying to get the best out of them."

SA's other new signing for 2024-25 is England capped Hollie Armitage, a leg-spinning allrounder who has previously played for Sydney Sixers in the Weber WBBL and also in Tasmania.

The most notable loss is Zimbabwe-born leg spinner Anesu Mushangwe who has opted to move out from Wellington's shadow in a bid to become number one spinner with ACT, while veteran Sam Betts was not offered a new contract.

There is also deep sadness in the playing group after the serious medical setback suffered by popular keeper-batter Josie Dooley while on holiday in Hawaii earlier this year.

Dooley has been retained on SA’s 18-player list as the SA Cricket Association supports her and her family through her recovery which continues in Brisbane.

Delaney, whose partner Alli is relocating to Adelaide with the couple expecting their first child next month, has been impressed with the enthusiasm for training he saw from squad members while they were on annual leave in recent weeks.

"We've had a few playing overseas, with Courtney Webb and Wello (Wellington) in the UK county system, Emma de Broughe and Josie (Dooley) took themselves for training in India and Emmerson (Filsell) played in Japan," he said.

"But most of the rest have been around, and it's been amazing how many of them have been in the gym and still doing their programs.

"They're just all so committed to it, even though they're still technically on holidays.

"I've been having individual chats with the players - they've all got their own unique opinion of the program and I think it's important to get a wide range of views.

"Not everything I do is going to please everyone, and that's fine.

"It's the ones who don't share a similar view that I'll really need to lean on, because they'll see the world differently to the way I do.

"So I'll need to be able to get their opinion and ideas so we've got a bit more of a balanced program in how we go about things."