England will ‘sniff an opportunity’ but one of Australia’s quickest bowlers is aiming to prove them wrong.
Seven years after Brendan Doggett was first picked in an Australian squad, the ultimate late-bloomer is poised to become the country’s 472nd Test cricketer.
After the untimely hamstring injury to in-form quick Josh Hazlewood, Doggett is set to make his debut when the Ashes get underway at Optus Stadium in Perth on Friday.
The 31-year-old will slot into Australia’s fast-bowling attack alongside star veteran Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland, a man with many similarities to his journey.
Just two Indigenous men — Boland and Jason Gillespie — have represented Australia in almost 150 years of Test cricket.
But Doggett is set to become the third, learning more about his Aboriginal heritage in his 20s after first earning a contract with the Queensland Bulls.
Proudly from Toowoomba, the man with 190 first-class wickets has spent the last four seasons helping South Australia rise from perennial battlers to Sheffield Shield champions.
Doggett first received a call-up to an Australian squad in 2018, just months after the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
Injuries slowed him down, but a move to South Australia in 2021 to become the leader of their attack has paid off.
Doggett has been consistently named in Australian squads over the past 18 months, stuck behind Starc, Hazlewood, and captain Pat Cummins.
But with Cummins and Hazlewood both injured for the start of the Ashes defence, the three-time Shield winner should get his shot.
“He’s one of the quicker bowlers in Australia,” Gillespie, who coached Doggett for South Australia, told ABC Radio on Sunday.
“Got a good motor, he’s a greyhound and is as fit as a fiddle.
“He’s ready to go.
“England will sniff an opportunity (without Cummins and Hazlewood), but I’m confident the Australian seam attack is good enough to get the job done.”
Doggett’s selection will only prompt further ‘Dad’s Army’ jibes from England.
Like Tasmania allrounder Beau Webster did in January, Doggett will join a small club to have made their Test debut for Australia without having played a white-ball international in their 20s.
Before Webster was brought in for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy decider, Bryce McGain was the only member of that age-defying group.
If Jake Weatherald is selected to open the batting with Usman Khawaja in Perth, he will also be making his international debut at 31.
Doggett never made any representative team until he was in his 20s, eventually making his domestic debut for the former CA XI that played in the one-day cup in October 2016.
He was plucked out of local cricket in his 20s, after dominating for Toowoomba Souths.
“His path to a potential Baggy Green is not a common one in the modern game,” Gillespie said.
“It just shows the value of our local competitions, plying away and working on your craft.”
Doggett’s former Queensland teammate, Michael Neser, was added to the squad on Saturday when Hazlewood was ruled out.
If Hazlewood and Cummins still aren’t fit for the second Test at the Gabba, Neser could join Doggett in the XI.
The only two Tests of Neser’s career were with the pink ball, with Australia preferring to play four quicks instead of veteran spinner Nathan Lyon when they last played a day-nighter.
Troy Stecher is entering the Toronto Maple Leafs with a chip on his shoulder, something he’s had throughout his entire hockey career.
The 31-year-old was claimed off waivers by the Maple Leafs from the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, hours before Toronto’s 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. The Oilers put Stecher on waivers to activate Zach Hyman from the team’s injured reserve.
“It just became a numbers game,” Stecher said on Monday after his first Maple Leafs practice.
“They were trying to get younger internally on the back end, and they had two really good younger D-men in (Ty) Emberson and (Alec) Regula come up, and I just kind of got pushed to the side, and that’s the way the business works.
“I was on the other side of it when I came into the league. You kind of push some older guys out, so I wish them well, but I don’t think it necessarily had anything to do with being a poor player. It just kind of came down to numbers.”
Stecher appeared in six of the Oilers’ first 19 games of the season. He didn’t register a point while averaging 13:37 of ice time. Stecher isn’t known for points, though; he’s known for the physicality he brings, all while being on the smaller side.
“I play with a lot of motivation and a bit of a chip on my shoulder,” he said, adding that the chip on his shoulder comes from being told “no” his whole life.
“I’ve reached, obviously, the NHL now, and it’s my 10th year. It’s my 7th team, so I always try to prove people wrong, and more than anything, just prove myself right. That’s just where it comes from internally.”
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube enjoys Stecher’s character and energy.
“Yeah, he plays hard. I mean, like I talked to you guys, he’s a compete guy. He competes on everything and plays a pretty simple game.”
The defenseman arrived in Chicago with the team at some point on Saturday, but wasn’t in the Maple Leafs’ lineup against the Blackhawks. He did get to attend a team dinner following the loss, as Toronto remained in Chicago until Sunday.
“Yeah, it was great. The guys were really welcoming,” Stecher said.
“It was unfortunate they couldn’t get the win that night. It would have been probably a little more upbeat. It’s nice any time you can have time with your teammates away from the rink, especially on the road, it’s a lot easier.”
Stecher mentioned he knows a couple of players on the Maple Leafs, including Morgan Rielly, with whom he grew up playing alongside in British Columbia.
“He played for a smaller organization called Hollyburn, and then he left to go to that school in Saskatchewan (named the Notre Dame Hounds),” Stecher smiled, looking in the direction of Rielly’s dressing room stall.
“What do I remember of him?. He was just amazing. I was chasing him around my whole childhood, just trying to be as good as he was.”
The two will now be battling together side by side with the Maple Leafs, something Stecher is excited about. Toronto is dealing with a couple of injuries on its back-end, including Chris Tanev and, as of Monday morning, Brandon Carlo, who was placed on injured reserve, retroactive to Nov. 13.
“I really don’t have a timeline right now [of how long Carlo will be out for],” Berube said.
Stecher will make his Maple Leafs debut on Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues, playing alongside Dakota Mermis on the third pair. He’ll bring plenty of experience, having played over 550 games in the NHL with seven different teams.
Oh, and don’t forget, he also played in the Stanley Cup Final last spring with the Oilers.
“It’s something I’ll look back on when my career is all over, and be thankful I got to experience it,” said Stecher. “In saying that, I still feel like I’ve got a lot of game left to myself, and I hope to win the Stanley Cup at some point. That starts here in Toronto, obviously, being here now.”