Inexperienced Bulls start again

Once again bowlers across Australia will have pinpointed Queensland as the most likely place for Shield wickets this season. But not only is the Gabba a fun ground for the quicks, the Bulls' line-up is missing the class that it carried over the past decade and will call on lesser names to beef up their totals.

The off-season exit has been busy in Queensland, with Martin Love taking his 10,132 Shield runs into retirement, Shane Watson moving to New South Wales and Ashley Noffke flying to Western Australia. Andrew Symonds is now a Twenty20 bat for hire. Without four major players the Bulls have been forced into a premature regeneration and if they match their FR Cup win and Shield runner-up place of 2008-09 it should turn Trevor Barsby and his coaching staff into state heroes.

During their first four-day game, which starts at the WACA on Tuesday, the top six is expected to read Ryan Broad, Nick Kruger, Greg Moller, Lee Carseldine, Glen Batticciotto and Chris Hartley. There is not much fear for interstate bowlers there and it is something Barsby acknowledges.

"You look and go wow, where's the 1000-run player? We don't have a 1000-run player," he said. "If our top six can combine and put good performances on the board we'll win games. If we don't bat well, this year it's very important to bat well, because if we don't the likes of [the legspinner] Daniel Doran can't play. He's started some real good improvement with his bowling and I'd like to play him as much as possible, but it really hinges on our batting. If we don't score enough runs and he's in the side, it's going to be history repeating itself, where he's a specialist batsman at No. 10."

Barsby knows the limitations in his ranks and during the off-season spoke to Mark Thompson, the premiership-winning Geelong AFL coach, about how he rebuilt his squad. "I just like the story of the Geelong football team," he said. "When Mark took over in 2001, he sort of cleaned the decks, which we did as well. We've moved on Clinton Perren, Aaron Nye and Scott Brant.

"He went in with a blueprint and started working with all the young kids. For me, it was just sitting and watching and learning about how he coaches his team. He seems unflappable, he's got confidence in his players, and I just like the style."

There are few stand-out players in Queensland's squad, especially when James Hopes, Australia's one-day allrounder, is away, but they will forage in every competition. "All 20 in the squad have to become a champion team, because we're not a team of champions," Barsby said. "We don't have the Borders, Laws, Mahers, Loves, all those sorts of guys. This group here is a group that everyone needs to work together and contribute.

"The beauty of this season is everyone is going to have an opportunity. There are no more excuses, like Martin Love stopping me from getting a game, or Andy Bichel or Ashley Noffke. Sullivan, Cutting, McDermott, everyone has got an opportunity in all forms."

Next week there is also a remote possibility the Western Australia attack will be full of Queensland-raised bowlers. Steve Magoffin and Ben Edmondson, who is no longer quite as potent, crossed the country to escape the long line of pace men in their home state and started productive Shield careers while Mitchell Johnson is still waiting for his first match with the Warriors after moving to be closer to his fiancée.

"It's quite funny really, there's talk Mitch is going to be playing the four-day game," Barsby said. "It could be Noffke, Johnson, Edmondson, Magoffin: Queensland A versus Queensland B." He doesn't say which outfit is which, but the Warriors have the more enviable pool. Barsby's fast-bowling squad includes Ryan Harris, Alister McDermott, Ben Laughlin, Nathan Rimmington, Grant Sullivan, Ben Cutting, Chris Swan and Scott Walter.

Queensland's chances of success are better in the one-day and Twenty20 competitions and they will hope the batsman Lee Carseldine can repeat his form of last summer, when he excelled in all three formats. For success in the Shield the players will have to reach new peaks of performance.

"This team has got very good skills in the shorter versions, if not better than the other states," Barsby said. "In four-day cricket we need to close the gap between our good days and our bad days. Last year it hurt us a couple of times when we had a bad hour and the game got taken away from us. We have to improve so we can have a bad day and it doesn't hurt too badly. Then we'll become a good side."