Adelaide Strikers used The West Australian’s back page to fire up BBL side ahead of win over Perth Scorchers

The West Australian
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Camera IconAdelaide Strikers have overcome The West Australian's back page curse to knock the Perth Scorchers out of the finals race. Credit: The West Australian

The curse of The West Australian’s back pages has finally been broken in the Big Bash League.

The West — whose back pages have become part of folklore for WA in the BBL — famously jinxed the Brisbane Heat out of last year’s final by labelling them a bunch of “nobodies” on the back cover after they lost their main A-List stars.

This season, the same newspaper cursed the Melbourne Stars , who were called Perth “rejects” ahead of their thrashing, hyped up Zak Crawley as the royal Bazball King before he starred in his orange debut and even got one up over the Strikers, who were mocked as “chokers.”

Now the Strikers have put a spin on Saturday’s back page, which labelled them a “one man” team focused on the league’s leading run-scorer Matt Short.

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Coach Jason Gillespie revealed post-match the paper was used as part of Ryan Harris’ now-tradition rev-ups.

“Incredibly pleased, especially when we read the back page of the paper today and saw that we are a one-man team,” he said.

“That gave the boys a hell of a lot of motivation. That was in the huddle and that bit of paper, Ryan Harris referenced that in ‘Ryan’s Rev-up’.

“It gave the boys great motivation.”

It gave the boys great motivation.

Short made just 13, bowled by a crafty Andrew Tye in-swinger, as the Strikers scrapped their way to 7-155. It was a score they would later defend.

The Strikers went on a three-game winning streak to climb into finals and Gillespie revealed the pre-game pump-ups by his fellow former Test quick started as they turned things around.

“Ryan’s rev-ups started happening in the new year, once we won a game,” he said.

“I made it pretty clear to him they had to continue, so Ryno’s rev-ups are here to stay.”

The team behind The West Sport back pages would not comment, but it is understood they plan to go even harder next year.

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