Joe Dawes - don’t spend your life looking over your shoulder as you will never move forward

There is a lot of debate these days about the merit of selecting players more on their junior pedigree rather than on weight of performance. No one could ever accuse Joe Dawes of getting an armchair ride. He didn’t even play grade cricket until he was 21 and he forced his way into a very strong Queensland fast bowling attack by taking a mountain of grade wickets. In all he took 257 first grade wickets for Valleys at an average of 15.

I first encountered Joe when he was toiling away for Sandgate/Redcliffe on a flat wicket at Deagon – he must have been about 22 and I would describe him as a very accurate, very medium, medium pacer. Within 3 years he transformed himself into a world class fast bowler through sheer will and hard work.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/69/dean-tuckwell/blog/1257/joe-dawes-donrsquot-spend-your-life-looking-over-your-shoulder-as-you-will-never-move-forward