“It was like a culmination of all my years coming into this one moment,” remembers Jake Weatherald of the net session that turned everything around. Only, ‘remembering’ might not be the right word.

Here are the agreed facts: Weatherald was practicing at Bellerive Oval’s indoor nets sometime in late 2023.

That’s it.

The other details of this career-turning hour (or was it longer?) he is fuzzy on. The identity of the coach (or was it a teammate?) throwing (or maybe bowling?) to him? Not important. What remains clear to the now 30-year-old is how, in that hit, he married his pre-ball ‘trigger’ with just the right amount of mental application.

“All these simple things came forth and I was like, ‘Yep, they’re the things I’ve done well when I’ve done well, and I’m just going to stick to that’,” he says. “I feel like I’m one of the best players in the country when I’m doing that.”

Weatherald’s retelling mirrors the approach he has since taken to batting. Details are baggage.

“He’s probably gone through over a decade’s worth of technical adjustments,” Tasmania coach Jeff Vaughan says, “looking at his technique, his skillset, his power game, his defensive game.”

Now, there is only a ball to be watched, and a basic set of cues to allow him to hit it. The rest? Superfluous.

He didn’t know it at the time, but Weatherald’s watershed training net that crystallised his refined method has put him closer to a yearned-for Baggy Green than at any other point in his decade-long career.

At the start of the 2023-24 season, he had just moved to Hobart after eight summers with South Australia, where he had scored almost 4,000 Sheffield Shield runs and nine centuries. His most recent Shield match (his last for SA) had in fact been in Hobart, where he stroked a 132-ball 100 against the Tigers in one of only two Redbacks wins during that ’22-23 summer. Within months, Weatherald, a long-time leading domestic performer whose final years with SA were hampered by mental-health challenges, had joined Tasmania in the biggest move of his career. And, off the back of that one hit-out in the indoor nets, he finally felt ready to resurrect a career that had petered out.

The only problem was he couldn’t get a game.

‘I was a bit like, ‘What do I do here?’ // Getty

Tigers openers Tim Ward and Caleb Jewell were both Australia A incumbents, while No.3 Charlie Wakim would outscore both over the course of that ’23-24 Shield campaign – their most successful since they last lifted the trophy in ’12-13.

Weatherald played the first Shield game of the ’23-24 season, making 12 and 29 against his former side SA, but was axed when Ward returned from injury. That outing would be his only first-class appearance in a span that stretched 22 months.

“It really was quite unique circumstances,” Vaughan says. “Jake was incredibly unfortunate. He was the one who probably just had made the least runs. That was a really tough call from our perspective.”

From afar, the road back looked a long one. Weatherald turned 29 that summer and, since the pandemic, had missed more games than he had played. In hindsight, however, the evidence that he had turned a corner was there if you looked hard enough.

In November 2023, weeks after losing his Shield spot, Weatherald stunned Victoria in the state Second XI competition with a match-winning unbeaten 223, facing 277 balls over almost seven hours to help Tasmania run down 424 in the fourth innings for a one-wicket victory. When the Big Bash season rolled around, he went from being out of the Adelaide Strikers team altogether to scoring 80 off 32, 47no off 31 and 56 off 32 in consecutive games to singlehandedly push them into the BBL|13 finals. He returned to Hobart and, in February, smashed 15 sixes for Kingsborough in the Tasmanian grade cricket one-day final.

Returning Weatherald smashes Hurricanes with blistering 80no

“I felt like I was batting the best I ever had,” Weatherald says now. That’s not hindsight speaking; he said the same thing after that blistering 80 for the Strikers in January 2024.

But no-one paid much attention – and Tasmania were flying without him. They were top of the Sheffield Shield table for most of the back-half of the season (stumbling only in the final round to, crucially, hand final’s hosting rights to Western Australia) and Weatherald’s recall became less likely with each win.

A second interstate move in the space of 12 months looked a logical outcome. Weatherald says now his preferred landing spot was Victoria, coached by Chris Rogers with whom he had struck a lasting bond from their time at Cricket Australia’s National Performance Squad in 2018. But the Tigers had not given up on Weatherald, who was only halfway through a two-year deal.

Weatherald, presented his Tigers Shield cap by Mitchell Owen, played just one game in ’23-24 // Getty

“We had conversations around the possibility of him moving and I certainly understood, as a young man who wants to play, he would have a had a bulk of opportunities elsewhere,” Vaughan says.

“But I was certain he was in our best team (for the following season) and attempted to reassure him that that remained the case, and that next year would look considerably different.

“To his credit, he committed. We said he was a required player and we wanted him in our team. He bunkered down, he worked his backside off, performed incredibly well, but not only that, he has really embraced our group.”

There’s a genuineness in Vaughan’s sincerity on that final point. “He’s just a ripper, mate,” the former Australian men’s team assistant coach adds. That Weatherald took Vaughan at his word highlights the mutual respect.

“Obviously I was disappointed, hence why I was trying to move states,” Weatherald says. “I didn’t know if the opportunity was going to arise (in Tasmania). I was a bit like, ‘What do I do here?’

“‘Vaughany’ was very upfront. He said, ‘We got you here for a reason, we think you’re going to be a good player. The circumstances just haven’t been there’. And I was comfortable with that. They were consistent with their word.”

So Weatherald went back to work. Perhaps counter-intuitively given his entire batting outlook changed after a training hit on a synthetic wicket, the Northern Territory-born left-hander these days detests spending too much time in non-match conditions. Again, it comes back to eliminating peripheral information. He laughs when reminded of a pre-season he spent trying to bat for eight hours a day in the nets.

“After that, I was like, ‘I’m never doing that ever again’,” he smiles. “I remember rocking up to my first game (the next season) – I was fit as a fiddle, opening the batting and facing someone who was just newly-contracted – and he felt like he was bowling 150kph.

“I probably just learnt that those pre-seasons were just a waste, because if anything I just changed my game too much. Coaches probably hate me for saying it, but I just felt as though I got into such bad habits.”

So, in 2024, Weatherald packed in as much cricket into the off-season as he could.

In the six months between Tasmania’s Shield final in late-March and their first one-day game of the next season in October, Weatherald played 34 games; 20 in England’s East Anglian league for Great Witchingham, seven for the Northern Territory Strike in the Top End T20 competition, and a further seven in Queensland’s equivalent short-form tournament.

It followed consecutive seasons with Barnsley Woolley Miners in the Yorkshire league where he chalked up a further 59 matches across the 2022 and 2023 northern summers.

“I feel as if I lose touch with myself and my game if I haven’t played for a while,” he says. “I just lose the competitive understanding and the way of understanding how to deal with tricky situations.

“I just realised that I never felt ready for the season. I always found I was getting better as the season went on, and I wondered: ‘Why couldn’t I start like that?'”

“When I’m playing and training, I can get the combination of both regularly, and setting high standards of myself no matter where I am makes me feel like I’m prepared really well. Then when I walk into a high-pressure state game, I can go in and know the things I need to focus on, and know the rest will be all right.

“But if you’re doing pre-seasons, you’re stuck training and you can get a false sense of security around, ‘I’m hitting the ball really well’ – but I haven’t been under pressure for five months.”

His winter gave him time to bed down a notable tweak in his pre-ball set-up. Where Weatherald had previously been conspicuously still all through the bowler’s delivery stride, his hands staying low at the point of release, now there was a gentle rocking in his knees, his bat turned up on a 45-degree angle, before taking a small step back in his stance as the bowler lets go.

When he got his chance to begin the 2024-25 season, Weatherald overcame a somewhat slow start, failing to pass fifty in his first five Shield innings, to ignite an astonishing run of form. There were three centuries – big ones, too; 186 against Queensland, 155 v Victoria and 145 against NSW – to punctuate a 906-run campaign in which he failed to pass fifty only twice in his next seven matches. Over the past decade, only Ed Cowan, Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris have had more prolific Shield seasons as openers.

Weatherald’s ability to pull deliveries that are slightly short, flay others that are wide, and punish bowlers who overpitch, all while minimising risk on juiced-up new-ball wickets, has separated him from other Test top-order hopefuls. His 119 fours during the last Shield season were 26 more than the next best. This was no fluke. Weatherald has given considerable tactical thought to opening on pitches that have gotten more seam-friendly across the course of his career.

“The bowlers are so metronomical now, they’re becoming pretty predictable with the lengths they bowl. While the battle is always super tough on that length, if you practice enough on that length you can get good at leaving and defending well,” he says.

“If they miss either side of that six-to-seven metre length, you’ve got to be willing to score. I think the batters who do well in state cricket are willing to do that.

“You’re watching batters who are putting away (bad) balls. Any ball that lands at five metres (or fuller), they’re throwing their hands at it, or anything shorter than seven metres, they’re pulling or cutting really well.

“You’ve got to land some blows – if you don’t, you’re just not going to score.”

Weatherald’s golden summer continues with third century

Even now, Weatherald is hesitant to divulge much more on his technical process outside of what is plain to see. His ability to manage his mind has been even more important.

“Jake’s as good as anyone that I’ve seen implementing his mental strategies in a training environment,” says Vaughan.

The coach notes how Weatherald would prefer to face one bowler for a 30-to-45-minute session, rather than multiple. He would rather attempt to simulate the rhythm of a match, taking the Velcro on his gloves off and on again between balls and walking towards square-leg, before facing up again. He also avoids, where possible, facing the ‘wanger’ – the plastic ball-flinging devices used by coaches that are adored by prolific trainers like Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.

“I applaud him for it,” adds Vaughan.

Australia’s Test team is searching for an opener and, on the numbers alone, Weatherald is the obvious candidate ahead of the 2025-26 season. Given his first crack playing for Australia A in July, he peeled off 54 and 183 against Sri Lanka A in his hometown, Darwin. It took his first-class runs tally since his return at the start of the 2024-25 summer to 1,143 at 57.15.

Weatherald cashes in to further push Test claims

The rate at which he has scored the runs matters too, especially if Australia are looking for an aggressor in the mould of David Warner to partner the more tempered Usman Khawaja. Weatherald’s strike-rate last Shield summer, 68.27, was miles ahead of the next highest by an opener (Sam Konstas’ 54.10). Over the course of his career, Weatherald has also displayed a rare knack for turning notable scores into enormous ones. Since November 2017, Weatherald has only once passed 70 and not reached a century, while, for his career, he has passed 130 in nine of his 13 tons.

Weatherald’s will be a new name to many as the hype for an Ashes summer grows. The man himself concedes the attention is “a little bit new”, acknowledging “I haven’t probably been this close to playing Test cricket before in my life”.

Again, the breadcrumbs for a narrative that most have been oblivious to are there. In 2016-17, when men’s Test selectors turned to youth after a fifth straight defeat, Matthew Renshaw (then 20 years-old), Nic Maddinson (24) and Peter Handscomb (25) were blooded. Weatherald, who turned 22 during that period, had made a notable entrance months earlier, posting 66 and 96 in the 2016 Shield final, but was not yet in the national frame. He conceivably could have been by 2017-18 – only Renshaw, Ferguson and Marnus Labuschagne made more runs that Shield summer – if Australia’s side had not become settled somewhat ahead of an Ashes summer.

Travis Head made 27 fewer runs than Weatherald in that ’17-18 season and was by then being touted as a Test prospect. Weatherald, who singles out Head as one of his most admired cricketers, averaged 35.21 for his first-class career at the end of the ’17-18 season, while Head’s mark stood a little higher at 36.12. Labuschagne, who made his Test debut alongside Head in October 2018, was below both at 34.74 at the same stage.

Weatherald bats for SA in his debut Shield season in 2015-16 // Getty

But, as it stands now, the best comparison for Weatherald might be closer to home; his adopted home, that is. When Beau Webster made his Test debut in January this year, he had played 11-and-a-half Shield seasons and only came into the national conversation after a golden ’23-24 summer.

“It’s the old overnight success 10 years in the making,” Vaughan says. “All of a sudden you have a breakout year, but you look back and go, ‘Actually, his previous years were pretty solid too’.

“(Weatherald) has got a rich history in the game. It’s not dissimilar to Beau, who had been in the domestic system for more than a decade (when he got picked for Australia).

“The amount that you learn, the ups and downs that you have, and the scar tissue that you develop over that journey just becomes this library of information that you can apply.

“You’ve been exposed to so many different situations, positive and negative, that you’re able to draw on at any given moment.

“History suggests that if you have elongated success at domestic level, that’s the best way to set you up for success going up to international cricket.

“I truly believe that if he got an opportunity to play Test cricket, he’d be equipped as any of others to be successful.”

A Baggy Green cap? That’s a detail Weatherald would not soon forget.