After Berry sniffed the breeze and relinquished his jobs at the helm of South Australia and Adelaide Strikers at the end of the summer he realised he would have to let go. Part of that was bypassing the jumps racing carnival at Warrnambool he had attended last summer with a large contingent of Redbacks players.

Even though the 45-year-old was confident he retained a good relationship with his players after his exit he was pleasantly surprised to be again invited along earlier this month, with his protests of "But I'm no longer your coach" met with "Even more reason to come". With wife Kath even more emphatic than the players, Berry set off on the long cross-border trip to western Victoria to meet the group of 10 of his now-former players.

"I'm really glad I went . . . it was cathartic. It was like a sign-off. I shook their hands when I left . . . and when Chadd Sayers and Tim Ludeman get married I'm sure I'll be at the wedding," he said. "Not to each other, that is."

Berry's attendance at the carnival helped him get over leaving the Redbacks and Strikers, although a tougher milestone arrived on Monday when the players began pre-season training under new state coach Jamie Siddons.

"Wednesday was interesting, so whilst I've known for ages it was Siddons when the announcement happened and you see the CEO sitting next to the new coach, it was a tough day," he reflected. "The boys start on Monday. It's certainly a hollow feeling, after doing something passionately for four years as a coach, so I can only imagine what 'Shippy' [Greg Shipperd] would be feeling [after 11 seasons at Victoria]."

Berry delivered two pieces of silverware during his time at the Redbacks, the Big Bash in 2010-11 and the one-day title in the following season to end the state's 25-year drought in that format. But success in the Sheffield Shield eluded them, although not as clearly as the ladders from his four years in charge suggest.

In Berry's four years in charge SA never made the final and thrice finished last. He does not gloss over their red-ball results in his first or last season, even though the latter was indelibly affected by the death of Phillip Hughes. But the middle two, in 2012-13 and 2013-14, remain a palpable source of frustration for him.

"For two years in a row we missed the shield final by one wicket," he lamented, about their penultimate matches in each season, both at home.

In 2012-13 they had Western Australia 9-143 chasing 207, only to see Michael Hogan and Ashton Agar get the Warriors home. In 2013-14 they had NSW eight wickets down with 17 overs remaining, only for last pair Josh Hazlewood, who survived what Berry maintains was a clear edge behind off Johan Botha, and Doug Bollinger to salvage a draw. When the latter was followed by a thrashing in the final round the Redbacks were edged out by WA for the right to play NSW in the final.

Berry was given the job in March 2011 with the instruction to "shake the cage and do it your way, and we'll support you 100 per cent". By his fourth season there had been changes in the three most powerful positions relating to Berry at the South Australian Cricket Association: president, chief executive, high performance manager. Even though he was contracted until the end of 2015-16 he felt his pass mark had been lifted.

After faltering badly in the Matador Cup the Redbacks enjoyed a decent start in the shield, winning one of their first three matches.  Then came the match at the SCG that rocked world cricket, because of the accidental death of Hughes, the "little mate" Berry had snared from NSW.

It was the start of what Berry says was undoubtedly the toughest period of his life.

"I lost both my parents young, I lost [then Victoria coach] David Hookes and [also former Victoria coach] John Scholes was a huge [influence]. I've lost a lot of really close people to me. And for me to be at Phillip Hughes' side, to be on the ground and see a young man die in front of me, it took everything I had to get myself up for the Big Bash, but I can assure you my players [suffered more]," he said.

The effect of Hughes' death on Berry was compounded by two additional major personal crises: his brother being terminally ill and an immediate family member having a significant health issue.

When the then high-flying Strikers stumbled in their home Big Bash League semi-final against Sydney Sixers he felt that, despite his team having finished one and a half wins atop the ladder, his position was in peril. Nevertheless, four days later Berry said he had no option but to take personal leave from his coaching roles, at the height of a period that, he said, "I felt my career slipping through my fingers".

"I've been through a fair bit in my life, good and bad, and that little period of three months . . . I was at my lowest of low for a period," Berry said. "Elite coaches often neglect their families, and mine was going through a really tumultuous period in Christmas/New Year. I took a little bit of time off, but as it turned out taking that time off probably didn't turn out to be a great move, because a lot of things happened behind the scenes during that time-off period."

During Berry's month away, which included the abrupt end of captain Botha's playing career in SA, it was speculated his exit from the Redbacks was a foregone conclusion but his pride prompted his return for the last month of the season. At the end of it he agreed to leave his Redbacks and Strikers roles, for which respectively Siddons and Jason Gillespie have replaced him.

Despite the outcome, the straight-talking Berry insisted he does not wish he had done anything differently during his four-year stint.

"I don't have any regrets, because I did it the way Darren Berry does it: with passion, pushing people to the limits," he said. "My passion was to bring the best South Australians through, and in my time Travis Head, Kane Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Kelvin Smith, the best South Australians rose to the top."

While many friends expected him to immediately return to Melbourne he and Kath are very reluctantly to uproot their three school-age children mid-way through a year. Consequently he has remained in Adelaide, focusing his attentions on a media roles for radio station Triple M, as part of a sports show and also doing commentary for AFL matches. He is searching for "the right job", most likely in the shortest format - unless a county position in England became available.

"I'm not desperate . . . I'm not just going to jump at anything. If it's the right fit, and my gut feel at the moment is maybe a couple of Twenty20 gigs would be the right fit," he said.