 He played the last of his 101 games a wicketkeeper-batsman for South Australia in 1999 before he moved into coaching, first with the Redbacks and then as an assistant to Buchanan with the national team.Nielsen was the head coach at the Commonwealth Bank Centre for Excellence in Brisbane, where he worked with a number of the new crop of players looking to make their way into the Australia team.His contract was due to run until the end of Australia's 2009 Ashes defence but was extended for a further two years in December 2008 to extend it until after the 2011 World Cup.