A.R.S.E.

Bauer wrote:

norbs wrote:

Hazelb wrote:Hmmm..likely story...

To keep you sister rooters in check, I think Wade is the real deal.

yeah me too. Pity his father is doing all he can to screw over 75% of Tasmanian football fans.

and I dont think your bias is anti Tasmanian. Hell even I dont rate Scheissenhaus as a front line bowler. But you dont have any love for the 2nd best cricketer this country has ever seen.

loved Boony though

2nd best cricketer this country has ever seen? Hmm, Creg Chappell? Shane Warne? DK Lillee?

Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Keith Miller, Richie Benaud......
Yes he would make an all time Aussie XI but lets calm down on the No. 2 all time crap - still it is the sort of thing that happens nowadays when a star retires, same thing happens when someone dies, this immediate revisionist history on their careers that pumps them up about 200%.

Missed Allan Border - severely underrated at this stage. It is one thing making 13000 runs surrounded by Waugh (x2), Hayden, Langer, Hussey etc etc in a mostly winning environment. Border led the team back from a black hole that makes recent struggles look like wild success against some very high quality opposition and set the the platform for the following generations.

Ponting has been great, but he would not even sniff a top 5 and maybe not a top 10 of all time Aussie players.

This is my favorite chart to demonstrate my opinion of Ponting...


http://www.howstat.com.au/cricket/Stati ... yerID=2041" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The chart shows his career and his scores for each test match innings (yellow = double centuries, blue = centuries, red = fifties).

What it actually shows is that since October 2008 Ricky, a front line batsman who's sole job has been to score runs, has only scored 5 centuries. That's 5 centuries in over 4 years.

Between March 1999 and October 2008 Ricky was undoubtedly Australia's leading batsman, with only the periods between Nov 2000 to Aug 2001, and Dec 2003 to Jan 2005 proving to be fairly lean, however since October 2008 Ricky has been far from the lead run getter for Australia, with no ability to rely on "Australia's #1 run scorer" actually getting much further than his career average.

I also compare Ricky's career batting chart against Steve Waugh's. In particular I look to the end of each of their careers and note how Steve went out when he was putting in some solid performances and how Ricky;'s just kind of dribbled out, a bit like my 3 year old expressing her disdain for tinned spaghetti.


http://www.howstat.com.au/cricket/Stati ... yerID=1873" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think that Australian cricket certainly benefited from having Ricky around, and he certainly contributed, through his batting, to Australia's domination between 1999 and 2008, but since then he has largely been an unreliable source of runs. Indeed it could be argued that Australia's decline is paired to Ricky's decline as the selectors refused to move him out to pasture earlier.

I say thank you Ricky..... and thank you for letting us move on (about time).

Nice post Montey.

Another failure to add to the last little cluster. He should have left ages ago.

Well it's now only a matter of time till this game ends

I knew Ponting's failure would please someone. I'm hoping Khawaja gets another go in his place.

Dr. Pain wrote:Well it's now only a matter of time till this game ends

I knew Ponting's failure would please someone. I'm hoping Khawaja gets another go in his place.

Punter isn't the right nickname. The Barnacle is more apt.

And whilst I am laying the slipper in, Watson is a fraud at 3.

That's very true. He is never going to be a number 3. He should be where Hussey is at the moment.

I've always been a big Ponting fan, I can remember some one day and test innings that just left me speechless, I've seen that glorious cut shot so many times that the image of him in the follow through with the bat raised is permanently embedded in my memory. I'm not joking, when I think of him that's the image I see in my mind. Maybe he is a prick in real life, I just loved to watch him play when he was at his peak.

I've only just read through this thread but a comment before this test about him deserving this last game got me thinking, did he really deserve this last game and if we were serious about winning this last test should he have played? Not to lay all the blame at his feet but we were trying to win a series against the No.1 test team in the world and ultimately we were carrying a passenger we couldn't afford.

Looking at some of the shots played today I don't think it would have made much of a difference.

Australian batsmen seem physically or mentally incapable of digging in - they either hit their way out of trouble or they get out trying. I can't think of a single Australian batsman who could do what du Plessis did in the Adelaide test and display a bloody-mindedness to not get out, no matter how few runs are scored.

Agree VT. Our number 9 top scored. Ok Punters gone, Im a fan, im still not sure we have a replacement but time will tell.

We need 6 or 7 boonies! He could dig in when things were tough!

Steve Waugh said it took him about 5 years to feel comfortable in letting the ball go. Maybe not enough tests are being played for new players to learn this rather than belt a leather off the ball every time.

Meg Lanning has gone ape shit with the bat at North Sydney Oval in the woman's one day game against NZ. 100 in 45 balls. 90 runs in 6's and 4's!

I wish I was there to see that. great effort

Something about the concept of Shane Watson - Australian Captain just does not sit right with me.
Surely Hussey should get the gig for the time being?

Why are fast bowlers seemingly getting hurt more?
Here is an angle – Every ball they bowl now is checked for its speed, if at any stage their speed drops for an extended period questions start being asked about the effort they are putting in, so there is huge pressure on them to bowl flat out all the time, so they do and maybe we are now learning that it is just not possible to do that and to remain fit?
Apparently one of Craig McDermott’s big focuses was on getting the guys to bowl faster and to do it more often and for longer and maybe we are now seeing the effects of this approach?
Think of the discussion raised around Dale Steyn in the first two tests this season when he was in the 130 range rather than the 140s where he was expected to be? Mr Steyn is secure enough in that team to not be fussed by it but all the guys in the current Australian team do not enjoy such a position, they are constantly bowling for their spot so need to be seen to be giving everything so as not to get the boot.
Malcolm Marshall was well known as someone who would bowl to the conditions, no need to go flat out on a dead track afterall, he would back it down a touch and concentrate on other things to get wickets, while still having that extra gear in reserve for an effort ball if needed. McGrath, Alderman, even Dennis Lillee later in his career all bowled well within themselves and were still very effective. Has to be something we can learn from that sort of approach I think – both in terms of taking wickets and keeping our best bowlers on the park.

Well done Mitchell Starc

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Drop Ponting, start winning. Fuck yeah!

Well with Hilfy gone as well, if you can get Wade to update his passport and get Cowan to fess up his roots you will be rid of the filthy 2 headed faggots at last. Im starting to get sick of these interstate players holding back NSW players from their right to play for their country.

They picked another Tasweigen to replace Hilfy though!

oh so they did

He might do ok too.

Bit harsh some of the judgements on Lyon - he bowled really well, had a stumping missed and a catch dropped to.
Herath may of gotten a 5 for, but he had the benefit of guys trying to smash him into the Derwent while Lyon was bowling to brick walls, very skilled brickwalls who are very adept at batting to spinners to.
He has his faults, he needs to slow down a bit, both his over rate and his bowling speed and he needs more variety, not in terms of Jeff but in terms of flight and speed but he is getting there, you can see improvement match to match so what more can you ask for?
Once again - no one else bashing the door down to replace him either.

I agree, I think he bowled well! Was a shame he didn't get more reward for it. And you're right, they are used to facing spin. Even so, he was giving them trouble every now and then.


Sent from Han Solo using TK-421's phone.

So since Punter has joined the #canetrain they have been soundly beaten. Had a convincing win in the first game and I wondered how they fit him into the side. Haven't looked good since.

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I wondered if Mickey Arthur has a teenage daughter who has a thing for tall men in sunscreen