Rhino Richards

The word is argument. There were no personal attacks more observations dealing with your melodrama. Its amazing you refer to soime "debacle" but you cant accept any discussion of Stynes over his past 12 month performance and the person who was sacked at the height of "debacle" Bailey you would have him back. Some debacle. And once again misstating another persons point of view is disingenious at best. Why do you do that?Another "hiding" tactic possibly. Its no wonder you cant particpate functionally in discussions on this Forum, I have never said anything of the sort about Darling. Dont worry WYL I am well over it. But you do make me laugh. Thanks for that,

Yes. But does he loves his free time? Apart from his surfing infliction what else excludes him as not being a natural captain? FWIW, I am not in favour of Jones as Captain but the reasons (surfing and free time) you have given make no sense whatsover to exclude him under your notional standard of " natural captain". Players grow into the Captaincy role no matter who they are. Judd, Carey, Buckley Neitz and Hird. Some have a slightly longer path than others.

You were telling others in April 2011 to be patient with Cook and spoke him up but he is young. You acknowledged that a KPF takes some years to develop. You have never seen him and have relied on 2nd and 3rd hand reports that his 1st year was challenging and now you are making claims that Darling was the obvious choice. Firstly the conditions of April 2011 that was the basis of your judgement on the timeframe for KPF have not changed. And given you have not seen Cook how can you say that one player would have been interchangeable for the other given what they were recruited for. Others have clearly explained the role Darling had at WCE( maybe you had not seen him play) where he wa/s 3rd4th KPF in line behind Josh Kennedy, Quentin Lynch, NikNat etc. A best you have are toying with hindsight in the absence of needed foresight As usual you would be the last person to ever work that out, WYL. Fair assessment. Both Darling and Cook could well be good players over the courses of their careers and do so playing completely different roles. But after only one year its pure folly to claim that we missed a red hot opportunity. There were clearly assessed risks with Darling by all 15 Clubs and while WCE got a good first year player, they could have easily got a cultural sore. Very few here were crowing for Darling at that 2010 draft and those championing hindsight on Prendergast were not the ones visible back on the draft. .

HT is spot on about you. Other posters have also made correct assessments of your strange foibles WYL recently. But as usual.... Time and time again you dont stand behind your comments or opinions at all when challenged. In your mind nobody could nail you.It must be a wonderful place. But you are pants continually on this Forum by all and sundry regularly. And its often cringeworthy and blatently obvious to all but you. Reminds me of a famous ship years ago... "Iceberg what iceberg!!" . I am not surprised with your ludicrous efforts to hide from your comments you cant admit to them even when they have been quoted back under your nose. Nice bit of tuff talk at the end. Sweet bit of melodrama. You do make me laugh WYL. I will give you that. I dont doubt your passion for MFC. Cant argue with it all. Well done. Its just everything else that's doubtful. Oh I expect some rousing response too. Chipper stuff.

Cant see the necessity for patting yourself on the back. You are patently wrong on the first bump and have established no valid reason for a right/left combo above and beyond picking the best available. And said nothing significant on the second bump.

I got closest to the pin this time. Yippee. Siddle takes a nice catch. And the hole in the wall is now getting bigger. Interest now rests on Tendulkar getting the ton. Rotten tour for India. The only highlights have been Kolti and Yadav. Under very difficult circumstances both look like capable Test cricketers. Howeever it beats me how international teams continue not to do the proper preparation for an Australian Test tour by ensuring that your key players are fit and that you have sufficient preparatory games in the lead up to the Test. If the BCCI are serious there will be a number of current players who will be making an exit.

Can we get 3 double centuries in the one innings?? Ponting, Clarke............. and Ashwin!!

I think Clarke might have been tempted it if it were Katich..... Its definitely a case of when to declare. Given Clarke declared in SYD on 329no, i am not sure a personal run accolade for another player will be a consideration. Notwithstanding Punter has made a few people eat their words. I'll admit to being one of them. Arguably the greatest post WWII batsman Australia has produced (Yes I know The Don played in 1948!). What a record and a career. On a side note my fav O/S player Jacques Kallis has nearly 13k runs at about 57 and over 300 Test wickets. What a unit he is! Worth at least 2 players in any side.

I have seen each of them (as have other posters) contradictions and all. You have made them them in your usual style. And as per usual when challenged or potted for glaring inconsistency you hide behind one point which is absolute no brainer. In this case you hope (and we all do) that Lucas Cook makes it. Absolutely in a nutshell

Nice pick up 45HG16. How could I have not recalled that? *Stands and applauds* The biggest issue in my mind is that the pitch is playing so well I am concerned that even the out of touch Indians could score runs and not go out. But its so hard to tell. The bowling and captaincy seem listless and the batsman all over them Thats why I like Clarke at 5. Beautiful stroke player. Hey HT, do you reckon Clarke was tempted to declare at lunch with Punter on 198?

Thats another 10 balls covered then......

As likely as Jake Spencer playing a crumbing role in the FP.

Any potential suitor would be looking closely at how Jamar's body holds out. Not doubting his ability but his durabiility is an issue.

Good point HT. I dont like having to try and bowl a side out twice in a row with heat in Adelaide on a good deck. It might have possible with Warne but its a challenge. i wonder if Aust cricket is still scarred by the fateful day in India when we sent India in again from a seemingly unbeatable position and Laxman/ Dravid ground us into the dirt and we lost the series. i cant think where Australia has sent a side in again after that. Anyway one for the record books, how many times has a batsman scored 200 plus in an innings twice in a series? If its been done before I am naming Bradman or possibly Wally Hammond or Jack Hobbs.

That wasnt the point you were making in posts #164, #169, #184, #198. Your contentions in those posts were different than what you are trying to hide behind now because of you have been exposed for contradiction. Its hardly earth shattering to state that you expect a first round pick to be good. WOW! Its a given. What you have backflipped on when you have stated you expected Cook to play some games this year is that nine months you seemed to understand that a 17yo KPP would take time to develop and were accepting of that. I dont want to take this further because fathoming your incredible backflips and porous arguments is a wasted cause and you will only keep rewriting your point of view to be something it clearly was not. Agree 3165. I am not sure why the "We should have got Darling its was obvious" card was played in all honesty. Its one of the worst misuses of hindsight as some form of foresight.

Its hard ask but if they bat this Test like they have performed today I think its a chance. They look totally dispirited. Mind you if there is a deck where the twplight stars of Indian batting are going to get runs its here. No excuses if they dont.

The issue is why we recruited him in the first place. He was seen as a KPF and would take years to develop. Whether you blame Lucas or not (I dont know why you raised it) is irrelevant. Given we used a first round pick we shouyld expect that he will develop into a good footballer and not a Molan or a Smith. And dont carry on about Darling as if it was obvious. You clearly had no idea about him 12 months and was cautioning others not to do likewise. You know 15 other Clubs passed him as there were risks in taking him early. He has a had a good first year. Let see how they both pan out over the next 4 to 9 years. And given your contradictory stance 12 months ago I wouldn't be pumping your chest too hard. As a back flip its one of your most obvious of recent. We recruited talented healthy fit 17 to 18 year olds who arent going to be on Australia's biggest loser. They are still growing into their bodies. 2011 was always going to be a tough year. The list was younger in 2011 than it was in 2010 with significant senior players departing an allready limited senior list. You must have been in dreamtime if you thought there was going to be some magical turnaround in 2011. We got stellar 2010s out of Jamar and Green and it was always doubtful whether they could top or equal that performance. Who was going to stand up? Through out the pre and early season we lost crucial players with injury (eg Jamar, Scully,Garland, Grimes and Bail). And we still have the challenges in 2012. And you need more than Neeld being a genius you will need that core of talent to start showing their wares. The Club have always targeted these kids needed 50 games to have the maturity for AFL week in week out. And they do this with the generally dysfunctional senior leaders group.

3/335 after having Australia 3/84 pre lunch. Aust likely to bat most of tomorrow if they can (get 600+) and then go for the kill. Either way India will need a stroke of luck/genius to keep Aust below 400. India dont want to be batting on this track on day 4 and 5 after the hot sun has baked and opened up the cracks. Another first day of a Test and once again India have been played out of the game.

In Perth I wasnt sure if the wheels had fallen off the Indian wagon. Well...they sure have now. If they bowled Ashwin in the 4th over why did they go in the Test with one spinner. On radio they said that since Sehwag did his shoulder that he has lost any guile and zip. He is fodder. And he opened after tea. Well in Perth.... the wheels are off and Khan and Sharma dont look fit. Yadav is almost out pacing Warner for the century............... off his bowling

5 years ago we had a trainwreck of a list and lacked bankable talent. Where was that talent to come....from the draft and where possible trading away surplus players (eg McLean and TJ). History has shown the folly of trying to rebuild a list around experienced rejects from other teams. The issue of the blooding the youth was always going to be tough given the evolution of the 2007 senior players off.our list and the dearth of capable senior leadership players. I am glad we did not do what Carlton and Brisbane did for some of our cast offs. All we have done is add Clark to the list to complement the youth. We had been in the market in past years for a senior marking player (eg Hale) but missed. Please dont try and claim somehow the light came on when Neeld joined.The process for Clark was already underway during 2011.

He could still be effective but MFC may view Trengove as ready to be captain in 12 months time. I agree that a caretaker role may not result.

3/207 - Clarke 3 4's in a row off the spinner. Keep him at 5. Ponting heading towards another ton. Making the bat talk this summer. Century beckons. Australia starting to get on top on a batting peach.

I thought that when the coaching positions for Port Adelaide in 2011 and Melbourne in 2007 came up that successful aspirants were mad because they were on a hiding to nothing. There is a real risk that the winner would take a crud a list and never enjoy real success within their coaching tenure. There is always those that want the experience no matter for how long. I completely disagree that Beamer holds the job while he is effective. He gets the job because he is the best person for the job and he gets assessed every year. It should be the same for all on and off field positions at MFC.

No he is correct and explained your position perfectly. And the claim that the balance of youth and experience is out of whack would not have been addressed by getting Darling. The kid is still a kid. And its amazing you draw long bows based on distant third hand knowledge to lavish Cook 12 months ago and now based on third hand reports of dubious quality he is a liability. You got it right 12 months ago wheh you said players like Cook take time to develop. I cant see why you are dumping on the selection of Cook when its clear there were issues all 12 clubs had with Darling. And its only 1 yr into a possible 12 years for both players. And as has been pointed out to you before, the decision to recruit the youth was not the domain of the coach. Its the role of Prendegast based on the youth policy adopted by Schwab and endorsed by the Board. Its wonderful you can wrongly pin the tail of responsibility with no accountability on Bailey and BBBP and not on others.

Good session by India. Good batting strip to have 3 for at lunch on day 1. Its up to the old hands to get us through. Agree Bob on Khawaja and Clarke.