Rhino Richards

Over the six test in 12 innings Hussey made 219. Johnson in 11 innings made 401. A number of Johnson's innings reflected a situation of running out of partners. Awesome effort by the Queenslander.

Given McDonalds docile performance on good batting strip with the ball, I think the selectors will risk it against Peterson and Flintoff on small grounds. If they take S Clark then they have no requirement for McDonalds height. Was that after the finish of the Test? The commentary box (Maxwell, Roebuck and Coward) were gobsmacked that Katich was not bowled until the death against SA. His shoulder must still be an issue. 219 at 19.72 against SA in six tests. His only score over 50 was one of the most scratchy performances you could see. He is one more poor Test away from oblivion. He batted well in the 2005 ODI in England so I will give him some rope. Hodge and Klinger should fight the spot out. If North had been fit then McDonald would have been out of the side. His bowling was lacklustre against SA and on good decks he is too easily pulled apart. An all rounder needs to justify himself as either a bowler or batsman if not both with the other skills being competent enough to carry him through. In my mind he does not have either skill strength at a sufficient levels. He's a luxury in this side. Give you that. Klinger would be a better choice.

A great knock on a good batting strip by Mitchell Johnson who has definitely stamped himself as a world class bowling all-rounder. His performances make McDonald's role redundant and embarrasses some of the top order batsman. Mr Hussey.... the clock is ticking. Its a good point about contrasting Harris and McGain. Harris only reinforces the important of having Test standard competent spinner. Harris is not a great spin bowler and has been subject to some surprising attacks on these forums. Not every spinner is as good as Warne. He is a capable and competent spinner who will have his day out and get 5 or 6 once in a long stretch but will normally chime in 1 or 2 valuable scalps. Australia going into the Ashes without a front line spinner is going in very exposed. We will indeed be fortunate if the hole can be covered by Katich, North and Clarke. My touring team for the Ashes Tests (15 man squad). Hughes, Katich, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, North, Haddin, Johnson, Siddle, Hilfenhaus, S Clarke, I would add: Nannes- My comments above. I think he might have pipped Greeves and Magoffin. Wade - Second keeper Hodge- Form with the bat and prior English experience. Bollinger- Another left armer for variety. Would have chosen a spinner here but why waste the spot. On the outer: McDonald - Not strong enough as a bowler and/or batsman. No place if we are play 4 front line quicks. McGain - Enough said. Watson- Injury prone and the same as McDonald Lee- No form in England. Lost mojo and at 32 I think Australia should prefer others. Hauritz- Went to SA but was not used for any game. Shown that at best he can dry up runs but not take wickets. I doubt they will waste a tour spot on him. Smoky: David Hussey to replace his brother in the side.... OK. I did say it was a smoky! I would not put money on it but if it does come off, I will claim "I picked this"!! :D

Didn't Bollinger come into the picture when Nannes was injured. Nannes has finished the season like a steam train. If they decide not to take a front line spinner, Nannes might be closer than you think. I think they will take Stuart Clarke to England as well if fit. He offers good variation on the others. I think Lee is finished. His last tour of England was mediocre and they want bowlers who can strike. His pilot light blew out 12 months ago. Once it is gone, it does not come back. I dont want to see another Jason Gillespie episode in England. I hope so. Correct. I dont think McDonald will go to England It will be interesting to find out why Katich did not bowl until there were 600 runs on the board. Surely after McGains murdering on the 2nd day, he should have been bowled. What's the story with Clarkes back? He seems restricted batting and I am not sure he is fit to bowl ATM. There will be a 2nd innings for the SA batsman!

The fact is we werent so you are fussing over little and the also that North went down at the 11 hour. How many should we have on tour? I'm not sure if its decent but it may have to do. As a consequence we may have to play a 4th quick.

Aust 2/102 in the 2nd. SA - 450 in front on the 1st dig.De Villiers sensational against some pretty feeble bowling at times. Siddle an exception. Hussey and McDonald are playing for Test spots. Hussey does not want too many more failures. McDonald is average with the ball and non existent with the bat. He is no Test all rounder. McGain has lost his Test spot. At least he joins a number of players who at least have worn the baggy green..... once. We need to find a spinner. However I dont know who that will be....Beau Casson??

Nothing like hyperbole. Its been disappointing but to go from 0/50 to all out 209 on a good wicket just hands the game to the opposition. It didn't so more hyperbole. We were 2-0 coming into this game. North went down at the last moment with gastro. We were forced to play McDonald. The original squad with two spinners was reasonable particularly given McGains horror day. He has got the 3rd day to redeem himself but the damage has been done. McGain came to the Test side with a modest Shield record but was seen as our best spinning hope. Australia has a real problem then. I felt for McGain, coming on with 209 on the board to defend and two SA batsman on top. But he melted and was terrible. At the moment, none of McGann, Hauritz or Krejza are Test spinners. If they are not good enough then dont play them. I would not play a spinner for the sake of it. I'd play four quicks with North, Katich rolling the arms over. Australia has some real problems..... 1. No spinner. Really tough outlook for the Ashes coming up. 2. Hussey continues his poor form. We cant afford to have Ponting and Clarke both making ducks. One of them must fire every time 3. Alot is resting on the shoulders of Johnson, Siddle and Hilf. They need support.

This does not prove your point at all. If Carltank dont make the 8 this year then there will be alot questions being asked about their list and coaching. If Judd, Fev, Gibbs, Stevens, Murphy, Kruezer remain fit and in form with a couple of others standing up then they should be able to give the 8 a real shake. Personally, I would be happy if they dont. But I expect they will make the 8.

Monty, 25k members wont front to the game. Often its less than a third of members that do go to a game. I would expect possibly half of the MFC members will. Many of the MFC members are also MCC members and will sit in the MCC. A nice day...30 to 35k. 45k is a pipedream.

I am not sure that will sit well with his religious beliefs.

I would hope we are not too reliant on that. However GC are definitely looking like a shag on the rock at the moment. Its not clear that they are certain starter yet.

You did the right thing with this. Solved your problem and informed the Club of an issue that they need to resolve. Well done. Its a pity more dont follow your line rather than using the forums as a post to whip the Club. No benefits from that! Stay red and blue!

I think the AFL have gone increasingly lukewarm on Gold Coast and are certainly cold on Western Syd given the impact of the global financial crisis. It seems clear that the AFL are indeed ensuring that the existing clubs have their houses in order and are spending more time perusing forecasts/budgets from other Clubs. The AFL's joy at the turnarond at WB is certainly countered by the continued poor financial performance of PA. PA's position was always buoyed by the significant financial support of Alan Scott and his Scott Transport Group in Mt Gambier. Scott died a year or so ago and I am not sure his estate is financially involved in PA.

Who is the LTI?

Great stuff mousey. Love your passion. I'd give the Club a call.

Agree.

Agree. Jeff White is winning a centre ruck contest too! B)

Disagree. Skilful sides are better in the dry than they are in the wet because the wet makes ball handling, footing and tackling so much more difficult to execute. Its a matter of the extent of the characteristics that define a skilful side being nullified by wet weather. On the other hand, an unskillful side which does not share the extent of those skills of the skilful side not being as adversely affected as their opponent. Its not a matter of bringing a poorer team close to its opposition. Its a matter of bringing the skillful sides skill level done to its weaker opposition. However, there are a number of factors to be considered when going into a game but the presence of abundantly wet conditions provides an opportunity for one side actually or psychologically to feel like they have more competitive chance against another team, particularly a fast running side that relies on slick ball handling.

Jared Rivers told me at the Family Day that he played 75% of the match at Casey and was looking to play this weekend with Casey to get a longer time on the ground. He said that with the expectation that he was going to be playing.

You'll miss the irony of your first statement. Bailey was part have been part of the administration for a month but CAC was in charge of list management and recruitment over the past two years. But of course its all Bailey's fault. So Mo I'll ask again, "Regardless what should we have done about the ruck situation Mo in the past 18 months? What changes would you have made?". As usual, you'll be coward from the question.

No CAC signed him before he left. As you were saying Mo....... The issue is the paucity of our existing rucks is a reflection of poor list management. And many of the list management issues in this regard preceed the current administration. Sorry Mo just dealing in the facts. Regardless what should we have done about the ruck situation Mo in the past 18 months? What changes would you have made? FWIW, I agree with Jarka about the worthiness of the risk at the time taken on Meesen given the issues raised by him. I am just disappointed in the outcome to date.

I think what we need are about the same in proportions to the positions to be filled on the ground. Further, depth in numbers is only of value if you have quality within those numbers particularly at the top. Regardless of numbers we have a specific weakness in the big man and midfield areas. ATM, our best in the midfield (McLean) is serviceable at present and does not hurt opposition sides. It tails from there. Phoenix is right about where the problem arose for our big men on the list. The current team in charge of list management inherited a list with a number of critical holes in it as evidence by our performance over the past couple of years. They have had less than two years to seek to rectify this. What would you have done differently Hoopla?

I went with my son and were focussed on the rides. We did the ghost train and dodgems and then there was a half hour queue for scenic railway. If you weren't on the ball then you can clearly spend times in queues. This is no different to other "free" or sponsored sessions at Luna Park. I note that the did not have the Spider or G Force rides working during the free period which was a relief as I did not relish the thought of being spun like a Westinghouse spin dry cycle. He was not so worried about collecting autographs or mixing with with the players aside from lining a couple of them up in the dodgems. The jumper presentation area was tight but it was too hard for a kid to see so we did not bother too long with that for too long After going to the Junction Oval the previous years, this was a better arrangement as far as atmosphere. At the cricket later on at Junction Oval, that venue looks like an out of date timepiece. Pity about the weather, because watching Shield cricket there is alot more intimate than at a sparcely populated coleseum. However, despite its history and cultural identity to St Kilda, Luna Park is pretty ordinary.

The Club should be congratulated for player/supporter interactive day that got the kids along. Got there at 9.30 with my kids and they enjoy speaking with the players who mingled and yes we did get three rides in up to 11am. From where I could see throughout the day the members tent and merchandise tents were doing great guns. The player presentation was extremely well attended. DB was in good form introducing the players. When he got to No 12 he jokingly chided that Colin Sylvia for being late. When Brock McLean presented himself with a bald head, DB commented there's a head only a mother would love. Well done. Best line of the day came from in the crowd who commented on seeing the stationery tram they have in the Luna Park grounds that "I didnt know Ricky Nixon was here today". Seemed very well attended. Hard to fault. The Club should be congratulated for the initiative. Many of the crowd flowed on later to the Juntion Oval

With Nixon, this incident will create a perfect example of "What goes around, comes around". He has given his detractors ample fodder to dine out on. The sad thing is this is just another example of the malignant culture of alcohol and sport. Given the ruin alcohol and drugs has caused and is causing in AF, RL and other sports there is a real need to eliminate the strong cultural connection between sports players and alcohol. The fall from grace is severe and played out in front of a hungry public media jury. You would think there were enough sad examples of that. Clearly not. There is no excuse for Nixon's rank stupidity at 45yo. He is part of the malignant culture within football codes.