grazman

I looked at Shane Valenti and immediately picked Woey... had no idea they looked so similar.

I agree, but it looks likely to happen, - it wouldn't surprise me though if North were prepared to trade the compo pick. How badly do we or the Hawks want Duursma?

Love Banksy as you can probably tell 😄

Is it a given the WTC is in England? I really don't like the idea of England playing at home for the WTC and influencing the sort of pitch that they would prefer to play on - better all round if it's played at a neutral venue for all sides concerned. Looking forward to the World Cup, it's the only limited over cricket I could be bothered watching.

Yep and Punter as a former Australian captain was livid with the field placings and inability to bowl to a plan. I think the leadership has been spooked by the English approach. There's an inflexibility in their thinking to adjust their approach. I think they handed the initiative to the Poms and it's a bit sickening to see that. It's test cricket you have to be aggressive and try to seize the initiative, not just shrug your shoulders and scratch your head. After the first innings why open the bowling with Starc again when the ball isn't swinging? Why bowl the very same first ball of the innings to Crawley that you did in the first test to let him smash you through covers? If he'd told us exactly where he wanted you to pitch the ball to him we couldn't have accommodated him any better. We appear to be slow learners. I can understand that delivery in Australia with a brand new Kookaburra when it only swings in the first 10 overs, but the Duke ball in England hasn't swung at all until after the first hour of play. I would have given him a bouncer and see if he's brave enough to try to hook the first ball of the innings - at least do something different, something they may not be expecting. Anyway there's no devils in the pitch that I could see, but let's see how brave our batsmen are.

Sure, but doubtful that Mooen Ali will bowl and if the weather improves enough (could do both day 3 & 4) under blue sky their quicks aren't as threatening - if it keeps going to script we should be batting again before the pitch has had a chance to deteriorate too much (there's some advantage to batting with overhead cloud cover).

100% agree Macca, I was being facetious - I should have put moral winner in inverted commas 😉 The game is now evenly poised similar to the first two tests - in those games the bazball tactics have cost England victory. Day 3 will be fascinating to see if England press the pedal to the metal in a bid to get poll position or spear into the barrier. Hopefully the English weather is as kind to us as it was to the home side on Day 2. The other important point is that our bowlers weren't required to bowl more than about 14 overs each in the first innings (although Starc looks a bit banged up). Because England score their runs (and lose their wickets) so quickly - even after five and half tests in seven weeks the quicks should be relatively fresh for one last push in the second dig; which may not have been the case if they were bowling 30+ overs an innings.

I think they will. They will want to post a good score to show that we deserved to retain the Ashes even if Bazball was the moral winner... snap!

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/draft/afl-draft-2023-harley-reid-will-west-coast-eagles-trade-no1-pick-gold-coast-suns-jed-walter-ethan-read-north-melborne-priority-pick-ryley-sanders/news-story/8de2da2c372325224c5f722fecf374b5 North Melbourne, as flagged by interim coach Brett Ratten, is also in the process of applying for a priority draft pick this year, given they’ve won just 11 of their past 78 games. The Roos last year received one future second and one future third-round pick – which they had to trade – as part of an assistance package. Ultimately, they used those picks to acquire Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker from Fremantle. But the more likely outcome, according to draft sources spoken to by foxfooty.com.au, is the AFL will allow North to pre-list star Tasmanian midfield prospect Rylely Sanders who the Kangaroos are hoping will be added to their Next Generation Academy after he recently received his certificate of Aboriginality. Sanders ranked eighth in foxfooty.com.au’s draft power rankingsreleased earlier this week and is widely considered a prospect worthy of a top-10 selection. I can't see North getting a PP if they can pre-list Sanders (which I think will happen) and given the compromises with the GC NGA prospects, I think the secret herbs and spices compensation pick for losing McKay might be more like end of first round rather than directly after their first pick. I wouldn't be looking to previous AFL decisions as a precedent - AFL HQ have never been consistent in how they decide these things.

Rain is our friend this time. Even if we resume the ball will get wet in the outfield which will make it hard for all bowlers, but particularly the spinners. They had to change the ball at least once yesterday. The weather forecast for today in Manchester is no better than yesterday.

jinxed it! 😄

and with taxes for going over the soft cap, the figure is closer to $7m.

Agree, and if the captaincy is the most important job in Australia, it's also a fairly lonely place to be if things aren't working - especially considering the number of ex-captains giving their opinions in commentary. If there's anything more than 4 hours play left in this test then we're cooked. If we hang on for a draw though hopefully that releases a few of our players that seem to be getting weighed down by the burden of expectation to bring home the urn.

I think there's a fair bit of revisionism going on in the media re the Murphy non-selection. Some very dubious arguments to suggest that Moen 'deceived' Manus with some wicket turn on day 1. It was a terrible shot by a mentally tired player that he would never get out to in normal circumstances. It hardly turned at right angles. Green and Marsh put on 65 runs and Murphy is as text book a number 11 as you can get. England would have been batting by the end of day 1 if we'd only played the one all-rounder and I doubt Murphy would have done much better than Head (who is a very decent part-timer) on day 2.

Looks like they've made the call on Murphy. Green comes in with Hazlewood. It will be our longest batting line up for a while and the pitch and forecast* for Manchester seems to favour the seamers anyway. We just need to bat time and ensure we don't lose 20 wickets to retain the ashes. * 40% chance of rain today and overcast all test match by the look of it. 95% chance of rain on Saturday and 86% Sunday.

I’ve seen enough of Warner’s two dismissals in the last test to know his demons against Broad mean we’ll effectively be ‘1 for’ in every innings. The Poms need to take 40 more Australian wickets to retake the Ashes, we just need to make sure they don’t. I’d drop Warner and Murphy for Harris and Green. Between Marsh, Green, Head and Manus they can get through 20 -30 overs an innings (the Poms haven’t batted longer ghan three sessions anyway). I can’t see the value in playing Murphy, they’ll look to take him downtown on something close to T20 decks anyway.

Everyone loves a redemption story. It goes to show how harsh we are as judges of those playing at the highest level who fail to execute to a standard commensurate with our expectations and I for one was definitely a critic of M. Marsh - having thought he'd been given so many opportunities and never managed to nail down his spot. I've always liked his bowling but his batting left me cold as he continually nicked off. His comments in 2019 about being hated by the Aussie fans showed a very human side to that criticism. He appears loved by his team mates and at least from the outside looks to have a very deprecating sense of humour. Very happy for him this morning - what a batting masterclass (and he should be sending Joe Root a very nice bottle of red!). He's made it interesting for team selection now for the next test as a WACA native he certainly looked the most composed playing the short ball (with ridiculous ease it has to be said). It will be a wait and see what comes of Ollie Robinson's back spasm. They've got five bowlers precisely because Stokes doesn't want to bowl with his knee and I assume that will extend beyond this test as well. Robinson looks the least threatening of the bowlers (other than Moeen) so it's no real loss for this match and may actually work for them in having their most threatening bowlers always bowling together, but it may mean an increased work load for Wood in the second dig if our top order can knuckle down. I certainly have no optimism that our tail can wag like it did at Birmingham against the express pace of Wood. 13 wickets down on the first day and no sign that the pitch is going to slow up - it may be a three day test match!

3 times in international cricket, although one was recalled by Dan Vittori as captain. Since he’s retired he’s had a chance to reflect and decide it’s not in the ‘spirit of the game’, but curiously as coach of the English team hasn’t issued any edicts to stop his players doing the same thing (Bairstow, Foakes, and Pope), and is happy to sit on his sanctimonious high horse when an opposition keeper does the same thing.

I have no confidence in Erasmus and that was a shocking decision. How could he possibly not think Starc had full control of the ball before it was grounded? Just awful. Having said all that how good were the two deliveries from Cummins to remove Root and Brook - outstanding fast bowling without having to resort to leg side theory!

It will be tough to leave Boland out of the first Ashes test, as predicted by many his technique as much as his line and length suit English conditions to a tee. They'll try to rotate the bowlers, but the issue is one of them is a spinner (and I don't think the Poms will be generous enough to produce a green top even with Leach sitting out the series) and one of them is the skipper so that leaves Hoff, Boland, Starc and Nesser to fight it out for two spots over six tests. A nice position to be in. Also good that Warner looked the best he has for a while, but lets see how long that lasts once Broad goes around the wicket.

I think you misunderstood, it’s not about whether they were still working at Hawthorn that is relevant, or whether they chose to participate or not in the investigation by the HFC - which is their right. It’s that Hawthorn investigated their past actions and made recommendations based on the findings without ever telling them they were being investigated in the first place or gave them the opportunity to give their side of the story. That’s not a convention or a courtesy, it’s a legal right. This is a clear breach of procedural fairness and natural justice.

Except the AFL have played a straight bat. They gave all three parties the opportunity to respond to the allegations and at the conclusion had no adverse findings to deliver... hard to sue them in that regards. No the real issue is how the HFC have managed this from the outset.

Fundamentally the HFC have a problem. You can't receive an allegation and run an investigation over a number of months and then refer that investigation to a parent body for further action without giving the subjects of the allegation the 'right' to understand that a) they were the subject of the investigation and b) an opportunity to respond to the allegations. That in any language is a denial of natural justice and procedural fairness. It wouldn't surprise me if Clarkson, Fagan and Burt sued the HFC for substantial damages.

Agree Red. I was also a little peeved at the commentary (vomitary) around the JVR incident and yet the Chol incident on Bowey was similar and only replayed once and no references re the tribunal etc.