titan_uranus

Neither OMac nor Frost showed enough this year for any of us to be 100% convinced. I'm much more positive about OMac than, say, STMJ, but I still accept that he isn't anything certain. Bringing Lever in will likely make his job much, much easier. It also allows us to do one, and maybe both, of two things: play TMac forward (his best football in 2017 was, in my view undoubtedly, as a forward); and release Hibberd, who spent too much time this year being forced to play as the third tall. Until a quality midfielder becomes available, this is a nothing argument. There isn't currently a midfielder available who promises what Lever promises. Besides which, I think if we bring Lever in and can release Hibberd further up the ground that will assist with part of our current midfield problem. That said, I don't believe Lever is worth two first round draft picks. I think Adelaide is posturing, and fair enough too, but if that becomes the true asking price I wouldn't pay it.

I feel like this thread has reached the point where people don't want Lever because STMJ wants him.

Watching him closely tonight. Playing really, really well so far. Exciting.

This is the most interesting post on this thread.

Regardless of what you think of Lever (he's one of the competition's genuine stars) and of OMac (he's far, far better than STMJ claims and he's much improved on last year), if Lever wants to play for us then, provided we don't jeopardise our ability to retain our core talent over the next 5 years, we do that deal.

We're also +3 in the W-L record for the first time since 2006. We won 6 in a row in 2006. We won 7 in a row in 2000 (and 1998) if you include the two finals wins. Otherwise, we last won 7 home and away games in a row in 1990 (ended up 8 in a row with the first final win). I've just looked through this. Jones debuted in Round 17, 2006. He's missed 6 games since then, including last night. We'd lost them all until last night. That means until last night we hadn't won a game without Nathan Jones playing since before he debuted (which was Round 15, 2006 (we beat Richmond on a Friday night).

Yep. Snaps a 9-game losing streak vs West Coast, a 9-game losing streak vs West Coast at Domain, and a 17-game losing streak at Domain in general.

We won three in a row last year - Gold Coast, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide. That was clearly too much for us as we then proceeded to lose to Carlton.

After three Tests and two days of hard work to put ourselves in with a chance to win a series in India, or at least draw it, one bad day of cricket means it's all over. Getting bowled out for just 127 in well under a day is a brutal way to end what has otherwise been a strong series. The Saha-Jadeja partnership gave India a lot of confidence in circumstances where, if Renshaw had held that catch, they might have been all out by stumps last night 50 runs behind. Finally, if we're going to drop an in-form Khawaja from the series to play a "specialist" in S Marsh (who played, what, one innings of note in four Tests?), we should be dropping Warner the next time. Literally one decent innings from him all series.

One we can break on Sunday - a win will mean we have two more wins than losses. That hasn't happened since the end of the 2006 season. I believe we were in the 8 after Round 1, 2015 when we beat Gold Coast. Other than that, not since Round 14 2011.

I genuinely thought we were no chance of batting out the day. Handscomb and Marsh haven't been amazing this tour so far but they stood up when needed. We should take some confidence from that performance, not a typical Australian Day 5 batting performance on the subcontinent. Kept the bowlers off the field all day too, extra day's rest, given the next Test starts at the end of the week.

8 overs to bat out tonight, 152 behind. I smell a collapse coming up.

Despite making 451 in the first innings, we have been batted out of this Test. We can't win from here, but we can easily lose. The bigger India's lead, the more likely we are to fall apart with the bat.

Classic Australian Test squad selection. We've picked Cummins to replace Starc. Despite Cummins having played one first class game since his only Test in late-2011. Bird deserves Starc's spot more than Cummins does but I'm now expecting Cummins to play instead.

Ripping Test, this, but looks over now. Ashwin taking those two wickets in the last three overs before tea, leaving us 87 behind and with only 4 wickets left. Handscomb looks comfortable but I can't see him staying long enough, or the tail hanging around long enough, to score another 87 runs. If we lose, it will come down to the poor bowling yesterday in India's second innings. We let them back into the match with loose bowling early. S Marsh not reviewing his LBW decision doesn't help, either. Also, M Marsh has now scored 48 runs in four innings, and has only bowled 5 overs in the two Tests so far (for 0 wickets). He is adding close to nothing to the side and should be dropped, win or lose, for either Khawaja or Maxwell in the next Test.

Incredible result. More a combination, I think, of India's over-confidence and Australia doing its homework than the pitch - it wasn't some sort of unplayable grubber (which has existed before in India). Smith showed patience could net you runs, as did Renshaw (don't underestimate his two innings, both with sickness). Just a strong all-round performance, the likes of which we just don't see in Asia these days!

So we've set them a target of 441. History says that should be enough but if don't get some early wickets (especially Vijay and Kohli) I'll remain concerned. Would be a great win, for the series and for the team.

Incredible stuff, with India losing 7/11. That's the kind of stuff we all expected to see from Australia, not India. If we can get another 100 runs, get the lead up past 400, we'd have to back ourselves in to win this. I don't imagine we're going to knock India over for 105 again but only one team has ever chased more than 300 to win a Test in India so I think 400 will be a useful target to set. Renshaw is a find. A half-century under duress on Day 1 (in the context of the match, vital that he came back out and scored runs) and then an important 30-odd under more duress in an unfamiliar position today.

Good on Renshaw for making a half century despite sickness. The rest of the batting card looks about right, save for 4 wickets falling to Yadav's pace. Mitch Marsh 4, Wade 4. I wonder if they'll be 6 and 7 come the fourth Test of this series.

What a crazy ODI today! Hazlewood run out for a diamond duck after being part of a 50+ run partnership without even facing a ball!

The squad for the India tour has been named. We've picked three "all-rounders" (Maxwell, M Marsh, Agar), none of whom are good enough to bat at 6. Wade is also batting so poorly at Test level that he doesn't command the number 6 spot. Our obsession with finding an all-rounder to provide the third pace option (Marsh) to allow O'Keefe or Swepson to bowl alongside Lyon, or to be a second spinner (Agar/Maxwell) to allow us to play Bird means we're going to continually fail to put enough runs on the board, something which we've just seen cost England a few Tests when they failed to go on to post 500+ runs in the first innings. We are not going to win if we don't score runs and only playing 5 batsmen and then a hodge-podge of players who average 25-35 at 6-9 is not going to work. More importantly, none of Maxwell, M Marsh or Agar are any good.

Oakland had the ability to beat New England until Carr broke his leg. Houston's probably the worst team to make the playoffs since, what, the 2010 Seahawks who finished below .500? But I think Houston will win that game. Packers' current form means they should take care of the Giants, Seattle will destroy Detroit IMO, and I don't see Miami getting anywhere near Pittsburgh either. The Chiefs-Steelers game should be a ripper, as will the Patriots-Chiefs/Steelers game. I also think the Falcons-Seahawks game will be close, and I can easily see the Seahawks knocking them off and facing Dallas or Green Bay in the NFCCG.

Agree on all fronts Macca. I'm really looking forward to seeing how we bat on the Indian pitches. I'm confident there will be at least one bad innings, probably a few more than that, and the reaction will be interesting. Still a few question marks over the team, though. Wade is struggling (IMO we never should have dropped Nevill and the switch hasn't yet worked), Lyon traditionally doesn't bowl that well in the subcontinent, and of course there is the ongoing debacle of number 6. We'll see how Cartwright goes but I'm not sold on a half-baked "all-rounder", I'd prefer a proper batsman.

The MFC finally gets its house in order on/off field so my NFL team, the 49ers, falls apart. Kelly wanted to draft Prescott but Baalke said no. Now both are fired. $70-odd million owing to Kelly and Tomsula and we are at square one for the third straight year. Unbelievable, really. As to playoffs, I'm getting behind anyone whose name is not Seattle, Green Bay, New England or Pittsburgh. Also, sorry for my continued absence from the NFL tipping competition - I'm never on Demonland regularly enough over the NFL season to participate properly.

10/86, then 10/85, now 8/32. Batting lineup has to change. The problem is 5, 6 and 7 are as weak as they have ever been. Voges must go. Nevill is in huge trouble. Ferguson wasn't the right answer to replace Marsh and now we either have to drop him after one game or persist with him when not in form. Need to pick two or three in-form Shield batsmen and stick with them.