titan_uranus

I think Australia and South Africa are somewhat opposites at the moment. We have little talent but still seem to strike fear into the hearts of any opponent. South Africa have ridiculous talent, but any team can go into a game thinking 'we can get them' with their fragile mindset. Honestly, South Africa may as well not bother playing World Cups. They just cannot win games that mean something. That was a simple chase, and at 2/100-odd they were cruising. New Zealand isn't Pakistan, their bowlwers aren't much chop at all. That should have been simple, but they are so mentally fragile they are always prone to losing.

Well they did what I wanted, but unfortunately White again failed to live up to his end of the bargain. If we win who knows if he will keep his spot again. I hope he does, but that was a poor innings ended with a terrible shot. Ponting's currently on 86. I'd absolutely love to see him go on and make 100.

I want to see Petterd, Trengove, Martin, with Jetta as the sub.

For those reasons he should be playing, but not in White's spot. In Smith's. Smith is not going to win us a game off his own bat, nor off his bowling. White, in current form, won't either. But he could, and that for me is the difference. David Hussey provides middle-order stability and is equally good with the ball as Smith. Then, if White gets going, we're actually a chance.

New problem: the multiquote button doesn't work (i.e. clicking on multiquote is like clicking on reply).

Yep, the sub only has to be named on the final team sheet, 90 minutes before the bounce. But the sub will be one of the four on the bench, as the three emergencies will have already been finalised (i.e. on Thursday night for Friday/Saturday games or on Friday night for Sunday games).

Crap. I knew about Scully, but to see McKenzie's out for 6 weeks with a groin injury is utterly depressing. I'm not going to let MFCSS take over, but when I see groin, 6 weeks, and the word pubic in close contact, the natural thing is to think about...well, you know. I'm truly hoping it's not that bad. Scully won't play for us until at least Round 7 I reckon. 1-4 are no chance, bye in 5, trip to Perth in 6 so I would say Casey beckons rounds 5-6.

Yep, the draft went well I guess. Problem is it left us only a week for potential trading which I just haven't had time for. So I haven't had the fullest experience. Oh well. I'm really interested in the scoring system of UF, and hopefully I get a team on the park that can work well under this system.

Yep, that's a fair comment. It was Round 2. 2. Last year. It's been almost 12 months. To use the present tense (i.e. Scully is a poor kick, not Scully was a poor kick) is a tad unfair if you're basing it on that game.

Oh man I'm excited. This is gonna be sweet.

Close to top 10 for mine. Clear top 50.

Correct. We're relying on the hope that if it all clicks (i.e. Tait, Lee, Johnson all bowl fiery spells, and Watson, Haddin, White launch into some power hitting) we can beat the better teams. But our 'regular' form, if you like, isn't good enough. South Africa and Sri Lanka's regular form will beat us most days.

Agree, White's not in form at all. But against India, the possibility of White going off like he did in Vizag last year (his last meaningful innings btw) appeals a lot more to me than a potential run-a-ball 30-50 from Ferguson. Of course, White could easily make a duck, but we beat England 6-1 and won 4 out of 5 group WC matches with nothing from White, so if he can find some form we can only go skywards. The key, though, is not the batting IMO, as India's bowlers aren't that good. The key is to prevent their batsmen from setting a big total or running down whatever we post. They are good enough to make 400 if the pitch is amenable. Sehwag, Tendulkar, Kohli and Yuvraj are all in top form, and Dhoni, Pathan and Gambhir add to a stellar top 7. We have to bowl tight, with plenty of short stuff, and not let them get away.

Odd list. Bordering on ridiculous. Moloney is not even close to being in the AFL's best 50. Meanwhile Frawley, an All-Australian defender, is missing, as is Jamar, another All-Australian. Grimes isn't top 50 either. And that's just looking at it from an MFC perspective.

Wow this is brilliant. I'm in. I'm not sure about the legal ramifications but I'd say the Air Jurrah picture that CB has as his avatar would probably come under some scrutiny, even though that would be the better picture to use. The other one's fine though, so for safety I'd say go with the second one. Nice work CB.

Agree re: Smith. He's not bowling, and when he does it's not any good anyway. David Hussey's bowling is better, and so is his batting. Should be in the side. White I'm not so sure about. Ferguson was good back in 2009 but White could be the factor that wins us a quarter/semi final.

I think it should be closed now until 9am tomorrow. We got through quite a few picks so that was good.

Frawley, Jamar, Davey, Green, Jurrah, Grimes, Sylvia, Scully, Garland, Trengove

I'm a massive fan of this article. Agree with his general view that generally the AFL underestimates the impact rule changes will have, and then in a few years attempts to fix the situation by going back the other way. Seems like the substitute rule wasn't entirely agreed upon by the clubs, as most, if not all of them, have voiced some sort of displeasure or concern with it. And for Anderson to say that a trial of 4 + 2 would be a proxy for 3 + 1 in the season is, as Jobe Watson said, bulls--t. There has been no practice of this rule, the effects of it are unknown, and the possibility of negative side-effects to me is too great. Generally football fixes itself. The game was slow and congested in the Sydney era of 2005-06, but then along came Geelong of 2007-09 with their fast movement, attacking game. Then Collingwood came along and re-defined the game with the fanatic pressure, somewhat slowing things down from the Geelong peak. Who knows where the game will go next? But let it do it itself.

Also, without having seen any footage, I've heard that Krejza bowled quite well. Seems like he got some bounce to go with his turn, which is good, as that will improve his wicket-taking ability immensely.

Seems like some people aren't online, and picks are being skipped...not entirely sure how to fix that... Edit: seemed to fix itself. Edit 2: Also, going last sucks.

DRAFT BEGINS AT 1.00PM TODAY!!!!!! Thanks to IWAP for falling on his sword, appreciated. To ensure we don't end up with 15 I've made 14 the maximum, so that'll be it now (unless someone else drops out, in which case I will scream and smash this computer into billions of pieces). I know this is rushed and some (maybe all) of you may not be available today but this league is just not going to happen if we don't do this draft today. Hopefully some/all of us have some pre-draft rankings so if you can't make a pick you will at least get someone decent. Picks take 5 minutes, so hopefully most of us are online at once and we can speed it up. Otherwise it might take a while. The draft will run until 11.00 tonight, and if need be will re-open at 9.00am tomorrow.

Have you? There are still only 15 teams in the league. Details are: League name: Demonland Mk 2 League ID: 351891 Password: demons If someone joins soon (i.e. in the next hour or so) we can do the draft this afternoon. Edit: Yes, you have, I can see you. So we still have one more spot open.

The wicket was tough to bat on, but it had more runs in that 176. Poor batting, exacerbated by good bowling. Pakistan's bowlers have the two things we can't bat against: reverse swing and ODI-style spin. A bowling line-up of Afridi, Rehman, Razzaq, Hafeez, Gul and Riaz is strong. Nonetheless, we batted terribly, showing that we can't always rely on Michael Hussey to bail our top order out. We're likely to get India in the quarter final, as I think they'll have no trouble beating the Windies tonight. That's going to be a heck of a game, but I can't see us winning on current form. With Ponting, White, Smith, Johnson and Tait all struggling I don't think we'll have enough firepower with either bat or ball to beat them. Having said that, if we can get some runs out of White and Ponting and if Johnson and Tait can straighten their lines up then we can only improve considerably on what we've shown so far. Apparently that was the first time we'd been bowled out in a World Cup since 1999. It was the first time Tait's batted in a World Cup, and Lee's first loss after 16 games.

Far out, someone dropped out. We definitely had 16 yesterday. So once again we need someone to sign up. If there's anyone who's in the league who doesn't want to take part anymore, the other option is for that person to drop out to bring the number down to 14. Not a preferable solution, but this draft is never going to happen unless we get even numbers, and soon.