titan_uranus

I read about this for the first time in the HUN today: Stynes puts Dees future in young fans' hands Sounds like a good idea, except that it possibly suggests a lack of ideas at the Demon Summit last year. But I like the bit about Stynes reinforcing the fact that we need to encourage youth membership, and retain those members when they turn 18 and upgrade to a more expensive adult membership.

Second time he's been stranded on 99 not out this season! That number 11 of theirs... In regards to the Haddin incident, the ball was a no ball because Haddin's gloves were clearly in front of the stumps. Whether or not the ball hit the bail shouldn't matter because it should have been called a no ball. I wasn't watching, but I wonder why the umpires didn't refer it to the third umpire, and if they did, why he didn't recognise the no ball.

Firstly, I agree re: Dokic and Australia. Only here could she have netted a sponsorhip deal which reportedly is worth a million dollars. Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that there have been instances where women's tennis has been far more entertaining than men's. Dokic/Kleybanova was a far more exciting game than Federer's QF and SF matches (Del Potro and Roddick). Yes, the standard of tennis was worse. Women's tennis doesn't match men's tennis for quality. But women's tennis can be just as entertaining. Today's Age has an article by Greg Baum countering that argument: http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/tennis...3423135787.html

Can't believe Newton goes above Morton and Bate. That's ridiculous.

Well let's look at it the other way round. Quarter finals: Federer defeated Juan Martin Del Potro 6-3 6-0 6-0 in an extremely lopsided contest. Safina beat Jelena Dokic 6-4 4-6 6-4 in a tight 3 hour affair. Del Potro was smashed, similar to how Williams beat Safina. Dokic provided fantastic entertainment for 3 hours against a much more highly fancied player than her. Dokic provided a contest, Del Potro might as well not have shown up. Yet they will receive the same amount of money. So does Del Potro deserve more money than Dokic for being thrashed at the same stage of the tournament as Dokic. And you can't say costs don't come into it. Of course they do. Women still need to get themselves from tournament to tournament, the same way men do. Equal prize money reflects that.

Well said. Women's tennis is a joke. But it is futile to suggest that, based on the results of the Australian Open, men should be paid more than women. Men don't play women, so how can one compare Nadal/Verdasco to Williams/Safina? Just because Verdasco played for 5 hours doesn't mean he deserves more than Safina. The simple fact is that Safina won her semi-final, Verdasco lost his. Of course Verdasco played far superior tennis, but that's inherent in tennis. Men play better than women. But women still have the same costs as men, and the money needs to be there to keep the sport running. As for last night, well, that was a corker of a match. RR, I don't think Federer played his best. There were a lot of unforced errors. I think he played better against Roddick, and in the second two sets against Del Potro, mainly because he controlled his unforced errors in those matches. And full credit to Nadal for backing up from the semi and not dying on the court. Unbelievable. I think in a few years Nadal will have risen to the status of Federer and Sampras and the other greats. After all, he's won slams on three surfaces compared to Federer's two.

As many have already said, there are plenty of reasons why we should try hard to win the NAB cup, the least of which is that the team really does need to have a win, for confidence. The tone of 2008 was set when we failed to win any match (NAB cup or NAB Challenge) in the pre-season. Getting Hawthorn, who will be sorely undermanned due to many injuries, and beating them first up will set an entirely different tone for 2009. Moreover, it might help with the sponsorship debacle.

Agreed. First step is to drop Warner. Incredibly selected based on one Twenty 20 innings. Has 1 decent score from 5 matches. The experiment has been tried and has failed. But I think Marsh is injured, which probably means Warner will be spared. I agree. Tait and Johnson shouldn't be in the same team together, and especially shouldn't be bowling together in a powerplay. But the batting is a bigger concern IMO. 6 ODIs this summer, highest score of 269. We've been batting first almost every innings and the simple reason why we're losing is that we're not setting high enough totals. Those first few matches we had some great starts which we didn't capitalise on. David Hussey might be the first casualty. Isn't firing when we need him to. And yes, I'd be playing Katich too. He can open, or he can come in at 5 or 6. And his bowling is just as good, if not better, than Clarke or DJ.

Naitanui (to see if he's been over-hyped), Rich (to see if he really is ready for AFL football), Sidebottom (funny name)

Of course the jury's still out on them at Test level. For mine, it would be unfair not to take McDonald to South Africa given that he did his (bowling) job well in Sydney. As for Hussey, well, I guess he's past his prime now. He's certainly not doing anything in the current ODI series to warrant selection. I'm also a bit sick of Ponting continually standing by Symonds. I think now it's time for Ponting to take a harder stance, and allow it to be expressed in the media. Maybe that would have more of an effect on Symonds. With Punter continually saying he wants Symonds back, then there's less motivation for Symonds to fix himself.

I would think that Duminy's start would rival most, though I have little to no recollection of Lara or Tendulkar when they started out. Everything Duminy does seems to be done perfectly, whether it be batting, fielding, or even bowling. He could really become an absolute star. I never want to see Symonds selected for Australia's Test team again. He's not good enough. He would be taking up a spot that could be given to McDonald or even David Hussey. I think Johnson, Siddle, Hilfenhaus/Bollinger and Hauritz/Krejza/another spin bowler should be the bowling line up, with Haddin at 7 and either David Hussey or McDonald at 6. McDonald would strengthen the bowling (I rate his bowling quite highly) whereas Hussey strengthens the batting. Katich to open with Jaques if he does enough when he returns. Otherwise Hughes.

I agree. No need to change numbers just because a similar player in a past era wore a different number. That could possibly be placing pressure on Wonna and Martin to try to fill the shoes of Farmer (I'm assuming that's why he's moved to 33) and White. Not fair. And like Nugget said, there'll be kids out there who bought a 39 because they like Wonna. Why not? Shaun Rehn made a fine career wearing 52 the whole time. And 39's not that high. Whelan's always been 45.

I agree; I don't think an ad in The Age would attract potential sponsors. We've just got to be able to convince them of future success, such that we'll be getting prime time fixtures, thus ensuring a good deal for a sponsor. Without that, we're going to find it difficult.

He has his chance tomorrow. Clarke is out for the rest of the South Africa ODI series because of his thumb. This actually works well for us. Now Hussey doesn't have to open any more, and he can return to 4 or 5. And we get to see a Marsh-Warner partnership develop.

But we were courting them, and they chose to go somewhere else. That's got to say something about our chances. I noticed that too. That makes three (Judd, Warnock, Mission) IIRC. Who's presenting these things?

I have to agree iv'a. I'm assuming the club wants to hold off the official announcement until we have a sponsor. Then a double announcement.

Wow. So many faces I don't recognise. Morton looks bigger (slightly), but at least he doesn't have the skinniest legs at the club.

Nice work bloodpumpsRnB. A good read. I especially like the back 6 section, except for the bit where you say Bell is in our best back 6.

Very well said Rhino. Your perspective on cricket is very similar to mine. For me, South Africa is definitely no. 1 in the world. However, all this talk about Australia sliding down doesn't stack up when you consider how close we have been in a three test series against the world's best. We are no. 2 IMO. India is 3, but won't last too long there. I believe McDonald has a future in the Test side. His batting didn't look awful, and 15 on debut against bowlers like Steyn and Morkel isn't bad enough to rule out his batting. And he bowls well (though how much of it was the pitch?). But give him some time, I think he can make it. In Siddle and Johnson we have found two definite stars with the ball. I love Johnson's ability to take a wicket when needed. If he can get a ball to come back into right-handers he'll become the world's best. And Siddle has the makings of a champion. He just needs to work on not pitching too short (a la Perth). Far from convinced that Hauritz is the man for the job. Just doesn't get enough spin for mine. Having said that, Paul Harris doesn't turn it much more than Hauritz, yet South Africa manage fine with him. But I think we need someone a bit more damaging. Maybe Krejza, but at the moment he's unusable due to the amount of runs he concedes. And I believe Hayden's time is up. Time for a new face at the top of the order. Take Hughes to South Africa.

Thanks JJJ for the good work. What you've said about Watts paints a pretty nice picture IMO. I like his being vocal too. I've heard that Frawley and Sylvia are two of the best in terms of pre-season training so far this year. I damn well hope so. Again, good to see Sylvia being vocal. Yay. Rivers is training with everyone else. In the HUN today Josh Mahoney is quoted as saying that Davey looks faster than he ever has. Good signs.

Andrew Hilditch is pathetic. I place a large portion of the blame on him. Look at some of his comments: our rebuilding phase is going well despite the results (how can that be, we've only brought in one young player), Hayden deserves his spot in the team (he most certainly does not). Hayden should have been dropped. His form is atrocious, he is placing unfair amounts of pressure on Ponting, Hussey and Clarke by getting out before the first bowling change, and he is keeping fresh players like Hughes or Rogers out of the team. And if the excuse for playing him is that he's a good first slip, then that's weak. If Hussey has to field first slip, so be it. I'd prefer a no. 1 who makes it past the new ball. Symonds should never have played in Melbourne. I don't know what the situation was with Watson prior to the test (i.e. could he have played or not), but clearly Symonds is hampered with that ankle injury. If he can't field properly (which he can't) then he loses his aura. Moreover, his off spin is pathetic. His mediums are serviceable, but he couldn't bowl them. Congratulations to MacDonald for getting an opportunity. Hard luck to Watson for missing out again. For the next test, I'd bat MacDonald at 7. Give Haddin more responsibility at 6. If he didn't continually throw his wicket away his average would be so much higher. At 6 maybe he'll recognise that he needs to stick around longer and forge a partnership or two. And I read yesterday that after 11 tests, he's hit 11 sixes, whereas after 11 tests Gilchrist had hit only 2.

Yeah, that's how I see it. Announcement of captain + announcement of sponsor to occur at same time. Of course, that relies on the assumption that we eventually get a sponsor...

Well, today's play is going to set up the rest of the series. If Kallis and De Villiers survive the first hour, then that might be enough for Sth Africa. We need early wickets. 187 runs is more than gettable. Krejza was worse yesterday than he was on Day 2. A bit worrying. He's gotta work on taming the full tosses and short ones. If Siddle doesn't improve today I'm not sure if we'll see him on Boxing Day. Watson might get a call up.

Absolutely friggin fantastic bowling. The way he set up Morne Morkel, two consecutive bouncers, then, when everyone expected a full, 150 km/h + yorker, he gets the slower ball which he duly messes up. Brilliant. 8/250 odd is not good for Sth A. Provided we finish the job without conceding too many, then we'll be batting from 0/100 odd. That's the kind of situation that Hayden needs. Credit also to Krejza. Bowling Amla (who I consider the best batsman out of the two teams, and is a delight to watch) like he did was superb. If he can tame the long-hops then we might have a future spinner. Australia's tail must surely be the best in the world. No bunnies at all.

Hahaha. Journalism at its finest from the HUN.