Nasher

Nice pun :-p But yes, the Bernie Vince once is an absolute non-incident.

The topic tag isn't visible in some of the forum media - i.e. they don't appear in the mobile version, nor can you see them if you click directly from the forum index. I'll edit the title.

I'd never heard of Watkins before, so I've just done a bit of reading. Makes for an interesting tale: From this article: And his cricinfo profile: Jeez. I can only imagine what a humiliating and degrading experience that must've been. We've all had those "I clearly don't belong here" moments in life, but in the spotlight on an international stage with some of cricket's greats within spitting distance would be horrifying. I'd be scarred for life. Sounds a lot like me when I played cricket through high school - I bowled leggies too. When the confidence was down or I just wasn't feeling the best, I'd have almost no control over the ball whatsoever. On a good day, most of my deliveries landed on the pitch

I pushed for Faulkner a while ago, but gave up when it seemed nobody else had heard of him. In time I expect he could bat at 6 as well.

How come Clarke himself rarely bowls? He's just let Warner toss a few down, given Hussey several overs this game and occasionally calls on Ponting to bowl; why not himself? He's a better bowler than all four of those blokes.

Pattinson just demonstrated how to get around that problem :-) As my colleague at work noted, "can't drop that one"!

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about or what any of this means, nor do I know what I did to deserve what I think (but can't be quite sure) is an attack on my character. Edit: Just so we're clear, all I said was that disagreements were healthy and made the place interesting. I'm not quite sure how we got from there to "I'm a power tripping groupy who has to be right all the time and in control".

If everyone just posted their own opinion and nobody ever challenged anyone elses, this'd be the boring-est place anywhere.

And I was only explaining that that context is horse poo.

I know, but my (subtle) point was that it's a bit harsh to rib the guy when he wasn't actually out. I realise it wasn't the greatest shot he's ever played in his career, but luck - or lack thereof - played an enormous part in his dismissal.

I was a bit surprised when he was given out when he hadn't hit it.

He makes runs. He's got all the shots, but he still scores too slowly to probably be in consideration for higher honours in these forms of the game.

Taking indirect pleasure at the injury to a young player is still taking pleasure at the injury to a young player. Claiming that "oh, I'm only laughing at the club" doesn't make it any better.

Cowan in for Hughes, one of Marsh/Christian in for Khawaja, and one of Hilfenhaus/Starc to play. Selectors claiming they want some experience when playing against India. Hard to argue against that, but at the same time it's difficult to see how Hilfenhaus will be any better than Starc. Not a particularly convincing selection for mine. As I already said, stoked for Eddie Cowan though. Really hope he thrives. Cowan, Marsh, Hilfenhaus named for Boxing Day Expected (/hoped) lineup for mine: DA Warner EJM Cowan SE Marsh RT Ponting MJ Clarke MEK Hussey BJ Haddin PM Siddle JL Pattinson MA Starc NM Lyon Still find that tail a worry - not that I was expecting that issue to be resolved considering it's just a by-product of who our best bowlers happen to be at the time, but still. I reckon this side is about the best we can muster at the moment - that Hilfy sits twelfth is indicative of its (lack of) strength. Fingers, toes and elbows crossed that it's enough.

I don't have a clue either - and I think we've clearly sorted out in this thread who has a clue and who doesn't. What I can observe though is that even when Flash was playing exceptional footy through periods of 2009 and 2010, never at any stage did he do it through playing long amounts of time covering huge amounts of territory like we expect of (say) Jones and Moloney, he did so by very short, very damaging bursts. Blease is in exactly the same boat; he's almost a complete reincarnation of Davey and surprise surprise, he struggles with the running too. It's easy to say (and I'm not suggesting you are Robbie, but others have) that Davey is struggling with the running therefore he's going to stink it up this year and he's a disgrace blah blah blah, but I expect that this has always been the case for Flash and probably always well be. Sure there might be room for improvement - even considerable improvement (and again I re-iterate that I don't know), but based on how he plays and what his strengths are, I expect that this is just something close to "situation normal" and the science posted by Webber and Nascent lends credence to this. To point out that he's a lot worse off than Nicholson as "the master" did is laughable when Nicho has, by all reports, been the standout on the track this year.

I reckon Aaron Davey's lack of fitness definitely cost us a few flags in the 70s. Ok, I'll stop now.

I love a good "screw the science, *I* know best" post. Always good for a laugh.

Heh, yeah, sorry about that. I had to look up "editorialisation" to make sure it was actually a word - it sounded real in my head Webber - thanks for the contribution. That's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for when I said "someone who knows what they're talking about".

I'd be delighted for Ed Cowan if he got a baggy green. He's been scoring runs ever since he set foot in Tassie basically - deserves it. I think when push really comes to shove his Test career will be short, but I'm pleased his name's in the ring anyway. Agree with you re: Hilfy. Another that I really wanted to make it for obvious reasons, but there's a bit of tedium in his name coming up. We've been down that path before with not much success, let's look forward not back.

I don't like to full stop,

Precisely, hoopla. Too many people are willing put players in a guillotine on information that is at best a stretch, and at worst plain made up. The best training reports are the ones that just report the facts and spare us the uneducated editorialisation.

You're about a decade out - Walsh was Daniher era. One of my favourites at the time too though.

This logic of Davey having been a midfielder for several years therefore he should be a strong endurance runner doesn't wash with me. Davey and Blease would surely be the quickest two at the club over 5 metres or so; seems like a big coincidence that these two also happen to be struggling with the endurance as well. This thread is in desperate need of someone who knows what they're talking about chiming in, because there's a lot of guesswork going on right here that is leading to some nasty conclusions.

Because it makes a complete mockery of Katich's little dummy spit not all that long ago.

At the very least it highlights an interesting point in that every player on our rookie list has the potential to step up and play senior footy if necessary, except perhaps Lawrence. This is pretty different to our management of the rookie list in most years I can remember.