MadAsHell

And that's lunch on Day 2 England 215 J. Trott 48 J. Bairstow 37 J. Root 30 P. Siddle 5/50 (14) J. Pattinson 3/69 (17) M. Starc 2/54 (17) Australia 9/229 A. Agar 69* P. Hughes 63* S. Smith 53 J. Anderson 5/70 (21) G. Swann 2/55 (17) S. Finn 2/80 (15) Amazing test match so far. What will the next session bring? Would love to see both Agar & Hughes go on to make 100's and get us a lead around 100.

Tino Best 95 I believe... And boom, we're infront and it's the 100 run partnership!

Scores level after we were 9/117. This is great to watch! Highest score by an Australian number 11 ever sorry Glenn McGrath.

Great 50 Phil Hughes, arguably one of your best innings! Now only 9 runs behind.

17 Melbourne players, if we're ever to break the Werribee hoodoo, surely this will be it!

50 on debut, well done Ashton Agar! Reckon we've uncovered our very own Daniel Vettori! And well done Phil Hughes on your innings so far to. A very sensible and restrained innings that was needed at the time, unlike Brad Haddin's effort.....

They're called the GABBA & the WACA. Probably the two bounciest pitches in the world, there's a reason we almost never loose at either venue, no other teams can cope with the extra bounce.

Hughes & Agar 50 run partnership 50 run partnership for the final wicket and reduced England's lead to under 50 with Agar leading the charge! Well done boys! Lets now get a first innings lead! If Agar gets 50 I wonder if he'll be the first ever number 11 debutant to make a 50 on debut?

Agar smacks Graeme Swan over long off for six as he and Hughes try to rescue the innings!

A batsman, a batsman, my kingdom for a batsman!

Not wrong about our strong tail AOB. Agar, Siddle, Pattinson & Starc are all very capable with the bat, you could throw a blanket over them actually as far as who comes in from 8-11. Long term with the likes of Agar, Pattinson & Starc who are all still very young being so capable with the bat, it means after our home Ashes series that we could go old school with the keeper position again and pick the best gloveman available, which is probably Chris Hartley, however with a first class batting average of just over 30 seems destined to never get a look in as we all expect keepers to average 40+ these days. Haddin's been a good servant, however his glovework isn't that crash hot (neither was Wade's), and was dropped when his batting went off and was replaced by Wade who I have no doubt the selectors hoped would be a keeper that could average about 40, however he's found the going tough also. If we develop the worlds strongest batting tail, then we could just focus on the best gloveman around. Doesn't matter if he bats 7, 8 or 9 and look to crack down on any byes, dropped catches or missed stumpings that we ay otherwise see occasionally with an inferior gloveman.

Interesting article from Malcom Conn. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/brittle-aussie-batting-line-up-would-benefit-more-from-michael-clarke-dropping-back-to-five/story-e6frf7jo-1226677431551 Probably makes sense. If we moved Watto back to openning because that's where he plays his best, maybe Clarke should stay at 5? 2nd Innings with Hughes at 4 followed by Clarke & Smith? And he's probably righ about Cowan. I'd probably give him the first 2 tests, but if he fails Khawaja should probably come into calculations at number 3. Other options from outside the squad are probably Doolan, Burns and Ferguson.

Stumps Day 1 England 215 J. Trott 48 J. Bairstow 37 J. Root 30 P. Siddle 5/50 (14) J. Pattinson 3/69 (17) M. Starc 2/54 (17) Australia 4/75 S. Smith 38* C. Rogers 16 S. Watson 13 J. Anderson 2/25 (10) S. Finn 2/37 (8) Well not a good start for Cowan in his number 3 role with a golden and Clarke getting a globe also at 4. Pretty even you'd have to say and all in all I'm reasonably happy with where we're at. We've probably got the strongest tail of all time with all of Siddle, Starc, Pattinson & Agar more then capable with the bat. Fingers crossed we can manage to get to lead of at least 50 runs for a bit of a psychological edge. If we can leave ourselves chasing an amount under 300 I reckon we're a real shot! Big first session of Day 2 coming up!

Tea Day 1 England 6/185 J. Trott 48 J. Bairstow 32* J. Root 30 P. Siddle 5/50 (14) J. Pattinson 1/51 (13) Great sessions by Australia and especially Siddle there taking all of our 4 wickets. Fingers crossed we can knock Bairstow over early in the next session and bowl England out for under 250. That's it for me for the night, decided I'll only go the full night on friday & saturday nights. Hopefully I'll hear good news when I turn SEN on in the morning.

Siddle again! Gets Bell and that's 4 of our 5 wickets. To think this guy nearly didn't play in this test... Edit: Make that 5 of our 6 and that's Prior gone! England 6 down for less then 200 before tea, lets roll them for under 250 Aussies. Siddle for 8!

Siddle you little ripper! two wickets in the first hour after lunch, Pietersen & Trott. Thanks god we didn't play Bird!!!

Also thought I'd mention that I feel for Nathan Lyon. His form in the warm ups was solid and he did reasonably well over in India. Could still possibly play a role this series if Agar struggles or as a 2nd spinner at The Oval which does spin a bit.

Lunch Day 1 England 2/98 J. Trott 37* J. Root 30 A. Cook 13 P. Siddle 1/28 (5 overs) J. Pattinson 1/31 (9) Evenly balanced at lunch. Trott's looking good and Pattinson and Starc have both bowled well. Glad Siddle got the wicket of Root as his first 4 overs were very ordinary and I was thinking I wish Bird was playing. Agar looks a likely type, tall left arm spiner with a bit of bounce and grip. 0/8 off 3 overs and as another poster mentioned, seemed to worry Trott more then any of our seamers. First ball in test cricket was a full toss that went for 4 but steadied after that. Here's hoping for at least 3 wickets in the next session!

Changing my predictions. I'm feeling a lot more optimistic today after Watson's comments on Roos and Sylvia stating that he wants to stay. Paul Roos as coach Jack Watts & Colin Sylvia sign 3 year deals. Max Gawn 2 year deal. Free Agents: Dale Thomas (5 year deal) & Daniel Cross (2 year deal) Trade Pick 2 to Port Adelaide for Ollie Wines (they can have the local boy Aish) Trade Pick 19 & Fitzpatrick to GWS for Adams & a third round pick Trade Pick 36 to Essendon for Leroy Jetta & a fourth round round pick Go to the draft with Picks 35, 54 & Essendon's 4th round pick in the 60's. Our line up for Round 1 2014 FB: Colin Garland, James Frawley, Dean Terlich HB: Jeremy Howe, Tom McDonald, Jack Grimes C: Colin Sylvia, Daniel Cross, Jack Viney HF: Jack Watts, Chris Dawes, Luke Tapscott FF: Jesse Hogan, Mitch Clark, Leroy Jetta FOLL: Mark Jamar, Oliie Wines, Nathan Jones INT: Taylor Adams, Dale Thomas, Jack Trengove SUB: Sam Blease EMERG: Michael Evans, Matt Jones, Jimmy Tompas Finals here we come Dees!

Give this man a 3 year deal Dees and make him a Demon for life!

As mentioned Banfield is one that could be looked at by way of a delisted free agent (like how we got Gillies), others who could fill that role and be recruited a similar way as they seem to be out of favour with their clubs are Robin Nahas or Leroy Jetta, both have shown an ability to rotate through the midfield.

This is a nice problem to have, but if we end up trading one of our key forwards at seasons end I reckon it will be Fitzy, I hope we keep him, but he'd be the most likely to go possibly on his own accord for more opportunities given our list of tall forwards. If GWS miss out on Franklin and trade their early (Boyd) pick we could always offer Fitzy and our 2nd round pick to GWS for Adams & their 3rd round pick?

Care to elaborate rjay? Was that no to Banfield, Michaliades or both? Reckon they both have the ability to roatet through the midfield playing bursts on a wing if needed.

You're spot on about Saad. With Milne and Schneider both gone at years end he'll be starting forward pocket there. As for Warren, as the you said he's more a lead up forward then crumbing forward, not the right fit for us. If we're going to target a small crumbing forward in he VFL Chris Michaliades with Sandringham Zebras is the man for us IMO. As mentioned in the OP, you'd think one of Garlett, Yarran or Betts would be possible to shake free especially if we offered Fitzpatrick who you'd think they'd be very keen on. But cost would be to much I reckon. I'd love to keep Fitzy as insurance for Mitch but that may be selling Fitzy's career short. Anyway if we were to trade Fitzy I'd rather it be for a good young midfielder like Taylor Adams, Mitch Hallahan, Leroy Jetta or George Horlin-Smith.

Neil Craig as coach with Cameron Ling and Nathan Bassett signing on as assistants and Rohan Welsh to be on the payroll part time splitting his time between Casey senior coach & Melbourne. One of those three to take over from Craig after 3-5 years. Jack Watts & Colin Sylvia to sign 3 year deals. Max Gawn 2 year deal. Biggest recruit being Pick 2 James Aish with one of Sheed or Dunstan slipping through to our 2nd round pick. Daniel Cross may sign as a free agent or alternatively Rodan will go on 1 more year. The improvement to come from within.