MadAsHell

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.

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.

Looks about right Macca. Although I feel Bird would suit the conditions down to a tee, fact of the matter is, Siddle has the runs on the board, Starc should play given Cook (our biggest target) looks to have a bit of a weakness against the left handers and Pattnson's our most dangerous bowler. As for Warner he clearly is in our best team and the no 6 position should suit him I reckon. Me to Jazza, just one more night to go! I've stocked up on the ice coffee's and coke zeros to get me through the 5 nights. No coffee due to the the noise the boiling kettle will make and my sleeping 10 month old in the other room. I've also worded my work colleagues up that I'll be not much use Thursday & Friday and next Monday due to the cricket so I'm set to go! It does make you wonder, despite the change in coaches, how the likes of Watson, Pattinson & Khawaja (especially Khawaja as he'll miss out for Warner) will feel if Warner's allowed to play when they missed a test for much less. Fingers crossed the noises about the team being much closer now are true and we can move forward! On another note though what are people hoping to see on Day 1? We bat first and bat out the day making 300 odd with the loss of no more then 5 wickets? Or we bowl first and knock them over for less then 200 and get to stumps 1 or 0 down for somewhere between 50-100? Both would be ideal starts to the series.

Wonder how Smith, Khawaja and Faulkner feel if he does play as they're the three that will likely miss out if Warner gets the no 6 spot. I reckon Cowan will get first crack at 3.

Final days play effected by rain. Worcestershire 2nd Innings 5/274 Faulkner 2/21 (17 overs) Harris 2/60 (19) Agar 1/86 (27) Didn't get the result which is disapointing but a good hit out all the same. Harris, Bird & Faulkner all took 4 wickets for the match each and Agar 3 so we're probably no closer to seeing who gets the final bowlers spot. Rock, paper, scissors championship between Harris, Bird, Siddle & Faulkner maybe to determine?

Stumps Day 3 Australia 4/396dec Watson 109 Rogers 75 Smith 68* Clarke 62 Cowan 58 Hughes 19* Worcestershire 284 Bird 4/48 (25 overs) Faulkner 2/57 (14.1) Harris 2/65 (21) Agar 2/79 (23) Australia 5/344dec Clarke 124 Hughes 86 Smith 43 Cowan 34 Rogers 26 Agar 10* Faulkner 7* Watson DNB Worcestershire 1/64 Agar 1/16 (7) If it wasn't certain before then it certainly is now that Hughes is a lock to play the first test. Harris getting a couple of wickets to wrap the innings up also keep him in contention for the final qucik bowling spot with Bird & Siddle. Then there's the big question of who will bat at first drop and at 6 out of Cowan, Smith, Khawaja, Faulkner (allrounder) and of course Warner? Anyone elses guess is as good as mine!

Very true. Australia ended up making 4/396dec Watson 109 Rogers 75 Smith 68* Clarke 62 Cowan 58 Hughes 19* Worcestershire currently 7/246 Bird 4/38 from 20 overs! Agar 2/79 Faulkner 1/55 Both Smith & Bird putting their hands up for a birth in the 1st test! Smith to bat at 6 with one of Cowan or Khawaja to bat at 3 and Bird as the 3rd quick after Pattinson & Starc to bowl into the breeze???

And that's stumps on Day 1! http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013/engine/match/566929.html Watson 109 Rogers 75 Clarke 62 Cowan 58 Smith 21* Hughes 10* Good to see us hitting some form leading into the Ashes, all be it again weak opposition. The big thing to look forward to on Day 2 is the battle of Bird & Harris with the ball to see if either of them can put pressure on Siddle for the 3rd bowlers spot?

Wish someone could rread the minds of the selectors Macca, would be amazing to see how they justify some of their decisions. I agree re: Warner, will be very tough to justify his selection. My gut for the first test XI is telling me it might be along the lines of: Rogers Watson Cowan Clarke* Hughes Khawaja +Haddin Siddle Starc Pattinson Lyon With both Harris & Bird stiff to miss out. I know Jazza you're keen for a 4 pronged pace attack, but I doubt the selectors will go that way, but who on earth knows???

For me the big questions that will determine our XI for he 1st Test will be: 1. Does Warner play despite not playing any warm up games? 2. With Watson now openning, does he still play as a genuine allrounder? Or does that mesn that we have to consider Faulkner? 3. What's more valuable in England, a genuine into the breeze bowler like Bird, or do we get Siddle to play that role and look for either the strike power of Harris or variation of Starc? 4. With Hughes seemingly having secured his starting spot with two 50's, who's ahead for the other spot, Cowan or Khawaja? None of those questions are easy to answer IMO.

Stumps on Day 2 in what's been a rain effected day. Australia 4/266 Watson 90 Clarke 45 Hughes 44* Haddin 38* Khawaja 27 Cowan 3 Good innings from Watson as openenr and an encouraging start for Hughes giving him the early front running over Cowan and Khawaja. I'm 90% sure Rogers will play the 1st Test. Don't think they would have picked a 35 year old who's played 1 test years ago for this tour to just sit in the dressing room. One things for sure, our poor form and Warner's suspension has certainly made selection interesting and added something to these warm up matches.

Score at stumps. Somerset 320 Strac 4/33 Pattinson 4/56 Faulkner 1/70 Lyon 1/75 Australia 0/2 At one stage Somerset were 2/304 so it was a pretty amazing result to bowl them out for 320. But the fact we let them get to 2/304 is pretty concerning considering bowling is suppose to be our strength.

I'm hoping that Rogers will be one of our bright lights this tour.

Not in the squad so we shouldn't have to worry about that thankfully!

That's a fair concern, and I expect both Ahmed and Agar to overtake him in not to long a time. Also look out for John Holland, James Muirhead and Adam Zampa. But having said that Lyon is still an upgrade on what we previously had. Beer or Hauritz.

IMO you should always play a specialist spinner unless you are playing on an absolute green top that's likely to see a result within 3 days. Remember The Oval in 2013.....

I'm in two minds about Faulkner. I really rate him as a One Day player, but question whether his batting average in first class cricket 29.odd is good enough for a top 7 spot. But then again with Warner likely to miss the first test are playing two of Khawaja, Hughes or Wade as specialist batsmen likely to do any better? Faulkner's left arm fast would be handy as the 5th bowling option and meaning that 3 of Pattinson, Siddle, Bird or Harris can play along with Lyon as Faulkner averages around 23 with the ball in first class cricket which is very good. However again I worry that his bowling may be very similar to that of Nathan Bracken, very good in ODI's and First Class cricket, but just not quite good enough to cut the mustard in Test cricket. If we had a really good keeper batsman like Gilchrist or AB De Villiers who's capable of batting in the top 6 then there would certainly be very good argument to play Faulkner, but with Haddin's poor form before he was dropped and Wade's struggles for consistency, coupled with our horrible batting line up of late (Clarke excluded) you wonder if this will weaken it even more or is the argument that it can't get any worse? If Faulkner does play as the all rounder it would then mean Watson can concerntrate on his batting and return to the top of the order where he's at his best. The XI would likely look like IMO: Rogers Watson Cowan Clarke* Khawaja +Haddin Faulkner Siddle Pattinson Lyon Bird Gives us a new, hopefully more stable openning combination. Cowan at 3 who's got a good technique and will hopefully help sure us up and not allow us to loose quick early wickets. Clarke up to 4 as we need him in as early as possible. Khawaja at 5 for me. I know he's a top order player, yet this would allow him to come in a bit lower down with less pressure on him, his highest test score so far I think was scored at no 5 or 6. Haddin at 6 and hopefully can re-discover some batting form, Faulkner as the bowling all rounder at 7 and then the bowling line up as I've mentioned, although Harris could come in for Bird? Will be interesting to see what way Boof goes.

I should apologise for my emotional outburst yesterday afternoon, just staggering to see the whole team turn to shambles from what it once was. Anyone out there think that boof can turn this sinking ship around in such a short amount of time?

Clarke's now resigned as a selector also, fair call I reckon. Given the circumstancs and what's been going on of late resigning as captain may have been called for also IMO. We're in desperate need of a clean out of the toxic culture that's alive in this team at the moment, Clarke's probably the only one (who I reckon is contributing to it) that you'd carry through it. First up I'd be telling Steve Smith not to worry about joining the squad and I'd also be sending home Hughes, Khawaja, Pattinson, Wade, Warner & Watson and replacing them with Ahmed, Bailey, Burns, Klinger, McDonald & Paine. All of whom are either great leaders amongst their states, have worked their butts off to get an opportunity or in Burns case have shown a great amount of ability at a young age. Bailey comes in as captain and Klinger vice captain. Go into the first test with an XI of: Cowan Rogers Klinger Clarke Bailey* McDonald +Paine Siddle Harris Lyon Bird Burns: reserve batsman Faulkner: reserve all rounder Haddin: reserve keeper Starc: reserve quick Ahmed: reserve spinner That's a squad that sadly would fill me with a lot more confidence of at least putting in a real fighting effort then the mess we've got over there at the moment. Was really looking forward to the Ashes, now it's all turning into a nightmare!

Along with Boof they need to get a few others in there to stop the rot and get the players to STFU and fall into line and get the nationback on track. Border batting coach. S. Waugh fieldijg coach Big Merv bowling coach Surround these pretenders with people who have been there, done that and have actually achieved something at the top.

I agree HT, I have no issues with Boof becoming coach, in fact I think he'll be good for them bringing back a bit of old school mongrel. It all sounds to me like Cricket Australia were loosing control of some of their players and instead of putting the foot down with them they've sacked the coach instead. Smith into the squad would only make sense to me if they were sending Warner home (which they should do). They need to get some professionalism into that team and stop with the individualism, I'm talking about the likes of Warner, Watson and Clarke despite how good he is who seem to think it's all about them if you believe the stories and rumors out there. But who knows? I had high hopes of an 89' style tour coming up, but instead of I think it could be more like the 06/07 series with the roles reversed the way things are going.

What the hell is going on over there!!!

You're not wrong about Harris causing a nice problem to have. We'll be left with 5 quicks fighting it out for 3 bowling spots. As you mention, as did I in my perdicted XI to play the 1st Test, I think Bird has to play. The conditions over there should suit him perfectly. Personally I think Pattinson should play as I reckon he's our most dangerous bowler, especially against the top order. If you look at his career so far, the majority of his wickets are against top 6 batsman, and we really need to knock over the likes of Cook, Trott, Bell and Pietersen (if he's fit) as cheaply as possible. That then leaves 3 bowlers for 1 spot. Starc for mine would probably be the first that I'd rule out, despite the variation that he does offer with the left arm. Opposite to Pattinson, the majority of his wickets seem to be against the tail (as handy as that is) and he does have a habbit of leeking runs at times, although not as bad as Mitch Johnson... So for me that then leaves it between Siddle & Harris. Siddle's last 24 months would lead you to think he'd be given the nob given he's led the attack really well and he's as fit as an ox and can run in all day compared to Harris who's only ever played back to back tests once in his career. Although Harris's record is very, very good. Maybe Rhino should be our first alternate if any of the other quicks are injured or need a rest mid tour? It's a difficult one for the selectors.... Edit: English

Good work on the organising 45. And good luck Jasmine!