Roar Rookie
Joined January 2015
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All round armchair sports fan who watches sport like the best of them. Career highlight is completing 12 straight Le Tour de France's without cracking in the mountains ( falling asleep )
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With the Ashes a couple of weeks away the Australian cricket selectors have some tough questions to answer, not least the make-up and balance…
What feels like an eternity between seasons is finally over, with the Hawks taking on the Pies in a game that didn't disappoint. There…
When the discussions arise at the bar about who is an automatic selection for the Australian ODI team, there few arguments - particularly when…
If the Australian Boomers were listed on the stock exchange, the advice from your broker would be to stop what you are doing and…
Shaun Marsh. How is he getting a Test? Are the selectors thinking of persisting with him for the West Indies or England? If so…
It's February 1986, Sri Lanka and the West Indies are in town for the World Series Cup. After the gruelling 15-game round robin tournament,…
I entirely agree with the Marsh sentiment but that article comes off a bit half baked with all the food puns. Not much meat on the bones I’m sorry to say.
Australia came close but missed the Marsh in India
“There then becomes a rump of people that form their opinion on Adam Goodes based on things that he never actually occurred.
There is a saying that you can have your own opinions, but not your own facts. But when people want to defend those opinions, then I think that it’s reasonable that they are defended with facts, not just vague recollections of events that never happened”
Perfect Andyincanberra
Goodes' treatment a problem for us all
“Bans should become lifelong and doping should be criminalised as it is very obviously fraud”
Couldn’t agree more. The incentive to cheat is greater than the fear of getting caught. Until this has been balanced there is no hope. So sad for such an enjoyable sport to both participate in and watch.
Zero tolerance? Are you taking the piss?
Enjoyed this article Brendon and the comments too Ben, Mark and Allanthus.
Being someone who watches and loves all sports but in particular cycling, the cheating is really difficult to swallow. With cycling because there seemed to be a reticence to tackle the problem the supporters have suffered a death of 1000 cuts. Instead of amputating the problem area and getting very serious about the drugs and doping cycling kind of hoped it would all go away and allowed the wound to fester. In the end you have a litany of incidents like Armstrong, The amazing recovery by Landis, the multiple heroic performances to crack Cadel and the list goes on and on and on.
How can that not turn one into a cynic. I feel like I have been cheated and lied too over and over again. I have invested hundreds of hours watching these guys night after night on little to no sleep only to find out it was all false.
I too don’t think it is fair to label someone before they are found guilty but there are definite similarities that many of the riders who have been caught all seem to have. They don’t crack in the same way other riders do. They seem to be able to endure wave after wave of attacks from multiple different riders. Whenever I hear a commentator saying ” he is riding like superman” or something of the like the alarm bells start ringing. Inevitably a few years down the track when the testing has caught up it comes out that it was all a ruse of the greatest proportion.
Simply it should be a criminal offense to cheat and behave fraudulently in any professional sport with serious consequences. Until then there is too much incentive to keep cheating
Professional scepticism to judge cycling performances
If you asked me who I would take for one season to have a tilt at the flag it would be Pendlebury. For the rest of their career, Fyfe.
No doubt Fyfe is the most exciting to watch out of the three and he does crash packs and is explosive but if you look closely at Pendlebury he is a “hard ball get” machine and uses the ball far better than Fyfe does at the moment. One of the comments mentioned the fact Fyfe breaks tackles ,which is a great skill and very exciting and plays in a ballistic manner which is always good to watch.
Its what Pendlebury doesn’t do that makes him so good. He doesn’t get tackled meaning pace is irrelevant, He doesn’t miss a target meaning no turnovers, He doesn’t have a bad game so he is very reliable, He doesn’t panic, ever so he is never a liability in big games or pressure situations.
Often we look at what people do do and don’t look at what they don’t do. This very same point is why I would take Sloane this year over Dangerfield but that another argument.
Fyfe is a jet though, don’t get me wrong! Heppell not quite there yet but showing heaps
Who would you rather: Pendlebury, Heppell or Fyfe?
A really soft decision not to punish a majority of the riders who went through. They know that crossing is there as they cross it every year. They know the rules. That behavior sets a bad example for all young people out there watching. Yes there was a breakaway, yes it is a race but that’s cycling
Barriers exist for a reason - to prevent horrible, train-related death
Yeah 100% Bondy! Trying to stop people killing majestic animals is nuts right? I mean all they do is run around in their natural habitat and live their lives. How dare they! You know what, I reckon one would look great on my wall. I might just go and shoot it in the face and cut it’s head off so I can have a nice wall hanging. Oh no sorry shoot it not in the face because that will damage such a beautiful trophy and we wouldn’t want that would we!
Hunt to eat, hunt to survive, hunt to cull something that damages the land but to hunt for the pleasure of killing is wrong.
It's hypocritical to shoot down Pigeon over hunting photos
Couldn’t agree with you more. He still has good cricket in him but those moments will be less consistent ( if you could ever call his performance consistent )
Give me Finch over Warner in an ODI any day
Ah ha yes true indeed about Watson and I think that is the only reason he still has a spot. I almost wrote an article about him instead of this one. In all forms for Australia this summer combined, Watson has scored 351 runs in 13 innings at 27 and taken 6/444 at 74 a piece. This is not the output you want for a number 3 batsman at the world cup. For what its worth I think Clarke should replace Watson at three. Watson in full flight however is one of the best ODI players in the world but he just isn’t performing currently and this is the world cup.
Give me Finch over Warner in an ODI any day
B to the second point I agree and do enjoy watching them together. However your first two sentences are a case in point. I believe that Finch possess exactly the same, if not more destructive power that Warner does and this should be recognized. I love watching them both.
Give me Finch over Warner in an ODI any day
I agree. If they both fire together one day we could see a 400+ from the Aussies such is their destructive power. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love watching Warner play but put simply I think Finch deserves more recognition than he gets.
Give me Finch over Warner in an ODI any day
I think the risk there is that team could be bowled out cheaply ( small but there ) . Although Marsh got the 5 wickets the other night he is keeping Faulkner’s spot warm. I think better balance would be
Warner
Finch
Clarke
Smith
Baily
Maxwell
Haddin
Faulkner
Johnson
Starc
Hazelwood or Cummins
If the openers get off to an amazing start you can hold Clarke out of the order. If however an early wicket falls Clarke is a super reliable number 3 with a great average and a pretty good strike rate
Australia smash England in Cup opener, but there's one sour note
I’m not sure about him either but he has said he wants to play if he can. One can only hope
It's boom time for Boomers
There has been talk that he wants to play for the Aussies in the World Under 19 titles in Greece in June. Right now he is an Australian and I have written about him as such in this team. It will be disappointing if he decides to move elsewhere from and Australian perspective.
It's boom time for Boomers
I do enjoy his stroke play and I am sad when he falls short. I would like to see him succeed but my concern or summation of the situation is that it is unlikely he will. I have no crystal ball and may well be wrong but his ratio of risk return simply is not as appealing to me as some others we have available. When he is up and going, which I have seen a number of times in ODI’s, he is great to watch. I’m not sure this is happening or going to happen enough to warrant a spot in the test team. he is a no doubt a talented cricketer but i’m not sure if he is or ever will be up to the standard held in the test team where really to get a long term berth you need to ave around 45 or better
The Shaun Marsh selection farce
In the words of the great Richie Benaud “El Collapso!”
[VIDEO] Australia vs England highlights: 1st ODI cricket scores, blog
You can fault them and I did. 42 in a series based on every series ever played is a reasonable output ( not amazing ). However in this series it was under average for a specialist batsman. You cant look at the numbers without looking at the context or without looking relative to others playing in the same conditions. If a golfer shot 3 under par for a round, instinctively one would say it was a great round. If however the field averaged 10 under then it is relatively poor performance.
The Shaun Marsh selection farce
Train, it is a bit of the monkeys and typewriters thing though isn’t it. He “has” performed because he “has” been given many chances. His overall stats say that he hasn’t really performed either at test or first class level. Players that show promise of course should be fostered but he is 31. Mike Hussey at his age was average of over 52 with nearly 40 first class hundreds to his name. Now I’m not comparing the two other than by 31 you should have an established record or performances. If the selectors have to prospect because no one is really knocking the door down ( which the aren’t ) then why not go with a younger option who has more improvement in them?
The Shaun Marsh selection farce
Couldn’t agree more and perhaps that didn’t come out in the article.
The Shaun Marsh selection farce
Really informative well thought out article. Obviously he will improve with age but I like your point around him tasting some success now.
Dante Exum should spend time in the D-League
I think you have some strong points there most of the other guys you have listed haven’t had anywhere near the amount of opportunities that Marsh has and I suppose that is the point of the article. I suppose that over a long period of time the numbers don’t lie so why not go with somebody younger? He also bats at a painfully low strike rate also and the game stalls pretty much whenever he comes to the crease which on a personal level is frustrating to watch. I know that isn’t a selection criteria but As a lover of cricket then it is a consideration when talking about what you like to watch.
The Shaun Marsh selection farce
Hey Nudge Steve Smith has a low first class average but his trajectory has been up for a while. The selectors seem to have taken a punt and got it right. Maybe you are right but based on nearly ten years of Shaun Marsh history sadly I don’t think you will be.
The Shaun Marsh selection farce
I’d be very happy if the Pies made the 8 this year but with Beams going I can’t really see that happening. Thankfully I think Buckley is under no illusions about where his side is and Collingwood hasn’t done a “StKilda” and held on for too long. The Pies are coming but not just yet.
Collingwood to play waiting game in 2015
Nice article – Seems you really love your footy. Keep it up its a great game
Seven questions an American AFL fan needs answered