IPL normally starts in April. Not much Shield action by then.

Like they did with Warner? His last first class game was last year’s Sydney test!

Yep. Nothing like watching the cricket and seeing promotions for the football starting in the first week of February. CA created a vacuum and AFLW have strolled right on into it. Idiots.

Says the bloke who coached his team to finish 5th out of 8 in the season proper 😂

I’m guessing when you live 4 hours flying away from the eastern seaboard you’re probably going to be spending a bit more time in the air…

I think you’ll find the discussion on Maxwell is occurring nationwide these days. And, surprisingly, there’s an almost overwhelming majority of people saying he should at least be getting a go. Which, coming from Melbourne, is quite surprising.

Very clever David, sucking us in with that title into thinking this was an article about Joe Burns before, snap, right back onto the Maxwell bashing! It’s getting a little boring though, perhaps just stop next time when you realise you’re trotting out the same old rubbish again.

Wasn’t suggesting Labuschangne’s selection was due to bias, just Langer’s views overall.

As I sat through the first two days of drudgery at the M.C.G. I was bemoaning the fact that we don’t seem to have a partnership breaker in the team at the moment. A batsman who can come on and bowl some reliable overs without being a specialist all-rounder and glean out a wicket perhaps by surprise rather than anything else. Or just to give the bowlers a break. Maxwell would definitely fill that role. Was surprised Head didn’t get a go too given he’s used in the ODI games. And no, Finch’s two overs don’t count!

Hohns has a record in this area but I think Langer’s job as selector is a terrible idea. He is biased and parochial and seemingly puts ideas that worked for him as a player ahead of other things like I don’t know, scoring runs. If Maxwell was a West Australian for example I’m sure he’d have had a better run in the national squad like any number of Marsh’s. Actually like Harris he would probably have had to move to Victoria to get anywhere!

Your bias here belies the facts Mr Lord. In Maxwell’s last test series he scored a century batting at number 6. He was still averaging 40+ in the Shield games he could actually get to this year, including an unlucky run out. Not exactly throwing away his wicket.
Unless of course you’re talking about a different form of the game where he’s come in late to make quick runs at a high strike rate so is getting out while having a crack?

True Sheek in terms of Cummins, he was handled well and that’s turned out well. He wasn’t just sitting on the sidelines though, he played as a batsmen for a while which was lucky for us in Melbourne. Compare to Pattinson who debuted around the same time (?) and has flat out struggled to get near his best. Paine was lucky about getting picked when not getting picked for his state. He’s also very much not lucky in the broken finger almost destroying your career department, but you know what I mean. Cummins was a long term project and was always going to be recalled. The fact they’ve both done incredibly well doesn’t necessarily justify the selection. The same selection ideas can be applied to M. Marsh and look how that’s gone.
The problem is that selections and even batting orders are currently being made on wants and wish fulfillment, not on reality. Viz A. Finch. Picked to fill an opening slot in the UAE which didn’t go too badly. Come back to Australia though and despite Victoria and everyone else in the country pointing out he’s not a first class opener, guess where he bats? Because they wish he was an opener. M. Marsh comes back into the squad because they wish they had an all rounder (that’s a very boring 13 year old tale now), now bringing in Labuschagne because they hope they’ll have a spinner in the same role. They hope S. Marsh will be more consistent, they hope T. Paine will be great while not keeping for his state, they wish and they hope and we continue to have an underperforming team.
Trevor Hohns was not a good chairman of selectors the first time round but back then he had a team of champions so dud selections here and there didn’t matter. Now that our entire system of producing first class players has been pulled apart, he’s just out there winging it and it’s not going very well at all. And then there’s the problem of picking players on personality and not numbers. Note: Maxwell not picked and told to make more centuries, Labuschagne picked on the back of being mediocre and likely to play at number 6. Not also: 2017 selection announcement when Hohns suggested just being mediocre wasn’t good enough. Hypocrisy much?
So perhaps the whinging is actually just the facts Sheek?

The number of replies from coaches and players this week about how hard everyone is working in the nets and there’s no doubting their dedication etc… this in response to questions like what do you think the problems are? Nobody is doubting anyone’s work ethic, you don’t get near a squad without having one (even including Marshes) but their head in the sand responses are so frustrating! Labuschagne might be the hardest working man in cricket business but if you don’t have the numbers, you don’t have the numbers. Don’t forget also their responses to dropping Maxwell because he wasn’t training right… if cricket games were played in the nets that would be fine but you’re failing on the field FFS, something is horribly wrong with the whole setup!

Which does pose the question, why do we schedule 3 tests in November while nobody is on holiday and only 1 in January when plenty of people are? How would an Australia Day weekend day/night test in Adelaide do?? The scheduling of tests does them no favour at all these days.

I’m not saying he didn’t play a part in the game, especially in the second innings. I’m saying that there’s a lot of talk from people like Boof about what a good job he did, almost a little too much – like they very much felt the need to justify the selection immediately.

What I’m saying is that he got out in ways you’d almost expect of him. And also that if anyone else was picked to play for Australia, you’d hope they’d do exactly the same thing in trying to win the match for Australia! It just seems a bit overplayed to me, that’s all.

As for Marsh proving his worth, I suspect he proved his worth just as much as anyone else selected to play for Australia is expected to. Why is this being talked up as such a big deal by Boof etc.? He ran himself out at a vital time in the first innings and after being dried up in the second wafted outside off to nick out. Classic Marsh, S. and nothing to get excited about.

There’s no doubt that one of the other players who were unlucky to miss out on selection may also have proved their worth under the same circumstances, although we probably wouldn’t have heard as much about it from those in charge.

Wicketless in the second innings sure, but he applied pressure and kept scoring down which led to wickets falling. There’s only 10 wickets to go around and the idea that everyone has to bowl 150 clicks and take 5 every innings is the myth. There is a place for Siddle in this team with another bowler down and the younger bowlers have talked about how much he helps them so I can’t see him going anywhere for the next 3 tests anyway.

Okay Don, so just the averages then from times you’d prefer to look at and which happen to support your argument. Even though it was an exact quote of what Rod Marsh said and he was talking about their FC averages, not snippets of average. Fair enough.

I sound like Ryan OC? I think you mean Rod Marsh sounds like Ryan OC.

Oh yeah, Rod also had this to say on not picking Klinger back then:

“Have you looked at Michael Klinger’s batting average in first-class cricket? It’s not as good as the other boys (in contention for the Test squad)”

First class averages:

M. Klinger: 39.71
S. Marsh: 38.50

So you can see why maybe we’re all a little confused about the selection policy Don.

Rod Marsh had this to say on Joe Burns’ selection for the first test: “He’s got more runs than the other contenders, it’s pretty simple. He averages more than the other contenders…”

So it turns out they do consider averages. That’s Rod Marsh saying that, not me. They also consider the weight of runs. You say he makes runs. So do others, in fact others make more.

I can see you’ll argue this until you’re blue in the face Don. You have your single point of view, you enjoy that.

Yes, 2nd innings dismissal was not his fault, that’s for sure. Guiding his team home, yada yada, you’re obviously a committed Marsh and WA fan and good on you for it. I was talking however about his suitability to fill the current spot in the Australian team. I’m not anti-Marsh but he’s almost becoming Watsonian in the number chances he’s getting. What I am is pro picking the best available for the job and in my apparently limited understanding of the game, that’s not Marsh, S. I’m obviously not the only one who thinks so.

And if he gets in and makes runs and does what he’s picked for then bloody ripper. It’s just that someone else may have been picked and done the same thing who was probably more deserving. The selectors keep saying to go an make runs, averages count, and by those measures he’s just not there right now.

He was 64 when he got out as I’m sure you could look up for yourself. 6 less than Klinger got, 10 more than Agar got. Yes he got out to Ahmed who did get some others as you mention. It’s the manner in which he went about things I’m talking about. As opposed to Klinger who looked the more impressive of the two.

Have you been to a Shield game lately Don? Care to comment on something you actually saw rather than pluck a number from a sheet? If you’d rather take that path, let’s look at Marsh’s commanding 33 in the second innings before getting out again to Ahmed. You know, while Will Bosisto made a good, slow 100 to bat Victoria out of the game and even Whiteman managed a lazy 50 to keep them out. Bobby Quiney actually outscored Marsh in the game so by your scorecard based reckoning he should be rushed immediately back into the team to improve on his glorious 9 runs in the baggy green!

He’s managed an average of 34.5 in the 3 Shield games so far, 11 against NZ in a CA XI while Khawaja and Burns peeled of centuries. Hardly commanding a position is he? He did of course make a monstrous score at North Sydney oval against the CA XI so there’s that, but we’re not picking the ODI squad. Much like Watson, I think he’s a specialist who keeps getting picked in all forms.

Anyway they’re wheeling me back to my room now so I’ll leave that brainless mess for you to deal with.

Unbelievable. I was at the MCG on Sunday, most of Marsh’s runs came from going the tonk on Ahmed before he holed out. He looked his usual flakey self. Klinger on the other hand looked totally in control and it was a massive surprise when he got out like he did. Given that Marsh is terrible and it’s probably a two test window, why on earth would you not pick Klinger? Or in fact anyone else??

Although asking why Marsh is picked yet again is akin to smashing your head against the wall. It actually seemed we’d got to the point of picking on form just recently… it must certainly help to have grown up in the dressing room hey?

No reason? How about the fact he has bugger all experience in England and has played bugger all cricket in the last 2 years? Sorry, that’s 2 reasons.

He does, and for some reason he feels the need to talk about every little thought that he has. It’s like his internal monologue only we all get to hear it. Unfortunately.