“There is a third theory floating around that teams are taking their home advantage to a whole new level by giving the visiting teams flat wickets ahead of a Test series.”

Giri

This might well be true. Certainly when Australia toured England last they played two warm up matches on absolute roads. This was not good preparation for playing on the green seamers that they were about to face when the series commenced.

It was suggested that the state of the pitches was not a conspiracy by the ECB, but simply a desire by the two counties hosting the matches to maximise the gate by ensuring the matches went the distance.

Certainly in the old days test squads played many lead up matches against full strength sides. I recall reading that each time Bradman toured England he scored over 1,000 runs before the end of May. In other words, he scored 1,000 runs against the counties before the test series started. The modern batsmen will never have that luxury.

“The best footballing athletes in Australia do not play union, but AFL or League.”

Yes, and you can add basketball to that list.

When Ben Simmons was carving them up in the USA last season, I was thinking how useful he would have been in the Wallabies; (perfect size and skills for a lock) and I wondered if he would have played Rugby as his second choice.

The answer is no. He revealed in an interview that his other passion is AFL.

Spiro notes that Whitelock: “…was a “hugely talented” basketball player as a teenager, according to the New Zealand Rugby media release, before he concentrated on rugby.”

I think we can safely assume that if Whitelock were an Australian he would be currently plying his trade in the NBA earning millions of dollars with Ben Simmons and all the other Australians playing in the USA.

Therein lies the problem for Australian Rugby.

“These batsmen I believe are far better and handling pace and bounce…”

Possibly, but if the pitches resemble those of recent years, there won’t be much pace and bounce to be seen. Four roads can be expected.

Given that, I can see plenty of runs being made (especially by Kohli).

I think it will be the Indian bowling under the microscope at the end of the Australian series. You recall the Indian attack failed to take 20 wickets in any test match last time they were here.

Anderson’s record is simply outstanding, no doubt.

I have read a number of England commentators lamenting the fact that the conditions and the ball in England are so specific that England is developing a generation of bowlers that struggle to be effective outside England.

Comparing Anderson and McGrath illustrates this point. For example:

Anderson’s test record in England is 349 wickets at 23.47;
In Australia, Anderson has taken 60 wickets at 35.4 – a significant difference.

By way of contrast, McGrath’s test record in Australia is 289 wickets at 22.43;
In England McGrath took 87 wickets at 19.34 – quite outstanding.

McGrath has a superior record in both Australia and in England. If I could only have one of these bowlers for a test series in England or Australia it would be McGrath.

“Believe what you wish..”.

I’m not really wishing for any outcome here.

When people in the public eye make categorical, unambiguous statements such as: (a) “I have not received any offer from the Panthers, nor have I asked the Wests Tigers for a release”; and “…. I intend to honour this contract”, I’m inclined to believe them.

The reason is that smart people don’t tell deliberate lies if there is a chance they will be caught out. They certainly don’t tell barefaced lies, which the above statements would prove to be, if he intended to take up a coaching position with the Panthers in 2019.

That’s why I’m inclined to believe him.

“Lots of wishful thinking …”.

That’s a bit rich Albo. You accuse others of wishful thinking while you yourself heap speculation upon speculation.

As Kent was breaking the Cleary-is-a-done-deal story, Cleary was addressing his players telling them not to believe what they read, he was not going anywhere.

On Saturday, 5 days after addressing the players, he made a public statement that he hadn’t received an offer from Penrith and he would honour his contract with the Tigers.

Using your special powers you have discerned from his demeanor that; (a) Penrith made an offer; (b) Cleary accepted the offer; and (c) Cleary will commence coaching the Panthers in 2019.

You have a gift !

“Who can forget the game at ANZ last year with major errors by him that handed the game to the Broncos.”

You are overlooking Klein’s most egregious performance of them all. In the Tigers v Broncos match earlier this year he gifted the Broncos the game by awarding them a penalty in front in extra time.

The decision looked outrageous at the time and this was confirmed by the referees boss the next day, who said the decision was incorrect and that the marker was not offside at the ptb.

Two competition points to the Bronos as a result of a referring error. It was a most undeserved win – In 87 minutes of football the Broncos did not manage to score even one try. (It was a dour match).

“We’ve signed the most under rated forward in the game for next season in Sue …”

Sue has been outstanding in the Tigers recent run of wins. Unfortunately, the difference between his best and his worst performances is quite substantial – he has turned in many underwhelming performances over the years.

On balance I’m sorry to see him go and wish him well with the Dogs.

“Gould has already fired Ivan once – is Big Phil really that charming that he can persuade a man to come back and risk being sacked by the same man twice in the space of a few years?”

Ivan’s brother-in-law was quoted in the press last week saying that Ivan would not go back to Penrith while Gould was there.

At the time I took this as a de facto statement from Ivan – given how tight their family is, I couldn’t imagine his brother-in-law saying this without Ivan’s approval.

“Cleary would be crazy to join that roller coaster.”

Cleary’s brother in law (his unofficial spokesman ?) has been quoted in the press saying that Ivan would not go to Penrith while Gould is there.

I’m assuming the brother in law had IC’s permission to make that statement.

“And if you thing the Tigers stand a chance at competing financially with the Panthers, you’re deluding yourself, Salary Cap or otherwise.”

I didn’t know that Penrith had a larger salary cap that the Tigers.

“If you assess this objectively and you realise that in every Olympic discipline athletes are well ahead of where they were 100 years ago there is no evidence that cricket would be any different.”

I think you are confusing athleticism with skill and technique.

The only certain improvements in cricket is in the outfield. Today’s outfielders are certainly superior to the past (but not the close in catchers).

All the evidence suggests that the technique of batsmen today are inferior to those of yesterday, probably the result of one-day cricket and T20.

I’d like to see the modern day batsmen survive on a sticky wicket for example. I’ve read that Hobbs was a master of the sticky wicket. Today’s batsmen wouldn’t have the technique to survive.

“…………..however in absolute terms I’m sure Cook is better.”

I think you must be wrong, but there is no objective way of settling the matter.

I do know, having read cricket history, that Hobbs was revered by all that saw him. Until Bradman came along, he was also regarded (certainly by England supporters) as the greatest test batsman ever.

Cook is a fine batsman, but he is not exalted to anywhere near the extent that Hobbs was during his career and for a long time after.

“If inglis or a whole bunch of elite centers play their career at winger they potentially equal that try scoring rate……..”

And if Inglis played the bulk of his career in a struggle-street team, then he probably wouldn’t.

Irvine scored 171 tries from 176 games with Norths – that’s freakish.

I’ll back David on this one. He is the best winger I have seen.

“If I was Walker I’d open criminal proceedings against Scott for assault”

There are precedents in NSW, eg:

Garry Jack v Ian Roberts
Dale Shearer v David French
Stever Rogers v Mark Bugden

I met a lady back when Mal was captain of Australia, who told me that Mal’s forebears were brought to Australia as indentured labourers to work in the cane fields in north Queensland in the 19th century. They came from Melaneisia, although I had forgotten where she told me Mal’s people originated from – sounds like Vanuatu.

She told me their descendants are now known as “South Sea Islanders” and that they are recognised officially as a minority group. This lady was a South Sea Islander, and she told me how proud the community were of Mal’s achievements.

It’s a shame that this is not more widely known. The community could do with some positive press as they are one of the most disadvantaged groups in Australia.

I don’t think Mal is indigenous. He is of Island heritage.

Great concept Emcie. As a Queensland supporter I would much rather see a halves combination of Pearce and Moses. Moses has been spoken of in this context and is very popular in some circles, but in my view he is pretty flaky, with the added virtue of being a turnstile in defence. Queensland would have great success aiming a lot of traffic in his direction.

Good article Tom. I think Mick Potter is a perfect example of the point you are making.

He had a divided and divisive Board with which to deal. The Board took decisions over recruitment and retention, often without consulting Potter.

Potter was butting heads with senior players over poor form (he tried to drop Marshall from the starting side); and, contract extensions – he attempted unsuccessfully to stop the Board awarding Farah a long, heavily back-ended contract extension. This extension damaged the club in many ways for years to come.

It was reported that the Board were happy to entertain delegations of senior players who were attempting to white-ant the coach. Sheens had previously blamed the senior playing group for his sacking.

He had no money to buy quality players and no depth in the playing roster. At the back-end of his final season, he had so many injuries that he was forced to play back rowers on the wing.

Potter was set up to fail. I defy any coach to be a success under those circumstances, which is a pity because I thought he showed us, before the ructions with senior players, and all the injuries, that he could coach.

Tim, you say “However, consistency is a great thing to bring back to the game of rugby league. Possibly the most necessary thing.”

You then go on to say of the referees “They are going to make the hard calls whenever those calls are there to be made…”

You seem to be confusing referees making the hard calls with consistency. Take Klein’s penalty that denied the Tigers an opportunity to win the game against the Broncos. There were many more egregious examples of markers not being square in that match which Klein chose to ignore.

Check out for example the markers when Brooks dropped the goal to tie the game up just before full time. It was the most blatant example of off-side at marker in the entire match, and yet it went un-penalised. If Klein were consistent he would have awarded a penalty in front, and the Tigers would have won the game in normal time. But he was not consistent.

As RobertF says in a comment above: “…the lack of consistency and randomness of some penalties leaves me dumbfounded …”

I agree. The referees are not being consistent in their application of the rules. This randomness influences the outcome of matches and turns fans off the game.

Fraser says: “Completely different. Benji makes contact before it hits the ground.”

Your wrong Fraser. It was a drop kick. See youtube:

I’m not sure what he was trying to do. You can make up your own mind. The commentators thought it should have been called a knock on.

I can recall at least one precedent jimmmy.

Wests v Saints around 2010/11, Benji dropped the ball, but reacted very quickly and executed a perfect little drop kick behind Saints line, regathered and scored. The try was awarded.

There was no doubt that it was a simple dropped ball. He didn’t kick it on the second bounce, however.

Good point Matt. To counter this they could significantly reduce the number of interchanges to introduce fatigue into the game.

“I think the point is that if it is not a contest why have them?”

The justification for the scrum is that it gets 12 players out of the attacking / defensive line. Once upon a time the two back lines faced off against each other one-on-one and would often put on some sharp attacking plays. That doesn’t happen so much these days, but the justification still exists – it cuts down the number of players that can be involved in the next play.

Matt says: “Scrums? Don’t start me. Or do and see what happens.”

Hope you’r not proposing we turn them into contests again, like in Rugby, with their endless resets and penalties.

Some time ago the Guardian published a report on the amount of time the ball was in play in Rugby.

It reported that the 20 scrums during a match between Ireland and Scotland in Dublin turned into eight collapses, seven resets and seven penalties, a process that took up more than one-quarter of the total playing time; 21 minutes.

The report suggested that the scrum was far less a means of restarting play than re-stopping it.

I’m happy with the “lean-to” we call a scrum in the NRL. It has the virtue of restarting the game quickly, with minimum time lost and no controversial penalties that can turn a game.