I remember years ago Dan Ginnane was going to refuse to call Robert Lui’s name in Triple M broadcasts due to him being found guilty of assaulting his partner. That was until the NRL pressured Triple M who lent on Ginnane to backflip on his stance. Without getting into all the ins and outs of that situation when are NRL commentators and players going to speak out against their colleagues who are found guilty of crimes against women. It doesn’t feel like we’ve had much of anyone standing up since this time.

As an example where were the figures at Parramatta who said anything about Dylan Brown other than, “he’s made some mistakes” “I’m sure he’ll learn from this” “we’ll rally around Dylan”.

Where were the senior players coming out and saying, “What Dylan did was disgusting and it’s completely unacceptable to treat women that way.” I’m not saying that he shouldn’t get a second chance at some point, not saying they shouldn’t support their mate either. But where are the nrl figures calling out abhorrent behaviour towards women when one of their team mates does it?

I think the lazy tag is not fair from on his current form. Comparing him to other second rowers, his workrate is fantastic. And there are different types of second rowers. Workers and impact players. A good comparison would be Fifita compared to Kikau. Both impact players. Fifita has more tries, line breaks, tackle brakes, more runs, more run metres and a much better tackle success (Kikau 83%, Fifita 96%). He has the same number of errors and less penalties conceded. In terms of workrate stats (things you’d look at to shed the “lazy” tag), he’s pretty much outperforming all second rowers with runs, run metres, tackle percentages etc.

I think the soft cap is a great idea overall… might need some tweaking. In addition I think I’d put a cap on how much younger players can earn until they reach a certain age. Young players coming through with a handful of games or some yet to even debut are being offered huge amounts of money. It isn’t good for their own developement and 18 year olds are going to clubs who offer the most money rather than what is best for their development. Something like (I’m sure the numbers will need tweaking) players under 23 yet to debut can only be offered a contract of up to $200k (minimum wage is $120k) and then maybe players who’ve played less than 50 games can only be paid up to $400k. After that it’s open slather and in the case of a late bloomer like Cody Walker (debut at 26) there are no limits.

….that’s in QLD! Queensland’s everywhere!

Nice team… but Rafter is a Queenslander, Rosie Batty is a Pom, Fred Hollows a Kiwi, Patricia Fox is from Melbourne and Goodes is from South Australia. Surely you can find a few people of Good Character from NSW right? 😂

Yeah not sure about this squad. Matt Short and Aaron Hardie are very unlucky to lose out to Marcus Stoinis and Tim David. Short and Hardie well outperformed them in the BBL, I guess Stoinis and David have the advantage of being in the IPL and are doing reasonably well. Stoinis has not performed for Australia for a long time and I would have marked his papers. Zampa and Agar were far from our best spinners in the BBL as well although I understand Zampa has performed really well at international level. Bartlett, Johnson, Fraser McGuirk all unlucky too. My squad would have been:

Marsh, Head, Short, Fraser-McGuirk, Maxwell, Hardie, Green, Inglis, Wade, Zampa, Kuhnemann, Starc, Hazelwood, Bartlett, Johnson
I’ll bee cheering the squad on anyway but if we don’t succeed in this tournament (at least make the final) then I do hope they bring in generational change to the t20 squad.

Yeah can’t argue with that either. Nice to have a bit of depth.

Both the Hammer and Horsburgh are due back in Round 11 (according to NRL.com) which would give them two games each before the team is selected. That would make the Hammer an automatic selection and at least put Horsburgh in the mix for a bench spot.

QLD will pick 5 middles (3 starting, 2 on the bench) with Carrigan, Collins, Cotter and Flegler all locks it’s really only one position to fill. It would have been Tino and Gilbert probably would have played on an edge but either Fotuaika or Horsburgh will do the job again like they’ve done in the past.

Not often I agree with you Don, but this is bang on the money. Get some red ball cricket under his belt rather than watching cricket in NZ

I’m a big fan of Bartlett but I wouldn’t be taking him to NZ at this point. He has a good shield record and is clearly in form but didn’t get to play the first half of the shield season due to injury. If he goes to NZ realistically he’s going to be carrying the drinks behind Cummins, Starc, Hazelwood and Boland, so I think he’d be much better off back here playing shield cricket for QLD and getting some red ball cricket under his belt.

Yeah Johnson has plenty of potential in red ball cricket but needs to string a good season of red ball cricket together first. He’s only played 4 first class games. He’s done well in them but it’s a little early to parachute him into test calculations any time soon. Morris is rightfully ahead of him.

Spot on. He’s not even close to those guys.

There was also a two game NZ A vs AUS A series in Australia and he made 84 runs in 4 innings. https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/new-zealand-a-in-australia-2023-1392778

QLD is running last in the shield at the moment (sniff, sniff) and at full strength they would beat the West Indies.

As a kid of the 80’s and 90’s I grew up watching both test cricket and world series cup (odi tri series). I loved both but as a kid the odi games were what I really lived for. It was so exciting. My Dad (born in the 50’s) liked the ODI games but was a rusted on test cricket fan. He still is a test match lover, but will also watch the BBL. I don’t think it needs to be either / or it can be both and.

Somewhere in my mid teens my appreciation for Test cricket grew and it became my number one form of cricket and still is to this day. Watching AB or Tubby throw Warnie the ball on day 4 & 5 of a test match with Boonie in at bat pad… just the best!

My son has grown up with BBL and loves it, we’ve been to many games together. Now he’s almost 15 and Test cricket is his number one game. He loves it and while he’ll still watch the BBL he’s much more passionate about test cricket. I hope this happens for many others of this generation just like it probably did for many of us in era’s gone by. The BBL is a fantastic gateway to get many new young fans into the game and I really believe it’s working too. Plus it means more cricket on the tv… there’s literally days of the Boxing Day or New Years Test where we get a full day of test cricket and back to back BBL games! Wall to wall cricket for 13 to 14 hours!

It has to be a balanced to make sure we do play everyone but also maximize revenue. It can and should be both. Host England, India, NZ, South Africa and Pakistan in our main summer. England stand alone, India stand alone, NZ four test with two tests against a less competitive nation, South Africa and Pakistan three tests each over a summer. Then we host Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies etc for short test series in winter in Northern Australia.

It’s worth noting that while some of these nations are routinely flogged in Australia they are competitive against us on home turf. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan etc.

Paris is an impressive talent and probably has more natural ability than Boland. But the thing with Paris is he averages under 5 games per shield season. Behrendorff is another fine bowler who averages less than 4 games a season. Richardson just 3.5 per summer.

Bruce Reid has a reputation as an outstanding bowler who was injured far too much he averaged 8 plus shield games a season over his career.

If these guys stayed injury free they all could have potentially played some / more test cricket. If you’re asking me who do I want rely on in test cricket I’ll take a Boland any day.

I’m well across the shield Don and as a Qlder am much less inclined to favour someone from NSW or VIC but you can’t ignore consistent performances and Boland deserves his spot. I wasn’t over the moon when he was picked as Neser didn’t get to keep his spot, but I was wrong (words you’ll never type) and Boland has shown he deserved it both on his shield performances and what he did since in the test team.

I’m all ears Don. Name them along with their stats for that period along with their overall records.

I rate Richardson highly but his problem is staying on the park. With the quality of bowlers we have around I wouldn’t be taking a punt on his fitness without seeing him put together a run of games. 25 FC games in 7 seasons doesn’t scream durable for test cricket. If he can put a full shield season together he is a class bowler who at 27 should be in his prime and a walk up start to the test team.

Yeah 15 wickets at 10.8 from two shield games right before his debut (Covid prevented more), 30 wickets @ 24 the previous summer (again Covid affected) and 361 wickets at 24.5 for his whole first class career… what a plodder!

He’s plodding again this summer with 15 wickets at 18.20 from 3 games. Can’t believe this guy has ever played for Australia!

If Warner does retire at the end of the Pakistan series then whoever gets the spot will be gifted two home tests against the West Indies. You don’t get a much better chance than that to lock in your spot with some big scores.

Personally I’d go Renshaw or Bancroft, I have them both quite a way ahead of Harris. As a QLDer I’d pick Renshaw but Bancroft totally deserves a go if he’s given it as well.

I didn’t have time to find the county stats. These were just Shield stats and Aust A games.

I think he’s gone really well actually. Since he’s returned to opener at the start of the 2022/23 shield season he’s opened in 23 first class innings to make 1129 runs at 56.25 with 5 centuries and 5 fifties.

In the same period Cameron Bancroft has also done really well. He’s opened in 32 first class innings and made 1534 runs at 54.78 with 6 centuries and 4 fifties. Bancroft got to play in a few more innings because Renshaw missed the second half of the shield season because he was in and around the test squad.

They would both be very deserving of an opportunity and just by the stats there is a split hair between them. I’ll concede that Bancroft is in better form at the in the first half of this shield season but on the same token its a concern that Bancroft has failed to get to 50 in his four most recent opportunities with Australia A while Renshaw has handled the step up and plundered runs.

It’s clear you’ve got a WA bias towards Bancroft and as QLDer I’ve got one towards Renshaw, the difference is I don’t allow mine to suggest that Bancroft shouldn’t be in the running at all like you do with Renshaw. Stats don’t tell the whole story but they also can’t be ignored either.

Don, I really don’t mind if you want to criticize Renshaw but please use actual facts if you’re going to. Renshaw has opened the batting in every game he has played for QLD this summer and last summer. This summer he and Street are opening together last summer the only time (bar one game) Street made the side is when Renshaw wasn’t playing because he was selected for higher honours. Aust A and PM’s XI squads (where he did really well) or you know in the actual Test squad! When Street and Renshaw did play in the one game together… in the first innings Renshaw opened with Burns and Street came in at 3, in the second innings Burns was injured so Renshaw and Street opened together. About 5 minutes worth of research or keeping up to date with games that don’t involve WA and you would be aware of this.

On current form Bancroft probably has his nose in front but Renshaw is well and truly in the conversation.