Sandhu is about the only one not injured, he’s showing promise, but is not quite there yet. Could be an interesting option in years to come if he offies are any good…

You may well be right, but in FC cricket for Victoria, he’s actually been quite the fighter when the chips are down…agree his technique is not what you would choose for a test cricketer, but it’s hard to dispute his talent…I just wish he’d he’d been able t harness it somewhat like Warner has been done, though of course he still has some way to go with shot selection himself.

Though Starc has taken the most wickets for us this series, and Warner our 3rd best bat…

Certainly.can’t disagree with you that we need some head down types though. Really hoping that Bancroft keeps developing and gets to go to Bangladesh…seems like the type of player we need!. It’s not just the pace of scoring IMO, but the techniques employed. So many are playing the ball so far away from the body, both in from of their pads and leaving large gaps between bat and pad when they should playing the ball right under their eyes….

Ashes bowling averages
MR Marsh with 3 at 21.00. Though only 2 tests played, at 19 overs, this sounds under bowled
JR Hazlewood with 16 25.75 the best bowling average of front line wicket takers though didn’t have the best test last week
MA Starc with 18 at 27.27 has assumed the mantle of the main strike bowler, though still a bit inconsistent. His ankle injury i paced performance for a while and sitting out the tour Game seemed a negative rather than a positive. He seems the type of bowler who needs to keep bowling to maintain form. Still improving
NM Lyon with 12 at 29.91, steady, hasn’t been the beneficiary of good captaincy this series and like e other bowlers hasn’t had the scores to bowl to.
MG Johnson with 11 at 39.8. 6 of his wickets came in one series and whilst he still has the capacity to scare some of the English bats, he has again been poor in England. Either he can’t bowl in England or can’t bowl with the Duke ball. Has provided no leadership and poor results apart from one innings.

Agree with the sentiments in this article to play Cummins, but from the above it is not Haxlewood that I’d drop, it would be Johnson, whilst Mitch Marsh should also play and get a few more overs, reducing the burden a bit on Hazlewood and Starc

Im a big fan of Faulkner too, and you’re right he is a quality cricketer who fights to the death, Im just pointing out that if he is to be included, he’s not a #6 bat, most likely never will be, and at this point I feel that it’s too much pressure on Neville.

Of course it can well be argued that M Marsh is not either, and certainly he has struggled in tests in the UK, however he did very well in the lead up games and his bowling continues to improve as he gets more confidence in his body. His test batting average is 30.7, whilst they both have FC averages just shy of 32. Faulkner has the better bowling record, but is a couple of years older. Mitch Marsh needs to be backed, I feel, he seems like a future match winner to me. Then there is he debate about having 3 left arm pace bowlers….

Starc’s 5/114 is at just under 23, Id take those figures! You’re right though, it does seem like they fill the same role, though Id argue that Starc is much further developed than Johnson was at the same age. The problem for the last test is that both johnson and Hazlewood had poor tests together…Given his brief test career to date, I don’t see that Hazlewood will have too many more poor ones. He is going to be a star as you rightly point out! ( in my original comment his name was spellchecked to Hallowed for some reason).
I blame the batsmen fair and square, had they put another150 on the board in the first innings, its not just about the runs, but also the time at the crease, England wold have been batting later not he track in both innings…

How many points to pick up on this article, though good on you for having a crack at it!

Firstly, the batsmen can NEVER get away with a first innings effort of 136, that just puts ridiculous pressure on what the bowlers, the ones picked on here being the youngest members of the team who should be supported by the senior members.

Hallowed put in one poor performance, in what has to date been a very promising start to his test career. Whilst he is a bit slower than the other members of the squad, contrary to what is claimed in the article he is around 140k’s.

Starc indeed had a poor test…off the back of the first test (5/114 & 2/60), the second test (1/86 & 1/16) where he was returning from injury , and in the third (2/71 &1/33), in the latter he might have been short of a run. To say that he shows nothing is rubbish, as he certainly did in the first test. in any case, he’s ahead of Clarke, Voges, and Marsh in batting average and aggregate in this test series

Clarke has not captained well to date in this series, you could even say that he has been outcaptained by Cook, which is some indictment.

Marsh doesn’t have obvious technical flaws, he just doesnt have enough experience in the UK which means he is going too hard at the swinging ball too early.

Voges has looked completely at sea, and given their respective ages, there is no way that Id have him in ahead of M Marsh.

Faulkner is a quality player, but he is not a #6 bat and would require Neville to bat at #6. He may be able tot do this, but not quite yet in the Ashes. It is his batting that holds him back a bit as he would need to play as a bowler.

Burns is completely out of form in the UK at the moment, I seem to recall that his average is in the 20’s this season

Interesting to see Sandhu bowling off breaks in India, by accounts quite reasonable too. It could be very useful to have a quick who could also bowl offbreaks in the team in Asia.

Spot on

At 23, he is 4 years younger than Nadolo ad in his second season of Super rugby. Without doubt, there are flaws in his game, and he is probably still maturing but his best is in front of him not behind him so I think a few posts here are overly critical. he is not the finished product!

I expect that with the step up to tests, he’ll have issues but will improve further…

As a now rugby fan who came from an AFL background, I despair at the field kicking abilities of rugby players whose role it is to kick. Why can’t they kick with both feet? If suburban aussie rules players can kick on their non preferred foot 50 + metres surely an international rugby player whose role it is to kick can(granted, it’s a different ball)?

Also, it seems to me that we do not have the same level of kicking skills as the other Southern Hemisphere teams. To me, it seems crazy given that that in aussie rules, we have an indigenous game based around expertise in field kicking and yet we don’t take advantage of this for rugby. Certainly the AFL look to rugby league for tackling.

FYI, there is no need to kick across the body, that is mostly seen as a flaw in AFL kicking where the better kicks in the game can in fact ‘draw’ the ball the other way.

Jeremy Cameron…all day, every day.

The other 2 are just not in the same league.
Cameron is looking like he’ll win his team a flag, the other 2 would be strong contributers, but are not at that level.

Demanding his sacking has proved futile so far…too many blind fanboys and girls….totally agree with your position and have stated as much on a number of forums….interesting the amount of intolerant and blind pro Hird feedback.

You are totally correct about the lack of foresight in the isolationist approach to the Bombers defence.

In any case, it seems to me that as a coach he is just plain crap!

As coach, he was suspended for “bringing the game into disrepute and conduct unbecoming”.

It was he that introduced the injection regime. It is supposedly costestable as to what was injected, but the very fact of the injection regime alone in my opinion is enough for him to have been summarily sacked.

It is very suspect that that there are no records at all, again, poor governance for which heads should role. Onside, I’m with you, I just can’t believe that could the case.

As a Bomber fan, all I’ve got to say is…

Aw crap,here we go again. I wish they’d sacked Hird in the first place for allowing the whole bloody program to take place, irrespective of what was injected.

He can’t coach anyway, as is evident with the game plan this year.

I was going to say he is an absolute knob….but first class goose will do absolutely fine.

That’s a naive and blinkered approach…I can’t speak for Queensland but in the 12 years that I’ve lived in Sydney( from Melbourne) the game is most definitely growing at a grass roots level. Look at the number of players starting to come through the Swans academy.

It is unquestionably a long term program…GWS will likely take 25 years to be financially successful but it will come. Continued success breeds future members, Albeit in Victoria, look at Hawthorn, their current success is a result of their consistent performance from the 80’s onwards, from one of the lower ranking clubs to now having the second largest membership. The Swans are on the right path too after the wasted early Eddleston years, it is growing.

I’m not sure what the traditionalists would have the AFL do in the northern states? Abandon them to League and be happy receiving far less in their media deals? It would be interesting to know how Eddie Everywhere would approach his role if he was in charge of a NSW or Qld club!

Other great current day ‘hair touchers’ ….James O’Conner’? Probably plenty of backs

Tatafu??

The crux of the problem is that there is no free to air rugby in Australia on a week to week basis…Foxsports and the cost of subscription are very much confining the sport in Australia.

The big window for rugby was missed in 2003, it was well ahead of soccer(Football) back then, and Rugby League was in parlous state. Now, Rugby is the clearly the last of the football codes in 4th position. Unfortunately, I can’t see it growing now…certainly I see the A-League surpassing Rugby League, but the only chance for Rugby here is for League to completely stuff it up and Rugby Union to get on the free to air money train, and therefore broad based grass roots exposure that the game so desperately needs here.

I think that I read in a SMH article that it is the referee that is expressly prohibited from speaking to coaches and players at halftime and not the coach from speaking to the referee? That is, the onus is on the referee.

It was that technicality that allowed Cheika to get off….and if it is so then that loophole should be closed

Touché!

To the pundit who feels aggrieved about the Super rugby format, write an article!…though it’s all about to change again anyway,

It seems to me that when he’s asked to go go and bowl flat out for 4-5 overs as in the one day game, then it all comes together. When he’s asked to focus on control first as it the Test arena, he drops 5-10 k’s and the control seems to fall away. A strange paradox!

He seems to me to bowl far better when he focuses on bowling as fast as he possibly can. I suppose that there is also the matter that a 150k+ loose delivery asks a bit more of the batsman than one at 140k’s… Also dropping in a few 150k short deliveries would make a few batsmen a bit more hesitant to get on the front foot too. On top of that you have to consider the impact on his confidence of being dropped every second game

I think he needs to be told he’s in for the series , open the bowling and unleash him, have some confidence in him and tell him to bowl flat out…he made the transition in ODI’s and I think it’s jaut a matter of time in tests.

So exactly what was that he did while employed by the ARU?

Thanks for the pickup on that

A bit premature to make calls on the playing careers of 2 players who’ve played 1 and 2 games respectively…might be a touch reactionary, Spiro.

It seems to me that you’re very quick to make these types of calls when it suits your argument, and God forbid that anything good comes from anyone not from the old leather patch brigade

As for your comments re the AFL, Spiro, you seem surprisingly uninformed. Firstly, whether agree with it or not, you should know that the AFL is the only code to have a policy dealing with recreational drugs, the 3 strikes policy where players don’t get reported for the first 2. It has to do with the broader player group is subject to the same afflictions as society as a whole and works to reform those found out and not demonise them as you have done. Yes they are illegal, but it is a very naive approach to think that banning something makes it go away. Prohibition always works so well, eh Spiro?

Further, if you’d done your research properly you’d realise that they were never going to make a comment on a matter before the courts and that there has since been ongoing investigations into the Suns players by the club and the AFL.

Lastly, again if you done your research properly, you’d have realised that though Hunt was indeed contracted to the AFL for the period in question (September 1 through to October 3), he had finished playing and training as his season had ended….he was partying the month away with his GC Titans mates with whom he was charged. It should also have been asked by you why Hunt’s case was expedited and heard when the Titans players similarly under scrutiny, where not?

Better research expected from a journalist rather than supposition and conjecture please.