Roar Guru
Joined May 2014
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Forgiveness is far easier to achieve than permission.
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I can still remember the concern DRS raised when it was initially gaining momentum for introduction.
In response to Mary Konstantopoulos’s article ‘In defence of referees’, I’m sorry but I have to disagree. The NRL’s lack of spectacle this season is 100 per cent referees’ fault.
Every year us loyal fans look at the new NRL season, consider the year before, consider the news signings of every club and rank them on where they should end up at the end of the season.
I was critical of the selectors during their kneejerk reactions to Australia’s disaster of a series against South Africa last summer and more recently in Asia. Dropping Peter Nevill in the South African series was their biggest mistake.
There is plenty of talk about crowd numbers being dismal for an NRL finals series and loads of reasons are put out there as to why.
Well here it is again back all over the media. Who would have thought after the last umpteen NRL stars ruined their careers over recreational drug use that we would see this back in the headlines?
The revelations that all charges had been dropped on Semi Radradra this week I am sure are welcome news to the man, and Parramatta fans.
It seems only yesterday a few cricket ‘Johhny come latelys’ were jumping all over the debutant Matt Renshaw as he made his debut at the Adelaide Oval pink ball Test for his slow batting.
Do we have a cap or don’t we? How this third party arrangement is supposed to work really baffles me and I hope the punters can help me out on this.
While Boxing Day and the MCG hold a special, traditional meaning in Australia, the SCG holds sway for me.
Throughout the Ashes I have noticed a number of technical quirks by the batsmen but there is one in particular that seems to have been adopted by all of the Australian batsmen.
The vultures are circling in another case of deja vu for the Australian captain. From Mark Taylor to Steve Waugh to Ricky Ponting, all who preceded Michael Clarke had runs of poor form which saw the pressure piled on their already weighty position. Now it’s the incumbent’s turn.
South Sydney’s premiership credentials were put into serious question in losing to an under strength Titans outfit in Sydney.
Wow just wow! What a difference less than 24 hours makes in rugby league.
While the ICC have their official International Test Rankings, it takes a deeper look at the game to really see where the game and Test nations are.
Two weeks before the historic series victory to NSW, NRL CEO Dave Smith declared that banning the biff had been an emphatic success.
Following Tim Gore’s excellent piece on the Raiders, I thought I’d weigh in on the state of affairs in the NRL.
I’ve been noticing it all year in Melbourne Storm’s NRL games. I guess fear of reprisal has held me from writing about it until now.
When I first started watching rugby league in the 1980s it was the hard men of the game that got me addicted to the sport as a kid.
With all the debate over the NSW side finally over and done with, a quick look at the two sides on paper shows that it’s clear Jarryd Hayne could be the difference.
And yet we still think Cricket umpires can accurately judge 155km balls that pitch on an imaginary line, judge if it missed a bat swiping past it at nearly the same speed and then judge an imaginary path the ball would have taken after it hits a batsman’s pads! All after checking for a front foot no ball!
Touch-ups or touch judge: Which had a bigger impact on the 2019 NRL premiership race?
They got the Brexit vote right. It was the polling they got wrong.
Aussies should be disappointed with underwhelming Ashes
Don, unless you’re looking at a really moist green top or with huge cracks, bat first. Even then think really long and hard about batting first anyway.
Aussies should be disappointed with underwhelming Ashes
Don’t forget these were unforgiving decks for most of the series. As for 9. Was that the number of LBW’s that Australia (majority Lyon) England plumb on and weren’t given?
Even with the failures we had, Cummins and Hazlewood and Lyon at times with some good spells from Pattinson and Siddle would have been enough to win that series 3 or maybe even 4-1 had the majority of those LBW’s been given.
Aussies should be disappointed with underwhelming Ashes
I’d suggest that if Australia had played Labuschagne instead of Smith in the first 3 innings of the series (and he’d performed as well as he has so far). AND every one of the LBW decisions Lyon didn’t get (6 and counting) the one that siddle didn’t get and the two Cummins and Warner did get that weren’t out….that just from what I can remember off the top of my head right now.
Australia would be at least 3-0 and probably 4-0 right now. Umpires have kept England in this whole series.
Did Australia really win the Ashes?
I didn’t disagree with the selection of Starc for two reasons. During the English fight back in the third test in the fourth innings, as good as he was bowling, Lyon was bowling into a flat undisturbed pitch with no foot marks. Root and Denly had no trouble dealing with Lyon soaking up 360 balls between them. Lyon bowled 39 overs in that innings @2.92RPO. I kept thinking if Starc’s footmarks were there to the right handers it would be far more difficult for the right handers to handle.
Secondly a huge fight back from the tail and Starc’s reputation for cleaning up the tail made him an easy pick. 3 fairly tough tests it made sense to bring him in. But it was always a gamble. Over the past few years he’s often started test series slowly then come good. Hadn’t played a test in a long time so it was always possible he would take a while to get his rhythm. He still managed 3 in the first. His second innings was poor especially with the new ball. I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t more Yorkers bowled to test out how much the ball was swinging and short balls above stump height let them get off the hook.
I’d retain him for the last. But I’d fly in Joe Burns and Kurtis Patterson for Warner and Wade for the fifth. We’ve retained the ashes so why not give the two that were most hard done by in the selections a shot in the last?
Australia aim for the throat - literally
For a guy to be averaging solidly in the 50’s before being made captain then somewhere in the 20’s or at best early 30’s since is a clear reason alone to take it off him. The claimed catch and subsequent third umpire howler and send off was really poor. The mopey look in the field when the chips are down whilst so,done like Stokes breaks his back to get the side back into a test then to do it with the bat is someone England can get behind.
A Stokes led England is straight away a more formidable outfit if it also doesn’t effect his recent form.
It's difficult being Joe Root
Agreed. There was a couple throughout the series that were his that should have been taken (or attempted) but over 4 mostly 5 day tests there’s always going to be a few. I know Healy and Gilly were regarded as great glovemen but remember they missed a few in series also (gilly more so at the start). Overall I though it wasn’t too bad and certainly miles ahead of every series that Wade ever kept.
Australia retain Ashes in a thriller
That’s right. What if a team only has 70 overs to get 10 wickets at normal rates yet the batting’s team slows it down like Leach was trying to do yesterday and the bowling team only manages 59 or conversely has 70 overs to chase a total and they slow it down to 59 and miss out by a few? No fine?
Australia retain Ashes in a thriller
He’s a far superior captain to Steve Smith, but someone needs to take the DRS off him. It cost us the last test and the follow on here.
Australia retain Ashes in a thriller
Apart from Smith, Labuschagne and a fast bowling cartel to drool over, you know what the biggest factor was this series?
We actually spent some time in England before the first test!!!!! All the other series for the last 18 years or so we’ve been rocking up, having a net session then straight into it. Bradman was Bradman, but he also had a stack of games under his belt before the first test even started.
Australia retain Ashes in a thriller
It would make up for the Stokes not out decision on 131 in the last test. Australia going home without the win and England coming back to draw the series would be a travesty. No way they deserve to be this close on the score board.
Australia retain Ashes in a thriller
For those that missed it, try to get a look at The Labuschagne leggie that broke the Leach, Overton partnership for the second last wicket. It was an absolute pearler.
Australia retain Ashes in a thriller
Why oh why would you want Marsh in?
I’d be far far happier flying Burns over than giving Marsh another run without at the minimum a shield season where he tops the run charts.
If we are booking tickets for Burns, may as well book two. One for him and one for K Patterson
The XI Australia must pick at the Oval
Starc has to play. It’s a toss up between Starc and Harris as to who is most effective with the ball. But Starc provides Lyon the perfect footmarks to bowl into the right handers. When Root and Denly were set in the last test, Lyon was forced to bowl into bare patches of the pitch. They didn’t seem fazed by the turn he was getting. The footmarks provide a point of difference. One will turn and an inch outside and it won’t. Lyon has been hard done by, by umpires this series with at least 5 missed wickets. A bit of help from selectors would hurt.
Khawaja and Harris post 50s in Ashes shoot-out
The one thing Patto doesn’t do that Starc does is provide Nathan Lyon the right foot marks for him to bowl nasty balls to right handers. Against Root and Denly he was trying to turn it out of bare pitch with zero rough.
If England pull off the miracle here, Starc will certainly come into contention.
Australia's new 'Big Three' demolish England
I can’t remember an assistant coach getting the blame for not winning a premiership.
Chooks' feathers fly over Adam O'Brien sticking to his contract
While massive wraps have been earned on these three innings and he certainly deserves to remain in the side, it should be taken with a grain of salt. How many lives did he have? Dropped, then caught off a no ball……there was a huge amount of luck in this test.
The only question is, who makes way? I’d say probably Wade had to.
Marnus Labuschagne could be the player Australia have waited for
Well said both of you. I still can’t help to think of Starc owning the ghost of Mitch Johnston and going 160????mph ballistic to defend a sub 200 score.
Warner's ugly but crucial Ashes innings
If I was an England selectors I would have no issue making Stokes the captain. At least he doesn’t claim grassed catches. Paine needs to put the pull shot away until he’s well set. Steve Waugh did it in 92 in test cricket and it paid dividends. Both were/are very good pullers of the ball and I think it was a mistake of Waugh to shelve it completely against the red ball. Paine has shown he has the mental ability to grind. We saw it against India in very difficult conditions. Paine needs to tell himself he’s not playing the pull shot until he reaches 50.
Archer can exploit Paine's short-ball issues
I disagree on that point. Stokes just won them a World Cup and hits a very good looking ton. With some luck of course. Confidence is a funny thing in cricket.
Australia should not fight Jofra Archer with fire
Can you imagine the almost Impossible? Parra v Manly? That would break the bank and have re-runs from the 80’s highlights running all week.
2019 NRL finals series: Semi-finals preview