Thank you Paul! Great suggestion! Definately could add Miller to the list there. He was an aggressive batsman, very fast bowler, and apparently at times, he could send down a leggie or two.
He once hit two backhanded, tennis shot like sixes over leg and started off a days play with a six. He bowled English opener David Sheppard with a googly and would often vary his run-up or experiment with slower bowling.
Len Hutton described Miller as ‘the most unpredictable cricketer I ever played against’. Possibly also suited his legendary Maverick personality.

Matty Wade can roll the arm around with some medium-pacers, It seems like he is quite the talented, passionate cricketer, but personally would love to see more consistency from him in his batting. Thanks for the suggestion Elvis!

I was thinking that too Yawhoa. How much money is sitting on the sidelines at the moment. Just a shot in the dark, but with 78 players out, you reckon it could be somewhere near the 12-15 mill mark?

Moreover, do you think this ‘injury’ team would fit under the salary cap? With the money that Tedesco, Val Holmes, Trobojevic and Cleary and soon to be Fafita, are earning, I think not.

I was that close to going with Verrills for the hooker spot, he filled in pretty well last year and they were even saying that he might unseat Jake Friend, ( I feel Friend deserves a long awaited Origin look-in this year, but thats another story). I haven’t seen much of Turpin play but they put the wraps on him. I guess I went with Cameron King more out of interest than anything. He obviously has the talent, and he has every reason to have been successful, but he clearly hasn’t put it together. I hope he is able to make good on the promise he showed earlier in his career. 50/50 King or Verrills.

Thanks for the compliment Hard Yards! I’m glad you enjoyed it. That will be the thing that stops him winning a Dally M, he hasn’t had much luck has he? Like some of the other players on this list, he could be a guy that averages 15 games a season and we look back on in 20 years time and say ‘what if he wasn’t injured all the time”?

I sincerely hope thats not the case.

Completely agree with Luke Lewis. I am pretty sure he started his career on the wing and drifted closer towards the middle as he career progressed. It’s not often you can say a guy started his career as a winger and after playing 15 years, finished up as a lock/2nd rower.

I also agree with different sports and different culture comment. As I mentioned in the article, it was something devised by a super fan that measured the intangible value of a player to his team without resorting to statistics.

The ‘secret’ doesn’t transfer great over to rugby league because a basketball player has a much higher chance to influence his teams success than a rugby league player does. I thought it was a little interesting point for discussion.

Yes, the melding of Jordan and Zen-Jackson was instrumental in the Bulls run, but I don’t think we can disregard the rise of Scottie Pippen as a genuine deputy to Jordan and a superstar as unimportant.

lJordan never won a championship without Pippen, and the tales of Jordan pushing Pipp to greatness (and vice versa) are legendary.

Here’s another little story; My late grandfather was lucky enough to see Sir Donald Bradman in his last test in Australia.

We were sitting there watching a test at the SCG, when I started to ask him questions about Bradman, I wanted to get a feel of the man from someone who had actually watched him play.

My grandfather started to gush about Bradman – ‘There were always 5 shots that he could play to any ball and he always picked the most perfect one’ and he went on and on.

Then he stopped, looked at the TV, and pointed.

‘That bloke reminds me a bit of him’.

Satchin Tendulkar was batting and he eventually went on to make 241no in that innings.

That’s a great expression there. It doesn’t have much punch today, but I can totally imagine aussie kids in the 80s saying things like ‘Geez that was tough, that was like facing the windies’ or ‘that was tougher than facing Marshall or Garner at full tilt’ about things that had nothing to do with cricket.

I think thats one of the current problems re: shield cricket. It receives little exposure because the best in the world are off earning big bickies playing in one of the many leagues around nowadays. I used to see Sheffield Shield held in pretty high esteem, it was televised more and the chances were higher that you would see a world class player suit up for your provincial team (Ponting for the Tigers, Warne for Victoria, McGrath for the Blues etc). Now it seems downgraded to the development league for the test team.

Looks like it came around full-circle JGK!

Thanks for the comment Paul, you actually unearthed another little inter-generational gem there, World Series Cricket.

I don’t think many younger fans understood why it was so controversial at the time, because one day cricket, (and 20-20) are now accepted as part of the sport, and as benefitting the game in general (well at least players pockets!).

But the schism between the ‘traditionalist’ and the ‘modernist’ crowds at the time seem to have ruffled alot of feathers.

That joy you describe at winning an odd test is probably healthy and the younger generation could do with it. You appreciate the wins more when they come rarely and unexpected.

Your right there DaveJ, perhaps an oversight on my part, it was more lumping some of our more humbling experiences into a ‘dark days’ group.

However I would guess that out of the last 50 years or so of Australian cricket (since 1970) 2000-2010 was easily Australia’s most successful decade. I guess the point I was trying to make is that a whole lot of Australian cricket fans (the younger generation) were only used to seeing this Australian cricket side and perceived the cricketing world differently as a result. Whereas the older cricketing crowd knew what it meant to be ground into dust, to be the underdogs, so they saw Australia’s cricketing success in a different light

I actually thought about that too. Laying in bed, I thought ‘What if its not over, should I wake the old man?’. However it didnt take long for me to put that thought to the side, as the prospect of waking a grumpy dad was terrifying.

I guess one of the main ideas of this article is that the new generation were never privy to the cricketing experiences that kids in the 70s, and 80s grew up with, and that we have a different perspective and expectation of what Australian cricket is supposed to be. The way they talk about the Windies, its like they are almost mythical.

He actually poured a slab of concrete in your backyard? Wow, your dad was a cricketing tragic, but I suspect its not the only poured in concrete cricket pitch in Australia.

I was lucky to have a big backyard myself, so with Boxing Day approaching, my father would mow the cricketing field, and then drop it to the lowest setting on the push mower and mow in a pitch. It had a little more uneven bounce than I imagine the concrete pitch did!

My grandpa used to throw down a few leggies to me when I was younger in the lounge room, it wouldn’t be long before we both wore grandmas walking stick over our backsides.

I’m in the same boat Micko, my old man used to tell me about the games he used to catch at the MCG. They way he described attending those games made it sound like he was attending a day music festival rather than a cricket match. The security guards were definately a bit more lax in those days.

He signed a contract extension last year until the end of 2020. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was his last year, and he seems to have made it clear he wants to be a one club player. So where does he go from here? He’s only 32, he could probably provide a few more years of decent service yet. Possibly Super League?

If he’s being paid 400 000 a year, I would say that Sydney City is paying slightly overs for him, part of that might be a ‘loyalty bonus’.

Thank you Duncan. Have a good weekend sir!

That’s the thing with him though. He’s neither underrated or overrated, and he probably doesn’t play enough minutes on the average to warrant an Origin selection.

Think Tedesco is probably earning at least 4 times what Aubusson is taking home, Cronk would have been on much bigger money for sure. How much would you guess he was on? 200-400 000 a year, or is that unrealistic?
If they were paying him 300 000 or less, they’d be getting their value out of him.

Thats a great metric there jimmy. The NRL tends to be about 5-10 years behind the American sporting landscapes when it comes to stats. Whether thats a good thing or not, I’m not really sure.

What I would be interested in, is the Plus-Minus Box stat in the NBA. The +/- basically records how well a given team does with a player on the pitch and off the pitch.

It’s used for rotations, to see which combinations work well and how a players can come onto the court and make an immediate impact.

It wouldn’t transfer flawlessly to the NRL because some players barely ever take a seat on the bench and end up playing 80 minutes.

But utt would be an interesting stat to keep for Super Subs to see how dynamic rugby league benches are.

Thank you kk. I’m no fan of the Roosters, but its hard not respect him. He’s got all the skills you need from a guy who you want to slot in anywhere in a pinch.

It was kinda like when Manly had Beaver Menzies running around. I hated Manly, but I loved Steve Menzies.

Nice point there. I am sure there are probably millions of fans and Jordan himself who would disagree with that ranking.

I never watched Bill Russell play too, but Simmons believes that he harnessed the belief that he needed his team mates and they needed him, and he maximized his skills to the tune of 11 championships.

When his team needed him to score, he scored, when his team needed him to protect the rim and rebound, he protected the rim and rebounded as well as anyone in history.

Jordan ruled as a tyrant, such was his sociopathic will to win. In his early years, he believed he needed to do it all himself.

He punched Steve Kerr in the head at practice, brutally teased rookies and veterans alike to the point where they had to seek psychological counselling, and abused teammates into intimidation. He got the results, but at a cost.

Some may say the argument is redundant, that comparing Jordan to Russell is like comparing Andrew Johns to Johnny Raper. It simply can’t be done.

I agree with you there Albo. Looks like you’ve got a pretty good idea of the secret yourself! Thats what I like about it for qualifying players. Guys don’t need to be the best of the best to understand it. Would certainly add Dale Finucane to that list.

Even though he was a rep player and they bash him for not winning a premiership, I always thought Hindy had a pretty good idea of the secret. He brought his skills to the table (motor, durability and defensive work) to maximize some of those surprise Parra years.

I concede that Cronk knows the secret. Clearly makes everyone better around him. Must have been an oversight on my part.

I absolutely agree with you. There are some players who are almost too versatile for their own good, those who can be spread too thinly as a band aid fix.

As a Canterbury fan, this comment made me giggle and blush at the same time.