Definitely more to this than meets the eye. There seems to be leaks within the Wallabies camp for a lot of this dirt to be coming out.
Do Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau share the same manager? Seems funny that there are all these rumours that if Kurtley is sacked then Izzy will go to ……

Taylor should have been appointed, he was the best man for the job. His record stacks up at Parramatta and with Easts, on top of that he knows how to get the best out of Chris Sandow. Ask Mitchell Peace and Jimmy Maloney why they were going so well at the end of the year …………What a shame board didn’t have more backbone to stick to their original decision.

Foley had a great S15 season and was well ahead of QC in most stats (line breaks, try assists etc). His background in 7’s has taught him to take the line on, take responsibility for making his tackles and given him a great motor (always backing up). He is a genuine Wallaby 10 as soon as he can slightly improve his long kicking game. He will greatly appreciate and take advantage of the width that playing outside of Genia will give him.

I think Hayden should stick to his cooking books. He’s a drop kick of the highest order who, for the most part cashed in on depleted attacks after Mark Taylor and Slats had seen off the might of the Windies and Waqar and Wasim at their peaks. Why didn’t he ever do the sign of the cross when he was batting for QLD? Only in Tests?? “Predecessors were Allan Border, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist.
 These guys said ‘mate, I’m the captain, on my watch, we’re not losing.’ “ AB and Punter might well of said this, however both lost several Ashes series on their watch…….

Is Tom Kingston injured? Why would he not be in the team? Incredible…………..

No doubt SK Warne would have made a great captain, however I would say that his dealings with Indian bookmaker “John” would have counted against him significantly. His later 12 month ban for using a banned substnace proved that not appointing him because of his off field carry was a correct one. At the time there every second week he was all over the newspapers for jumping into bed with young ladies, old ladies, married ladies …etc etc. This was a distraction they didn’t need. I think Warnie would have prospered in the 70s with Chapelli and Dougie etc. when the press wrote about cricketers form on the pitch, not betwen the sheets….. Joe perhaps Gilly was the man, would the combined pressure of captaining, keeping and opening in the ODI had an affect on Gilly’s form over time?

Great article, interesting that the cycling enthusiasts defence is “aww but other sports don’t get tested as much as us” ……….

Fair play Joe, however I take issue with your “sooner rather than later” line. He’s doing well at the moment and we need to back him and give him the confidence. Perhaps would be interesting to look at the rebuilding startegy during the border years …..if they had taken your sooner rather than later approach with the likes of Steve Waugh (atill only averaging mid to late thirty’s after 40 odd tests)……..Re: Cowan I would suggest that if he gets picked then (apart from Shaun Marsh) he has the worst first class average of any top order batsmen to be picked for Australia in the last fifty years.

A well written article, however not sure if you have watched Khwaja bat or analysed his performances acurately at all? He has played around five or six tests and has had some very good starts in his short career. He scored a tremendous 65 two tests ago to take us to what was one of our greatest run chases of recent time (arguably ever). He was run out by Ponting when he was looking settled and focused in Brisbane, has only ever been out for single figure once and he has a first class average of over 50 ………I think if you start dropping young batsmen with this type of record you set a very dangerous precendent especially within this rebuilding phase ……Interestingly, I note that you are calling for Cowan to be considered, with a remarkably uninpressive first class average??

I loved Michael O’Connor when he kicked the last minute goal from the sideline in the rain for NSW in the state of origin, however, he’s lost all of my support over this one, he’s lost it all together! What part of Pat McCabes game would have been difficult for Quade Cooper to pick up on? He runs straight and hard, with the only variation being running straighter and harder! Quade needs to creates the space and put the ball on McCabes chest, nothing tricky about that …….. Granted he has his limitations in attack however it is a bit rich to blame him on Quade Coopers pea hearted effort in the World Cup…….If it wasn’t for McCabe’s incredible defensive effort in the quarter finals we would have been on the next plane out of NZ with our tails between our legs like last time. I beleive if we had been knocked out in the quarter finals there would have been increased pressure on Coopers postion in the team (and Dingo’s) …..McCabe has actually saved Coopers career. Pat McCabe tackled himself to a stand still with a busted shoulder v South Africa, the hit on Bryan Bannana saved the game for us. I’d be interested to hear from Michael O’Connor how McCabe influenced Coopers inability to make his tackles, his ineffective chip kicks, kicks in general play out on the full, kicking off on the full in the semi final of the world cup etc etc. McCabe has only helped us win the Tri Nations for the first time in years and helped us get into the semi finals of the world cup, while Derrick Barnes had a shockingly ordinary S15, played a few games for Sydney Uni v Penrith etc and decent games vs the heavyweights of russia, usa …..

Johnno – not a great day to use the Grahame Henry example…………..he has just retired!! Sorry mate.

LAS no worries, I was only joking, at least we are on the same page.

well done LAS you have simply rehashed my comment from two weeks ago into an article…………

whaler said | October 13th 2011 @ 2:34pm | Report comment

Am I missing something here? Howard’s background doesn’t stack up from a sporting perspective or a corporate persective? 10 months as the High Performance Manager of the Australian Rugby Union (During which time they got pumbled out of the World Cup in the Quater Finals and generally considered an UNDER performing team) and three years working for a property company in Brisbane? I am interested to hear how this qualifies him to to “execute CA’s “agreed plans in coach, team leadership, culture and selection”. Cricket Australia have really missed a great opportuity here to bring welll credentialed individuals into the organisation to turn things around. They would have got more use out of the Argus report by using it for toilet paper if they are going to make these kind of ridiculous and high risk appointments.

This quote from Howard doesn’t exactly inspire me with confidence……”Like all my mates and like most Australians, I love cricket. “It’s been said many times that there are 20 million selectors in this country and I am coming from that base, but I admit I have to get my head around the processes very quickly.” ie He knows as much about Cricket as the average punter sitting around the pub with his mates. He’s in charge with selecting our coach and selectors? But, I suppose it’s fair enough as Sheek correctly pointed out, his cousin was in the first XI cricket team at a school in Newcastle ?????

Sheek, so you support his appointment because of his Rugby Heritage? Or is it because he had an older cousin who played in the school cricket team ? Sounds like a combination. In the corporate world, for such an important role in a high profile organisation you would need to see a track record of demonstrable success within the industry or a correlating industry over a sustained period of time. Where is this in Howards background? I never blamed the World Cup loss on Pat Howard, I simply pointed out that when he was High Performan Manager they were a LOW performance operation, 10 months in any role typically shows that there is some type of skeleton in the closet…..While I am sure the Howard’s are a great Rugby Union family and Pat is a tremendous guy I stand by original comments that the background doesn’t stack up.

Brett, I’d be very concerned if they didn’t see it differently …….after all they appointed him…………James Sutherland appears to be looking at his background through rose coloured glasses. He managed his familys pharmacy business and coached a rugby team in England………….

Am I missing something here? Howard’s background doesn’t stack up from a sporting perspective or a corporate persective? 10 months as the High Performance Manager of the Australian Rugby Union (During which time they got pumbled out of the World Cup in the Quater Finals and generally considered an UNDER performing team) and three years working for a property company in Brisbane? I am interested to hear how this qualifies him to to “execute CA’s “agreed plans in coach, team leadership, culture and selection”. Cricket Australia have really missed a great opportuity here to bring welll credentialed individuals into the organisation to turn things around. They would have got more use out of the Argus report by using it for toilet paper if they are going to make these kind of ridiculous and high risk appointments.

Great article Joe, you mention Bradman, Laver as two other Athletes that the history books will speak of …I am assuming you are saying these two, along with Cadel are the greatest ever Australian athletes ? I would hesitate on putting a Cricketer up there, given only half a dozen countries played the game during his career, a great Athlete no doubt but not on truly global scale …..I would throw Herb Elliot in there, as a middle distance runner he genuionely took on the world, (not just England, South Africa, India, Ceylon). Anyone can run all you need is a pair of shoes (in fact Elliot used to train barefoot) While he won Olympic and Commonwealth Games Gold, broke world records and ran under the 4 mintue mile on many occaision for me the fact that makes him our greatest Athlete is that he never lost a race. A fair effort ??

Nice article Joe, the Irish really do seem to punch above their weight in sport. They always seem to put togehter competitive soccer teams, they have produced many great premier league players, their rugby teams especially of late are very competitive on the world stage and now they are producing big tourament winning golfers !

Is MrKistic ….Darren Berry ???? Cam White ? Please ? After all these years, he is still only averaging just over fourty in First Class cricket …….BAD CALL. Andrew McDonald ? Not even averaging fourty …..BAD CALL. Victoria haven’t produced a batsmen worth putting in the test team since Brad Hodge and he made his debut in 93 /94 ………17 years ago….that’s a long time not to make any contribution to our nations batting efforts. Given the amount of runs Cowan scored last year I think he is an option along with Ushma ………….

“He will never however be the tackler that Carter is, he is much more akin to Larkham” ……….please ! I think we all wish that he could defend like Larkham. Given Chisolm is not up to standard and Mumm appears to be out of favour now …..would it be ridiculous to play Elsom in the 2nd row in a Brad Thorn style of role ? He is taller than Thorn …..then we could play McAlman at 6 and when Palu is back play him at 8 …….

How is Mortlocks recovery going ? I thought he looked ordinary last year at 13 …..very slow …..BUT if he got back to full fitness sure he would be worth considering at 12 ? Would really stiffen up the defence around that 10 /12 channel where the AB”s were making all their metres ……On top of that he is a damaging runner ……sure we lose some ball playing ability but with Cooper at 10 and KB at 12 we are pretty well covered …..Am sure the AB’s would rather run at Gits than Morlock !!

Tubby Taylor caoch ??? The Aussie team will all end up looking like Mark Cosgrove !

Joe, was Bobby Simpson really that much of a great coach ? I think back in the early 80’s we were struggling for cattle like now. Bob Simpson came in there and gave them some discipline and improved theird fielding etc. Fair enough. Border was sick to death of him by the end, also being a selector as well as coach meant that many of the batsmen were inclined not to be transparent with him about their challenges. Tubby got rid of him pretty swiftly, initially reducing his input to just field drills and leaving the strategy to himself. It would be pretty daunting for a new skipper to have Mark Taylor hovering around in the background, always second guessing himself. I think we need to pick the RIGHT captain and give him plenty of confidence and say “Your the man ” have a coach that can run the drills etc. As Chappeli said the best use of a coach for a Cricket team is drive you to and from the ground.

Will, a little harsh re; the “this article is a little more than a cry for attention” comment ?!?!!? Australia have lost 3 test matches in a row the first time in 22 years ? Ponting has lost the Ashes twice (once with McGrath and Warne at his disposal) Surely we don’t just blinldy move forward with an underperforming captain without asking questions ?? Take the results out of the equation is he really that well respected as a captain ??? Is he really that strong ? What is the most inspirational moment of test captaincy from Ricky Ponting for you ?