It was great to see Buck get his century (even if it was just on TV). His immediate future as a Test cricketer is assured and a couple of good scores against the South Africans will cement his position.
The pitch is certainly playing its part in this match. While it is generally good for batting, it is two paced and the odd ball doesn't come on to the bat. I suspect that this had produced several false shots.
Huge & sincere best wishes to all for 2014. I hope that the brothers and sisters on the CSC (website) have a terrific and safe 2014. May we cheer great success, together, in 2014. GO BLUES.
Kind words there buddy. We all hope for the same dream and it will come true one day. Keep those fingers crossed.
I reckon Clarke's decision to bowl first was correct. We could have batted, set England a difficult task, and taken the contest out of the game. However, by bowling first, he (and Boof) has challenged the team to win in different and more difficult circumstances and that will pay dividends in future.
I wouldn't have thought the Poms are sitting on their hands when it comes to refreshing their Test team; their three best performed players - Broad, Stokes and Root - are among their youngest.
I'm not in favour of tossing blokes out of the team once they turn 30 but it would be nice if we had the equivalent of Stokes and Root breathing down the necks of some of our blokes.
“I came to Australia in the hope of winning our fourth Ashes series on the trot but that's now impossible," Swann told British newspaper The Sun.
“So it's time for someone else to buckle in and enjoy the ride. I could have made myself available for the last two Tests and maybe had a bit of a send-off from the Barmy Army.
“But that's no reason to hang on for two more games. I like to be the centre of attention - but for the right reason by winning games of cricket.”
Good career for Swann but I would have thought he had unfinished business in proving he could take wickets in Australia and Melbourne and Sydney should have offered him more.
I might be being harsh but I reckon it's weak and selfish of him to retire half way through a tough tour where they have already lost one of their key players to illness. He chose to come on the tour and he should see it through to the end and then bow out, not a good sign for the rest of the Poms tour here.
I suspect that he is physically and emotionally spent and realises that anyone else will do better. The Aussies' plan to target him both when batting and bowling seems to have taken a toll.
“I came to Australia in the hope of winning our fourth Ashes series on the trot but that's now impossible," Swann told British newspaper The Sun.
“So it's time for someone else to buckle in and enjoy the ride. I could have made myself available for the last two Tests and maybe had a bit of a send-off from the Barmy Army.
“But that's no reason to hang on for two more games. I like to be the centre of attention - but for the right reason by winning games of cricket.”
I ask because my Astor television receiver suddenly stopped working. It used to get all the channels - 2, 7, 9 and 0 - but the picture on 0 was always a little fuzzy. I think the problem has something to do with digitalization or analogarithms.
Someone suggested that I try setting the receiver on top of a box but that didn't work
yes, improvements for sure - innovative? no most of that personnel came from one club our arch enemy - that doesn't flatter me we are paying overs for people past their best - that needs to be phased out. Lake took a 200k paycut to play with the hawks, when that happens with us , i'll be fkn thrilled
Yes TTB, poaching coaching, playing and administrative staff from the Pies is hardly a formula for long term and sustainable development.
Perhaps our long term plan is to get Ratts back once he is full bottle on the Hawks' approach to on and off field success.
Whatever it takes, if we can match Hawthorn and Geelong's success, we'll have players, coaches and administrators knocking on the door in the hope of an opportunity with us.
At the end of the day, nobody seems to care about winning ratios. Flags are what success is measured by in this caper. And we only have one AFL flag. 16 all up, but only one in the AFL that was nearly 20 years ago.
Very true Gozza but we're not going to win another one if our coach believes the simplistic analysis he is peddling.
Tripe. I believe we were the winningest club over the course of the AFL up to 2002 then we fell away badly. We still have winning records against a lot of teams even with our junk years.
We had a losing culture that just happened to win more than any other in the competition, this smacks of laying ground work.
You can say this culture has been breed over a decade of crap and this group in particular is fragile as anything, no issue there but since the inception of the AFL? What simplictic rubbish analysis.
Good point IOT; the only teams that have better win loss ratios with us are Fremantle and Port Adelaide. Even in our darkest years Malthouse only managed 12 wins against us to our 8 wins over a high flying Collingwood (not that that is anywhere near acceptable).
While I agree that some of our recent losses may be put down to a lack of determination to win, it is a very simplistic analysis. In fact, if my memory is correct, Collingwood at its best unaccountably lost games in which it was clear favourite. I wonder how Mick would explain that.
Yes Cookie there are definitely a few who will need to live up to their potential or it will be "don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out".
If the Club is not working very hard now to keep Gibbs, Jamison, Murphy, Simpson and Walker then the powers that be have rocks in their heads.
Interestingly, there's not much on offer from other clubs via free agency and those players who would make a difference to us are apparently close to signing contract extensions.
Scotland will probably pull the pin but, if Waite has a good season, I suspect he'll go around again.
