The ongoing failure to learn by our so-called "professional" cricketers has lead to the catastrophic destruction of at least 3 remotes in my household.
Leopards do not change their spots.... pity that saying is so apt.
The pitches are disgusting. Spinning decks in England? You can bet that if we had a half decent spinner they'd have the sprinklers on... and they'd still beat us inside 4 days at just about any venue, although we would at least have a fighting chance.
Clarke is good... once he gets a start, but he has always been a risky conveyance when batting. That was his real issue before his golden run... lots of pretty 30's and not a lot of conversion into real scores. When he fixed that issue, he became decent.
Agree with the above. Piss off Watson and all his mates, go back to ground zero with the batting and pick kids with technique. There must be some around. Joe Burns? Nick Maddinson?
Adam Voges, although older, is another I'd look at for a cool head and a touch of experience, plus I'd be looking at Paine as well.
Can't carry this selfish, petulant tool anymore. Replace him with a bloke who WANTS to play and who is a TEAM man. Plenty of half decent openers going around.... Australia A tour has a couple worth trying.
Directly cost Roger's wicket as well and this is unforgiveable IMO.
Pattinson is not bowling well and needs to get it together fast. Gees we are an ordinary fielding side full of plodders.
What is it with these Pommy decks... cracks on day one.... given that they have the best reverse bowler in the world and a top spinner you wonder about pitch preparation...
If we don't have a minimum of 100 run lead after the first dig we will be 2 zip.
I note that it is a one year extension... sounds pretty much like "we've seen something, but its shape up or ship out". How much is the one year extension going to cost?
I realise that Henderson is becoming an important player for us but the $400 000 or so for 2 years I have heard bandied about sounds like a lot of coin. Then again, Warnock and others are stinking it up in the twos for upwards of $300 000 so I guess that $400 000 isn't unreasonable in the scheme of things.
Eliminating our weaknesses before attempting to gain improvement via acquisition seems a pretty simple strategy to me.
Start by picking a balanced side, name the right sub, and don't play injured players for starters, any of that will help out and not cost draft picks or necessitate fancy trading strategies.
Because the last decade has taught us the following;
1. Playing opposition who we always struggle to beat, even at our best (in this case because we arrogantly regarded them as an irrelevant club and tried to buy them to get their players). 2. Playing an opposition that we match up poorly against. They have a real ruck, proper structure and three tall forwards. 3. Playing opposition that physically intimidate us, sometimes with dog tactics, but generally they just play basic football that is too much for our seagulls. Goldstein, Swallow, Firrito and Petrie et al. treat us with contempt. 4. Playing opposition that were woeful last week, have been baked in media and thus have point to prove. 5. Big game with high stakes - winner is a chance of finals, loser is playing for draft pick position. We never, ever win those games. 6. Friday night game, so they want to play well to showcase their club. 7. Also Friday night, which means we'll probably get Ray. Ray + the diver = not a good night.