By the time the BYE rolls around we will have a fair idea of how well we are going to go. Looks like our run home is harder than the first 14 rounds (using this seasons performances by other teams as a guide).
Funny pitch, a lot of people making runs then getting over confident and getting out when in complete control.
@Professer E You mean not a T20 pitch, just a normal pitch!
Despite the failure of the team selectors and management I have to say this is the most enjoyable test cricket I've watched for ages, proper Test cricket with players rewarded for concentration and effort and punished for indifference.
But you can still see that players are no longer conditioned for the 5-day game, they are all struggling to maintain a test level intensity. I noted your cartel friends making excuses for that aspect during the lunch break, claiming our lack of "new blood" is due to poor development of youth, then offering more NSWelshmen as the solution. All the while, it's 30 somethings like Starc, Smith and Hazelwood that look the most indifferent, and 30 somethings like Boland and Inglis who appear to be the most motivated if they could regularly get a game!
It is really worth listening to Richard Willingham on ABC radio. He provides an objective analysis of each party's policy releases, why they've chosen that tack, and whether they're getting any traction.
Jess Wilson is campaigning well and the most recent polls give her the lead. However, it seems that there's no uniform swing to the L-NP from the ALP and we should see a patchwork of results with some electorates sticking with the ALP, some being won by the L-NP and a couple going to PHON. I'm sticking with my prediction of a minority government, probably L-NP, and a hostile upper house.
Too many people get sucked in by social media A/B Bucket testing, it's an echo chamber that leads them to believe everybody thinks along the same lines. Then when the result isn't as expected they'll claim it's rigged by the deep state.
The genuine non-aligned pro commentators use anonymity methods to survey the market, they aren't marooned swallowing the usual crap that Faceplant, InstaTwaddle or XtremoNet tell them.
The simple test we can do is use a browser Incognito / Private mode without using your usual logins to survey the news media and social media, and then actually take note of how very different the report and search results become.
The Greens are dead, so I'm not sure where that vote goes, Labor probably.
PHON is basically stealing the traditional regional vote, which is ironic because her policies and her backers are basically going to roger them rigid. I don't think she'll have much impact on the major parties, she is a clown, and further nobody I know who has ever voted Liberal is ever going to vote for a Bananaby related party ever!
I think it'll be closer than people realise, and probably decided by voters swinging between the major parties. To me it's too close to call, but there is plenty of time left for one or all of them to screw up a bit more!
After Scotty Boland's batting in the 2nd Test, he could well be that "all-rounder"
Let's not get too excited.
People forget though that before he started bowling Boland was actually an opening batsmen in sub-district, I think he started bowling because as an opening batsmen he had limitations!
My problem with the Starc, is that he's the 1 in 5 man, his bowling along with Hazelwood not bowling, basically cost us the last test, our batting was poor but other than Boland nobody looked like making a dent. We made nowhere near enough, and they made way more than they ever should have! Today is the typical Starc problem, people have already forgotten 3 or 4 innings of top end pie chucking because he cleans up the tail end so effectively.
Today we have Starc saying without Lyon they all suffer, Lyon is saying he's nothing without Starc and Hazelwood, that's the @Professer E cartel in full swing!
btw. They pumped up Lyon for his first wicket, but that Saffie bloke basically threw his wicket away, if instead they had batted along at regular pace it looked like they could make 200 each!
Looks like the Cartel are looking after themselves again...
If we had not predicted it, based on the things we have seen before many many times, we would not believe it.
Half the squad will continuously pick and choose when it makes an effort, effectively throwing games away on a whim, and they are the ones being rewarded!
I watched the highlights of Rabada, and he's bowling with a gale behind him at one stage but even then he's not express. The thing he does very well is vary pace without a big change of action, and it looks like the bulk of our lot have NFI how to deal with it. But then again, most of them play cross bat everything.
Boland stayed the basics, straight bat, bat next to pad, foot towards the pill, and effectively stayed around for 2 full sessions.
The entrenched lot( the cartel as described by @Professer E), haven't got any hard yards in them anymore. They have spent too long collecting big dollars for the dog and pony show T20 and ODI stuff.
The Cartel will still beat up the opposition, and let us know about it, when the conditions suit. But when things get a bit willing, they'll just turn French and surrender!
Slug will stay, though, as the quicks are getting old and Green is not bowling, so they need the back up. It will be Green in for Madinson, and Renshaw moved to the top.... nothing surer. I'd give Sammy Harper a go at openning - in good form, and wont back down - but they wont
I'm not sure Renshaw has opening in his make up anymore, all of them are suffering from degraded techniques resulting from too much flat track T20 and ODI play.
I think Webster's biggest problem is that Cummins has NFI how to use all-rounders, so he basically runs the regulars including himself into the ground without any forward planning for tomorrow or the next match. By the time he started bowling Webster Boland, Starc and Cummins were all cooked.
Then there is the issue of the NSWelshmen defending their turf, which is anything connected to the baggy green. The old joke about getting a baggy green in a brown paper bag every time you get a NSW cap isn't really a joke is it, and as @dodge points out now blokes won't let go when they are cooked. I don't blame them for not wanting to relinquish a spot for Boland, because he will replace them and probably should have years ago! ( PS; Warner is already out in force on social media offering up a bunch of NSW names as replacements. )
As for "pace", the Saffies have made a joke of needing it on this pitch, it shows you how predictable and pedestrian our blokes look when the pitch or conditions aren't assisting, excluding Boland who has the hunger the rest basically go through the motions! They don't want to be there, they can earn 10x playing for 1/20th the time in India!
The result of not swinging the axe soon enough, the NSW cricket mafia will deflect, they'll blame dropping Lyon for Boland, nothing could be more certain.
Suffice to say imo most rational empathetic people want betterment for all. I dont see Poorline or her alcoholic sidekick Barnaby having that in mind.
It's a good policy to have.
Don't wait up too long to hear Hanson sprout a policy that helps everyone without collateral damage, it isn't coming.
The ON policy engine specialises in victimisation and excuses, pointing the finger and distraction.
Are we surprised that "What About Me" was such a big hit in Oz and globally, in a different light it's a piss take about narcissism and must rate well with Looksmaxxers, Influencers and Joe Rogan?
Our society sells it's soul to be married on telly!
A big risk really is the candidates going underground because of repeated leaks, badgering and exposés.
I know some might think this is trivial, but I'd draw your attention to the recent election on the Mornington Peninsula. There was a candidate who campaigned for mayor as a staunch independant, chastised most opponents as either Liberal, Labor or Green lap dogs, then part way through the elected tenure resigned to nominate as the Liberal parties preferred candidate in a by-election.
We are seeing this more and more, candidates deliberately masking the personal politics to get elected, I understand it's not just a local problem, like Pauline's Nazi boosters it's a global problem, for example Reform UK. I genuinely think it's time to change some of democracies laws to cripple minority rule and hung parliaments from being the preferred outcome, because the fringe live and die on that very political feature which allows them to divide the vote.
btw., This is nothing new to suggest such change is required, this has all happened before, around the rise of the fascists before The Great War and WWII. I'm not sure many of our sovereign citizens know much about history, I've read some of them quoting the Alamo!
Just an example of the above and how it is manipulated.
Hanson defends the abuse of Lambie by claiming it's just a joke, she has to get over it, have a sense of humour.
If a similar cartoon or joke is made about Hanson she rallies her social media stormtroopers claiming it's just another example of oppression from the mythical "deep state", the "big end of town" defending it's turf, she is for the little people, for the loners, the true Australians (as long as your name isn't Lambie it seems) and she does this at a rally funded by someone like Gina Reinhart.
The media love it, they suck it up and propagate the myth for profit, while social media beats the drum completely blind to hypocrisy.
You can see how easy it is for the lunatics to cross the line beyond reason, they incapable of separating emotion from fantasy.
But the problem isn't resolved by normal politics or public discussion, because much of what is rally against is fantasy, and the ultimate driver is rooted in the professional media. Sycophants like the Karl, Kyle and Joe who beat a drum for obscene profit. Then you get the absurdity of social media, which will often attack those who call out the sycophants by labelling the critics "Jones pedo sympathisers", incapable of seeing that the problem exists in the extremities.
That is a little window into the mind of the nutter. Perceiving a world which to them appears that 'everyone else' is an extremist, a Andrew Tait or an Alan Jones, with someone like themself and Kyle Sandilands in the middle ground!
The fix is to hold the media and social media giants to account, make them responsible for the riots they incite, make them pay fines in billion$ not just million$, much as some regions have already started doing with the likes of Apple and Microsoft. The only language they understand is cash.
