Erin Patterson's day in court didn't go the way she was hoping; not only did she lose her appeal but the DPP successfully had her non-parole period removed meaning that she should spend the rest of her life behind bars.
From what I could glean from the original trial, Patterson seemed to believe that she was smarter than everyone else, and her appeal reinforced that impression. She will have plenty of time to ponder whether she overestimated herself.
I believe that we haven’t played Sydney in Melbourne since 2017 so it’s not a case of the AFL protecting Charlie, it’s just favouring Sydney.
Thats not right, I was at the game Voss coached against them at Marvel back in 2022.
We won and won well, was likely lochie Obriens best game for the club, and corey durdin had a blinder too. I think we were missing Harry that day from memory.
You're right, we haven't played the Swans at the MCG since 2017 - remember the reactions of Hayward and Florent after experiencing our home crowd at the G.
Hopefully they have put the cue in the rack by then, and its a couple of easy/easier wins as a result?
There is that, but you'd think that the AFL could organise the fixture so that games against teams you play twice are before and after the bye.
The early analysis suggests that we've got the tenth hardest draw and that's fair enough given our final ladder position. However, Sydney, Melbourne and Collingwood all have nominally easier draws, and Sydney gets the most prime time slots.
That's one of the most even batting performances I've seen in recent times; Head's 41 was the lowest score (by a batsman ) and he was a bit stiff to play on. I'd rather see lots of 50s than one big hundred but I hope Inglis can carry on where he left off.
Watching Labuschagne bat is excruciating. His over reactions to balls he misjudges are like a bad pantomime performer. It was a relief that he only lasted five balls.
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!
We've had this discussion before and Boland wasn't an opening bat in sub-district. He opened the batting as a junior when all kids had to bat and bowl but moved down the order as he focused more on bowling.
My comment was tongue in cheek; Scotty has the ability and technigue to hold up an end as a nightwatchman, but he's never going to be a run-scoring allrounder.
As for Starc, he is the ICC's number 1 ranked Test bowler, Australia's fourth highest wicket-taker, and Wisden ranks him as the 4th best left-arm fast bowlers of all time.
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.
[The caller calling for Starc's head was before a ball was bowled in the 3rd test.
Starc is a bowler with a special ability to polarise people's opinions about him. His record speaks for itself, but people have been calling for his head since before his Test debut.
There's no doubt that Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyons are a very potent bowling quartet ... when they're all firing. If one or two are off the boil, then Starc seems to be over-bowled and he loses his edge. All four suffer from the absence of an all-rounder who can bowl well for long spells. That all-rounder doesn't have to be a prolific wicket taker, he just has maintain the pressure while the four strike bowlers share the other end.
After Scotty Boland's batting in the 2nd Test, he could well be that "all-rounder"
The only poll that has proved to be almost as reliable as the one on election day is Roy Morgan Research. They are saying that preferences will be vital with a significant number of electors declaring that they will not preference PHON under any circumstances. That could mean L-NP, ALP, Greens or independent candidates winning on preferences.
Victoria has now banned the upper house group voting tickets so there won't be any miraculous fringe party victories. Morgan research has the Legislative Council going:
L-NP 12 ALP 10 Greens 8 PHON 6 Undecided 4
There's still a way to go but, at this stage, a minority government with a hostile upper house could be likely.
Plenty of campaigning happening down here on the Bellarine but no sign of PHON so far.
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 think that is crediting players with much more ability than they actually have.
I would say that they always play to the best of their ability but flaws in technique, limited toolkit and inability to respond to the game situation are exposed far too often. Then there’s the additional pressure created by underperforming teammates.
