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11
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Cricket thread
Last post by crashlander -
Our bowlers have been very good for a long time, but we no longer have the edge we had. No express bowlers in the Sheffield Shield, which doesn't help. We also have a lot of fast bowlers who are injury prone.

Our batting is also very disjointed and unreliable these days. A lot of guys are closer to the end than the start and we haven't blooded that many kids to replace them.

Our allrounders are not prospering, and a lot of the problem is that we don't seem to know how to use them. Our main bowlers bowl themselves into the ground, but the others just don't do much. We don't really know how good Green's bowling is, for example, because he only gets a couple of overs. That is not the way to develop his bowling.
12
Ladies Lounge / Re: AFLW 2026 Rd 11 Carlton vs GWS at Carlton
Last post by crashlander -
 Our line-up:

B:   21 Harriet Cordner   49 Madeline Hendrie
HB:   3 Darcy Vescio   36 Ciara Fitzgerald   1 Amelia Velardo
C:   10 Mimi Hill   4 Claudia Whitfort   17 Dayna Finn
HF:   35 Nell Morris-Dalton   55 Sophie McKay   25 Keeley Sherar
F:   2 Lauren Bella   7 Poppy Scholz
R:   12 Jessica Good   19 Erone Fitzpatrick   5 Abbie McKay
Int:   14 Siofra O'Connell   8 Lily Baxter   11 Yasmin Duursma   20 Lily Goss   13 Aisling Reidy
Em:   6 Gabriella Pound   24 Brooke Vickers   26 Tayla McMillan

[1] Good to see Jess Good back. She is very effective. Bella hasn't quite lived up to expectations, alas.
[2] Our forwards haven't had great years, other than Ronni Fitzpatrick and Nell Morris-Dalton. Sophie McKay, in particular, hasn't had the impact she had last year. We have also missed Bree Harrington, who I hope will return next season. Her strength and unpredictability really adds something to our forward line. Her kicking ... well, nobody is perfect.
[3] Nice to see Lily Baxter get a game. Hopefully she can make a strong contribution.
Tayla McMillan may be a little stiff to miss, but she will be the future.
13
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Cricket thread
Last post by DJC -
Quote from: LP – on
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.


Rabada's probably not back to his best after his Grade 3 hammy, but he was generally in the 140-150kph range with one delivery clocked at 154.5kph.  That's express!
14
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Cricket thread
Last post by LP -
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!
15
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Cricket thread
Last post by Professer E -
Yea the Cartel fair dinkum stank.  Cummins captained, bowled and batted like he didn't give a f.... Hazelwood was as weak as p1$$ - own up or f off.
Smudge throwing his wicket away in the fashion he did was particularly insulting. Nup, NSW let us down this test in a massive way, isn't the first time either.
16
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Cricket thread
Last post by DJC -
Disappointing, weak, pathetic, soft, capitulated and rudderless are all words that spring to mind.

Head, Boland and Carey didn’t want to lose the Test.  The rest of the team? Not so much 🙄
17
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)
Last post by Lods -
Quote from: Thryleon – on
Quote from: PaulP – on
Not exactly new, but as the date for the mid terms draws closer, concerns and discourse are mounting that the Reps and particularly DJT, will refuse to accept any results he doesn't like, and has been planning for a long time for all manner of tactics to interfere as he deems necessary, including canceling the election altogether.

It's really quite something to watch the major superpower become a 3rd world, corrupt, strife-ridden, shambolic state, in real time.

Its like the fall of the Roman empire.

The problem for us is we're one of the 'provinces' and it will have an impact on us in terms of things like defence.
USA and reliablity don't really go together at the moment....and it's not something we can rely on.
I'm not sure we ever could, but there was a degree of comfort in the idea that we had an ally who would have our backs.

I'm not sure where we fit when the 'Three Amigos'  meet to divide up the World.
18
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)
Last post by Thryleon -
Quote from: PaulP – on
Not exactly new, but as the date for the mid terms draws closer, concerns and discourse are mounting that the Reps and particularly DJT, will refuse to accept any results he doesn't like, and has been planning for a long time for all manner of tactics to interfere as he deems necessary, including canceling the election altogether.

It's really quite something to watch the major superpower become a 3rd world, corrupt, strife-ridden, shambolic state, in real time.

Its like the fall of the Roman empire.
19
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)
Last post by DJC -
Quote from: PaulP – on
Not exactly new, but as the date for the mid terms draws closer, concerns and discourse are mounting that the Reps and particularly DJT, will refuse to accept any results he doesn't like, and has been planning for a long time for all manner of tactics to interfere as he deems necessary, including canceling the election altogether.

It's really quite something to watch the major superpower become a 3rd world, corrupt, strife-ridden, shambolic state, in real time.

The alarming thing is that Hegseth has effectively removed all senior miltary personnel with the courage to stand up to Taco.

The courts, and even Taco's appointees, are a different kettle of worms and are generally even-handed in their applyication of the law, much to Taco's dismay and displeasure.  It remains to be seen whether the civil powers will line up with Taco or the courts.

While it seems easier to amend the US constitution that it is to change ours, the fact remains that it is an 18th century document and the founding fathers couldn't foresee the complexities of the 21st century or the emergence of a cult following a malignant narcissistic megalomanic.  It's unfortunate that some of the founding fathers weren't founding mothers.
20
Ladies Lounge / Re: Changes to F/D for 2028
Last post by kruddler -
Quote from: crashlander – on
Like the men, male players will need to have played 100 games for their offspring to be eligible for F/S or F/D status.

Not at all what the Mother/son or daughter criterion might be.

We have a top pick available for F/D next year: Sophia Green.

Makes sense....i guess.

The tricky one will be going the other way.
How many games can a mother have played before their offspring becomes eligible.....and would it vary depending on AFLW or AFL.
Given the shorter seasons, i would like to think that 50 would be about the max games required by an AFLW player.

.....and because i like to look for loopholes and ways around things......could you combine games played if both your parents happen to have played the game? Say, your dad played 70 games, and your mum played 30 games for the same team, does that make you eligible as they combined for 100. It probably should!