Miscellaneous Sports 2021 off-season

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After a good suggestion, we’ve decided to move all non-AFL threads to the old and dusty “Purple Horde” sub thread. The hope is it has the following effects
A) Keeps them easily available but still out of sight
B) Encourages the use of the sub-forums like they are meant to be used for and brings a bit more organisation to the forum
C) While I love how passionate everyone is on the topics and that there is terrific debate on the topics, moderating the politics thread can get... tiresome. I’ll be letting things go a bit more, however personal attacks will not be tolerated and I encourage you to report them in any shape or form.

As usual, reach out to BeinPurplenGreen, myself and Tonga Bob to discuss anything as needed. Thanks for making the forum what it is.
 
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There are some truly awful sports commentators in Australia. Especially the majority of Channel 7s AFL team with their boys club banter.
But seriously there is no one worse than Andy Maher. He’s actually unlistenable.

I generally like the cricket commentators in general. Ricky Ponting especially - gives the viewers an insight into his elite mindset and his tactical commentary is fascinating. Perhaps the game lends itself to that a bit more. Ponting is Not afraid to be critical either.
Fleming is also very good. Even Brian Lara brings an aura with him. These must be wondering WTF when sitting beside Maher on commentary!
 
Taylor said:
I don't expect any difference for the scorchers finishing first or second, I don't think they will have the game at Optus
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Its been confirmed behind closed doors that the Scorchers will play home finals in Perth, it was mentioned a couple times in The West the past few days, and the company my sis works for at Optus Stadium was given confirmation of Perth finals as well, staff have been asked to give their availability.
 

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holybishop said:


Good to see Jhye back, even if it is just T20Is
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I don't get the selection of Abbott in the test squad. I know it is a good news story but he just doesn't seem good enough. Not a massive fan of Henriques (especially at his age) but he did perform so can't really argue with it.

The T20 squad is very interesting. Wow look at the Scorcher representation even Turner who was a surprise. I think Jhye is an amazing talent and reckon the Aussie selectors are just taking it slow with him and that shoulder before he gets another test call up. Unlucky on Inglis but they have two other keepers also in ripping form with the bat in this squad
 
freoextra said:
I don't get the selection of Abbott in the test squad. I know it is a good news story but he just doesn't seem good enough. Not a massive fan of Henriques (especially at his age) but he did perform so can't really argue with it.
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Abbott has taken 14 wickets at an average of 18 this Shield season. Only Swepson and Bird have taken more. I don't think he's a test bowler but you've got to reward good Shield performances.
 
holybishop said:
Abbott has taken 14 wickets at an average of 18 this Shield season. Only Swepson and Bird have taken more. I don't think he's a test bowler but you've got to reward good Shield performances.
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Agreed, just found his performances when he was given those higher level opportunities this season massively underwhelming, hence the comment.
 
holybishop said:
All in the wrong format unfortunately! Once he resumes bowling I would like to see MMarsh back in the test squad ahead of Henriques as the alternative allrounder.
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I’m more excited to see Richardson back in the whites (cremes...).
But agree on Marsh. He should have been a star at Test level. Just couldn’t get it all together at the right times on the right stage. Shame as he’s such an incredible talent. I do think, however, that he is better suited to the white ball game these days.
 
Think Richardson will take Starc's spot before the Ashes, correct me if I'm wrong, but Jhye playing the t20s will let him play the back-end of the Shield?

Hopefully he tears up the Shield and give the selectors no reason not to pick him for the test team.

Inglis is the most unlucky one but Carey for better worse has been deemed the heir apparent. Good thing for Inglis is that he'll take Carey's spot immediately if Carey doesnt perform. Given we have a glaring hole at 5 at the moment, can easily see Carey possibly playing as a pure bat if he starts his career well enough and Inglis is performing well in the Shield

Turner should be nowhere near that T20 team really
 
Snuffaluphagus said:
Think Richardson will take Starc's spot before the Ashes, correct me if I'm wrong, but Jhye playing the t20s will let him play the back-end of the Shield?

Hopefully he tears up the Shield and give the selectors no reason not to pick him for the test team.

Inglis is the most unlucky one but Carey for better worse has been deemed the heir apparent. Good thing for Inglis is that he'll take Carey's spot immediately if Carey doesnt perform. Given we have a glaring hole at 5 at the moment, can easily see Carey possibly playing as a pure bat if he starts his career well enough and Inglis is performing well in the Shield

Turner should be nowhere near that T20 team really
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I know 5 is a problem and the cupboard is bare but 4 FC tons in 37 games at 29 yo doesn't scream test middle order bat to me.

Somebody (who isn't already blacklisted) is bound to make some runs sooner or later and they need to be rewarded. The trick is not to give them 1-2 extra tests when they are clearly out of form/of their depth.
 
Joao said:
I know 5 is a problem and the cupboard is bare but 4 FC tons in 37 games at 29 yo doesn't scream test middle order bat to me.

Somebody (who isn't already blacklisted) is bound to make some runs sooner or later and they need to be rewarded. The trick is not to give them 1-2 extra tests when they are clearly out of form/of their depth.
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I think it’d be higher than that if he’d had a chance to play the last couple of years but it’s a good point, I just probably want Inglis in the team any way I can. Maybe Fraser-McGurk can live up to be generational and force his way in there the next couple of years while Head meanders around getting starts and not much else
 

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holybishop said:
Abbott has taken 14 wickets at an average of 18 this Shield season. Only Swepson and Bird have taken more. I don't think he's a test bowler but you've got to reward good Shield performances.
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Disagree. The selectors job is to decide who is likely to succeed at test level. Of course players who perform in the shield are more likely to perform at test level but it’s not a perfect correlation whatsoever. If it was selectors wouldn’t exist and the team would be selected by some guy (probably Langer) looking at stats.
 
Docker82 said:
Disagree. The selectors job is to decide who is likely to succeed at test level. Of course players who perform in the shield are more likely to perform at test level but it’s not a perfect correlation whatsoever. If it was selectors wouldn’t exist and the team would be selected by some guy (probably Langer) looking at stats.
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I don't disagree. There's more to cricket than stats and to their credit the selectors have form in ignoring good shield numbers in favour of essentially gut feel. Labuschagne is one of those gut feel selections. Despite a test average of 60 his FC average is only 44. However as to fast bowlers I don't think there's anyone else to select to go to South Africa so Abbott goes due to his shield numbers.
 
holybishop said:
I don't disagree. There's more to cricket than stats and to their credit the selectors have form in ignoring good shield numbers in favour of essentially gut feel. Labuschagne is one of those gut feel selections. Despite a test average of 60 his FC average is only 44. However as to fast bowlers I don't think there's anyone else to select to go to South Africa so Abbott goes due to his shield numbers.
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In the case of Abbott I think he’s in the best 6-7 quicks we have. I wasn’t attacking Abbott directly.

In the case of Chris Lynn I think the selectors have made an excellent decision not playing him in the T20 squad. He’s a BBL gun who’ll never be successful at international level.

Where I believe the selectors have failed in the past is selecting guys like Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft who to the eye ignoring stats aren’t even close to test standard. Whilst others have lesser shield numbers I’d expect them to do much better at test level. Neither should have a single test match to their name.

I was making the point that I think shield form is overrated. It’s important for sure but half the casual cricket fans out there seem to think it’s as easy as selecting the guys with the best averages at shield level. It isn’t even close to that easy.

The selectors didn’t use ‘gut feel’ on Labuschagne. They made a judgement based on what they believed would be successful at test level that he’d be more successful than guys scoring more at shield level and they were right! That’s the selectors job. Not promoting guys just because they have good shield numbers.
 
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FWIW I don’t rate Abbott either & was shocked that he was 12th man during the Indian series.

But if he does get selected for a game, I really do hope they don’t ask him about Phillip Hughes.
 
Johnny Dalmas said:
What is your opinion on Rodgers? He has a good regular season record, but he seems to lose a fair amount of big post-season games
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Hard to say. Packers have now lost their last 4 NFC championships, but in three of the four, I can't pin the entire blame on Rodgers. Yes, he blew the two chances he had in the second half after the two interceptions. Going 3 and out twice in a row is unacceptable and mostly on him. BUT....he wasn't the one who called a one high safety on the last play of the first half with 0:01 remaining that resulted in the touchdown instead of a two shell prevent defense. He didn't play cornerback and allow the receiver get behind him (Kevin King's fault). This completely changed the momentum of the game and put our defense on their heels, which is not their strength.

He didn't drop the two point conversion which made it a 5 point instead of a 3 point game.

He didn't hold the receiver and get called for PI on third down in the fourth quarter.

He didn't make the call to kick a FG instead of going for it on their last possession in the 4th quarter. He also was only partly responsible for abondoning the run (I'm sure there was some RPO or audibles in there) in the second half. In the two possessions that were 1st and goal, LaFluer called pass-pass-pass on the first series and pass-pass-pass on the second. The Buccs defense IMO was not threatened by the play action at that point of the game.

The QB bears 90% of the blame but only has 50% of the responsibility (or some number around there). The Seattle NFC championship loss was not entirely his fault (thank you brandon bostick! grrr) and either was the last second catch against the Giants (Eli manning, argh!).

But in the end of the day QBs are judged by championships and his record will not make him stand out in the hall of fame. I personally want him to play for the Pack until he can't stand anymore or his arm falls off. In the end of the day there are only one or two QBs I'd rather have on my team and I know when he leaves, it will be dark days for the Packers. There is a 0.000002% chance we get THREE hall of fame quarterbacks in a row. It's been a great ride since Favre's first game in 1992 against the Bengals. Hopefully we win one again with Rodgers, but I don't expect to.

Footy season can't come soon enough!

And now, back to cricket... :)
 
Daddoo said:
Hard to say. Packers have now lost their last 4 NFC championships, but in three of the four, I can't pin the entire blame on Rodgers. Yes, he blew the two chances he had in the second half after the two interceptions. Going 3 and out twice in a row is unacceptable and mostly on him. BUT....he wasn't the one who called a one high safety on the last play of the first half with 0:01 remaining that resulted in the touchdown instead of a two shell prevent defense. He didn't play cornerback and allow the receiver get behind him (Kevin King's fault). This completely changed the momentum of the game and put our defense on their heels, which is not their strength.

He didn't drop the two point conversion which made it a 5 point instead of a 3 point game.

He didn't hold the receiver and get called for PI on third down in the fourth quarter.

He didn't make the call to kick a FG instead of going for it on their last possession in the 4th quarter. He also was only partly responsible for abondoning the run (I'm sure there was some RPO or audibles in there) in the second half. In the two possessions that were 1st and goal, LaFluer called pass-pass-pass on the first series and pass-pass-pass on the second. The Buccs defense IMO was not threatened by the play action at that point of the game.

The QB bears 90% of the blame but only has 50% of the responsibility (or some number around there). The Seattle NFC championship loss was not entirely his fault (thank you brandon bostick! grrr) and either was the last second catch against the Giants (Eli manning, argh!).

But in the end of the day QBs are judged by championships and his record will not make him stand out in the hall of fame. I personally want him to play for the Pack until he can't stand anymore or his arm falls off. In the end of the day there are only one or two QBs I'd rather have on my team and I know when he leaves, it will be dark days for the Packers. There is a 0.000002% chance we get THREE hall of fame quarterbacks in a row. It's been a great ride since Favre's first game in 1992 against the Bengals. Hopefully we win one again with Rodgers, but I don't expect to.

Footy season can't come soon enough!

And now, back to cricket... :)
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Thanks for your thoughts.

Although the YouTube talk seems to be about the last Green Bay drive, to my very inexpert eye, it seems the big problem in this game was being down 28-10 in the first place. It seemed like a long way back from there.

To me it also seemed like Tampa had more ways to get a score than Green Bay. It felt that Rodgers had to be v.good for Green Bay to score.

While it felt that Brady just had to do his bit and the other Tampa players would step up to share the load a little bit more. The defense would get a turnover with excellent field position; the running back would have a great run for a TB; the offensive line would give Brady a lot more time to make a play; at 3rd down Brady would do a dinky pass ”over” the scrimmage line, but after the catch the Tampa receiver would really fight for those extra yards to make a 1st down.

But I claim no real knowledge about American Football, so this might be all wrong!
 
On commentators - Doris Burke is very good. Worked up from being a sideline reporter for years, completed good interviews and gradually added insight in her comments and now is part of the main commentary team. She doesn't overplay excitement (see Walters being an energiser bunny...) and knows the game.
 
Bring back Drum said:
FWIW I don’t rate Abbott either & was shocked that he was 12th man during the Indian series.

But if he does get selected for a game, I really do hope they don’t ask him about Phillip Hughes.
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It’s six years ago. Abbott unfortunately has to live with the fact for the rest of his life, however I would’ve thought literally everyone else has moved on.
 
Yes, Doris knows the game....but I can't stand her. I think it's her accent and generally monotone voice, she certainly doesn't overplay things as you have noted Poshman.

On an unrelated point, I don't really understand the interest in NFL - one of the most stop/start games ever invented.
 
FD2646 said:
Yes, Doris knows the game....but I can't stand her. I think it's her accent and generally monotone voice, she certainly doesn't overplay things as you have noted Poshman.

On an unrelated point, I don't really understand the interest in NFL - one of the most stop/start games ever invented.
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fair enough on the voice - doesn’t bother me personally though.

I used to think the same way about NFL. Now I see it as a massive game of chess with incredible athletes. And while I mostly enjoy it there are times when it is incredibly tedious.
 
FD2646 said:
Yes, Doris knows the game....but I can't stand her. I think it's her accent and generally monotone voice, she certainly doesn't overplay things as you have noted Poshman.

On an unrelated point, I don't really understand the interest in NFL - one of the most stop/start games ever invented.
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I reckon part of the appeal is the stop/start nature. It means that every down can be isolated, reviewed relentlessly on video and understood in its own terms.

Here is an example :

I don’t know whether this guy’s analysis is good or bad. But the type and extent of analysis is something you see a lot with American Football and is pretty dependant on the stop/start nature of the plays.

You can geek out to an incredible extent.
 
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