***Official*** Australian Domestic Season 2008/09

[pup11]

What happened to Ben Hilfenhaus last season ? I notice he never took 5 wickets in an innings once, and his overall Pura Cup record of 28 wickets @ 43.82 is well below par, for a bowler that seems to have some genuine potential.

Was suffering from a back problem for most of the last season and had to be even replaced from the Australian squad for the test series in West Indies, so if he is fit this season then i can see him doing well again.

 

[pup11]

Hope we can win a few games

Younis Kahn just needs to average 60

So often we have at least one innings in a Sheffield Shield match where we are insipid! Hard to blame our bowlers for trying to defend 150-200 every match wouldn't rule out that we could finish bottom of both comps. No Elliot to save us in the one dayers anymore

I think rather than expecting Khan to do wonders, all Redback fans should be hoping for a change in the attitude in the younger lot of South Australian players, if that can happen the performance of the Redback too would improve, but they are surely gonna miss likes of Harris, Gillespie and Elliot this season and that's why its important that the younger guys get their head straight and step-up.

 

[Top_Cat]

I think rather than expecting Khan to do wonders, all Redback fans should be hoping for a change in the attitude in the younger lot of South Australian players, if that can happen the performance of the Redback too would improve, but they are surely gonna miss likes of Harris, Gillespie and Elliot this season and that's why its important that the younger guys get their head straight and step-up.

The district comp in Adelaide works against that, though. The culture of nepotism in some clubs is incredible. I dunno whether it's the same in other states.

I just remember going out to see a club game and noticed some middle-order batsmsn (given they were young but still...) backing away to a quick bowler. My first thought was "Mate, what are you doing here?" The pitches in Adelaide are flaaaaaaaaaaaaat too. That's why anyone who bowls with a bit of movement in the air will make the SA batsmen struggle. Been a problem for years.

The culture of the SA team (use that term loosely) precludes success too. It's an old story and I've said why enough times but geez, aside from all teh off-field stuff we've heard about, marginalising the tough blokes in favour of flashy stroke-makers produces the results we've seen from the Redbacks. The SA squad is full of blokes who rely on being able to hit their way out of trouble (and can in a grade game because the decks are roads) so they either get out doing that or dig a hole just trying to survive. It's a pretty open secret that teams who've done well against SA have pretty much just bowled tight and waited (not long, generally) for the the series of get-out shots to follow. Again, this has been a problem for, well, as long as I can remember.

 

[Mister Wright]

The district comp in Adelaide works against that, though. The culture of nepotism in some clubs is incredible. I dunno whether it's the same in other states.

I just remember going out to see a club game and noticed some middle-order batsmsn (given they were young but still...) backing away to a quick bowler. My first thought was "Mate, what are you doing here?" The pitches in Adelaide are flaaaaaaaaaaaaat too. That's why anyone who bowls with a bit of movement in the air will make the SA batsmen struggle. Been a problem for years.

The culture of the SA team (use that term loosely) precludes success too. It's an old story and I've said why enough times but geez, aside from all teh off-field stuff we've heard about, marginalising the tough blokes in favour of flashy stroke-makers produces the results we've seen from the Redbacks. The SA squad is full of blokes who rely on being able to hit their way out of trouble (and can in a grade game because the decks are roads) so they either get out doing that or dig a hole just trying to survive. It's a pretty open secret that teams who've done well against SA have pretty much just bowled tight and waited (not long, generally) for the the series of get-out shots to follow. Again, this has been a problem for, well, as long as I can remember.

So true. I remember a one day game up here a while ago, just when Cosgrove was being touted as the next best thing. Mabo and Kaspa worked him out royally. It was a one day game, and he was batting about 5 and came in with S.A. about 3-12. Kaspa just kept bowling outside off stump with a packed offside field, then after about 3 balls in the penultimate over, Mabo suddenly moved about 3 guys to the leg side for no reason. Next ball Kaspa gave him a juicy half volley that Cosgrove dutifully smashed through the covers for a very flamboyant boundary. Next ball Kaspa gives him a sharp bouncer and Cosgrove, thinking he was in the groove, spooned a lame pull shot to square leg. It was a classic case of great captaining and inexperienced batting.

The sad thing about Cosgrove is, Mabo and Kaspa tried it again, about 3 years later, and the same thing happened!

 

[Jakester1288]

Today I was thinking about the Redbacks actually. I don't know where it came from, but I started to think what they need to do to have a successful season.

I came up with these:
The bowling must fire. They need Harris, Tait and Gillespie to perform with the ball. They need to bowl teams pout under 250, and give the batsmen a chance to score some runs, and the bowlers to be comfortable knowing they are capable taking wickets. Otherwise it's just a waste of time.
The batting must be decent. If someone could average over 45, and Kahn can average in excess of 50 - which would be a good achievement given the conditions that he must aclimatize to - and get some support from other members of the team like Crosgrove, Manou, Adcock, Ferguson etc to support them they should be posting totals over 300 comfortably.
Cullen and Tait need to step up. They are the main two bowlers for the Redbacks, and, Gillespie and Harris aside, they will be relied upon to get the majority of the wickets. Tait, at his best, can rip through any line up in the world with his blistering pace. I am expecting a big season for him after his break, and well over 50 wickets. Cullen needs to step up and prove to the country that he should be the front line spinner. Whilst I think he won't, I definitely hope he does. If we have young spinners such as Casson, Cullen, Hauritz, Krejza, and to a much lesser extent Bailey, our spin bowling stocks are not as low as people make it out to be. The nest 2 years will be tough, before someone steals the spotlight and takes over the position of Australia's number 1 spinner.

EDIT: Is Harris leaving? It was mentioned above.

 

[pup11]

So true. I remember a one day game up here a while ago, just when Cosgrove was being touted as the next best thing. Mabo and Kaspa worked him out royally. It was a one day game, and he was batting about 5 and came in with S.A. about 3-12. Kaspa just kept bowling outside off stump with a packed offside field, then after about 3 balls in the penultimate over, Mabo suddenly moved about 3 guys to the leg side for no reason. Next ball Kaspa gave him a juicy half volley that Cosgrove dutifully smashed through the covers for a very flamboyant boundary. Next ball Kaspa gives him a sharp bouncer and Cosgrove, thinking he was in the groove, spooned a lame pull shot to square leg. It was a classic case of great captaining and inexperienced batting.

The sad thing about Cosgrove is, Mabo and Kaspa tried it again, about 3 years later, and the same thing happened!

The big problem with Cosgrove is he is as talented as any young batsman in Australia atm, but he has got a very poor temperament and his focus is not there at all to work on his game and their seems to be no will in him to try to improve, and as T_C said lack of proper grooming and management of these players have halted their growth further and due to this these players also seem to have developed a lack of discipline and respect towards their game.

For me had Cosgrove had the dedication and will to succeed he would have by now sealed a place in the Australian Odi team, that's how good he is, but its just a shame his talent is going to waste atm.

 

[pup11]

Today I was thinking about the Redbacks actually. I don't know where it came from, but I started to think what they need to do to have a successful season.

I came up with these:
The bowling must fire. They need Harris, Tait and Gillespie to perform with the ball. They need to bowl teams pout under 250, and give the batsmen a chance to score some runs, and the bowlers to be comfortable knowing they are capable taking wickets. Otherwise it's just a waste of time.
The batting must be decent. If someone could average over 45, and Kahn can average in excess of 50 - which would be a good achievement given the conditions that he must aclimatize to - and get some support from other members of the team like Crosgrove, Manou, Adcock, Ferguson etc to support them they should be posting totals over 300 comfortably.
Cullen and Tait need to step up. They are the main two bowlers for the Redbacks, and, Gillespie and Harris aside, they will be relied upon to get the majority of the wickets. Tait, at his best, can rip through any line up in the world with his blistering pace. I am expecting a big season for him after his break, and well over 50 wickets. Cullen needs to step up and prove to the country that he should be the front line spinner. Whilst I think he won't, I definitely hope he does. If we have young spinners such as Casson, Cullen, Hauritz, Krejza, and to a much lesser extent Bailey, our spin bowling stocks are not as low as people make it out to be. The nest 2 years will be tough, before someone steals the spotlight and takes over the position of Australia's number 1 spinner.

EDIT: Is Harris leaving? It was mentioned above.

Harris has joined the Bulls and Gillespie and Elliot have retired and Adcock has been dumped from the side (which btw is the best thing their team management has done in a while), so that straight away weakens the Redbacks for this season, blokes like Klinger and Alan Wise have joined their squad and Tait would resume playing for them again.

But the onus is on like of Furgeson, Cosgrove, D.Cullen, Tait to resurrect things for the Redbacks, because if they fail to put together a good team effort this could go down as one of their worst seasons ever.

 

[Redbacks]

I heard on Fox Sports news Michael Vaughan might be coming to Adelaide to play club cricket, can anyone back that up?

We had the whole disaster with Andy Flower, we thought we would sign Hooper...surely we have to now focus on developing a good team of homegrown players, but at the same time poach a couple from the bigger states. You hear stories of the players being spotted at night spots at 4 am etc. hardly dedication. After a big bash match we saw a few at the pub before we could even get there (car park was a nightmare).

Would love to see our spinners bowl to decent totals and the ability to set an aggressive field, but once again I see batting as the major issue. I agree with Top_Cat we seem to be 5/180 and lower order will come in and try to smack their runs, next thing we are all out for 218. Let's face it 80% of the junior squads come from a group of 4 teams and once you are in the system, runs are no longer required to stay in the system. Or as a bowler, you need pace.

Qld, NSW, Vic to fight out for the silverware this season.

 

[Jakester1288]

****, I didn't know Harris was leaving and Gellispie retiring. South Australia are fricked!

I heard on Fox Sports news Michael Vaughan might be coming to Adelaide to play club cricket, can anyone back that up?

We had the whole disaster with Andy Flower, we thought we would sign Hooper...surely we have to now focus on developing a good team of homegrown players, but at the same time poach a couple from the bigger states. You hear stories of the players being spotted at night spots at 4 am etc. hardly dedication. After a big bash match we saw a few at the pub before we could even get there (car park was a nightmare).

Would love to see our spinners bowl to decent totals and the ability to set an aggressive field, but once again I see batting as the major issue. I agree with Top_Cat we seem to be 5/180 and lower order will come in and try to smack their runs, next thing we are all out for 218. Let's face it 80% of the junior squads come from a group of 4 teams and once you are in the system, runs are no longer required to stay in the system. Or as a bowler, you need pace.

Qld, NSW, Vic to fight out for the silverware this season.

I agree with that. And I hope, for your sake, you get Vaughn on board, even if it is only for a few matches. He can rebuild his confidence and hopefully find some form playing for you. And he may help you amass a few big totals.

And I have my doubts on New South Wales being in contention for the Shield this season, Queensland are favourites for mine, whilst they have Symonds and Noffke.

 

[Top_Cat]

Today I was thinking about the Redbacks actually. I don't know where it came from, but I started to think what they need to do to have a successful season.

I came up with these:
The bowling must fire. They need Harris, Tait and Gillespie to perform with the ball. They need to bowl teams pout under 250, and give the batsmen a chance to score some runs, and the bowlers to be comfortable knowing they are capable taking wickets. Otherwise it's just a waste of time.

Well as someone else said, only one of those blokes is available for this season. Aside from Wise and Tait, there's generally inexperience in the SACA pace bowling. SA is in trouble. Great time to be an aspiring pace bowler, though! Unfortunately, all the ones I thought would get a go have entered the district season injured....

The batting must be decent. If someone could average over 45, and Kahn can average in excess of 50 - which would be a good achievement given the conditions that he must aclimatize to - and get some support from other members of the team like Crosgrove, Manou, Adcock, Ferguson etc to support them they should be posting totals over 300 comfortably.

SA, aside from recently, have always had a couple of guys in the side who could average 50+ in a season, though. If it wasn't Hookesy, it was Siddons. if not Siddo, was Lehmann. If not Boof, was Blewwy. SA only won the Shield when all of them put it together in the same season. The other part of the equation was decent contributions from the lesser lights like Brayshaw, Webber and Nobesy. The point? Plenty of shot-makers but some guys to turn over the strike too, not allow the game to get bogged-down. Right now, SA either has shots or stodge with very nothing in between. That year, aside from Dizzy who was outstanding, the bowling was solid at best.

Even then, the real key point was that they found a way to win consistently in Adelaide. Outright points too, not just aiming for 1st innings. Very few losses that year, I believe. Couple that with a couple of key wins elsewhere (as well as the usual first-up loss to QLD with the usual 5-fer to McDermott) and it turned into a great season. But yeah, making Adelaide a graveyard for opposition should be the first priority, I reckon. The batting has been the big problem for a while now and I fully expect that to continue. Like I said, there are systemic issues at grade level which won't get fixed in time.

Cullen and Tait need to step up. They are the main two bowlers for the Redbacks, and, Gillespie and Harris aside, they will be relied upon to get the majority of the wickets. Tait, at his best, can rip through any line up in the world with his blistering pace. I am expecting a big season for him after his break, and well over 50 wickets. Cullen needs to step up and prove to the country that he should be the front line spinner. Whilst I think he won't, I definitely hope he does. If we have young spinners such as Casson, Cullen, Hauritz, Krejza, and to a much lesser extent Bailey, our spin bowling stocks are not as low as people make it out to be. The nest 2 years will be tough, before someone steals the spotlight and takes over the position of Australia's number 1 spinner.

Certainly having a spinner who can take wickets at Adelaide would be a huge help. The bugger turns on day 4 but the batting has to get them there first!

The big problem with Cosgrove is he is as talented as any young batsman in Australia atm, but he has got a very poor temperament and his focus is not there at all to work on his game and their seems to be no will in him to try to improve, and as T_C said lack of proper grooming and management of these players have halted their growth further and due to this these players also seem to have developed a lack of discipline and respect towards their game.

For me had Cosgrove had the dedication and will to succeed he would have by now sealed a place in the Australian Odi team, that's how good he is, but its just a shame his talent is going to waste atm.

Believe me, nothing new there. Used to play with Cosgrove's first Northern Districts A-grade captain, used to complain all the time about him. He was (and is) essentially relying on his natural ability and baulks at a lot of advice. Now Cosgrove's captain is a similar personality so that problem ain't going to get fixed at Northerns any time soon....

I heard on Fox Sports news Michael Vaughan might be coming to Adelaide to play club cricket, can anyone back that up?

God I hope not. Last thing they need is another player arriving here looking to gain some form who's probably not got his heart in it any more.

We had the whole disaster with Andy Flower, we thought we would sign Hooper...surely we have to now focus on developing a good team of homegrown players, but at the same time poach a couple from the bigger states. You hear stories of the players being spotted at night spots at 4 am etc. hardly dedication. After a big bash match we saw a few at the pub before we could even get there (car park was a nightmare).

hah, yeah I see 'em out sometimes. Nothing wrong with that but in isolation as long as it's not on match day. The problem seems more to be one of cliques and power-plays by certain players.

Would love to see our spinners bowl to decent totals and the ability to set an aggressive field, but once again I see batting as the major issue. I agree with Top_Cat we seem to be 5/180 and lower order will come in and try to smack their runs, next thing we are all out for 218. Let's face it 80% of the junior squads come from a group of 4 teams and once you are in the system, runs are no longer required to stay in the system. Or as a bowler, you need pace.

Mate, you've hit upon a huge problem indirectly; too many district sides. Don't quote me but I reckon Uni is vulnerable to being booted from the district comp in the next couple of years.

 

[howardj]

Really hoping they prepare better Shield batting tracks at the Gabba this year. Queensland's batting is weak enough without being served up green-top after green-top every home game. Our batsmen are just trying to find their feet at FC level, and they're being served up what's akin to a grass tennis court, sans the net.

I think the curator produces such wickets to ensure an outright result. My argument is though, with 400 overs in a Shield game, you invariably get a result even on flat wickets. 400 overs is only 50 short of what is served up in a Test match FFS.

Boycotted the Gabba last year on account of Queensland's woeful performances with the willow. Hopefully can be enticed back this year with some better batting on some more realistic tracks.

 

[howardj]

Porky Hangs Up the Counter

Now that Porky's gone they'll have to erect a sightscreen at the Gabba.

 

[James90]

I reckon Porky's umpired in just about every Sheffield Shield gave I've ever been to and a few 1st grade games as well. Will be missed.

 

[vic_orthdox]

What's wrong with Vaughan coming to South Australia to play club cricket? If he's not encroaching on the State squad, then it's a fantastic boon for the club that he goes to, and those that he plays against.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Really hoping they prepare better Shield batting tracks at the Gabba this year. Queensland's batting is weak enough without being served up green-top after green-top every home game. Our batsmen are just trying to find their feet at FC level, and they're being served up what's akin to a grass tennis court, sans the net.

I think the curator produces such wickets to ensure an outright result. My argument is though, with 400 overs in a Shield game, you invariably get a result even on flat wickets. 400 overs is only 50 short of what is served up in a Test match FFS.

Boycotted the Gabba last year on account of Queensland's woeful performances with the willow. Hopefully can be enticed back this year with some better batting on some more realistic tracks.

QLD used to prepare wickets that suited their strength (ie pace bowling), and with the knowledge that the experienced types like Maher, Perren (Law when he was around, Symonds counterattacking) would be able to counter those types of wickets better than the opposition. Now that they are trying to bring the young guys through on these wickets, they can't notch up the totals to defend.

 

[Top_Cat]

What's wrong with Vaughan coming to South Australia to play club cricket? If he's not encroaching on the State squad, then it's a fantastic boon for the club that he goes to, and those that he plays against.

Risky. Was at Uni when Nasser Hussain came out to play for us and he was in a similar form and confidence trough. Arrived with a poor attitude, barely scored a run and abused the hopitality (e.g. was provided with a car and racked up several hundred bucks in fines, never paid a cent of them). Vaughan would likely be less of a prima donna but still, it's risky. Gordon Greenidge was a boon for Adelaide because he'd retired and played for a full season so contributed around the club, Michael Munday was great because he arrived in form and bowled beautifully. Vaughan, not so sure....

 

[NUFAN]

Risky. Was at Uni when Nasser Hussain came out to play for us and he was in a similar form and confidence trough. Arrived with a poor attitude, barely scored a run and abused the hopitality (e.g. was provided with a car and racked up several hundred bucks in fines, never paid a cent of them). Vaughan would likely be less of a prima donna but still, it's risky. Gordon Greenidge was a boon for Adelaide because he'd retired and played for a full season so contributed around the club, Michael Munday was great because he arrived in form and bowled beautifully. Vaughan, not so sure....

Could always drop him if he's a ****.

 

[pup11]

Tait ready for first-class comeback.

Good to hear this, hope he makes a roaring comeback, he would have to carry the Redbacks bowling attack on his shoulders this season, so things certainly won't be easy for him.

 

[pup11]

Porky Hangs Up the Counter

Now that Porky's gone they'll have to erect a sightscreen at the Gabba.

Hahaha.......

Anyways jokes apart he was good umpire and he would be missed.

 

[Top_Cat]

Could always drop him if he's a ****.

Simplistic. You can't just drop a Test player who's playing for your club, especially since you've probably paid him for a guaranteed A-grade spot, other expenses. You just hope he comes around and if not, don't get him back.