TBH one could argue that Hilf was doing all of that during the Ashes. They really need someone who can consitently pitch the cherry up, and Harris found success because he was the only one of the bowlers to do this.
Hilf bowled with too much width. You could just let him go as you knew if it was outside off it was going to stay outside off. Good batsmen just waited for the juicy ones and picked him off.
Copeland will bowl a bit shorter length, but he still makes you play because of his line. A comparison between how Copeland and Hilfenhaus take their first class wickets makes it pretty clear. Copes and Hilf are pretty even on bowled Copes with 18% to Hilfs 17%. For caught behinds Copes opens up a bit more gap 30% to 27%, but with lbw he clears out 20% to 13%. To me that is indicating a guy who is attacking the sticks despite his generally shorter length. His line and length are so good that you have to play and often knick them, but he has the ability to nip one in and hit the pads or knock you over. 68% (Hilf 57%) of his wickets bowled, lb or caught behind is a pretty telling stat. I knew from watching him that he was always at the batsman, but these numbers are pretty stark. I reckon that would be right up there with McGrath.
Just to show how telling (all first class wickets):
Siddle - b 18%, lbw 13%, cw 26%, total 57%
Harris - b 23% (wow), lb 17%, cw 22%, total 62%
Bollinger - b 17%, lb 14%, cw 30%, total 61%
Johnson - b 13%, lb 12%, cw 27%, total 52% (I suppose when you base your attack on getting batsmen to chase wide junk this is what your stats look like).
Now if Copeland had a crap average and strike rate or was going for heaps an over these stats might not mean a lot, but seeing as his FC average (21.68) is more than 6 runs lower than the next best (Siddle 27.79), his s/r (52.49) is second only to Dougie (51.57), and his rpo (2.47) smokes them all (Siddle again next best 3.08) I reckon we're looking at a pretty special talent even if he never bowls a ball over 130kmh.
It also shows to me that Harris and Dougie are our next most attacking bowlers who are going to pitch it up and make the batsmen play and why I don't rate Johnson.
