The problem we so often have is an over focus on career averages rather than form line averages.

The irony of the bowlers is that Hazlewood has had great returns; however his problem is fragility is becoming a serious concern. And the irony is that the fill in guy has the best numbers of all of them…….at any time.

#Luke – Hawk tragic

How much of a rort was that pre first round priority pick system back then.

Ironically Pendlebury is the last of those players still running around (the year Collingwood got him and Daisy Thomas….2 for the price of 1). The Hawks in the Buddy year had 2 early picks but with the freebie ended with Franklin, Roughead and Lewis. Not quite so good in 2005 with Ellis and Beau Dowler!! That was the Pendlebury year and Carlton got Murphy and Kennedy.

It was so hugely influential that system. A total rort. North this time around has been getting chicken feed by comparison.

CCJ was actually the incumbent at the beginning of 2024 before doing an achilles and was out for the season.

He has yet to be in a position of trying to ‘get past’ Teakle. Teakle was a mid year draft pick up. And was important because the structural role filled by CCJ was vital and that was laid clear in his absence.

It’s not for either CCJ or Teakle to get past Xerri.

With Darling in the mix it will be interesting as to whether one of CCJ or Teakle will make the starting 22. I’d think either come off the bench or play as sub. I’d prefer not to rely on either of Darling or Larkey as the ‘back up ruck’.

#NQR

Yes….lambs to the slaughter….the rookie doesn’t just get the short leg helmet….

#NQR

The irony is that Australian’s weren’t ready to see someone with Maxwell’s skill set at test level…..not that he was going to play ‘white ball’ cricket and that 100 in India was class.

However now – – a kid called Konstas who hails from NSW……a lot of cricket people are finding all the reasons why he stays IN; and goes to SL and opens there.

Hard not to suspect were he from Victoria or Adelaide he’d’ve been shown the door already for being too audacious.

#Wikipetia

One thing I find a little ironic.

A.Finch. His first 2 tests produced 62, 49, 39 and 31 (v Pak in Dubai and Abu Dhabi); so his test career avg vs Pakistan is 45.25. Very respectable.

Coming into the domestic summer and he ironically bombed out first over…..against Ishant Sharma and not Bumrah. Then the 2nd innings non review could’ve saved him.

To Perth where he opened up with a 50 (Harris 70) and an opening stand of 112. Against Ishant Sharma (4-41) and Bumrah (2-53) (plus Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami). Set up a 146 run win. That looks amazingly good in retrospect.

As it was – 2nd innings and Finch batted quite well to 25 not out before getting whacked and retiring at 0-33, came back in at 5-192 and went first ball back. At 25 no before getting whacked……….where was A.Finch test cricketer headed? And again – in Perth – even with that interruption…..first wicket fell at 59.

As it was – Finch then only 8 & 3 in Melbourne and he was discarded. Bumrah 9-86 in that match. The irony back then – 2018 – move to Sydney and M.Harris 79 and U.Khawaja opening with 27. Harris wasn’t ridiculous that series…..however was totally out of consideration this time around??

#SCG

Yeah – the controversy was screwing him over 8 years ago in favour of S.Marsh.

The problem for Richardson is there’s NO way you could – as a test selector – select him with confidence of getting through a single 5 day test match.

Seeing him injure himself this season…..in a wicket celebration?!!??

In reality…..Josh Hazlewood now fits that category as well……can’t trust for a single test let alone multiple and back to back tests.

Darling doesn’t have to add ‘fire power’. He just has to add presence and draw a strong bodied defender away and allow Larkey to be freed up a smidge (from being double/triple teamed).

And that then allows Zurhaar to play more as the hybrid he can – – mobile 3rd tall. He actually excelled in that for a period when we had Brown and Larkey beside him. At that point – – very inexperienced. Now……could be a more than useful forward structure and therefore will be interesting to see how the likes of Curtis and Duursma function around it.

We actually saw last year when CCJ went down that structurally – we were all at see – until picking up Teakle. So for season 2025 – we go in touch wood with all of Darling, Teakle, CCJ available.

A key is LDU; if he has his body right to play minimum 20 games fully fit and Simpkin hopefully have a clean run in (the concussion from the practice match last year really set him back) – – the insertion of Parker adds that strong body that Simpkin isn’t; and allows for a better ‘A’ and ‘B’ rotation through the midfield. Wardlaw went from 8 to 18 games however his physicality will be very much complimented by the presence of Parker.

Remembering in Xerri – a top rated ruck. So then the backline. Logue, Corr, Comben…with the pair of Dawson’s. The hope is that Daniel can assist with organisation and distribution out of the back half; it will be interesting – around match ups and whether we can make that work.

As it is – – competing for wins……from the outset it’s hard seeing Richmond winning many in 2025. North play the Tiges twice.

The capacity for a bottom 2 club to extract wins……with just 3 in 2024 (over Eagles, Suns and Tiges) – North will be hoping to be more often than not matching it with the teams pretty well 11th to 16th – so that’s Essendon, StKilda, Suns, Melbourne, Crows and Eagles.
As it was – in 2024 our closest losses were -1 v Collingwood, -3 vs Melb and -5 vs Eagles. Wins wise +9 (WCE), +4 (Suns) and +13 (Rich). The next tier of losses -17 v Doggies and -19 v Carlton.

A lot comes down to ‘natural improvement’. I still feel that 2024 we got off to a horrid start structurally and it was that ‘development’ year for Xerri and Comben and LDU who’d all had interruptions in 2023. As it was in 2023, we’d had more losses by less than 40 points……and when losing games by around 5 goals; you have hope that that gap can be closed via improved capacity to play out quarters and games rather than leaking in ‘red time’.

On field leadership is also a key in not being opened up quite so much – at times – and with the addition of premiership winning experience to the back, mid and forwards…….there’s cause for optimism for 2025.

Could 8 wins be out of the question??

#13th Man

The test XI is the top tier. It doesn’t need to be the ‘development’ nursery as well.

That’s where the “A” matches come in to play. And to a degree the white ball format has been used at the international level to give some players exposure……not sure how many we can claim great success on via that stream?!?! (and perhaps therein lies the issue).

That’s all the more the case since we don’t tour like we did 30-40 years ago when there were warm up tour matches for pretty well every overseas tour.

Ironically – – we DO tend to still have ‘warm up’ games of white ball world cup matches…..but even a 3 day red ball game will be too much to ask on the SL tour?? 2 tests and a meaningless ODI…..that’s it.

#Don Freo

So launch the argument for Rocchiccioli to be selected in Feb 2023.

And seriously – – on what basis can you assert he would’ve done better in Feb 2023?

You don’t have anything….purely subjective. The objective measurements are against you.

#Don Freo

Firstly – – When you have to go back to specific days and outlier sessions, the response that dismisses it all is, ” Rocchiccioli would have been better.”

Ah……….nope. #13th Man was the one who made the silly comment of “Murphy got absolutely tonked in his most recent test.”

A. he was wrong and B. Murphy with 6/132 was arguably our best bowler.

re specific days and outlier sessions?!?!? His 7/124 on debut…..far better I refer to the days and sessions when he was bowling rather than when he wasn’t??? What on earth are you on about?

“wasn’t gifted Murphy’s unearned chance”?!?!?

So you’re saying that he hadn’t earned his Feb 2023 call up to play in India.

To THAT point in time….yes – he was a bit of a gamble at such level of inexperience. Just 6 FC matches. 22 wickets at 25.86. Even better if we remove the outlier debut match back in 2020/21. In 2021/22 he played just 1 shield game for 7/146 and across the 4 matches in 2022/23 prior to selection…..
14 wickets at 21.04 with Econ of 2.79 and S/R of 45.14. Very impressive numbers.

Rocchiccioli debuted in 2021/22, 4 matches….5 wickets at 46.8. Econ of 3.19 and S/R of 88.

And through the 2022/23 season Rocchiccioli finished his 10 matches with 25 wickets at 32.2 and econ pretty constant at 3.16 and improved S/R to 61.

So at that point in 2022/23……Murphy was a warranted gamble. At that point in time…..Murphy had a far more pressing case than Rocchiccioli……who only has via the 2023/24 season performances at the WACA…….beyond that…..nope.

re the gamble on Murphy……Arguably a bit like Cooper Connolly now. Although to me – they are over valuing his BBL performance given he’s selected now in a test squad and doesn’t even have a first class century (4 FC matches with 3 50s and a top of 90). Even Nitish Kumar Reddy had a FC 100.

Except……if Khawaja is in the squad then he’s starting…..simple as that.

IF Australia wins the first test and Khawaja fails…….mebbe. And that would be an indication that they might be moving to exit Khawaja before the Ashes.

Doubtful though – – they (selectors/hierarchy) have a tendency to give the incumbent every opportunity……as we saw with Warner.

In the old days – Connolly would be playing in the tour matches…..but that said going back far enough a couple of 3 days games in Ceylon on the way to somewhere else……

(thinking back to that…..or once upon a time when England played a couple of matches in Fiji).

#Don Freo

So you’re ignoring the R/R of ALL the bowlers.

Remember – that was ‘bazball’ on those relatively small English grounds.

Contrast to the Nagpur test.

After Australia had been knocked over for 177 in the 64th over….India came in to bat for the final session of the day. At stumps….1/77.
Lyon 10-3-33-0
Murphy 7-0-13-1
Cummins 4-1-27-0
Boland 3-1-4-0

The 2nd morning and after Murphy bowled the first over for just 1 – it was Cummins and Lyon who took the reins….so from 1/78 off 25…..they progressed it to 1/110 off 33.
At that point:
Lyon 14-3-51-0
Cummins 8-2-41-0
At that point Boland returns to the attack and bowls 3 consecutive maidens (you might have heard of the value of this….’dot ball pressure’).
Lyon is relieved after 16-3-57-0
And we for the ONLY time in that test see the two most economical bowlers going in tandem.
From 1/117 off 38, Murphy maiden, Boland 1 run, Murphy wicket (1/6), Boland 2, Murphy 8, Boland 1, Murphy wicket maiden.
That progress things to 3/135 off 45
Murphy 12-2-28-3
Boland 9-4-7-0

Lyon returned and we never again saw Boland and Murphy operate in tandem.

THAT is what I want to see in the Sri Lanka games.

As it was – Lyon and Murphy bowled in tandem until Murphy picked up wicket number 4; at that point
Murphy 16-2-39-4 (econ 2.4)
Lyon 20-4-66-0 (econ 3.3)
Cummins then brought himself back with the new batter…..bowled 3 overs and then Lyon back on with Murphy, Lyon snags his solitary wicket and then the oddity. A few overs later Boland replaces Lyon….(bowls a maiden)…..only for Lyon to then switch ends and we don’t get to see the Murphy-Boland combination again……ah well.

Anyway – – point is – – when it really mattered in that game – – on debut and with India a couple of times looking to target the debutant – Murphy stood up wonderfully well.

He tired as the innings dragged on, however innings figures of
Murphy 47-12-124-7 (econ 2.63) and Lyon 49-13-126-1 (2.57).

And 6-132 off 28 overs in a BazBall scenario in England……I’ll take that every day of the week from the off spinner and so would anyone who understands anything about cricket.

#13th Man

The full 2023/24 Sheffield Shield season for Corey:
WACA 6 games
35 wickets at 22.71, econ 2.82, S/R 48.4
Elsewhere
11 wickets at 43.2, econ 3.07, S/R 84.3

Best innings bowling away from the WACA……2/24. Got 5 * 2’s and was wicketless 3 times (10, 11 and 27 overs…wicketless at the Gabba where Warney used to profit via bounce).

At the WACA…..wicketless just once from 12 innings. Only once each had 1 and 2 wickets; 4 * 3’s and 5 * 4’s.

So…….sorry – – he’s a WACA specialist.

And this season thus far including the Aust A…..
AT the WACA, 7/247 at 35.3
Away, 12/456 at 38.

So…..take that as you will…….the Australia A game is improving his away from low 40s to high 30s……yay!!

His WACA……he had a shocker first up against QLD (match figs of 1/145) but was back to his WACA best vs Tassie (match figs 6/102).

He followed up his Aust A at the MCG (match 5/85) with 5/162 vs the Vics….granted got the only 2 to fall in the 2nd innings as the Vics wrapped up an 8 wkt win.

So…..I’m still asserting….WACA specialist!!

#13th Man

There’s tonked and there’s tonked.

His last test – at the Oval

1st innings: 6-0-22-2 (bowled Moeen Ali and bowled Mark Wood)
2nd innings: 22,5-0-110-4 (bowled Root, had Stokes caught, Wood caught and Anderson LBW to wrap up the innings).

So 6-132 off 28 overs…..England R/R in 1st was 5.17 and second was 4.82; Murphy went at 3.66 in the first and 4.81 in the second.

I’m giving him a tick. In that 2nd innings Hazlewood, Cummins and Marsh combined for 2/181 off39 overs and Starc while getting 4/100 (off just 20 overs) – – got Duckett (1st out 17th over) and then didn’t snag a wicket until the score had progressed to 360 in the 73rd.

Keep mindful – after coming in to cover for Lyon :
Lyon 2 tests, 9/264 @ 29.33, Econ 4.00, S/R 44.0
Murphy 2 tests, 7/181 @ 25.85, Econ 4.72, S/R 32.8…..topping the averages and the S/Rs.

But sure….in your mind in his last game he got tonked……

Me – – I’m fine to stick with him…….he’s gained so very much experience in these matches and done nothing to suggest he isn’t worth persisting with at the level.

#Nudge

And Rocchiccioli is demonstrably a WACA specialist.

the pace argument also to consider….

…..Vernon Philander…..224 wickets at a tick over 22 and strike rate a tick under 51. Generally bowling around 130km/h.

His pace was…..Ewen Chatfieldesque. (just wanted to mention him…..born in Dannevirke……so was Luke Ronchi…..and durability – Chatfield only finally retired from cricket in 2019…..aged 68…..I doubt his pace had dropped much!!).

#Shire

Boland still gets into the mid/high 130s; however pace can be over rated as a tool.

Boland is similar pace to Hazlewood. McGrath…..about similar. Sidd’s…..was similar.

#Ace

Apparently O’Neill has been asked to increase his pace a bit. If he can extract an extra couple of km/h……hopefully so – – you have to be careful not to ‘break’ the young bowlers. With O’Neill it might be fair to assume that just natural maturity of body and technique will produce it.

I’m a huge fan of bowlers able to land it on a 20 cent piece at will……hitting the right spots especially if there’s something in the pitch or when the seam is workable is far, far better than spraying down leg or wide of off at express pace.

#13th Man

Ah well…..if we decide we want someone spinning the other direction then…..yeah….Kuhnemann comes into the equation….or a leggie….Swepson? Zampa?!?!

Those are choices to be made.

Warne was interesting – yes bounce was a big factor for him and that allowed him to do quite well at the Gabba when many thought spinners wouldn’t succeed up there.

As it was – Warne struggled in India; and a contrasting action/style was Kumble. I’ll always remember – when Cam White was tweaking them against India in the innings he got 2-71 and had a couple of catches put down – – I think Jim Maxwell was over there and lamenting that White didn’t rip it like Warne. Whereas the Indian commentator was more comparing his style to Kumble.

White might well have been a useful spinner……in the right conditions – however part of the problem of a great such as Warne is that his legacy is also deemed the benchmark in all facets.

Given that Uzzie is retaining his spot with his last 10 tests producing 458 runs at about 25 1/2 average……..I’d consider Harris worth a go.

Look – – Harris frustrates me – however we’ve seen so many test batters perfecting their games around age 30-32; the Mike Hussey, Adam Voges, Chris Rogers types.

And the reality too……when Harris was forced out for Khawaja to move up the order……Harris had actually been working his way into solid form. The scenario of his 76 at the MCG was well worth a 100 in other situations.

#13th Man

nope…..” if he can bowl well at the WACA, he can bowl well anywhere”.

At the WACA he develops a bowling style reliant on bounce. He openly admits that. He actually has a style far more similar to Nathan Lyon.

This is one of the issues here while Lyon is still doing the rounds. It would be pointless bowling Lyon and Rocchiccioli in tandem.

However – as soon as Lyon goes then Rocchiccioli and Murphy in tandem would likely work.

Your other point:
You are relying on the 2023/24 season here.

For First class careers – –
Rocchiccioli has 95 at 31.81 from 31 matches.
Murphy has 86 at 30.31 from 29 matches (including 21 at 25.42 from 6 tests).

The 2023/24 season was a break out for Rocchiccioli, 46 wickets in 11 matches at 27.6.
That leaves his other 20 first class matches with 49 wickets at 35.76.

One thing to keep mindful of based on the 2023/24 season; is that Murphy might well be trying new things out at that level to develop for the test arena. He also was getting his body right and this is where Rocchiccioli might have a little advantage at being 3 years older. However it looks now like Murphy has got his personal program sorted.

At any rate…..Murphy is the ideal bowling partner in Sri Lanka to Lyon; although…..as the Nagpur test highlighted – the ideal bowling partner for Murphy might well be Boland.

On the spin front – the Nagpur test highlighted what there is to work with with Todd Murphy. In that game he very much out bowled Lyon; not just on wickets (7 vs 1) but also economy and pressure building (especially in the key earlier phases of the innings).

I know there’s great numbers last Shield season for someone like Roccichioli however he has a massive WACA bias in his numbers; and a bouncy WACA specialist isn’t what is required in Sri Lanka. Murphy gets the tick there.

#Don Freo

Paris ideally is next in line behind Starc as the leftie. Rightly or wrongly in the ‘like for like’ stakes – things tend to be right armer dominated.

Cartwright is a good player and has managed a couple of tests without setting the world on fire. Had been put up against Marsh and Green……WA stablemates. Webster far and away warranted his chance and he’s grabbed it wonderfully well (based on a single game sample size!!).

re all-rounders; someone like Will Sutherland is an interesting one. His FC bowling average is around 24 compared to Cartwright up around 33. However his batting is as yet under developed – – however we saw last night in the BBL just how much ability he has. The notion of an all-rounder batting at 5 or 6….or batting at 7 or 8. i.e. a Batting all-rounder vs a Bowling all-rounder.

#13th man
re Rocchiccioli, his 2023/24 was excellent – no dispute. More broadly his First class numbers are 95 @ 31.81 and Murphy by contrast 86 @ 30.31. I suspect one issue for Rocchiccioli is that he’s very much suited to the bouncier track in Perth, you just got to look at his most recent form line over his last 10 shield matches:

WACA 22 wickets for 513 at 23.32 (4 instances of 4 in an innings)
Elsewhere
18 wickets for 679 at 37.72. (best innings figures of 3/115 and that was the only instance of more than 2)

It’s very hard to consider a WACA specialist for a tour to Sri Lanka, or India, or Bangladesh……

Todd Murphy is ‘next in line’ and thus far this Sheffield Shield season:
Murphy 14 wickets at 31.07 with econ of 2.64 and best bowling of 4/37.
Rocchiccioli 14 wickets at 44.14 with econ of 3.32 and best bowling of 4/70.
Both 5 games.

The other names that crop up:
Kuhnemann 18 wickets (6 games) at 38.00 and econ of 2.84 and best figures of 5/100.
Swepson 17 wickets (6 games) at 43.41 and econ of 3.48 with best figs of 4/31.

I’m more than comfortable with Murphy still being the ‘next in line’. His 7 wickets against India in Nagpur when bowling with Lyon (1 wicket) highlighted that he is very much worth running with. Back in that game it was Cummins and Lyon who leaked runs and pressure and the Murphy-Boland combination was massively under used after guiding us from 1-117 to 3-135……the Cummins captaincy at that time was very ‘distracted’ (respecting that he had major family concerns with the failing health of his mother).

On Abbott – agreed – – Abbott keeps popping up….why? I’d be pushing the likes of Sutherland to join the tour for the experience.

I’d also like to see Fergus O’Neill getting some exposure at that level.