Tag Archives: shane-watson

Friday musing – NFL, Super Bowl, NBA, Essendon FC, cricket……

Chris Barwin HillsNot being a big American sports fan I have not seen a lot of sport in my two and a half weeks in Hawaii, but I was there for the Super Bowl. My daughter and I went to a bar on Maui and watched the game from just before half time. While being seated by the manager I enquired as to whom I should be supporting and I was assured I should be on the Seahawks. The bar seemed to be evenly divided between the Denver fans, who were very quiet and the Seattle fans who were a little more excited with plenty of Sea-Hawk chants. I enjoyed the game, however, the advertisements and the entertainment seemed to go for a lot longer than the actual playing time. My daughter also enjoyed the game and the advertisements! I think the game was an endorsement for the maxim that a good defence will usually defeat a good offence.

My other sporting observation from my time in Hawaii was the saturation coverage of basketball. It did not seem to matter what time of the day it was, if you went into a bar or restaurant and they had sport on the television, it was usually the NBA or college basketball and that included the time leading up to the Super Bowl.

Since being back in Australia I have been disappointed to see the Essendon supplements saga rear its head again. I guess it is not going to go away until such time as ASADA have closed their file. This could go on for years!

A good start to the Test series in South Africa, but I am starting to get a little concerned about Michael Clarke’s ongoing form lapse. Having scored 100’s in the first two Ashes tests he has not passed fifty since. I have been happy with the continued good form of Steve Smith, who in the same period has made three centuries. With Shane Watson missing from the line-up I hope we won’t be found to be a bowler short.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Friday musing – ashes cricket, Mitchell Johnson, Jacques Kallis……

Chris Barwin HillsAt this time of the year cricket is the most dominant sport with tennis just kicking off with a build up to the Aussie Open.

The Poms have finally won a toss and sent Australia in to bat. I remember the old ABC cricket books used to have a section devoted to captains who invited the opposition to bat. It is not all that unusual these days, with Michael Clark getting away with it in the Melbourne test. I went along on the first two days and up until the second session on day three, the Poms held the whip hand. From there Australia wrapped up the match over the next three sessions, a big surprise. The prevailing philosophy is still to win the toss and bat and I think that Alistair Cook should have done so in Sydney, but time will tell.

Mitchell Johnson was again awarded the Man of the Match award and that makes it three out of four tests this series, but Chris Rogers & Nathan Lyon must have been very close as well with Brad Haddin again performing well. I understand Johnson has the best percentage of Man of the Match awards to tests played of any Australian test player. Not a bad achievement for a sometimes maligned figure in Australian cricket. I think in the past he has produced herculean performances dispersed with poor performances, but in this series he has been very consistent and does not seem to be spraying the ball around as much.

Speaking of Man of the Match awards, the news that Jacques Kallis was retiring did not come as a great surprise, but you would have thought he would have seen out the summer with Australia due to tour there next month. Kallis is certainly one of the best all-rounders of all time and compares favourably with Sir Garfield Sobers who is regarded as the benchmark for all-rounders. Kallis has the record for the most Man of the Match awards in test cricket with 23 from 166 matches. A true great of the game.

I always thought that Shane Watson had the attributes to be a very good all-rounder and at times he has shown us what he is capable of, but a fragile physique has mitigated against him. Test wise I think his bowling and catching ability are up there with Kallis, but unfortunately his batting falls a long way short.

Fingers crossed for the 5-0 whitewash of the series.

Have a good weekend and happy New Year!

Friday musing – cricket, the Ashes, soccer, Arsenal……..

Chris Barwin HillsWell what good timing for a Musing with the Aussies securing the Ashes on Tuesday! I thought Australia were a good chance in the series on the back of some pretty encouraging performances in England earlier in the year, but I did not think we would win the first three Tests in good style.

I mentioned last week about the toss playing a big part in teams winning and the last six results in Ashes test matches have seen the team winning the toss and batting coming out on top. You would think that the team batting second should have the best of the batting conditions, but England have not capitalised at all and have trailed in each of the first three tests. So much so that Australia have declared four of their six innings to date.

Mitchell Johnson seems to be most pundits pick for man of the series so far, but Warner, Haddin and Clarke are not far behind and when you factor in the performances of Siddle, Harris, Lyon and Smith, you can see why Australia are winning. That is not to down play the performances of Rogers and Watson who have also been solid contributors. Bailey has saved his spot because the team is winning and they can afford to give him time to settle. He certainly did his job on Monday morning.

I think the performance of Nathan Lyon needs a special mention. He has been much maligned and I have been guilty in that regard, however, you look at his scalps so far in the series and he has picked up crucial wickets. In the last test he got Cook in the first innings and Stokes in the second who were their teams highest scorers. He has earned his spot.

I can now go to the Boxing Day test and enjoy the cricket. Some would say it would be better to still have the series alive, but it is like being 10 goals up on Collingwood going into the last quarter just knowing you can enjoy the game.

Last week I lauded the Gunners for making the knockout phase of the Champions League for the 14th straight year and then they go out and lose to Manchester City 6-3. That is a tennis score isn’t it? Man City have been irrepressible at home this year and I suppose you could look on the positive side and say “well at least Arsenal got 3 goals”. I think the fixturing so close to the away game in Italy may have had an impact, but for the top team to concede 6 goals it is a bit of a worry.

Have a great weekend and a very Merry Christmas and we will muse up again in the New Year!

Friday musing – Watson, Ponting, Warne & more

Chris Barwin HillsI think I have commented on Shane Watson’s fragile physique before, but watching him come into bowl and do his hamstring re-emphasised this point. I mean the man was hardly charging in like Dennis Lillee on the long run, he ambles in like a park cricketer! Don’t get me wrong I am a bit of a Shane Watson fan because I think he is a genuine all rounder and they do not pop up very often. At his best in both batting or bowling he probably gets a game in the Australian team, but he is so rarely at his best that he does get very frustrating for the fan. Couple this with our captain’s bad back and the continued breakdown of our fast bowlers and it is no wonder we are struggling internationally.

Keeping to the cricket theme I was disappointed with Warnie’s rant the other day about Ricky Ponting. I think you read between the lines and you sense some sour grapes about missing out on the Australian captaincy. He is clearly supporting his friend Michael Clarke, but Clarke is the current captain of the team and can look after himself. Having said that, I never thought Ponting was a great captain, although his record would suggest otherwise, at least he kept the team together. Michael Clarke is a better on-field captain, but seems to lack the other qualities which make great captains like Mark Taylor and Ian Chappell who were both good on and off the field.

Now getting on to the Melbourne Cup and this is a comment through my hip pocket. Leading up to last weekend I had been on Fiorente, but after Dear Demi’s run in the Mackinnon I jumped horse and had a bit each way on her. I still had Fiorente in quinella’s and trifectas. I was never happy with Dear Demi in the run and she never seemed to settle and was gone a long way from home. I was then astounded to read Chris Munce’s comment the next day that he was happy in the run, but she didn’t stay!! My guess is that he stirred her up early to get a good position before the first turn, which she did have, but this was contrary to how she had been running and it ruined any chance she had. A great performance by Fiorente and fully deserved win for Gai Waterhouse.

Not satisfied with stuffing up on Melbourne Cup day I did a similar thing on Oaks Day. I was on Solicit in the Wakeful and changed to Gypsy Diamond for the Oaks. Solicit just gets pipped and runs a good third, while Gypsy Diamond struggled into fourth. The trick is to get onto the horse I was on, but got off and you will have a win!

Good to see the Gunners get up twice since the last Musing. A good win over Liverpool and a very good away win over Borussia Dortmund which extends their away record to eight months without a loss. The big test will be this week against Manchester United.

Sticking to the world game, I saw the A-League game last Friday night between Adelaide and West Sydney and it was a very good standard and it will not be too long before Tomi Juric plays for the Socceroos.

Have a great weekend and go Gunners!!