MARCUS: What a weekend of sport we were treated to once again. I know I’m wiping the sleep away from my eyes and I know Jonty will be too, not sure about you Dave?
DAVE: Midnight is about as far as I can go these days.
MARCUS: We’ll talk cricket a bit later but start off how we always do. Jonty, what was the best action from the weekend?
JONTY: The best was Cranbourne’s Zac Roscoe breaking free of the tag in the fourth quarter against Dingley. He’d been negated all game, Dingley put a lot of time into him as the main threat, knowing they had some midfielders out, in Lucas Walmsley and Nathan Freeman. Roscoe was contained for three quarters, and in the last when it looked like Dingley were coming, he had 12-15 touches and kicked a goal from 50. If I had to pick a moment, I would say that goal where he powered away from the pack and booted it through.
MARCUS: Why was he able to break the tag?
JONTY: How hard he runs from contest to contest. Dingley wasn’t able to keep with him for four quarters. Dingley is also playing a lot of young kids at the moment with some absent on overseas trips, which meant Cranbourne’s midfield was able to get on top.
DAVE: No West Gippsland football this weekend, so I enjoyed a break. Best action was watching my mate Shaun shank some balls at the driving range, then we called in at Beaconsfield for half an hour and I saw two brilliant pieces of individual play. Beaconsfield was in trouble, they were nine points down in the third quarter and Jafar Ocaa, on a wet day, ran at full-pace and scooped the ball up one handed, gave it to Michael Misso, who kicked a goal to cut the lead to three points. Then in the last, Misso intercepted a ball in the opposition backline to put them seven points up, and it was basically game over.
MARCUS: One bit of play at the Narre Warren v Pakenham game that impressed me was from Pakenham winger Tyrell Bignoux. There was a loose ball deep in the Pakenham forward line that Narre Warren ruck Lachlan Benson got to first. He was trying to bait Bignoux or usher the ball over the boundary line, and Bignoux is about half the size of Benson. He was able to tackle him front-on and win a freekick, then kicked a really nice goal from hard against the boundary.
THE NIGHT BEFORE
MARCUS: As I touched on earlier, it was a late night for some of us with day five of the second Ashes test last night. Let’s talk about the Bairstow runout first. Dave, how did you feel about it?
DAVE: My first impression was, that’s wrong, it didn’t look right. I think there’s a gentleman’s agreement in cricket where, if you’re batting in your crease against a medium or fast bowler and you let the ball go through to the keeper, I think the assumption from batter and wicketkeeper is that the ball is dead, unless you’re batting out of your crease, then you’re fair game. I don’t think the stumping was in the spirit of the game. The question for me is, despite being last ball or not…when is the cricket ball dead? Bairstow thought he had completed the battle between bat and ball fairly, without gaining an advantage, and then wandered out of his crease.
MARCUS: When I first saw it I thought it looked a little bit cheap, but when you do step through the rules and, as we saw, Bairstow was wandering out of his crease and Carey did what he had to, to keep the ball alive. I think it was a really shrewd bit of keeping that got lost in the drama.
DAVE: What would happen if it was the third ball of the over and Bairstow wandered down to do some gardening, would it still be a stumping? When is the ball deemed dead? I think being the last ball of the over played a part in it as well, just before the umpire called over.
JONTY: I could not be more against you, Dave. As a wicketkeeper in junior cricket, I know this is something I tried a few times, and it’s something you have to be alert to. The other thing that no one made much of a big deal of was Bairstow tried the exact same thing to Labuschagne but threw it unsuccessfully. My immediate instinct was to celebrate an outstanding bit of wicketkeeping.
DAVE: Marnus was batting out of his crease, trying to gain an advantage between bat and ball, Bairstow wasn’t…that’s the difference.
MARCUS: Didn’t something like that happen in one of your local finals?
JONTY: Yes, in DDCA Turf 3 Lance Baptist left it and Dyl Diacono, celebrated as the ‘keeper of the season, pounced. Great memory!
MARCUS: What about Stokes? I was genuinely shocked when he went out. I just thought he had that look in his eye where he was going to get it done, much like four years ago. He really broke the brain of Pat Cummins and the Australian bowlers, the way they resorted to just bowling short stuff.
JONTY: There’s no denying that it’s one of the great Ashes innings that I’ve seen, but the way Australia approached it played into his hands completely. I think what Australia did was damaging for their reputations as fourth innings bowlers because they didn’t have a plan. They just kept doing the same thing over and over. He gave us four chances.
DAVE: It was a great innings, but that’s where England’s at, it’s either ‘Bazball’ or Stokes having to produce a miracle, they can’t grind out a win. And the Aussies reputation, that was already damaged before Stokes cut loose.
RULE CHANGES
MARCUS: Onto the Mitchell Starc catch. I think to the letter of the law, we can say they followed the rules correctly, but common sense would suggest that it’s out. Do you guys agree?
DAVE AND JONTY: Yep.
MARCUS: If it happened at local level where there’s no assistance of technology, it’s just given out. But it got me thinking about some other rules that simply drive you up the wall in sport. Dave, are there any that come to mind?
DAVE: The Dan Houston goal…I don’t know why the rules of football change because the siren’s gone. Houston was lucky because he had a full view of the goals. But for the rest of the game, you can run-around and kick them on your left foot and stuff like that. Why do things change? I think he should be allowed to run off his line after the siren.
JONTY: What annoyed me with the Mitchell Starc catch was that, the right decision was made, but England should have had to review that. Stokes shouldn’t be able to verbally say to the umpire, “can you have a look at that?” But what I’m getting to is, I think every decision should be DRS reviewed. We’ve got the technology now and it’s very rare if a decision isn’t reviewed, but it would remove the ambiguity about a team losing their reviews. We do it in every other sport and if we’ve got the technology, let’s use it, don’t just wait for the players to ask for it.
MARCUS: I think the pitched outside the lines rules for LBW needs to go. If you were to try and explain it to someone who didn’t know cricket, that would be nonsensical. If the ball is going on to hit the stumps, why does it matter where the ball pitched, or whether it hit the batter in line? I don’t understand why it factors into decision making.
STOCK MARKET
MARCUS: A big happy new financial year to the two of you. On the financial theme I thought we’d head off to the stock market and do some buying and selling some stocks. I want three purchases and three sales from each you.
JONTY: Buying: (1) The Dingley system, because I was doubtful of it and it’s clearly been very successful. (2) Kirk Dickson, he’s kicked multiple goals in every game this season. Once Marc Holt retires, they’ve got Dickson who can be a key target up forward. (3) Zac Roscoe, because he’s on track to win a league best-and-fairest.
Selling: (1) The concept of home games carrying as much importance from an on-field perspective. Hampton Park this year looked its best in the first third of the season having not played at home yet. If you’ve got a good system in place and can execute it at different grounds, that’s what matters. (2) The difficulty of Caulfield at Caulfield. They have been beaten a few times there this year. They do have injuries, they have been challenged there by a lot of teams. (3) The concept that clubs can’t be successful without juniors. Hampton Park and Endeavour Hills are examples of that, as are Springvale Districts. If you don’t have juniors but you’re able to bring in recruits of high-calibre, they’re able to carry you to success.
DAVE: Buying: (1) Under 18 talent in West Gippsland footy. 17 of the kids who played interleague last week have played senior footy. Will Turner from Inverloch Kongwak stood out, a lively half-forward, and Jaxon Foon and Jarvis Harvey are ready made senior footballers. (2) Kooweerup Netball Club has struggled for the last few years, but under Kate Sidebottom they’ve moved up the ladder. (3) Kilcunda Bass hasn’t had an A-Grade netball team since the WGFNC started. They’ve brought in a team this year and are currently sitting in the top six.
Selling: (1) I bought Dusties shares at the start of the year but they’re no longer as valuable as they were. (2) The centre bounce in football needs to go. (3) Nick Kyrgios…no explanation required.
MARCUS: Buying: (1) Pakenham’s senior side. At the start of the year there was speculation externally about whether they would potentially be in a relegation battle, but since then they’ve really turned their form around, and they now look a lock to play finals. (2) The next one is a bit strange because they are on the bottom, but I’m buying low and hoping for growth. It’s Olinda Ferny Creek, for a couple of reasons. They’ve got Matt Scharenberg back, and with how even the bottom half of the ladder is, I think there’s a real chance they can sneak into fifth. (3) The under age talent in the Outer East. Guys like Tahj De La Rue and Josh Trembath at Pakenham, and Logan Hiscock and Narre Warren, I think the competition’s in good hands with those guys playing seniors.
Selling: (1) Gembrook Cockatoo. They’ve done okay this year but the stocks can’t be much lower than when you’ve just lost by 163 points. (2) Monbulk. I think when you have such a unique advantage with the slope at their home ground, you really need to maximise it, but they currently sit second last. (3) The lack of premiership contenders in Outer East. It’s great that the middle of the table is really congested, but there’s only really two sides that can win the premiership, in Narre Warren and Wandin, and we can see that with half a season still to go, is disappointing.
Thanks for another lively episode gents, we’ll be back same place same time next week.
