Some people may remember Greg Blewett, most probably don’t.
Now he is encroaching on my turf, he has written his own preview on the shield this year.
He thinks Victoria will win it, so he obviously knows his stuff.
But not as much as I do.
Not bad for a batsman.
Western Australia, the test match batsman
Players that wont be available for large chunks of the season
Mitchell Johnson, Michael Hussey and Shaun Marsh.
They won’t miss Johnson because they have never had him, but when they have him it will be handy.
Hussey and Marsh are not going to be missed in a batting line up of this strength.
Leadership
Marcus North is very strong captain, and with Cameron White is the best captain in Australia.
Voges is the Vice Captain, and he was at one time a potential Australian captain.
Bowling
Hard to see where the wickets are going to come from.
Magoffin is a wicket taker, Edmondson is proper quick, and Dorey is tall.
But you can’t see them getting 20 wickets too often.
Aaron Heal is a great one day spinner, but isn’t really a four day bowler, and I can’t see anyone else in their squad who can contribute wickets.
Batting
This is where Western Australia come into their own.
Pomersbach, Voges, and North are all test match quality batsman in lesser countries.
Liam davis made a hundred on debut against NSWales last year and Luke ronchi is a freakin superstar.
Long in the tooth
Matthew Innes took a lot of wickets last year, but he was retired, so um, no one really.
Ready to lose the nappies
Geoff, Shaun, and now Mitchell. The third in the line of Marshs, he is only young, and is rookie listed, but with Rogers and Langer leaving he may be a good fit for the top order.
Nostradamus
Shield
3rd or 4th.
One day
2nd or 3rd.
2020
3rd or 4th.
The rub
Can bat the ass off a polar bear, but can they take wickets.
The Hugh Jackman side.
Victoria, the home of the brave
Players that wont be available due to committments in a lesser team
McGain, Hussey and White.
McGain won’t play one dayers, and other 2 won’t play tests, so they should have the majority of their team the majority of the time.
Along with Tasmania, has the best balanced lists, and made the finals of all three trophies last year for one Victory, would want to take one of the more important sides this year.
Leadership
This is the big test, this is the big bears team, and when the one dayers come around and he is busy, they will be looking forsome else to take over.
Brad Hodge will probably get the job, dammit, but I think Nick Jewell could be the man.
Bowling
Dirty Dirk Nannes, Eyelids Pattinson, Peter Siddle (Sizzle), Wright and probably Clint McKay are the quicks, and all genuine wicket takers.
Eyelids has come back to Australia as a legit first class bowler, and this is a pretty handy bunch of 5 bowlers.
Spin bowling is interesting, with McGain out, White is the only spinner I know of close to first class level, but young Kumar Sarna may get a go.
If White has to take the job as number one spinner, it may do him good to get th extra overs, but Victoria will miss Bryce.
Batting
The Middle order is still sexy, Hodge, Hussey and White, but they won’t have that for 6 weeks.
Chris Rogers has been brought in, as Victoria struggle to ever have two good openers at one time.
Last year it looked like Jewell had come of age, so if he and Rogers can provide solid starts, other states may be in all sorts of trouble.
Victoria do need to pick a keeper this year, either young Wade gets a go, or the X man continues.
Long in the tooth
There is no obvious players on the way out, Hodge and McGain being the oldest, but they are probably around for fair while yet. Damien Wright may not finish the season however.
Ready to shed the nappies
James Pattinson, brother of Eyelids, is supposedly a freak of nature, and I say get him in there at 7 before Notts try and claim him.
Nostradamus
Shield
1st or 2nd.
One day
2nd or 3rd.
2020
1st or 2nd.
The rub
If they can overcome the loss of Bryce they could win it all.
The Christian Bale sqaud
Tassie, the butler’s men
Players that wont be available for large chunks of the season
Ponting, sorry he should have been in the NSWales side, and maybe Krezja and Geeves.
Krezja and Geeves won’t miss many games this year, so Tasmania should be at full strength for most of the year.
Tasmania are at that great point where they have a great team, but they haven’t lost many players to the national team.
Should be hard to beat in all forms of the game.
Leadership
Daniel Marsh is in charge again, this could be his last year, so he will want to go out on top.
Can captain this chubby man.
Bowling
Geeves, Drew and Hilfenhaus are three young quick bowlers. Throw in Denton, if he is fit and it’s a great fast bowling line up.
Their spin is more than handy too, Krezja, Doherty and Marsh are all wicket takers as well.
A very well balanced attack, 20 wickets should come often.
Batting
Dighton, Bailey, Birt, And Paine are the backbone of the DiVenutoless batting line up.
Very workmanlike, but the batting sets up the games for their bowlers.
Paine and Bailey will need to step up this year and become superstars to handle the better attacks.
Long in the tooth
Everyone loves Daniel Marsh, but this will be the rotund fellas last year, Bailey will take over mid season or next season.
Ready to shed the nappies
Luke Butterworth was one I talked up last year, and he hardly played. This year he will play and dominate, I hope.
Nostradamus
Shield
1st or 2nd.
One day
1st.
2020
1st or 2nd.
The rub
Should be at the top, but couldn’t take wickets last year.
The Phillip Seymour Hoffman team
SA, the South Australian bare backs
Players that wont be available for large chunks of the season
Um, maybe Shaun Tait.
South Australia will have a full strength side, which for them still isn’t much.
Last year there best player was Ryan Harris, who is in Queensland now.
Gillespie, Blewett, Elliott, and Lehmann are all gone.
So is Nathan Adcock, but thats a good thing.
Hard to see them getting to much better, they went on a huge recruiting drive and all the ended up with was two fringe players from Victoria and a bunch of players barely in the squad in NSWales.
Leadership
Well after the leadership debacle that was Nathan Adcock South Australia have picked the logical option.
Graham Manou isn’t going to be dropped, and last year was probably the best batsman, and second best player behind Harris.
Good leader, but probably not the best captain going around.
Bowling
A full year of Shaun Tait will be handy. Only a handful of state cricketers have ever taken over 70 wickets in a year and he is one.
Guys like Rofe, Wise and Clearly are all just state players, and none of which are match winning bowlers.
The two Cullens, Bailey and Daniel, are still around. Wouldn’t be great if one of them took wickets this year.
Batting
The two imports, Younis Khan and Michel Klinger, will probably be the best two batsman in this side.
They might have issues though, one being a muslim, and one being a jew. Throw in Christian at 5, an aboriginal, and you have the minority middle order.
Mark Cosgrove is the only other batsman who is legit. So he becomes mega important, especially when Khan goes home.
Their top order is so fragile, that they might have to take drastic measures and play Michael Vaughan after Younis Khan pisses off.
As if buying Klinger wasn’t embarrassing enough.
Long in the tooth
If this isn’t Paul Rofe’s last year, South Australia will be shit for at least two more years.
Ready to shed the nappies
No real young players who inspire me with confidence, but I am a big fan of Daniel Christian, a batting all rounder who bowls into the 140’s.
Nostradamus
Shield
5th.
One day
5th.
2020
4th.
The rub
They were rubbish last year, but they will have to improve, wont they?
The Hayden Christensen XI
QLD, the New Texas Bulls
Players that won’t be available for large parts of the season.
Hayden, Roy?, Watson and Hopes.
Losing Watson and Hopes in the one season would cripple most state teams, but the one thing Queensland has is all rounders.
The two bets performed all rounders in state cricket last year were Ryan Harris and Ashley Noffke, they are now team mates, and Noffke has a point to prove.
Last year they were plainly spoken complete fucken rubbish. Actually they were way worse than that.
They were old, stale, and pathetic.
This year the have shed Maher and Kasprowicz, for some unknown reason kept Bichel, and Johnson has gone to be with his girlfriend.
Leadership
Chris Simpson is the new captain, and I don’t know a lot about him, it always seems risky when a team makes a fringe player a captain, but if he is the only choice, he is the only choice.
He said some strong words in the media about hard work and so forth, but so did Nathan Adcock last year, and where is he now, exactly.
Bowling
Ashley Noffke was the best bowler outside of test cricket last year. Ryan Harris was the hardest working man in show bizness last year,
But once these two are finished what does Queensland have. They have no spinners, Andy Bichel and lots of untried bowlers, Noffke and Harris would have to take a lot of wickets, and if one gets the call up, Queensland are in trouble.
Batting
Old.
Unkown.
Strugglers.
And all rounders.
I have never seen a state line up look so bare.
Noffke and Harris may end up with all the wickets and all the runs.
Long in the tooth
Andy Bichel is technically already dead and no one has told him and Martin Love is pensioner, if both of these guys play out the whole year I’d be surprised.
Ready to shed the nappies
Ummmm, shit, lets say Alistair McDermott who makes other red heads look subtle.
Nostradamus
Shield
Last.
One dayers
Last.
2020
Second Last.
The rub
They seem old and ordinary, and the probably are, remember when they were good.
The Robert DeNiro mob
Time for my state cricket round up.
This may be the last year I can do one with any authority,
We’ll start wit the reigning champs.
NSWales, the speedblitz blues
Players that won’t be available for large parts of the season.
Bollinger, Bracken, Clark, Clarke, Haddin, Jacques, Katich, and Lee.
That is a fair list, and looking at the “a” team, there are a bunch more in the wings.
What have they got left, youth, youth, and yup, youth.
Last year I though there youth was ordinary and wouldn’t make much of a splash, they did, bastards.
The Reigning Shield Champions seem to have an uphill battle to do the same.
This year they will need that youth to kick on either further as Haddin, Katich and Bollinger will be available far less.
Leadership
Katich is a huge loss, not just for batting, but he was the steel, but the captaincy, when you have a young team you need a captain who can bring them together, but he will be there and thereabouts for Australia, and may miss large portions of the season.
Whoever has the captaincy for the games Katich is not available will be the key, I would say they would go with Thornely, Daniel Smith, Mail or Ed Cowan.
Bowling
With their top 4 bowlers all busy, Cameron and Henriques will have to take a lot of wickets.
Henriques is the highest rated young player since Michael Clarke, but so far he hasn’t done much other than look impressive.
Beau Casson will be trying to prove he is the number one spinner in Australia, which he isn’t, but with this bowling attack, he should get a lot of overs.
Batting
Hard to see where the runs are coming from. Mail, Cowan and Thornley are experienced, but none of these players are top flight state batsmen.
The class would appear to come from Hughes and Khawaja. Neither have the experience, but they do look like the way forward.
Khawaja will also provide Australian writers the opportunity to call him wristy which is nice.
Henriques, Casson and Steve Smith are all supposed to be all rounders, and they will have to make a few runs between them.
Long in the tooth
The Mail Man may be paying his last season. Should get a game for the first half of the year, but when the young bucks start circling, he is the one Matthew Nicholson and the other selectors may get rid of. Although Nicholson probably thinks 30 is young.
Ready to shed the nappies
Steven Smith is the highest rated youngster since Moises Henriques, sorry couldn’t help myself. Played in a few 2020 games last year and tripped over wickets with his leg spin. He may be the Cameron White, Cameron White never proved to be, a genuine top six batsman who can bowl.
Nostradamus
Shield
3rd to 4th.
One dayers
2nd to 3rd.
2020
Last, they never take this shit seriously.
The rub
They is young, and held in high regard, but can they play?
The Ryan Gosling side
