Yep, it’s a worry.
This is how the guy who had an entire state on the verge of secession (again) from his recent non-selection went with a bit of sideways movement over in England…
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Victoria’s batting has been fragile all year, and it’s really let them down the last few Shield games. On the positive side, they’ve got WA 4-for-40-odd in their second dig, but that 100 first innings lead will probably be decisive in the end.
Edit: Also, Tas are fighting back. SA now 5-72 in their second innings. JFM at the crease… let’s see if he can play an innings of substance at some point.
When Beau Webster is your competitions leading run scorer, you’ve got a nationwide issue with the bat.
He’s a good player, but cmon. Man, what a golden generation we had when players like Love, Lehmann, Law, Hodge, Elliott, Bevan, Ferguson (and many others) were piling runs for fun.
What’s McSweeney’s technique like?
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There is never a perfect technique but I think his is as good as we have got in the Shield. He has a good temperament and can bat to the conditions as well as the game situation. Still has plenty to work on and my worry is that he is getting too much poor advice/coaching in Adelaide
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… And the answer to that is, predictably, no he can’t. Dismissed for 2.
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Of course not.
He is a human slips cradle, he nicks off for fun
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Yep… Ridiculous what they are doing with him. Complete lunacy.
It was pretty funny when people in here were seriously suggesting that he be considered a viable test option for us in the near future
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I’m going to stand by it.
He’s 21 and played fark all FC/red ball cricket. He’s got five years to develop and a bucket load of talent.
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Talent alone won’t get it done though. Has some serious flaws that he refuses to work on and not helped by getting poor advice. I just hope something inside him clicks one day and decides to knuckle down and work hard because the talent is definitely there.
Not just poor advice - poor man management of him too. What they’ve done with him from late 2023 onwards is just incomprehensible.
And things definitely haven’t been helped by the amount of smoke being blown up his arsse either…
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I agree. Talent alone isn’t enough.
But I’d much prefer him getting every chance at Shield level, on the hope that something eventually clicks and we get a gun bat for the next decade, than giving his spot to a 30-year-old district star who might average 35 in the Shield but is zero chance of progressing to international level.
I personally doubt that he does as I think he’s too loose and not a 360 degree player. But my point was in the short term.
People were bringing up Warner parallels but I’d be interested to know what Warner was averaging in Shield cricket before he got his baggy green. I can’t seem to find it anywhere. But I seem to recall that he was compiling a pretty solid Shield average. Could be wrong though. Despite all the flamboyance and six hitting ability, Warner still had a pretty solid defence when required.
Until he had Broad bowling around the wicket too him in England at least 
Ahh, fair enough. Yeah, I agree on that front - he isn’t a short-term option.
My view is he should be aiming to be a long-term replacement for Trav Head if he’s going to play tests. I think Trav (pending form, but I suspect he’ll turn it around) has another 4-5 years at test level.
O’Neill causing all sorts of problems for the WA batsmen
Nailed it there. And to be honest, if he has a really good BBL season or a T20 World Cup or something like that, it will get IPL teams very interested and he can become a millionaire overnight without actually refining his game for red ball cricket. I agree that he is a talent, but he needs good people around him to keep him grounded and working on his game otherwise he will simply be another Chris Lynn or Tim David who make all their money on the T20 circuit and never get close to Test selection.
Inglis caught at slip off Murphy.
WA 5/106, Bancroft creeping along slowly (36 off 117).
Murphy gets Stobo stumped on 0. Double ducks for the match.
WA effectively 6/206
I remember him getting 50 on shield debut as a 17-18 yr old for Vic, and looking pretty solid. It wasn’t a smash and run 50 from memory. So he’s obviously regressed since then technique wise.
Maybe the bowlers didn’t test out his weaknesses or hadn’t seen him before. I don’t know as I didn’t see that innings but I’ve never seen him look assured outside off stump. He is a 180 degree batter and as soon as the ball is on a good length on or outside off he just nicks them for fun or gets himself in all sorts. He also has a weird habit of shutting his eyes just before he plays the shot which gets him in strife if any lateral movement.