Poms! Name your best Aussie side of the last 30 years!

Invader Zim wrote:

Poms! Name your best Aussie side of the last 30 years!

Get ******.

Timmy, I know you want to be a Pom, but you're not. Get over it and don't answer to a Pommie threads - you softcock.

Meh.

Hayden
Langer
Ponting
S Waugh*
Border
Clarke
Gilchrist+
Warne
Alderman
Reid
McGrath

Brass Monkey wrote:If Billy McSofty were to have had McG and Warne for the best part of his career he would've had much better results than he did have (which was pretty damned good anyway).

Jebus, he rarely gets a mention. He'd be India's best ever seamer.

McDermott was outstanding for about 5 years. Very underrated bowler. I think Dizzy was better though.

Hayden
Slater
Ponting
Greg Chappell
Steve Waugh (capt)
Border
Gilchrist
Warne
Gillespie
Alderman
McGrath

Slater beat Langer to the opening berth due to his more imposing style, which set the scene for many great Aussie victories.

S Waugh was the last and, IMHO, the best of the Border series of captains. Warne would be vice-captain.

If we're only looking at performances since mid-1979, Lillee has to be omitted. Gillespie was an awesome bowler throughout his career, and I'll overlook his implosion of 2005.

Bertie Ball-Bender wrote:Hayden
Slater
Ponting
Greg Chappell
Steve Waugh (capt)
Border
Gilchrist
Warne
Gillespie
Alderman
McGrath

Slater beat Langer to the opening berth due to his more imposing style, which set the scene for many great Aussie victories.

S Waugh was the last and, IMHO, the best of the Border series of captains. Warne would be vice-captain.

If we're only looking at performances since mid-1979, Lillee has to be omitted. Gillespie was an awesome bowler throughout his career, and I'll overlook his implosion of 2005.

71 wickets @ 21.67

A more natural timeframe would probably be the last 25 years, ie. when Border took over as captain.

Before that you've got the hangover from the Chappell period, which was really more the 1970s.

By the way, Gilchrist's inclusion in this side is a no-brainer (whether you give him the gloves or not).

Gilchrist was the most destructive batsman of the era. He averaged 48 - many players do that. But he scored those runs at a strike rate of 82.

Some of his best performances came when the top quality batting line-up playing above him failed. He could turn matches in no time. I sometimes wish that Gilchrist hadn't been able to keep wickets - it would have allowed us to focus on his skill as a batsman alone.

He wasn't the "best" Australian batsman of the past 30 years, but he is the first one I'd pick in any XI.

The best Aussie side I can think of is Side B of Rolf Harris's record of Waltzing Matilda. It was a song called "Six White Boomers" and I loved it as a kid. Sadly it's outside the thirty yeear mark though.

Ah, if we're playing that game the best Aussie side is the backside of Kylie.

JKLever wrote:Ah, if we're playing that game the best Aussie side is the backside of Kylie.

Which cheek though?

Hayden
Darling
Ponting
G.Chappell
S.Waugh
Border
Gilchrist
Warne
Lillee
Alderman
McGrath

Henry wrote:Mark Waugh v England- 29 tests, 2204 runs at an average of 50.09 with 6 hundreds. Also, 14 wickets at 37.07, and yes, his brilliant fielding.

I think he's worth a spot.

this is the final nail in the coffin of any reputation that oveblown oxygen theif had

ever hopeful wrote:The best Aussie side I can think of is Side B of Rolf Harris's record of Waltzing Matilda. It was a song called "Six White Boomers" and I loved it as a kid. Sadly it's outside the thirty yeear mark though.

I can pretty much still recite most of those lyrics 31 years later.

Ever Hopeful and PCS are definitely the same. Their knowledge of Rolf Harris is uncanny.

JGK wrote:

ever hopeful wrote:The best Aussie side I can think of is Side B of Rolf Harris's record of Waltzing Matilda. It was a song called "Six White Boomers" and I loved it as a kid. Sadly it's outside the thirty yeear mark though.

I can pretty much still recite most of those lyrics 31 years later.

"Six white boomers, snow white boomers, racing Santa Claus through the Australian sun."

Might've farked up there but I reckon I'm close.

Blazing sun

I think you're right. I remember being sent a casette (for those of you under thirty a cassette was a way to listen to music in the dark ages) at Uni and secretly listening to it and hoping I wasn't busted.

Had another song on it that turned out to be rather prescient; Al.k Hall & Nick O'Teen.

Bradman wrote: I remember being sent a casette (for those of you under thirty a cassette was a way to listen to music in the dark ages) .

Supposedly, as part of the 25th anniversary of the release of the Walkman, Sony gave one to to a 14 year old boy. It took him 3 days before he realised there were 2 sides on a cassette

but he could hack into the CIA

Was it Bucky?

They did not say it wasn't

Might have been hanging around Cabramatta.

Hass wrote:By the way, Gilchrist's inclusion in this side is a no-brainer (whether you give him the gloves or not).

Gilchrist was the most destructive batsman of the era. He averaged 48 - many players do that. But he scored those runs at a strike rate of 82.

Some of his best performances came when the top quality batting line-up playing above him failed. He could turn matches in no time. I sometimes wish that Gilchrist hadn't been able to keep wickets - it would have allowed us to focus on his skill as a batsman alone.

He wasn't the "best" Australian batsman of the past 30 years, but he is the first one I'd pick in any XI.

Although interestingly enough, he said on ABC radio last summer that he thought that coming in to bat as an 'all-rounder' or on the assumption that he wasn't a specialised batsman took the pressure off him. Had he batted as a member of the top six he may have approached things differently.

Gilchrist batted brilliantly at seven but the questionj has to be asked, how would other specialist batsmen have fared batting at seven for their whole career. I wish he had batted mostly in the middle order then we would have a better idea of how good a batsman he was.

As it was he only had one gear which was pretty spectacular quite often. When Aus needed a rearguard action (which was very rarely) he didn't deliver.

He could not, surely, displace Waugh, Chappell, Border or Ponting in the middle order.

The difference between Gilchrist's and Healy's batting averages means that this team is going to score 480 instead of 460 in a normal innings. This difference is irrelevant compared to the difference a great keeper makes to an average one.

ten years after wrote: how would other specialist batsmen have fared batting at seven for their whole career.

The difference between 6 and 7 for another

2nd position 1984-1985 2 2 0 24 17 12.00 92 26.08 0 0 0 2 0 view innings
6th position 1984-1986 11 15 3 380 130 31.66 867 43.82 1 1 1 40 1 view innings
7th position 1984-1993 24 33 4 1317 128 45.41 2902 45.38 3 10 1 112 4 view innings
8th position 1983-1991 3 3 1 128 75 64.00 317 40.37 0 1 0 12 0 view innings