SA Footy

Before the 2005 series against England we had Glenn McGrath in particular come out and tell everyone who would listen that Australia would roll over the Poms five zip. Of course that didn't happen and while we would expect confidence from players such as Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, one thing we should not expect is the endless stream of comments about England before this series has even started...

Warnie: 'There's nothing wrong with being mates' etc etc
McGrath: 'We'll win this one but this time I'm not saying the margin' blah blah
Warnie: 'How could they pick Jones ahead of Read' yadda yadda
McGrath: 'England's batsmen are too inexperienced' and so on..

Fair go you blokes, have you learnt nothing from 2005? We went to England and launched a thousand airships with our hot air and came crashing down to Earth. Meanwhile, the commentary coming from the English camp has been non existent. They know they have a hell of a job to retain the Ashes and the focus is on the cricket.

Obviously these guys are champions, top of the tree. They don't need all of this bulltish, they've got the wickets on the board. I for one wish they would STFU and let their cricket do the talking. It wouldn't worry me if we had won five zip in England but I reckon one of the reasons we didn't win was there was more than a fair amount of complacency invloved in the squad that manifested itself in pi55 poor preparation and a lack of attention to detail that saw us drop 17 catches for starters. This complacency has never been admitted to by the Aussies and when you don't admit you have a problem, then you aren't close to resolving it.

Let's hope that the figures of two of our greatest ever bowlers match the endless stream of unecessary commentary about the opposition and that it doesn't cost us a chance to return the Ashes to where they rightfully belong.

regards,

REB

Take it easy. Warne and McGrath are just cunning marketers. They are promoting the series (and themselves), but doing no harm. This pre-series hype is just part and parcel of being a professional cricketer leading into the biggest Ashes series ever. I don't think their chat relates directly to their performance on the field. (By your reckoning the 'mute' Martyn should have averaged 200 last series. He never makes a sound to the media!)

I think more than marketing the series, those guys are actually trying to "mess" with the poms minds, such as what Warne said recently about Jones their wicket keeper, saying how much pressure he'd have on him.

Meh...I think it makes bugger all difference. McGrath says something at the start of every series. It's all just something that can fill the newspapers and websites each day until the actual cricket can be talked about. I don't think McGrath and Warne would feel any worse if they lose the series having said what they've said than they would having said nothing.