half price Tigers tickets, anyone?

Disappointees,


It was probably no coincidence that an email sailed into my inbox mid week offering a “two match super pass’ for $25.
Effectively, that’s half price tickets if you purchase cheap seats to any of the two remaining Tigers home games at Olympic Park.
A marketing masterstroke.
Their line of thinking being – joisus! they’ve started losing all of a sudden! if this keeps up, we won’t be able to give them away.
Circumstances conspired against me being at the spiritual home of Balmain rugby league, and just saw the game out of the corner of my eye at the office.
A good thing too, as it turned out.
Ten minutes in and some Big Brown Brother for the Worriers strolls through one tackle; and he’s underneath the uprights.
After another 20 minutes of arm wrestle and plenty of tactical kicking in warmish 21 degree conditions, and the Kiwi’s go in again off a blatant forward pass – television commentary putting the pill two metres forward, and the Idiot Blind Bamford still couldn’t pick it.
More mistakes, dropped ball, muddle headedness.
Something to cheer about in the second half when Benji put on some trademark magic with the copyrighted jink, the step, the weave, the back hand pass, to see the Tuiaki kiddie finish off with superior pace.
Matty Head goes mad and the try scoring freak Lawrence does what he does best; The Great Hoddo boots one over the black dot for 16-16.
Then, Lo! Behold! Two more Worriers tries.
All this despite the Bamford doing the right thing by the home crowd and awarding seven consecutive penalties to the Tigers.
Fitness died.
13 seconds to go and the Tuiaki kiddie scores a miracle try to leave The Great Hoddo with another kick from the sideline to push the match to extra time -- he sprays it wide -- they win 28-26.
The second time in as many weeks the Tigers have failed to get themselves in with a chance in extra time, and this, against a team with an absolutely appalling away record.
On interview after the game The Great Hoddo speaking in his capacity as Captain said:
“We made some silly errors to allow them back into the game and the lead. They had more energy around the rucks. Couldn’t get Farah into the game as we would have liked. Pretty ordinary three weeks -- the bye next week – jeez we need that going forward.”
At least he got it right with the ordinary three weeks part.
SC Sheens, in the cut away television shots, looked grim throughout, thoughtfully holding a lightly clenched fist to his mouth as if he was gently chewing the knuckles off, and said nothing of any import afterwards.
Probably because the reporters were too scared to ask anything more probing than “How’s your day been, Mr Sheens?”
But quote of the day, week, month, undoubtedly belonged to the Worrier’s Ruben Wiki, who played in his 200th game [despite being suspended for a total of 27 matches in a 16 year career!], after having announced weeks ago that he intended to retire at the end of the season.
Asked for his assessment of his 200th, he replied on live national pay-TV.
“I just can’t believe that I have played 200 games! I don’t know what I’m going to fucken do with myself next year”


WESTS TIGERS 26. Tries: Tuiaki (3), Farah, Lawrence, Goals: Hodgson (3).
NZ WARRIORS 28. Tries: Henderson, Fia, Rapira, Fien, Hohaia. Goals Hohaia (2), Witt (2).
At Leichhardt Oval.
Crowd: 15,027.



There’s hasn’t been a squeak out of the Swans all week, largely on account of everyone went bush and was out of mobile range, and no one was saying anything about what went on at the traditional mid winter break BBQ at SC Roos place.
There’s been some gut rumblings from Mexico along the lines of Collingwood are going to do this and that, the “the Pride of the Nation” is going to give the Swans a right spanking or some such, how many more supporter buses are going to turn up in the coach park at the Western Paddock.
We’ll see.


SYDNEY SWANS: Bye.

a nice patch of Salvation Jane

Spectators,

Absolutely no idea what the Tigers did in training last week, but whatever it was, it didn’t work.
After last week saying… ”never seen so much dropped ball, so many knock ons, kicks that failed to find touch”
Blah blah blah, nothing changed.
A classic case of They Only Had Themselves To Blame.
A wide open opportunity to beat another under strength side, away, missed, badly
Matty Head managing three fundamental errors in a row from the off -- was obviously still asleep when the team bus pulled up -- and all the signs did not look good.
The whole process when deep into the second half was symptomatic of the malaise, with the Tigers on a messy and confused attacking raid; the Great Hoddo throws a wild pass out the back when he didn’t really need to, only to see a Brisbane player swoop on the pill and set up a sweeping counter attack to have the ball planted on the ground underneath the uprights 80 metres away at the other end in a matter of seconds for the Bronco’s to tie up the scores.
Joisus.
When Karmichael Hunt [the bane of football commentators the world over -- Mike Hunt to his mates] potted a very lazy field goal, with what, seven or eight minutes left in the match, there was plenty of time to play the get out of jail card, but no one could even contrive to push the match into extra time.
The irony in all of this is that Benji Marshall probably had his best game of the season, in the wake his photograph of being sensationally splashed across the front page of the Daily Terror mid week viz a viz some shenanigans at the Sapphire Lounge.
Perhaps he should spend more time in Kings Cross.
After saying the Mighty Tiges were “traveling nicely”, the past couple of weeks have been an absolute disaster on the table, dropping from sixth to 12th, just like that, as other teams do some leap frogging, while others tread water in the log jam.
Straight after the match, SC Sheens was on the phone to the boys down at Balmain Road to book the team in for a couple of lengthy mid-week sessions in the Room Full of Mirrors.
There they might contemplate the frightening prospect that the wheel nuts are starting to come dangerously loose.


BRISBANE BRONCOS 19. Tries: Moon, Kemp, Kenny. Goals: Ennis (3). Field goals: Hunt (1).

WESTS TIGERS 18. Tries: Hodgson, Halatau, Fulton. Goals: Hodgson (3).
At Lang Park, Brisbane.
Crowd: 27,864.



A very predictable stroll in the park on a chilly, but piercingly crystal clear Sunday winter’s afternoon in the National Capital, ah, the light Fawlty, the light…against the hapless Demons.
How’d you go being a Melbourne supporter?
You’d have to have a very high tolerance level for hopeless jokes and sad sacks.
Dean Baily’s only been in the coaching job five minutes and already he only has a couple of tufts of hair left on his head to pull out.
When BBB “Slugger “ Hall slotted through four big ones in the opening quarter it looked for all the world like the great man was in for a twelve goal bag, and he should have kicked at least ten, given the number of shots he sprayed wide in the rest of the game.
Marty Mattner looked to be best on ground, while the Henry Playfair kiddie was not far behind.
The best off season buys the club committee has laid the cash [and not much of that either] on the table, for off season buys in many a long year.
Looks like the Goodes Train has been reported or spotted by the eagle eyes down at the video match review committee for another innocent fairy tap, and will take the one match fall, on account of he has no choice this time.
Perhaps he’s not the protected species as everyone thinks he is, but rather the marked man that he appears to me to have been all along this season.
Does the tribunal the count the bye as a game?
Should do – back in the olden days you were rubbed out for so many weeks, not games.
Did the Swans deliberately take the pedal off the metal in the Championship Quarter, or was it a lapse of collective concentration?
You be the judge.
By the look of the contortions on the face of St Paul, he seemed to be more concerned at half time than he was at three quarter time.
Who would’ve thought that Jude Bolton has played 200 games of senior footy, and yet he could walk down Pitt St unmolested?
With the side having come to rest in a nice patch of Salvation Jane, SC Roos has cancelled all training this week and told the players to go away, get out of his hair, get out of town; to report back for duty at his place on Saturday afternoon for the traditional mid season break BBQ, where they can get on the grogs, reminisce about 2005, and talk a lot of shit.
Then it’s the much anticipated annual fixture against the Evil Pies at the Western Paddock the following Saturday night.
Tickets to the cheap seats are already in hand.

MELBOURNE 2.2 5.3 10.5 11.8 (74). Goals: Bate 4, Wonaeamirri 3, Miller, Johnson, McLean, Bruce.
SYDNEY 7.2 10.5 12.10 17.12 (114). Goals: Hall 5, Mattner 2, O'Loughlin 2, Buchanan 2, Goodes, O'Keefe, Jolly, Malceski, Roberts-Thomson, Playfair.
At Manuka Oval, Canberra.
Crowd: 11,437.

refrigerators and bulldozers

Trick cyclists,

The burning question on everyone’s lips: Has BBB “Slugger” Hall been having jujitsu lessons on his holidays or was it just part of his anger treatment? [thankfully, he’s not consulting the same anger manager as Belinda Neal and Sam Newman – patently hasn’t worked in either case there].
Instead of going around clocking blokes, he’s worked out all you have to do is throw your not inconsiderable weight around and just flip blokes out of the way.
How many times did direct opponents just bounce off the great man as if affected by some weird magnetic field when they came into the big bloke’s sphere of influence?
As is usually the case, the question of victory came down to the Championship Quarter.
Things looked a little ominous when the Gardiner kiddies snapped a couple of quick ones for the Saints at the start of the stanza, but three Swans goals in as many minutes towards the end of the section, and it was effectively game over.
Never in doubt.
Jarred “Odd Head” McVeigh was probably best on ground, played doggedly, and just kept unexpectedly bobbing up in all the right places, while Marty Mattner – having played 100 games for Adelaide without anyone noticing – is something out of the Book of Revelations.
The Goodes Train was once again a marked man, given that many thought he shouldn’t have been playing, but for mine it was surprising that he didn’t go down to the tribunal mid-week to try and get off the official reprimand to protect his honorable reputation, given that a reprimand is apparently enough to rule you out of contention for the Brownlow.
Any team will struggle to get through the Swans defence for the rest of the season the way it is going, and the return of Hall added some much needed structure to the forward line.
Magic certainly thought so; he was happy to let Hall do all the leading from centre half forward, so he could be more relaxed and comfortable just pirouetting around in the forward pocket as he’s paid to do.
Not at all sure about the reported appearance of six chanting Gyuota Buddhist monks dressed in saffron and Swans scarves in the sheds after the game.
Craig Bolton was certainly startled:
"I was buggered and then it went completely quiet and all of a sudden I heard this chanting. I just got straight up”
"Footy has come a long way - 20 years ago we would have been cracking open cans of beer, now we are listening to Buddhist chants."
Crikey!
Next thing they will all be levitating, or some such nonsense.
After the Crows narrow loss at home, and given that the top three is now, in the absence of some serious falling off of wheels, set in concrete, all the Swans need to do is keep winning at home, and snatch a few away wins to take the only vacant slot in the top four at the pointy end of the season.
With SC Roos [hearty congrats by the way on his 500th as a player then coach] issuing stern warnings about complacency, giving Melbourne a right spanking on the wide open spaces at Manuka Oval this coming weekend is a good place to start, and besides, six wins on the trot in a 22 game season officially qualifies as a “purple patch”.


SYDNEY 3.5, 7.9, 12.16 14.18 (102) Goals: O'Keefe 3, O'Loughlin 3, Hall 2, Goodes 2, McVeigh, Moore, Bird, Jolly
ST KILDA 2.2, 3.7, 8.9, 9.13 (67) Goals: C.Gardiner 3, Riewoldt, Dal Santo, M.Gardiner, Goddard, Schneider, Milne.
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 25,996.





Had a bad feeling in my water from the moment when the only recognized Tiges front row forward left standing in the entire club, Danny Galea, fell over about three minutes into the match, with not a hand laid on him, and contrived to snap an Achilles.
Season gorn, just like that.
For a bloke who has battled all year to find a permanent place in the run-on side, it was a pitiful sight to see him just after half time, having changed into a jacket and tie, hobble on crutches to a seat in the stands.
A couple of pre-game injuries didn’t help either, as SC Sheens was forced to name two blokes on the bench who hadn’t played any first grade rugby league since 2006; fair average quality journeymen at best you would have thought.
SC Sheens in his after match remarks suggested that assistant coach Roycie Simmons might have to come out of 17 years in retirement and don the orange and black next week to harden things up.
Can’t we buy any players, anyone, before the end of the financial year?
The Galea injury cracked the Tiges mentally; never seen so much dropped ball, so many knock ons, kicks that failed to find touch, and the unforgivable sin of passing the ball clean into touch, from any side in a single game all season.
That, and the fact that Parramatta had some dead set refrigerators and bulldozers going around in the forwards, and even the kiddie who plays for them in the outside centres looks like a 6’4” five-ton front end loader.
Benji was missing in attack but tried hard to put on a kicking game, but it’s tough when you are getting no field position at all, and the try scoring freak Lawrence did score the only try, but honestly, can’t think of any other time his name was even mentioned in the television commentary.
For once, Mad Gus Gould got it right when he said: “the Tigers will just have to lay low for the next month and try to survive, before trying to play themselves into September”.
SC Sheens came down from the box in the first half to coach from the sidelines in the second – but unlike the animated AFL coaches -- he didn’t need headphones or a telephone, as he didn’t have much to say -- to anyone.
What else was to be done?


WESTS TIGERS 6. Tries: Lawrence. Goals: Hodgson (1).
PARRAMATTA EELS 44. Tries: Hindmarsh (2), Burt, Cordoba, Tautai, Keating, Inu, Reddy. Goals: Burt (6).
At Olympic Stadium, Homebush.
Crowd: 22,106.

Footnote: By the look of the state of the stands on the telly, be buggered if 22 thousand punters turned up on a damp, bitterly cold afternoon in Sydney for the televised Sunday game.
A little creative gate keeping going on once again to justify using the Olympic Stadium as a home ground, given the club is guaranteed a very generous net return regardless of how many show up?

a light turkey slap

True believers,

What a bloody miracle in The Golden West!
Any team that went down by six goals to zip in the first quarter of what was always going to be a low scoring affair on the wide open spaces at Subiaco Oval, should never have been allowed to get up and snatch the win.
One of the great Lazarus acts, yet again.
Forced to reach for the heart pills when the scores were all locked up with a few minutes left; could not bear another “bloody point” result between these two sides, the history just wouldn’t allow it.
It doesn’t matter who it was who so comprehensively necked our bloke from 30 metres out that the Bamford could not help but blow the whistle with, what, a minute left in the game to produce the match-winning goal.
Didn’t hear his name on account of the screaming of the couple of fanatics on the lounge was too loud.
Haven’t seen his name anywhere in the best players lists, but Young Teddy Richards was about the only one who did anything in the backs in the first half, and then St Paul has the inspiration to move him into the forward line in the second half to get on with business and finish things off.
Had an outstanding game for mine.
That said, Malceski, who played as usual on one leg and one lung, was probably best on ground.
An unusually fast Goodes Train did well to get himself train wrecked by being reported early on in the piece.
He was a marked man after that.
He’s sure to take it down to the tribunal to keep his reputation intact -- joisus, you don’t win two Brownlow’s for nothing, and then some dumb ump called Mathew Head [two blokes, same name, see below] decides he ought to be reported for giving an idiot who was going down in a tackle, a light turkey slap.
Ridiculous.
Only goes to show the Bamford’s have no connection with the reality of the game, otherwise they wouldn’t be Bamfords.
Surely it will be laughed out of court.
Captain Kirk was being referred to on the Channel Ten coverage as The Spiritual Leader.
Crikey! There might be people who are out there who actually pray to some kind of deity when things get tight?!
Surely not?
Magic seemed like he was going around on one of those motorised scooters with an orange flag out the back.
And as for Jude Bolton...someone walked past the telly at the dénouement and just said “thanks jude, just thanks, for coming”.
Been trying to pin point why the West Coast Eagles are the most obnoxious team in the comp for years without success, until this week when Pim Verbeek put his finger on it for me when he was asked to comment on the on-field violence, the foul play, and the dead-set diving for the penalty that characterizes the Iraq national soccer team, and he very emphatically replied without hesitation, “it’s in their nature, its in their culture”, [his italics],
You have to like a man who speaks his mind.
And so it goes also with the West Coast Eagles… its in their culture.
As a result, they generate a kind of animosity in fans not seen in other opposing teams.
As the Good Lady Wife remarked on his first appearance on the television, “oh no! not that Adam Hunter! I just hate that Hunter! I can’t stand the sight of him. Get him off, pleeease!”
Summed it up nicely.
After drinking the bar dry on the red eye special on the way home, SC Roos and the “Leadership Team” would have had a fairly laid back Sunday morning smoko beside the magic waters of the Tasman Sea.
Gazing out on the vista; the only question of any import would have been whether to name BBB “Slugger” Hall in the reserves, or bring him straight back from his holidays with his shrink on the first grade bench.
In any case, SC Roos was caught by the television cameras whistling while shuffling the fist full of foolscaps just at the end of quarter time as he started to walk back to the dug out.
That’s relaxed and comfortable.
All class.
.
WEST COAST: 6.1, 8.7, 8.11, 11.12 (78). Goals: Wirrpanda, Kerr, Staker 2, Nicoski, Selwood, Hunter, Lynch, Seaby
SYDNEY: 0.4, 2.7, 6.8, 12.11 (83). Goals: Malceski, McVeigh, Kirk, Bevan, Bolton 2, O'Loughlin, Buchanan.
At Subiaco Oval, Perth.
Crowd 38,802.

Haven’t seen a frame of the Mighty Tiges game as it was played at the “third home ground” and coincided with the Swans game.
But the bush telegraph in the corner of the lounge room chattered into life and came through with the 22-0 half time scoreboard, and there was no doubting it was in the dilly bag, given that the Cowboys turned out without a couple of players on State of Origin duties and the club has a full casualty ward.
Tigers were very short odds on to win from the outset.
Seasoned observers suggest the forward pack again acquitted themselves well, despite the almost complete absence of recognized front row forwards.
Matty Head apparently played out of his mind, and was a clear man of the match.
The Head story is an interesting one, given that he has no contract, just the confidence of SC Sheens, and is costing the club absolutely nothing, as he’s playing on week to week wages.
They probably give him the cash in a brown paper bag in the sheds after the game.
Hoddo continues to lead well, and there should be no underestimating a well led rugby league team.
And by all reports, Benji had his best game of the year proving menacing as he ranged about off the wing into centre three quarter.
Seven tries can’t hurt the for and against difference, which may well come into play at the money end of the season given the complete log jam of teams in the top eight.
Sixth is not a bad place to be, just one win out of the top four.
Travelling nicely, no question.

WESTS TIGERS 40. Tries: Collis, McDonnell, Head, Te'o, Marshall, Heighington, Hodgson. Goals: Hodgson (6).
NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 16. Tries: Slyner, Harris, T Williams. Goals: J Williams (2).
At Campbelltown Sports Ground.
Crowd: 11,488.

notorious hottie riddled playground

Canine Fanciers

Heard the interview with MJC on departure from Kingsford Smith for the Caribbean:
”I’ve been on the phone to a few of the blokes over there, and Tim Nielsen, so I know what’s going on. I just can’t wait to get on my flight and get over there and play some cricket. It feels like I haven’t had a game in years”.
He didn’t sound too sad.
And then he turns up in Kingston, Jamaica a day late.
You would have thought he could have organised himself a bit better so he could have got on the handy to Punter from Miami airport and say “hey boss, just win the toss and send them in, will ya – I’ll be there in time to have a bat”.
Stayed awake for long enough, all the time tweaking the whisker on the crystal set for the best reception, to catch the first session on day two, when Clarke when from 35 into the 80’s, and then fell asleep secure in the knowledge that there wasn’t a more dead set certainty that a Clarke century in Antigua, with The Kat already having one in the dilly bag.
Seems like at long last Pup is beginning to discern the art of distilling your shot selection in accordance with the particular pitch you are playing on.
If you can’t do that you are dead in test cricket.
Murder the rubbish and the short stuff, while nudging ‘round the one and two’s.
If you find yourself batting on a six lane highway, straight driving would always be the go, yes?
No hooking or pulling, but with the occasional off cut and noodle down to third man and long on.
On interview afterwards he admitted to being very emotional and dedicating the ton to “Graham”
Probably the best test match ton that he’s ever scored by his own admission.
Did like this headline in the Bangkok Post:
“Clarke dedicates Windies ton to dead would be pa-in-law”
Never mind that he was superbly run out by Roy for next to nothing in the second innings, the job had already been done, and the match always looked like a draw anyway.
Interesting that the fiancé has turned up in Barbados, couldn’t be too sad either, to keep an eye on the kiddie in that notorious hottie riddled playground, and prevent any unsavory incidents a la Seth Efreaker last time around.
Suppose he will have to get used to having his style cramped off the field from now on.
Let’s just hope that it doesn’t extend to inside the picket fence.

a certain whiff

Boosterists,

The precise statistical details of the Triumphant Premiership Year escape me for the moment, in fact they are long gone, receded to the dark recesses of the brain.
But do seem to recall that the Swans handed out quite a few ten goal lessons at the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Olympic Stadium and contrived to win the close away games.
Is there a certain whiff on here viz a viz the flag?
A few of the Swans veterans would have the “sweet smell of victory” just about wafting into their nostrils…as they contemplate their swansongs.
Melbourne as a town doesn’t look north of the Murray very often.
Ten individual goal kickers up to half time - some kind of record surely?
The curiously laid back Channel Ten commentary tried to get excited with this call “and there we go – the Swans have just kicked the first 11 goals of the game”
Richmond Tigers must’ve picked up the fishwraps the morning after for a read ‘em and weep, as they described the debacle of 23 minutes into the second quarter before they could somehow find their first goal.
The way the forward line was working it looked for all the world like Magic, in his 300th game, was being carried around on a sedan chair.
That’s what you want in yr old age.
The Goodes Train was back to his Brownlow best for the first time this year.
His goal from 65m out while on a full tilt run after busting through a few tackles and bouncing the thing a couple of times, was an ‘absolute pearler’
You’d imagine everyone at the ground would have been wide eyed after that.
Didn’t get enough game time for mine, but made good use of what he got.
Kennelly is obviously on fairy-drugs, the way he floats around the back line And of course there’s The Kiddies – Playfair, Moore, Jack, Bird, Richards et al - who aren’t going to lose their places in the team in a hurry - and its always good seeing boys become men.
It’s been suggested to me that BBB “Slugger” Hall should make his way back into the team by playing a couple of games in reserves when he gets back from his holidays, so he can go around kicking goals and clocking blokes with complete impunity.



SYDNEY: 6.4, 13.7, 16.11, 21.13 (139). Goals: Buchanan 3, McVeigh 3, Goodes 2, O'Loughlin 2, Ablett 2, Playfair 2, Bird 2, Malceski, C.Bolton, Moore, O'Keefe, Bevan.
RICHMOND: 0.2, 1.6, 4.7, 8.9 (57). Goals: Deledio 2, Cotchin, Bowden, Brown, Moore, Foley, Schulz
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd 26,852.



Found myself in Dad’s Shed on a Monday evening for the second half of the Tigers game at the SFS v Easts, and the MMM radio call, with G.Gould going off.
Appeared that Wests were done in by some poor execution, most notably the Tuiaki kiddie running “80-90 metres” at a critical moment in second half and then choosing the wrong option as his finisher knocks-on in the in-goal, and the torrential rain at the Western Paddock for the last 20 minutes of the match.
But there was no lack of commitment or will to win.
Seasoned observers are saying the Tigers pack should probably be rated as the best going around in the comp at the moment, and as SC Sheens would be happy to tell anyone who’s prepared to listen, rugby league matches are won in the forwards.
That sort of loss doesn’t hurt too much on the ladder when you are beaten by the competition leaders, after beating the former competition leaders last week.
SC Sheens will just pull out the old coach’s ledger and scratch that one down into the column marked “we’ll learn from our losses”.


SYDNEY ROOSTERS 19. Tries: Aubusson (2), Pearce. Goals: Fitzgibbon (3). Field Goal: Pearce.
WESTS TIGERS 10. Tries: Farah, Tuiaki. Goals: Hogdson (1).
At Sydney Football Stadium.
Crowd 15,204.

on the retirement of TSC MacGill

Enthusiasts,

Cannot let the retirement of Stuart Charles Glyndwr “That Strange Cunt” MacGill from the test match arena, at the age of 36 [or is it 37?], pass without comment.
[A reminder on how he got his moniker. Found myself standing in a beer queue one day at a Sydney test match some years ago now, when Warne and MacGill were bowling in tandem. Struck up a conversation with a total stranger, who out of the blue said, “and that Stuart MacGill, now he’s a strange cunt, don’t you reckon?” He was forever afterwards known as TSC MacGill.]

He certainly set himself apart from the average first class cricketer in being a book reading wine drinker [having nothing much better to do, he allegedly read 24 novels on a tour of Pakistan, while arranging with the Australian Ambassador to bring a couple of cases of his favourite reds in through the diplomatic bag, from time to time].
Seems like we have been watching TSC play at the SCG since the dawn of time, he’s been such a part of the furniture at the old ground.
He was the classic strike bowler, for mine, on that track in particular
Could always be relied on to take a key wicket in a sticky situation, and while he was well known - like the boxer who let down his guard - for being hit, for plenty on a regular basis, he did in fact have a better strike rate than SR Warne in test cricket, and his average is only a couple of runs worse.
When on song, he had a bigger, and a better leg break than Warne’s, and his cleverly disguised arm ball, that fizzed off a huge SCG turner and went straight on, fooled many a good quality bat, to their cost.
For a bloke who should have appeared in more test matches than he did, undoubtedly his crowning achievement was joining the two hundred club.
As he himself put it “there are not that many children whose father’s have taken 200 test wickets”.
Also widely respected for having principles and some moral fibre when he refused to make himself available for the 2004 tour of Zimbabwe.
It was always a joy to watch “the comedy bat”, as he was known in the Ladies Stand, and his antics at No.11
Although there was the day when he featured in a tenth wicket century partnership for NSW [forget who with now, damn] and contributed a grand total of three runs.
He rated that as one of his finest achievements in the first class caper.
And of course he was possibly the most hapless, hopeless fielder in the modern era and his various skippers had to work hard to find places to hide him.
Met the bloke socially a couple of times, and he struck me as a jovial sociable normal sort of human being; so you have to admire the paradox that while off the field he behaved like a perfect gentleman, the stories of his on field indiscretions are legion.
There are far too many to mention.
But did like the time he clocked and laid out flat a team mate while playing in the Lancashire league [?], and called his own captain a “useless sh!t”
Or in the more recent past…the time at the start of last season when he got away with just a three match suspension for calling an umpire a “blind cunnt” and then some, in a Sydney grade match.
Or the time when a young Pakistan batsman during the Australia A tour there last year got so completely on his goat, that he utterly humiliated the poor kiddie with such an invective of abuse, that the boy became a jibbering nervous wreck, and never played a good game again.
TSC was sentenced to counselling for that one.
He was once asked why he never showed much emotion on the field [apart from thinly veiled volcanic fury when dealing with underperforming team mates, impudent batsmen or idiot umpires] or celebrated or even smiled when he was taking wickets, to which he replied “it’s too hard to smile, test cricket is just too hard for that”

Remember one day watching NSW play at the Newcastle No.1 Sports Ground.
TSC had just been dropped from the test side, and hadn’t had a very good day in the field turning out for his beloved Blues in the Milk Cup game.
At the end of the day’s play, the team were doing a warm down on the field, when a spectator walking by yelled out “Hey MacGill ! What’s it like when you’re about to join the ranks of the long term unemployed?”
Quick as a flash TSC retorted “Good. And I’ll be the one right behind you in the dole queue, mate.”

It’s always sad to see one of the last eccentrics and genuine characters give the game away.
But he’s done it gracefully, handing his tour mantle to the Casson kiddie to be the 401st.
No one like that will be allowed to play the game for Australia at the top level again.
He will be missed and fondly remembered.


Vale The Great TSC MacGill.