MFC Fans Only 2018/2019 Summer Sports Talk

[Demonkings]

I really don’t get why Michael Clarke is a target for so much vitriol so often. Can any of you guys explain it to me? To me, he was a very good test batsman throughout his career and did a capable job captaining a test team that was in serious decline. That’s good enough for me, don’t really care what he’s like as a bloke outside of that. He even got us back to number one in the world for about 5 minutes. Given where our team is now, I don’t think that achievement can be understated. But he once threatened Jimmy Anderson, so a bloke like Whateley can pin all the current team’s woes on him. Please.

Also noticed that MFC’s own ex-skipper Brad Green weighed into the debate openly stating he’s “no fan” of Clarke’s. You know something is wrong when Brad Green feels justified in criticising someone. Green must be one of the least qualified people in all world sport to criticise an ex-skipper for anything.

 

[saj_21]

For mine the Michael Clarke we see in the media is a complete charade. The good bloke persona seems like an act for mine.

 

[Cannon82]

For mine the Michael Clarke we see in the media is a complete charade. The good bloke persona seems like an act for mine.

Was an unabashed utensil for the first half of his career, but after significant media training he became more of a polished smug floater.

 

[pjfairbairn]

I really don’t get why Michael Clarke is a target for so much vitriol so often. Can any of you guys explain it to me? To me, he was a very good test batsman throughout his career and did a capable job captaining a test team that was in serious decline. That’s good enough for me, don’t really care what he’s like as a bloke outside of that. He even got us back to number one in the world for about 5 minutes. Given where our team is now, I don’t think that achievement can be understated. But he once threatened Jimmy Anderson, so a bloke like Whateley can pin all the current team’s woes on him. Please.

Also noticed that MFC’s own ex-skipper Brad Green weighed into the debate openly stating he’s “no fan” of Clarke’s. You know something is wrong when Brad Green feels justified in criticising someone. Green must be one of the least qualified people in all world sport to criticise an ex-skipper for anything.

Your character evaluation is back to front

 

[Demonkings]

For mine the Michael Clarke we see in the media is a complete charade. The good bloke persona seems like an act for mine.

Ok, so which Aussie cricketers aren’t putting on their best good bloke act when they’re in front of a camera?

Was an unabashed utensil for the first half of his career, but after significant media training he became more of a polished smug floater.

And he has an ego. Most Australian cricketers have massive egos. But he wasn’t that good at hiding it when he was younger.

This is all just personality based stuff though. Why judge an Australian cricketer on anything other than how he does cricket? Clarke was a better than average cricketer, who got decent results as captain. Why should it matter about the rest?

 

[Demonkings]

Your character evaluation is back to front

In relation to Clarke and Green?

 

[Topkent]

I really don’t get why Michael Clarke is a target for so much vitriol so often. Can any of you guys explain it to me? To me, he was a very good test batsman throughout his career and did a capable job captaining a test team that was in serious decline. That’s good enough for me, don’t really care what he’s like as a bloke outside of that. He even got us back to number one in the world for about 5 minutes. Given where our team is now, I don’t think that achievement can be understated. But he once threatened Jimmy Anderson, so a bloke like Whateley can pin all the current team’s woes on him. Please.

Also noticed that MFC’s own ex-skipper Brad Green weighed into the debate openly stating he’s “no fan” of Clarke’s. You know something is wrong when Brad Green feels justified in criticising someone. Green must be one of the least qualified people in all world sport to criticise an ex-skipper for anything.

Who knows man, alot of people will judge people based on their 'character' online in all sports and then decide if they like them or not despite never meeting them. There's a list of rules to follow in the public eye that you must adhere to or else the internet can say what they like about you.

 

[Proper Gander]

Gerard Wheatley is a ******* w***er. His statement on Clarke might be the biggest load of wank I've read all year and that's saying something.

Firstly to attribute the sandpaper incident where Smith and Warner decided to cheat with a captain who retired what 4 years ago? Absoloute horseshit.
To then essentially call Clarke a moron because he said he preferred the team to be respected not liked was another line of s**t. I completely agree with Clarke on that. Shaking everyone's hand a clapping them for scoring boundaries won't make us a better team at all its all PR nonsense. Tim Paines legacy seems to be it doesn't matter if you average 15 as long as you do it with a smile.

Then he said the reason the public is disconnected from the side is because of its behaviour, that's moronic.
The public doesn't give a s**t because the side is ******* s**t. Our fast bowlers are always injured. Our 2 best batsmen cheated and the rest are just average numpties who ******* rotate in an out including 2 brothers who wouldn't have played a single game between 90-2008 yet are now invaluable scrubs.
There's no characters or players to idolize since Johnson retired. Who wants to grow up and bat like Peter Handscomb or Shaun Marsh.

No one had a problem with the Australian side when it was successful. We like our teams to be aggressive and competitive. To equate sledging and cheating is ******* stupid. Every country should prioritise winning, in fact every team in every sport or else what are you doing even playing?
Or is the priority keeping up public appearance and making money?

To equate aggressive sledging with cheating is ******* tedious
The AFL blokes sledge and lip off all the time yet the players don't cheat. ( this is not about Essendons medical rogues)

Decent old essay there Topkent.

 

[Cannon82]

Ok, so which Aussie cricketers aren’t putting on their best good bloke act when they’re in front of a camera?

And he has an ego. Most Australian cricketers have massive egos. But he wasn’t that good at hiding it when he was younger.

This is all just personality based stuff though. Why judge an Australian cricketer on anything other than how he does cricket? Clarke was a better than average cricketer, who got decent results as captain. Why should it matter about the rest?

Mark Taylor, Ian Healy, etc put on their best loveable Aussie personas but its not close to the contrast Clarke is attempting to portray.

Clarke was a good cricketer. He is also a prize tool. So he was a good cricketer who is also a *******. Now he's an annoying commentator pretending to be amicable, pleasant and informative. Does it matter? No. Does it make him extremely hard to like in my eyes? Yes.

Most elite sportsmen have an ego - comes with the territory I would think, but some get more carried away with it than others.

 

[Topkent]

Mark Taylor, Ian Healy, etc put on their best loveable Aussie personas but its not close to the contrast Clarke is attempting to portray.

Clarke was a good cricketer. He is also a prize tool. So he was a good cricketer who is also a *******. Now he's an annoying commentator pretending to be amicable, pleasant and informative. Does it matter? No. Does it make him extremely hard to like in my eyes? Yes.

Most elite sportsmen have an ego - comes with the territory I would think, but some get more carried away with it than others.

Clarke was probably a product of his circumstances. Came into the side as the only young bloke in among a team of legends who were brash confident and cocky. They and we all viewed him as the young up an coming star. Scored a century on debut in India and at home and essentially had the cricket world at his feet. I'm not surprised his ego exploded.

If he debuted now I'm not sure he'd have become what he became but who knows.

 

[pjfairbairn]

In relation to Clarke and Green?

Correct. One is a decent leader. It's not Clarke.

 

[Topkent]

Decent old essay there Topkent.

It was no blitznu or Toump Ass rant but I had a go.

 

[saj_21]

Ok, so which Aussie cricketers aren’t putting on their best good bloke act when they’re in front of a camera?

And he has an ego. Most Australian cricketers have massive egos. But he wasn’t that good at hiding it when he was younger.

This is all just personality based stuff though. Why judge an Australian cricketer on anything other than how he does cricket? Clarke was a better than average cricketer, who got decent results as captain. Why should it matter about the rest?

No doubt what you see in the media and what you see off the field are two different things, but for mine the gap between Clarke’s real persona and what he showed on screen was night and day.

Steve was a Karmichael Hunt off the field, and was pretty straight down the line when it came to the media. Everyone loves Warne because what you is what you got.

Mike Hussey and Ricky Ponting are two that spring to mind, blokes that seem genuine.

That’s my opinion of Clarke, doesn’t mean I’m right but the bloke just seems fake.

 

[Demonkings]

Correct. One is a decent leader. It's not Clarke.

I don’t know, Green was captain for 186, wasn’t he? You might be privy to information about one or both of them that may well suggest that Green is a better leader than I give him credit for, but when you compare their respective results as captains, makes dangerous waters for Green to go fishing in criticising Clarke. Green captained the dees in a defeat that set the club back 5 years. Clarke never had anything like that happen while he was captain of the Australian cricket team.

 

[Topkent]

I liked Green the player but I'm not sure he was a leaders arsehole.

 

[Demonkings]

Clarke was probably a product of his circumstances. Came into the side as the only young bloke in among a team of legends who were brash confident and cocky. They and we all viewed him as the young up an coming star. Scored a century on debut in India and at home and essentially had the cricket world at his feet. I'm not surprised his ego exploded.

If he debuted now I'm not sure he'd have become what he became but who knows.

Yeah, not to mention he had Warnie take him under his wing and acted as his mentor throughout his career. Of course he was going to come out of all that cocky and arrogant. It’s just Clarke wasn’t as talented as Warne, but you can’t hold that against him. At the end of the day, Clarke played out a good career and kept a mediocre Australian test team competitive while he was captain. He won more than he lost. If the price you have to pay for that is a bit of arrogance then that’s fine by me. Makes me wish Warne would play a more active role mentoring the current players. There’s clearly an art to it that is eluding the likes of Warner, Smith and co.

 

[pjfairbairn]

I don’t know, Green was captain for 186, wasn’t he? You might be privy to information about one or both of them that may well suggest that Green is a better leader than I give him credit for, but when you compare their respective results as captains, makes dangerous waters for Green to go fishing in criticising Clarke. Green captained the dees in a defeat that set the club back 5 years. Clarke never had anything like that happen while he was captain of the Australian cricket team.

The difference in the playing quality of the two teams is chalk and cheese. I don't think Green is a wonderful leader, but certainly not as bad as you made out, while there's lots of anecdotal feedback (Symonds, Katich etc.) that Clarke was not a good leader. And he has carried himself appallingly over past 48 hours

 

[00Stinger]

Gerard Wheatley is a ******* w***er. His statement on Clarke might be the biggest load of wank I've read all year and that's saying something.

Firstly to attribute the sandpaper incident where Smith and Warner decided to cheat with a captain who retired what 4 years ago? Absoloute horseshit.
To then essentially call Clarke a moron because he said he preferred the team to be respected not liked was another line of s**t. I completely agree with Clarke on that. Shaking everyone's hand a clapping them for scoring boundaries won't make us a better team at all its all PR nonsense. Tim Paines legacy seems to be it doesn't matter if you average 15 as long as you do it with a smile.

Then he said the reason the public is disconnected from the side is because of its behaviour, that's moronic.
The public doesn't give a s**t because the side is ******* s**t. Our fast bowlers are always injured. Our 2 best batsmen cheated and the rest are just average numpties who ******* rotate in an out including 2 brothers who wouldn't have played a single game between 90-2008 yet are now invaluable scrubs.
There's no characters or players to idolize since Johnson retired. Who wants to grow up and bat like Peter Handscomb or Shaun Marsh.

No one had a problem with the Australian side when it was successful. We like our teams to be aggressive and competitive. To equate sledging and cheating is ******* stupid. Every country should prioritise winning, in fact every team in every sport or else what are you doing even playing?
Or is the priority keeping up public appearance and making money?

To equate aggressive sledging with cheating is ******* tedious
The AFL blokes sledge and lip off all the time yet the players don't cheat. ( this is not about Essendons medical rogues)

Mmmmm, Whatleys point was to go back to the attitude and culture that ****ed Australian cricket is stupid.

I don't think he has blamed Clarke directly for the ball tampering incident, it was more the culture that he installed in the dressing room had festered for years after and led to this incident. To say we need to go back to the same attitude that caused the Australian cricket teams downfall is ******* stupid.

You don't have to install a ******** attitude in order to win, that mentality is stupid.

Fact is, Clarke would be loving this. He is a self centered knob and there is a reason that channel 7 did not give him a gig. Maybe if he comes out hard hitting in his limited media exposure a network might give him a go, hell I wouldn't be surprised if his pr team have told him to do this.

From refusing to field where he was told early on his career, to demanding to be part of the selection committee when he was a player, to getting Katich booted out of the Australian team for pulling him up from being a w***er, to leaving a tour to break up with his girlfriend, to making sure he got a farewell tour that he though he deserved in the world cup when he shouldn't have played, to being one half of a partnership that suspended 4 players for not doing homework. Clarke is a w***er!

 

[saj_21]

I don’t know, Green was captain for 186, wasn’t he? You might be privy to information about one or both of them that may well suggest that Green is a better leader than I give him credit for, but when you compare their respective results as captains, makes dangerous waters for Green to go fishing in criticising Clarke. Green captained the dees in a defeat that set the club back 5 years. Clarke never had anything like that happen while he was captain of the Australian cricket team.

You cannot attribute 186 to brad geeen and bad leadership. It was the hierarchies fault for that debacle.

Clarke also captained an Australian side that was 9-21 against RSA and was all out for 47.

 

[Demonkings]

You cannot attribute 186 to brad geeen and bad leadership. It was the hierarchies fault for that debacle.

Clarke also captained an Australian side that was 9-21 against RSA and was all out for 47.

Australia also bowled out SAF for 96 in that match. And Clarke made 151 in the first innings. It resulted in an 8 wicket loss. If Green could have played similarly as captain down in Geelong maybe he could have limited the damage to a regulation 100 point hammering, and stopped it blowing out to a 31 goals. Cricket teams bat out poor innings, it happens, even for good sides. 186 stands alone as the biggest smashing of the modern afl era, which is food for thought when considering some of the teams GWS, Gold Coast and Carlton have put out in recent years.

 

[blitznu]

It was no blitznu or Toump Ass rant but I had a go.

calm down campaigner i dont know what an essay is and i hardly rant haha

 

[Topkent]

Mmmmm, Whatleys point was to go back to the attitude and culture that ****** Australian cricket is stupid.

I don't think he has blamed Clarke directly for the ball tampering incident, it was more the culture that he installed in the dressing room had festered for years after and led to this incident. To say we need to go back to the same attitude that caused the Australian cricket teams downfall is ******* stupid.

You don't have to install a ******** attitude in order to win, that mentality is stupid.

Fact is, Clarke would be loving this. He is a self centered knob and there is a reason that channel 7 did not give him a gig. Maybe if he comes out hard hitting in his limited media exposure a network might give him a go, hell I wouldn't be surprised if his pr team have told him to do this.

From refusing to field where he was told early on his career, to demanding to be part of the selection committee when he was a player, to getting Katich booted out of the Australian team for pulling him up from being a w***er, to leaving a tour to break up with his girlfriend, to making sure he got a farewell tour that he though he deserved in the world cup when he shouldn't have played, to being one half of a partnership that suspended 4 players for not doing homework. Clarke is a w***er!

The culture Clarke installed? The * are you on about? We had been playing that way since Allan Border took over the captaincy in the 80s. Only difference was we were good at cricket between then and when Clarke took over. To say that Steve Smith an Dave Warner deciding to cheat has anything to do with Clarke is ******* laughable.
He in a round about way said it was his fault. It was a piss weak cheap shot.

 

[00Stinger]

The culture Clarke installed? The **** are you on about? We had been playing that way since Allan Border took over the captaincy in the 80s. Only difference was we were good at cricket between then and when Clarke took over. To say that Steve Smith an Dave Warner deciding to cheat has anything to do with Clarke is ******* laughable.
He in a round about way said it was his fault. It was a piss weak cheap shot.

No he didn't.

He said reverting back to the culture that caused this incident would be stupid. Pretty logical really

Just for the record when Border took over the captaincy we were not good at cricket, far from it.

 

[Topkent]

calm down campaigner i dont know what an essay is and i hardly rant haha

Essays a Mexican bloke

 

[Topkent]

No he didn't.

He said reverting back to the culture that caused this incident would be stupid. Pretty logical really

Just for the record when Border took over the captaincy we were not good at cricket, far from it.

He said the ball tampering incident can be linked back to Clarke's tenure. That's crap.

I didn't say we were good when Border took over but from the time we won the ashes in England to when Clarke was captain we played aggressive cricket and no one gave a s**t.
May aswell blame Allan Border for Smith and Warner being cheating campaigners