2019 CONSTELLATION CUP AUS v NZ TEST 4 (Perth)

I agree it didnt work
Regardless of whether is was Bailey/TP/Maia playing. I don’t agree with all the contacts called in a 5 minute spree.
The only thing I like about LA is she rotates ALL the players. We’ve put ALL of our eggs in one basket, Maria/Meels, and only won by 1 point. The other 3 shooters have had zilch game time so to expect them to jump running is alot. It was bound to go belly up, the umpire just speed it along.

It was a shame that SB and SRicket did not get on court but January is the start of the new cycle.
Souness SHOULD have stayed on.

Will be interesting to watch the Super club to see which players have increased their fitness levels to push for selection

I think her split is a beautiful thing! That’s a “no” from me re the stepping? What is their reasoning? She definitely seems to ground both feet at the same time to me

Having a ‘conversation’ on FB with someone who seriously thinks Gretel Tippett is stepping when doing the split as she catches the ball. What do you think?

I saw one in the third test where I went “whoops, that’s a step” and it was called. Basically landed quite clearly one foot before the other and regrounded the first foot by stepping in and putting it down. If she’d left it on one leg, she would have been fine. I think she was unlucky a couple of times in the fourth test though.

It was interesting that Taurua opted to go the way of a set starting seven alongside impact players. I suppose they wanted to finish the year off strong but I am glad that the Aussies opted to experiment a bit. Even in our losses when certain position changes or lack thereof were questioned at least it gave the coaches a chance to look at different combos and players in those situations. Australia’s 1 goal losses actually reminded me of when they beat NZ by 1 in pool play, Australia played to win and NZ experimented and sure enough came up with a winning formula the next game. My only gripe was that while a lot was said about Australia not having many domestic combinations, they actually could’ve had a strong lineup with a few key combos throughout. E.g. had Klau and Turner in together, Thwaites GS Watson WA and Brazill C, or if Basset were GS have JLP or Scherian in C etc.
The umpiring has been pretty mediocre for all four tests but the last game was so all over the place, there were times when it felt like Maria or Laura held on for five seconds and weren’t called and then it’s like the umpire realised and counted to two the next time they got the ball. Some really soft penalties were given to both teams and then some players could get away with murder at other times.