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00:00Hello and welcome to a special edition of Offsiders, live from the banks of the Swan River for the first Ashes Test at Perth Stadium.
00:29And what a truly bonkers two days of cricket we've witnessed.
00:34The match was seemingly played in fast forward with wild momentum swings and a deck that was a minefield for the batsmen.
00:40That's until Travis Head stepped up and opened for Australia no less and took on Baz Ball with Trav Ball.
00:49The uppercut, clever, six runs.
00:52That was hard and easy. Oh, now Dockett backing around. It's going all the way.
01:02Oh, Travis Head is making some favourite Ashes memories right now.
01:06And he goes onside.
01:12Well, he is taking the England attack. An England captain apart right now.
01:19Tried to go fuller. Drilled back down the ground. Four more.
01:23Heaved. It's got plenty on it as well. And it's gone for six.
01:35Played away. Out to the boundary. And this will take him to 99.
01:40And it is a stunning century. An Ashes spectacular from Travis Head.
01:50The helmet's off. The bat and the helmet is raised to this magnificent crowd
01:56because they have witnessed one of the all-time great performances in Test cricket history.
02:02A truly unbelievable way to kick off the Ashes. It's a pleasure to have your company.
02:13It's also a pleasure to have the company of Brats and Duration, Alison Mitchell and Corbyn Middlemass team.
02:17We're weathering the elements here. It potentially wouldn't have been a great day for cricket.
02:21But we were expecting 50,000 fans to be streaming through to witness day three.
02:26And instead, Corbyn, we're talking about such an improbable win for Australia.
02:29Incredible. Natman, Travis Head in particular.
02:31So a match-altering 100. Perhaps a series-altering 100.
02:35How important it was for England to obviously get off to a positive start in this series.
02:39But, Abs, you and I grew up in these parts. Going to cricket in Perth.
02:42And went just across that bridge that you were just on at the WACA ground.
02:46And whenever you'd go and watch a Test match or a Shield game or whatever kind of contest it was,
02:50old-timers would tell you these stories about Doug Walters at the WACA ground and 100 in a session.
02:55And it became part of cricket folklore here in Australia.
02:57And Travis Head etched his name into that again yesterday.
03:01So this is a serious player, a special player that's capable of this World Test Championship Final 100,
03:07World Cup 100, with his back against the wall.
03:10And then he does it again yesterday.
03:11And from such an improbable position to get Australia off to a dream start in the series.
03:15Well, the only faster Ashes 100 was Adam Gilchrist at the WACA.
03:18So that's that beautiful thing, as you say.
03:20You grow up in these innings that are etched into history.
03:22And, Ali, that's what we saw yesterday.
03:24It's innings that people will be talking about for years.
03:26But for the English fans, not in a good way.
03:28But this was Australia's Headingley 2019 moment.
03:31All England fans woke up on Saturday morning now understanding how the Aussies felt when Ben Stokes took them apart and ripped that match away from them.
03:39That Ben Stokes innings had more jeopardy.
03:42There was more drama.
03:42It was down to the last wicket.
03:44But this was Travis Head just taking it away and obliterating the England attack.
03:51And, you know, the fourth innings, it was the highest total that was required across all four innings, which is what made you think, you know, England are in with a chance.
03:59But for England fans back home, I think they were living through a sort of four-hour fever dream.
04:03You know, from early hours through until that match was won, they would have been waking up not quite understanding quite what had happened.
04:09But, yeah, all credit to Travis said that as an innings that's gone down in Ashes folklore now.
04:12Because we're at lunch, England won for 99, thinking we've probably got this in control for the large part.
04:17And then it just turned.
04:18It turned like that.
04:20And, A, England contributed to it to start with.
04:23And if anything, they would have watched Travis Head's innings.
04:26This is not our England thing, but I'm saying they should.
04:29Oh, wait, hang on.
04:30That's what we think we back like.
04:32We don't.
04:32You don't.
04:33You don't, England, because that is what you call basketball or whatever you want to call.
04:37And, you know, if anything, it was Travis Head who set the trend four years ago.
04:41And just to put that innings into context, I was there when Steve Smith and Travis Head walked into the press conference room.
04:48I looked at Steve.
04:48He just looked at me and said, wowza.
04:51And he didn't have to say anything else.
04:53And then I looked at Trav and said, you freak.
04:55And he just went, not bad, eh?
04:56But that's just the magic of Travis Head.
04:59He just is the most destructive batter in world cricket right now.
05:03And like you said, just 24 hours before he walked out to bat to open for the first time in Australia, the English bowlers had bullied the Australian batters.
05:12They'd roughed them up.
05:14And then Travis Head, it was like watching a Bollywood movie.
05:16He was just, you know, those scenes where there's one hero and there are eight people jumping on him, all these big guys, and he's just bashing all of them up.
05:23And that's what he did.
05:24And he might have well hit them out of the series.
05:26He seemed to have had the ball on a string.
05:28He knew exactly where it was going.
05:29And at some different stages during the match, he actually had to rely on a little bit of luck.
05:33And this is one of those examples.
05:36Oh, no, get over.
05:38You heard it.
05:39He commentated it.
05:41Oh, no, get over.
05:42And it did.
05:44He's got a remote control on that ball, Travis Head.
05:46He's got a remote control on it all day.
05:50I mean, you know you're good when you're actually one of the best commentators on the day as well.
05:54He's like, oh, no, get over.
05:55But it is just one of those things that you love about Travis Head.
05:58It's the character as well.
05:59And he brought so much character to it.
06:01And at that stage of his inning, he was absolutely in rhythm, wasn't he?
06:04He was feeling it.
06:04And he's calling his own shots quite literally in what he was able to do there.
06:08But I think the part that I hope doesn't get forgotten in retrospect and speaks to what Barat
06:12saying about the whole basball mindset, it's not sort of just reckless abandon, sort of
06:16going out there and swinging.
06:17He played like a proper opener at the start.
06:19And he was able to get himself in, respect the good bowling.
06:23And then when it came time to play his shots and when England's pressure sort of died down,
06:29he cashed in.
06:30And I think that's fascinating for what it means for Australia going forward.
06:33That was all too quick, though, wasn't it?
06:34That the pressure died down.
06:35And he played as an opener to start with.
06:37But England so quickly went to the short ball.
06:39I wonder whether they had even considered that Travis Head might walk out to open.
06:43And when he did appear, they just suddenly went, oh, it's Travis Head.
06:45We bowl short to him.
06:46And they went to that so quickly.
06:48And that's when he just flicked his switch.
06:49And he went into trap ball mode.
06:51And he trap balled the basball out of England.
06:53You almost saw it click for him where they went through every plan that he knew was coming.
06:59So he had a plan for everything that was thrown at him.
07:01He did.
07:01And I think after a point, they were clueless.
07:04They were so rattled.
07:05Ben Stokes said they were shell-shocked by the end of it.
07:08And I thought they were shell-shocked after, you know, that first 50-run partnership.
07:13Because I think England went to bed the previous night, Ali.
07:16You said, not just the fans, but this English team, knowing how they are, the way they carried themselves,
07:21they went, like, we've got this Australian batting line-up where we want them.
07:26We, like I said, bullied them.
07:28We've hit them everywhere on the body.
07:30And all we need to do is show up tomorrow and run through them.
07:33Which is why Australia said, or Travis Head said, wait, no, hang on.
07:36Let's not send Manas out there.
07:37I want to go out there.
07:38And I think I can take them on.
07:40And just to your point as well, you know, I think basketball,
07:43just the way the English batters got out yesterday,
07:46just hitting outside off-stump, driving at balls on the up, that's just ego.
07:50I mean, if the difference between what Travis Head did and what the English batters are doing
07:55is Travis Head is saying, wait, I'll keep my ego in check,
07:59I'll give the ball its respect, I'll defend balls,
08:02and then I'll just start crushing egos of the bowlers.
08:04Whereas what England are doing is they just keep making the same mistakes
08:08over and over again and say, that's how we do it.
08:11That's how you should be doing it as well.
08:14And it was breaking hearts of English fans.
08:16And you mentioned that Ben Stokes broke the hearts of Australian fans.
08:19He was the one post-match that had to address that tonne and what he thought of it.
08:24A little bit of shell-shocked there.
08:25I think that innings from Travis Head was pretty phenomenal.
08:29Just, yeah, as you say, it's quite raw, quite fresh at the moment.
08:34But, jeez, that was some knock.
08:39And it does beg the question,
08:40it was the most incredible opening performance by Travis Head.
08:43Is he now the opener?
08:45I mean, I think we forget because there were so many questions
08:46about the bowling attack with Hazelwood and also Cummins missing this test.
08:51It all of a sudden became about the bowlers.
08:53But really, the question that Australia had leading into this is,
08:56who's going to open?
08:57Is Travis Head the answer?
08:59And this has been a question that the Selectors really haven't been able to answer.
09:02And as good as the Australian cricket team has been,
09:04and they've been the best team in the world over the past three or four years,
09:07and the Selectors have got a lot right,
09:09they've had a blind spot for finding the replacement at the top of the order.
09:12And this goes back to even the back end of Warner's career,
09:14where it felt like he'd probably stayed past his expiration date.
09:17And so then they ignored options like Harris and Bancroft.
09:20And then you can run through them all.
09:21Smith went to the top.
09:22McSweeney came in.
09:23Constance the first time.
09:24Head in the subcontinent.
09:26And then it was Manus Lapache in the World Chess Championship final.
09:29Back to Constance.
09:29And now it's Jake Weatherord who gets the opportunity.
09:32And all the while, Usman Khawaja's form's waning as he gets closer to his 39th birthday.
09:37And maybe the answer the whole time has been hiding in plain sight.
09:40This is a guy who had only previously opened in the subcontinent.
09:42But particularly on fast, hard, bouncy pitches and in the subcontinent,
09:47it feels like it's perfectly curated towards his game.
09:49And he sort of gave a little bit of an insight that he'd been having these conversations with Andrew McDonald for a while.
09:54And that he certainly was one name that was in the mix.
09:57And I get the feeling, just sort of reading between the lines,
09:59he didn't explicitly come out and say this.
10:01But I get the feeling this is something Travis Head would want to do.
10:03That he would really embrace the challenge.
10:05And to see the way that he played yesterday,
10:07I think it's fair to say the early data is looking good.
10:09It's going to be really hard to ignore, to basically say, for Brisbane in 12 days' time,
10:16hey, let's go back to the guy that's struggling against the really fast bowling
10:19and ignore the guy that just peeled off one of the best hundreds we're ever likely to see.
10:23I think it is nice that Jake Weatherall has a pre-existing relationship as well.
10:26They've played a lot of cricket together and I think that really has to help.
10:29And he seemed to be more settled at the cretis out there.
10:32It's like he wanted to look after Weatherall, didn't he?
10:34He said, I'm not letting him face the first ball, that's not happening.
10:37Yeah, and let's face it, his circumstances for his maiden test innings
10:40were far from ideal with the last-minute chaos that was caused.
10:44And gosh, you know, he's facing Joffre Archer at his, you know, rawest.
10:49And that was another big issue for England, the way that the pace fell off,
10:52you know, in the second innings.
10:54Archer and Wood were not that express pace.
10:56And that's a worry for England as well.
10:58There are a lot of very unhappy England fans today.
11:01And not least, as I was saying, about the way, you know,
11:03England batted and the way those wickets fell.
11:05But, yeah, from where we began day two,
11:08where all the questions were around Australia
11:10and the criticism around playing golf and injuries
11:13and Nathan Lyons niggle, you know, it's just completely turned.
11:16And all the scrutiny, from the England perspective,
11:19certainly the Aussies are celebrating, and rightly so,
11:21all the scrutiny is back on England in a big way.
11:24Lots of people very unhappy with what they perceive as...
11:27You know, fans talking to me last night about,
11:29sort of, England is needing to have some humiliation here.
11:32You know, admit and acknowledge where you're going wrong
11:34and say that you want to make it right.
11:37And there's a big gap now before the pink ball test in Brisbane,
11:39where England are still maintaining, at least Stokes was,
11:42that they are not likely to play any pink ball match in preparation.
11:45His quote was,
11:46our prep is correct and it works for us.
11:49The fans last night were saying,
11:50well, no, it hasn't worked.
11:51Was it working right up until lunch on day two, though?
11:54Like, in the balance of the match,
11:55was it working in some ways?
11:58Difficult to...
11:59I don't know.
11:59It would have been judged completely differently
12:02if it had run part and decided their advantage from lunch on day two.
12:06But the fact was, they didn't.
12:07I think they left runs out there in the first innings as well.
12:09I mean, they'll be bowled out in 33 overs.
12:12And that's the thing, right?
12:13You keep getting bowled out in 33, 38 overs.
12:15A, you're not letting your bowlers...
12:17Or the rest.
12:18...giving them time to recover.
12:19And clearly we saw it during the India series as well, Ali.
12:22You were there earlier this year,
12:23where Wood and Archer, or Wood didn't play that series,
12:26Archer's speeds and intensity do drop.
12:28He needs some time in between.
12:30But the batters just keep letting them down.
12:31So I think the batting approach...
12:34Look, I think Australia didn't bat well in the first innings.
12:37Yes.
12:38And they made England's first innings look much better than it was.
12:41And England bowled spectacularly well.
12:44So I think in both innings, the batters have let them down.
12:46But, look, I know nothing about parenting.
12:49But Ben Stokes and his English team,
12:51I have never heard more protective parents
12:53or anyone sound more protective of their batting lineup than this.
12:57And they spoke very glowingly about Travis Head.
13:01But the moment you ask them about their batting,
13:03they're like, no, no, don't go there.
13:04My child's the best.
13:05Like, whatever he or she is doing is the best.
13:07So it's just weird.
13:08So I don't know where they go from here.
13:10They're refusing to...
13:11Or most of them are saying,
13:12we won't play in that pink ball game,
13:13or none of them are going on.
13:14And we're seeing here some of the drives that England made.
13:16It just seemed silly by the end.
13:18They kept playing the same shot and expecting a different outcome.
13:20And part of the game is to really break the will of your opponent.
13:23I mean, that is what Test cricket's all about.
13:25And to be in that kind of a commanding position at lunch,
13:27they had the chance by Stumps to take the game away from Australia
13:30and make sure that there was no passage for victory for the home team.
13:33Instead, they'd lost the test by, you know, dinnertime that evening.
13:36So it's a fascinating study in sports psychology, isn't it?
13:40This whole basketball concept.
13:41And what they've done, I think, by removing the fear of failure
13:45is actually taking out, you know, sports key essence,
13:48which we talk about, you know, the ecstasy of victory
13:50and the agony of defeat.
13:51And so if losing isn't the worst possible thing
13:55and you don't feel the pain of that,
13:56and as a result you take away the failure,
13:59well, that's one thing.
13:59But also then that you take away the joy of victory
14:02and the pursuit of victory
14:04and why that's your North Star
14:05and you have to constantly go after it.
14:07And so when you hear...
14:08I'm so affiliated with Test cricket over the years.
14:10That's what it was all about, the value.
14:12And then you hear the way Stokes speaks
14:13and it sort of feels a little bit like,
14:15well, it's no big deal.
14:17And that's, I think, what frustrates English fans,
14:19that it's sort of the winning and losing of it all
14:20doesn't matter as much.
14:22And so for all the sort of moral victories
14:24and these lines that we hear in the past,
14:26and I don't know,
14:27I feel if I was an English cricket fan,
14:30I'd want to hear my captain
14:31sort of really hurting in that moment
14:32and it feels like a lot of...
14:33Or is he really hurting
14:35and he's just trying to defend his players publicly?
14:37Sometimes we do see these leaders
14:38sort of say the company or party line,
14:41but behind closed doors
14:42there's different conversations happening.
14:43He did say yesterday,
14:45we need to feel this.
14:46Yeah.
14:47Will they feel it enough
14:48to decide to really, you know,
14:51say, yes, we'll go back and we'll train,
14:52I'll put all my efforts into turning this around.
14:54And I know history is completely against them to start with
14:57and this is a team who, you know,
14:58has rewritten history, we know that,
14:59but you have to go back to the 1950s
15:00before an England team last went 1-0 down in an ashes
15:03and then came back to win the series.
15:05But yeah, they need it to hurt,
15:07but they need more so to go away.
15:10I think they...
15:11Brendan McCullum will say,
15:12we don't do things for optics' sake.
15:14Yes.
15:14Like, fans need to see their team go away
15:17and play some hard cricket.
15:18They are professional cricketers.
15:20They are paid to play the game
15:21and they want to see them make use of this long gap now
15:24between now and Brisbane
15:25to get used to a pink ball.
15:26There's players there who've never played with a pink ball
15:28in a test match before in their lives.
15:30Well, if you're talking about things that need to be done,
15:31we need to talk about Mitch Stark
15:32because we happen to have...
15:34Halfway through the show
15:35and we haven't mentioned the player of the match.
15:37I mean, he was the one that really came out
15:38because so much of the talk leading into this
15:40was who was missing out of our fastballing cartel
15:43and he just went, yeah, hang on,
15:45I'll take 7th, don't worry,
15:46career best figures.
15:47It was just amazing to watch.
15:49And you rightfully point out, Abby,
15:51it was in particular the fact that his two running mates,
15:54they're a Hall of Fame trio,
15:55that's absolutely certain.
15:57And so for Mitchell Stark
15:58in the absence of Cummins and Hazelwood
15:59to produce career best figures,
16:02it feels like he's underappreciated even now, doesn't it?
16:05Maybe that's because of his running mates,
16:06but, jeez, what form he's in?
16:09The athleticism for that catch as well.
16:11That caught and bowled,
16:12it really sparked things, didn't it?
16:13It stunned England, I think.
16:16Brought the match to life.
16:20But, yeah, England did keep making the same mistakes twice,
16:23but because they were also invited to,
16:24you've got to put the ball in the right place
16:25to invite the air,
16:26and England falling into that trap.
16:28The pitch had really very little on offer for him.
16:31The ball didn't swing.
16:32I mean, this is the least degree of swing
16:34we've seen in a Perth test match
16:36on that first day two days ago.
16:38It's hard to say that it's just two days.
16:40The fact that he was able to use the wobble seam
16:44and the fact that he set up Root and Stokes
16:46the way he did on that first morning.
16:48I bumped into him two, three days before the start of the test.
16:51Near the nets, he'd just finished the net,
16:53and I said,
16:53only man standing.
16:54He's like, yeah,
16:56I guess I have to put my hand up.
16:57Pat's not there,
16:58Josh's not there.
16:59Boy, did he put his hand up.
17:01And he just set the game up,
17:03maybe set the series up.
17:04I mean, four years ago,
17:06I think he finished the Ashes off with one ball
17:07when he had Rory Burns bowled behind his legs.
17:10This time, he might have won the Ashes for Australia
17:12with this Superman effort.
17:15And he's coming off...
17:16I can't think of too many fast bowlers
17:18or bowlers in the history of the game
17:20who, in their 100, 10, 101st test,
17:23have recorded their best bowling figures twice.
17:25So 6-9 in Jamaica,
17:27and now the 7 for that he took.
17:30And once again,
17:31to back it up yesterday as well,
17:33and allow the likes of Doggett and Boland,
17:35who had a tough first innings,
17:37to get into their own as well.
17:39I mean, you speak about him being underappreciated.
17:42He's just one wicket away from going past Wasi Makram
17:45as being the most successful left-arm fast bowler
17:47who have ever played test cricket.
17:49I mean, if you have not appreciated Mitchell Stark yet,
17:52I don't know what you're doing,
17:54but I think he is probably...
17:55He should go down already in history
17:57as one of the greatest athletes
17:58who have ever represented Australia in any sport.
18:01To be doing what he's doing at 36 is just extraordinary.
18:04I take it that you think
18:05that he was the rightful man of the match then?
18:07Of course, left-arm fast bowler.
18:09Travis Head got a few votes in our commentary box,
18:11I have to say, as well.
18:12But, you know, bowlers often get overlooked
18:14for the player of the match awards, don't they?
18:15But, you know, Travis Head won it.
18:17Stark set it up.
18:19We had a heated debate in our box,
18:21and I must admit, I was the other way.
18:22I thought Travis Head,
18:23I thought sometimes we can overthink these things,
18:25and you look back,
18:25and you look at the figures across the match,
18:27and yet, when Travis Head walked out to bat,
18:29there'd been 31 wickets in the test match fall,
18:31and only two guys had made over 40,
18:33let alone a half-century,
18:34and he peels off a 69-ball 100.
18:36But I think one thing's for sure,
18:38I don't think anyone's going to be too bent out of shape about it.
18:40We're going to remember, obviously,
18:41what Travis was able to do.
18:43His place in the history of the game
18:45is going to be secured,
18:45and Mitchell Starks are a pretty worthy winner, too.
18:49And also good to see Manus Lambashane around the runs as well.
18:51He's been in such good form in shield cricket, as we know,
18:54but it is different to draw on the big stage,
18:55and I felt like he understood what role he needed to play.
18:57Yeah, it was an important innings for him, I think, yesterday,
18:59and he said to you, Corbin, after the match, didn't he,
19:01that he realised he had to be dropped,
19:03it was the right thing for him,
19:04he's gone away, he's worked hard, he's come back,
19:07and he just slotted in beautifully, didn't he,
19:09alongside Travis,
19:10and, yeah, bringing up his 50,
19:12pumped for him to be out there, you know,
19:14at the end, when the winning runs were hit.
19:17So, yeah, Lambashane is back.
19:18I'm very openly biased towards Manus.
19:20I had a very emotional moment with him yesterday,
19:23just as the match got over,
19:25and I reminded him of this message he sent me in August.
19:29Look, he had the tough run,
19:30he wasn't in a good place when he was dropped in the Caribbean,
19:34but then, a day after he was dropped,
19:37I remember bumping into him in Barbados,
19:38and him going, you know what, I'm relieved.
19:4114 test matches, everybody said he should be dropped,
19:43he should be dropped, but they dropped me.
19:44And then I got that message in August,
19:46after he'd come back to Brisbane,
19:47and he started practicing,
19:49he just sent me three clips of him batting,
19:50and said, brother, I'm back!
19:52And boy, is he back or what?
19:54I mean, five centuries in those eight games across formats.
19:57He got a tough one the other day from Joffre Archer,
20:01but the way he was swatting balls after the point,
20:03it did also feel like Australia were making a statement.
20:06I mean, they would have also heard about all this talk,
20:09about what the English bowlers had done to them,
20:11and the way they finished the game off,
20:14it did feel like them sending a message to England as well,
20:18saying we are still the bosses of Ash's cricket in Australia.
20:21Well, Maris was very much in the conversation
20:23as a potential opener for this test,
20:24and that we might have seen him throughout the series.
20:26The one that wasn't in question was Usman Khawaja,
20:28but we didn't see him open once.
20:30He did say yesterday,
20:31they were the best back spasms he's ever had,
20:33being able to watch Travis Head go out and do what he did,
20:36but where do you think he's in position for the rest of the series?
20:40It's a great question.
20:41It's a difficult one from here
20:43because I think everybody from a personal point of view
20:45would love Usman to have the fairytale finish.
20:48There's an old expression that there's no fairytales in sport,
20:50and if you look at the Australian team and you think,
20:52well, why would we move Travis Head from the opening position?
20:55Is there another spot for Usman?
20:57And would the Australian cricket team be better off
20:59with, say, someone like a Bo Webster in the middle order
21:01or a Josh Inglis or whoever it may be,
21:03and does that make the Australian cricket team stronger?
21:05I think if you put your finger in the wind,
21:08I think a lot of people would probably think that that is the case.
21:11The other thing that's part of this story
21:12is the fact that they played golf in the lead-up,
21:15and obviously that was reported that he won at Lake Carronup,
21:17and a lot of people are saying,
21:18well, yeah, Mitchell Stark played as well,
21:20and he had great success.
21:21This is a classic one of those things
21:23where it absolutely is told in hindsight,
21:25and I know it feels a little bit like it's unfair on players
21:30to say, hey, some guys can play, some guys can't play,
21:33and it's totally determined by the outcome.
21:35But that's what it is.
21:36I feel very much that you do whatever you need to do to prepare.
21:40In Mitchell Stark's case, good luck to him.
21:42If he wants to go and play golf, that's fine.
21:44Usman Khawaja's main goal coming to Perth, or main task,
21:48is that he needed to be ready to go to open the batting,
21:50and ultimately he wasn't.
21:52And he's nearly 39 years of age, and he had back spasms,
21:55and ultimately it's a bad look that he's out on the golf course
21:59where it requires a lot of torque on your back to play the sport,
22:02and then he has back spasms through the first two days.
22:05And so whether he knew that in the lead-up,
22:07whether that feels like a little bit harsh in retrospect,
22:09I don't think it bodes well for him
22:12while he's really fighting to keep his place in the team.
22:15So it's just as much about managing optics
22:17as it is about your actual preparation at this point?
22:20It's as much the preparation too.
22:21I mean, it's hard to look at it and say that that's the ideal preparation
22:24when it ultimately pans out the way that it did.
22:26Did Travis play as well?
22:28I know he trained for the four days.
22:30Which he said was a mark of what it is.
22:32Yeah, he usually doesn't.
22:33Yeah, I mean, he also can come from that standing start,
22:36as he said, like five months off before the World Test Championship final,
22:38and he breezed in, and he was well aware
22:40that he hadn't got the runs he wanted to leading into this series.
22:43But he went and trained every day for those four days.
22:46Not to say that others didn't as well, but that worked for him.
22:50I mean, in Usman's defence, he did bat for a long time
22:53in the three days leading into, you know, the eve of the Test match.
22:57And a lot of batters, David Warner was another one,
23:00and so many around the world who don't like to bat the day before a Test.
23:03And it's something that he's done many times in the past,
23:06where a lot of them do go and play golf.
23:08I don't know nothing about golf,
23:10but they seem to talk about tee times a lot.
23:12And so, but again, but it eventually comes down to the outcome.
23:15But to your original question,
23:17I don't know how Australia go back from this.
23:19The fact that Travis said and Jake,
23:21whether all have worked the way they have.
23:23And in a weird way, it's just, it felt like watching this Bachelor show.
23:27For 18 months, they were looking for a partner for Usman Khawaja,
23:31because he was the Bachelor.
23:33And then they finally found a partner,
23:34and the Bachelor had to be changed.
23:36And it was in the first inning, Manus.
23:38But now they've found the one, like you said,
23:40was hiding in plain sight, Travis said.
23:43So the fact that it worked,
23:44and the fact that they thought they needed something different
23:46to what they tried in the first innings,
23:49tells me that against this attack,
23:51Travis Head might be here to stay.
23:53And if throws England's plans out as well, doesn't it?
23:57Yes.
23:57As we saw, they didn't know,
23:59they didn't adapt quickly enough to how to bolt him.
24:01They moved too quickly to the short ball.
24:02They wasted the brand-new ball by starting to bang it in short.
24:06They're going to have to adapt and change
24:08if they're going to see Travis Head walk out as an opener
24:10against the new ball for the rest of the series.
24:12Well, if we're going to talk about throwing plans out the window,
24:14there are 55,000 people that had tickets to be here today
24:17to watch cricket.
24:18And I think fans want to know,
24:19are we going to keep seeing these two-day rapid-fire tests?
24:23Is there even a chance that we can see something this quick again?
24:25I think Cricket Australia would be pretty nervous.
24:26They had an $11.3 million loss last year,
24:29and they would miss out on a whole lot of money today.
24:31They have to refund tickets for day three and day four.
24:34And I spoke to some people at Cricket Australia yesterday,
24:36and they were a bit antsy about the test not getting to day four.
24:40They didn't even get to day three.
24:41So they miss out on a huge ticket, obviously,
24:45that was up for grabs here today
24:47and money that really they were banking on.
24:49And again, feel for the England fans
24:51who have travelled and saved, many of them, eight years.
24:55Because of COVID, they weren't able to come four years ago.
24:57And, you know, I think I woke up feeling a little bit deflated today.
25:02Not necessarily because of England's loss.
25:04You know, we've all lived through...
25:05It could have been more entertaining,
25:06but it just didn't feel like...
25:08You feel a bit short-changed of Ashes test match action.
25:10It's a Sunday.
25:11Yes, people want to watch on their telly, come to the stadium.
25:14But, yeah, those England fans who have travelled over here,
25:16and, yeah, it's a two-day defeat.
25:17And it means we have so long to wait till Brisbane, doesn't it?
25:20Yep.
25:21And there was already a break anyway, so it's...
25:23Yeah, it's a long break anyway.
25:25I spoke to some of the former players in the press box and said,
25:28I think we should start calling the artist formally known as test cricket.
25:31And you know how we always just start conversations with...
25:34When you're explaining test cricket,
25:35test cricket is a game played over five days.
25:36No, no.
25:37It's played over three days.
25:38At times it goes to four,
25:40but at times it finishes in two days.
25:41Because I don't think we're going to...
25:43I will be surprised if we see too many day fives in this series.
25:45Yeah, I think the same.
25:46The argument about four-day test matches always crops up, doesn't it,
25:49when you have matches that go as quickly as this.
25:52In two days does feel unusual.
25:55Yeah.
25:55It is very, thankfully so.
25:57So let's hope that as this series goes on,
26:00we will see some greater batting depth.
26:03And, you know, England have a lot of work to do on that front, certainly.
26:06And we'll see matches stretch into day three
26:08and hopefully some day fours.
26:09And just some really, you know, as a dramatic contest.
26:12Yeah.
26:12We'll be in part two past.
26:13As Travis Head said,
26:14if these are the first two days of the series,
26:16the rest is going to be off its head.
26:17And I don't know if I intended the pun,
26:19but we're just excited to watch the rest of what the Ashes does dish up for us.
26:22And we are going to move on now to the AFLW
26:24because the grand final stage has been set.
26:27And surprising absolutely no-one,
26:29North Melbourne are going to be there
26:30after breaking the demons' hearts.
26:32Now, Corbyn, Melbourne were leading in the final term
26:35against this all-conquering Kangaroo side,
26:37but they managed to get it done.
26:39You can see the score on the bottom of the screen there.
26:40So the first three goals of the game for Melbourne,
26:43led at quarter-time, led at half-time,
26:44and as you said, moments in the final quarter as well.
26:46And how often do we see this in sport,
26:49in dominant teams,
26:49that there is a little bit of a speed bump
26:52somewhere in the final series?
26:53And more often than not,
26:54it happens in the preliminary final,
26:56as we dub it, obviously, in AFL circles,
26:58that the game before the grand final,
27:00so the anxiety and everything that's attached to that.
27:02And for the Kangaroos to work their way through it,
27:05extend this winning streak,
27:06I think it's 26 consecutive games now.
27:08They had the perfect season last year,
27:10and now they get the chance
27:12to have the perfect premiership defence.
27:13And you may as well write it in the fixture
27:15when it comes out at the start of the year.
27:17We don't draw up the final series,
27:18but for three straight years,
27:20we're going to have the Kangaroos
27:20and the Brisbane Lions
27:21to decide it all on grand final day.
27:24You mentioned the Brisbane Lions.
27:25I just think it's remarkable
27:26that we have a chance,
27:27that we have the Lions men,
27:29potentially the Lions women,
27:31the Broncos men,
27:32and the Broncos women
27:33take out our now prominent domestic leagues.
27:36It's unbelievable,
27:37but they, I mean, Carlton,
27:39we've seen them dancing their way through the finals.
27:41They just couldn't sidestep this one.
27:42Yeah, the road ended here,
27:44so they ran into a fired-up Brisbane Lions outfit.
27:47It's insane now.
27:48I think 10 additions to the AFLW,
27:49they've played in seven grand finals.
27:51So they're a phenomenal unit,
27:53and Dakota Davidson in particular,
27:55so she was able to stand up again
27:57for the Brisbane Lions
27:58in what was an impressive victory,
28:01and in the end,
28:01they were far too good for the Blues
28:04and deserving of their place in the grand final.
28:06So they're one apiece.
28:08It's the ultimate rubber match, isn't it,
28:09to decide it all in the third consecutive grand final.
28:12The Lions winning the first grand final,
28:13the Kangaroos last year,
28:15and now for all the marbles again next Saturday.
28:17It's going to be such an amazing decider,
28:19but we are moving on to observations,
28:21and of course I'm going to ask you
28:22what your predictions are for the series.
28:23Corbyn, I'll start with you quickly.
28:25I was 3-1 at the start.
28:26I'm happy to take out the one.
28:27I can't see England winning one from here,
28:30so maybe 4-0,
28:31and I have my fears around Brisbane.
28:33It's a pretty wild day in Perth today.
28:35It is storm season,
28:36and I used to live in south-east Queensland,
28:39and you could almost set your watch
28:40to when the storms would roll in at about 5pm,
28:42and that'll be right in the middle of the day.
28:44So fingers crossed,
28:46but not overly optimistic.
28:47Ali?
28:48Well, I started the series with 2-2,
28:50but now Australia have already got one of those.
28:51I think they're going to win more than two in the series.
28:53Will England win one?
28:54I'm going to give them one.
28:55Let's go 4-1.
28:56Give them one.
28:57Go on, you have to.
28:58I'm going 5-0.
28:59What I saw of England yesterday
29:03and the way they reacted to it,
29:04I'm doing a Glenn McGrath.
29:06I'm sorry.
29:06I really was expecting more from this English team.
29:09Hopefully they deliver,
29:10but I can't see that happening.
29:12And Australia are only going to get stronger
29:13with Cummins coming back in
29:14and maybe even Hazelwood later.
29:16And now they have a new star
29:17to open the batting in Travis Head,
29:19so that's it.
29:19Which is just wonderful.
29:20Team, thank you so much for giving us your morning
29:22of what may turn into be a day off
29:24for some of you commentators, potentially.
29:26We'll see what happens.
29:27But again, thank you so much for joining us,
29:29and thank you for joining us at home.
29:30And we'll leave you with some more pictures
29:32from that stunning innings from Travis Head
29:34that's been etched into Ash's folklore.
29:36And it is a stunning century.
29:45And Ash is a spectacular from Travis Head.
29:49It's its quickest, 69 balls.
29:54It's dismantled the English attack.
29:56And with it, the English hopes of a test win in term.
30:00It's Mongolia Marche.
30:01I've got an early arrival.
30:02We'll see you next time.
30:04So we'll see you next week.
30:05It's going to happen to LAUGHTER
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