Melbourne Saint

As I said, you expect the 12th man to come on with a pair of gloves or a bottle of water to pass on a message and waste a bit of time. We'd be no different. But when the 12th man was sent on a second time, followed by the physio, surely that's going a bit far? Look, I don't think it made a difference. The way Anderson and Monty were batting they didn't even look like going out. It's hopefully the start of a great series. I'm just surprised you don't think Ponting is entitled to be disappointed with the tactics, especially in light of many people over there agreeing with him. Probably because that was 28 years ago, not three days. But by all means blame Ponting and McGrath for that as well.

Meh. You're just whinging about Ponting's whinging. We most certainly would have tried to waste some time but surely you can admit it went a little bit over the top when the physio came on as well? Nobody is taking away from the effort of your last few batsman. Interesting that people like Nasser Hussein can at least acknowledge as much.

Winning the first test didn't help us last time I suppose. Can't question the performance of our players. It was a dominant performance from what's really an inexperienced team at test level. Full credit to Hauritz but it's just not the same without Warney. Congratulations to England anyway. Looks like it might be another classic series coming up.

Fair enough. I just can't imagine them being let back in the country if they lose again. We could accept the series loss last time because it was such a brilliant series. But not twice. Spot on about Siddle too. He's one of our best young prospects and I'm sure it won't take long for the English crowds to get stuck into him like the South African crowds did. Definitely not in the same category as Hauritz. Anyway good luck guys. Hopefully it's a great series (with a different result).

Nothing to worry about. The cities hosting the 2018 World Cup will be on the other side of the world anyway:- Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, etc.

Big call considering we beat South Africa in South Africa in our last test series.

I wouldn't even have had Brett Lee in our line-up until his performance the other day so while it's a blow I'm very comfortable with Johnson, Siddle and Clark. Hilfenhaus is the swing bowler of the squad and after what your bowlers did to us in 2005 many people expect him to go alright over there. Unfortunately he hasn't started off too good but there's plenty of time for him. However as Steve pointed out it's our spinning stocks that's the real worry. It's quite amazing for a country that produced Shane Warne to suffer from such a chronic lack of depth in spin bowling. The decision to select Hauritz was wrong. In fact, to select such a negative bowler rather than go for an attacking spin bowler like McGain or Krezja goes completely against the way we play our cricket. Our batting line-up goes pretty deep with Haddin coming in at #7 and Mitchell Johnson can almost be classed as a genuine all-rounder after a summer of impressive batting performances, none more so than in our most recent test match against South Africa where he scored a century. It will be a great series. I think we've got a better team and I expect us to win. (Or maybe it's just that I don't want to even contemplate another Ashes loss)

It's a televised game but we weren't shown televised League 1 or 2 games on Fox last season so I wouldn't think this season will be any different. However the fact it is televised means we might be able to find an internet stream or download the game if we can get somebody over there to cap the game. I'll be at Melbourne Victory vs Fulham on Saturday night by the way. Obviously it's quite an exercise bringing out a premier league team because the ticket prices are quite steep. My mate made the point that his Grand Final ticket was cheaper than this game which despite the fact is against a premiership team is still only a pre-season friendly. Still, we'll hopefully get 30,000 - 35,000 and create a great atmosphere.

I couldn't understand why we were persisting with putting together a bid for the 2018 World Cup but once FIFA made the announcement that you could bid for the 2018 and 2022 cups together it made perfect sense. For what it's worth I agree with you. I don't think we'll have a situation where 3 consecutive World Cups are held outside of Europe. And you'd think England would be the strong favourite for 2018 as it is. But for 2022 we've got to be a decent show. It will be 20 years since the World Cup was held in Asia. We've also got the infrastructure and the track record of hosting world class sporting events. I don't think our winter sports will be a problem. The AFL have already said they would work with the FFA rather than try and cause problems. To be honest, with all of the exposure that our country would receive should it host the World Cup I'd imagine the AFL (and NRL to a smaller degree) would be excited by the possibility to sell the/ir game/s to an international audience. And let's face it, as somebody born and bred on Aussie Rules it is also a great game. Most people I met in Europe on my travels last year were fascinated by it.

Which is a friday.

I'll be there to support the best team in Australia.

Just to add to the current options, there's also The Keepers Arms which is a football pub in North Melbourne and even Steakout at Crown which is your stereotypical american style sports bar with numerous TV screens, one of which should have our game. However the big issue is that it's Good Friday. Will anywhere actually be open? As long as there's a place to go I'm still in. The Charles Dickens would be my preference too.

Definitely give it a go Greedyfly. My team is FC Crouchzinho, currently first in Division IV.37 in Oceania. I've been playing since December 2005 and I've progressed from Division VI to IV. Hopefully I can get promoted this season although my defensively trained team will get thrashed in III. It's a hard game to work out at the beginning but once you get a training program in place and start making money from selling your trainees it becomes a lot more rewarding.

As long as I'm not working I'll definitely be in.

Woohoo! What a brilliant night. It wasn't quite the rout that everybody had predicted but it's actually more satisfying beating Adelaide 1-0 than 6-0 because this time they were in the match and had their opportunities to cause the upset. It only hurts them more. Breeze is apparently the best referee in the country which is a load of ****. The decision to send off Cristiano was wrong (and yet satisfying the way he cheated earlier in the season) and it was evened up with Allsopp getting sent off. Replays actually show that nothing happened so Australia's #1 referee and assistant referee simply guessed. The team has given us supporters terrific value over the 4 seasons of the competition and hopefuly we can hang on to the likes of Carlos Hernandez to defend our title and give the Asian Champions League a shake. Muscat is a *****, no doubt about it. But he's our *****. For somebody of his age to play every minute of every match is just a phenomenal effort. He's clearly the best leader in the competition and without his presence I don't think we would have achieved what we did.

He's on 85 not out at lunch now. I didn't realise he had signed with Hampshire. What a good signing that was. You couldn't have predicted him to have made the national team either so it's quite unfortunate. This is the first time we've played 3 debutants in a test match since the mid 80's and we have another in his second test. While I didn't like losing to South Africa it's at least forced the selectors to reassess things and hopefully we'll see the benefits of that in the future (especially in The Ashes ).

But before that, there's the small matter of the A-League Grand Final. Anybody else pumped for it? Everybody might talk the A-League down (including Pim Verbeek) but it's made some great progress over the past 4 seasons and it's only going to get bigger and better as the league continues to expand. We'll be going into tomorrows game as massive favourites and the fact that Aurelio Vidmar has already come out and admitted that they'll parking the bus in front of their goal worries the hell out of me but let's hope it's a win for not only positive football but for the leagues biggest and most supported club. COME ON MELBOURNE! BTW, how fitting that I'm the Saintsweb arcade champion in "Burger Time" and "Keg Stand"

Hey Paul, Until I get around to registering to this site I don't have access to PM's or your email. Thought I'd see how you (and all other fans) were going with the storms that you've had up there. We don't have them in Melbourne you know. Queensland Roar finally won a home game. Wonders will never cease. I actually saw somebody in the crowd with a Saints shirt during the coverage today. At the 53 minute mark if you watch a replay. Victory are on top of the league which I'm with. It's not often Melbourne and Southampton win on the same weekend. What a win last night! I just got back from Europe a few weeks ago. Spent 4 months backpacking around Europe. Had an awesome time. Ended up seeing Saints vs Coventry which was probably the coldest night I've ever experienced. Apparently it snowed in London that day. If you're in Melbourne be sure to look us up. I don't see myself getting to Brisbane in the near future because it will take me 10 years to pay off that trip. And I've got a date in South Africa during June 2010.

Hey mate, I was at the Coventry game on the Tuesday night and then flew home on Thursday. I'd been travelling for 4 months and had completely run out of money. It would have been awesome to have been at the game yesterday or even the game at Preston but at least I've been to a Saints game now. I can't wait to get over there again.

I'm staying at Argyle Lodge in Shirley which cost me £38. Booked it on lastminute.com if that helps.

I'm about to jump on a bus from London to go to my first game. I know this is about as low as this club has been but I'm flying back to Australia on Thursday and I'm really excited. If anybody has any advice on what pubs to go to before/after the game or any other general information (in light of the current situation I know that will be interesting) can you let us know? I'll be on the net later in the afternoon. Thanks

Looks like I've chosen a good time to attend my first game. I'm flying back to Australia on Thursday so this is my only game I can go to but I'm still looking forward to it. It will possibly be a little different to Anfield and Parkhead where I've gone the previous two weeks but I don't care, been waiting to go to my first Saints game for 10 years. If anybody has any advice on pubs and stuff to go before the game let us know.

I would have flown home from Europe if we'd made it. Unfortunately we just weren't good enough. Looks like we might be signing Ben Cousins which would be controversial but I agree with it. The guy is a bit of a moron but he's a bloody good player and might help us take the next step next season. I haven't been too active around here because I've been backpacking around Europe for the last 4 months. I've purposely left the UK until last (flying home on the 30th) so I could go to as many football games as possible. Ended up going to Liverpool vs Wigan at Anfield last week and I'll be at Parkhead for Celtic vs Hibs tomorrow. However the highlight will be Saints vs Coventry on October 28.