Cam Green's controversial interview & Sheffield Shield final PREVIEW | Domesticated Podcast

0:00The regular season is done, and the Sheffield Shield final is set. Welcome to Domesticated. I'm Justin Edwards, Foxcricket rider, Nick Savage is alongside me, Nick. We've got the final. We probably thought we were going to get. It'll be the best team of the season in Victoria, against the reigning champion, South Australia. Yeah, Victoria, we're dominant. They secured that home final several weeks ago, many rounds ago, actually. And yeah, South Australia, very similar squad to last year, and yeah, they've just held it together. Wouldn't have far from a perfect season for them when they got about the four wins in the end, but they scraped through courtesy of bonus points in this last round. I think they found out halfway through day two they'd got it done. So yeah, an exciting final. We got that preview in round 10 down at Junction Oval. Yeah, it's an interesting sort of dynamic that you have the same two teams playing each other in the last round, and we'll play each other again in the final. We'll touch more on the Shield final later on. The biggest story of the Shield round for me was Cameron Green. We'll start with what he did on the field first. 135 and a return to form after what was a really, really lean summer.

1:01Really important. He hadn't gotten 100 in any format since about May last year. It had been a really worrying summer. Obviously, he hadn't got a 15 in the ashes, went to the T20 World Cup and struggled quite a bit there. And so this will do his confidence a lot of good. He's about to head to India for the IPL. He might be on a plane today. In fact, he's a $4 million player there, and this 100 will just give him a little bit of a boost heading into the winter, because Australia needs him performing. They need him performing. He could take that number five or six spot next summer, in a massive summer for Australia. And this will just hopefully give him that little boost that's needed. It feels again like we've seen this a lot. A lot of the talk over summer was, oh, he needs to go back to Shield Cricket. Go back to Shield Cricket. Well, guess what he does every time he goes back to Shield Cricket? He does this. He averages well over 50 in Sheffield Shield Cricket. And he gets another 100. He didn't play very much Shield Cricket at all. It doesn't play very much first class cricket, because he's always playing with Australia. I mean, he's not playing with that even in Red Bull Cricket. He's playing White Bull Cricket for Australia or IPL. But this is just what he does when he goes back to this level.

2:03The challenge for him now is to, it's not that he hasn't done this at Test Level. He's got 100 in India. He's got 100 against that 42-400 against South Africa and White Bull Cricket. He just needs to do it more consistently at the international level. We has really underperformed at Test Level. He hasn't got to test 100 in Australia yet. And considering he made his debut six years ago now, he's no longer just the young Spring Chicken, the future prospect in their team. He's in that first choice, 11, where he has been for a long time now. He needs to start actually producing some match-winning performances for Australia. He did so in Sri Lanka a few years ago. He did so in New Zealand in early 2024. But now we just need some consistency for him. And this Shield 100 just shows he is to one of the best players in Australia. He is a class above the kind of domestic players that we've seen. As you said, it's just converting it into the national stage. And then there was what happens off the fields with a little bit of a minor spat with a journalist, Tom Descent from the Sydney Morning Herald who was there. And there was a miscommunication over whether Graham was going to do a press conference

3:06and what it was going to look like. The key point was Green said on his way out, why are you out to get? Now that point, Green clearly has a bit going on, didn't want to be doing that, the press conference. It points to perhaps his little frazzles, his little clearly the lean summer has got to him. And whether that's just on field or he's got a lot of criticism. Really for the first time in his career, he's been criticized by media, by former players in the media, and by a lot of fans. There's been a lot of, it reminds me of when Mitch Marsh went through this two years ago. And I don't think it's, I think it's important. They are the same type of player, I think, in this country. We have very high expectations of all rounders, which is not, I'm not placed on cricketers of other countries. But that's just a little spat with the general. It's just not quite what he needs and it points to him.

4:06Maybe not everything is going so good. His rough form has got to him. It was very telling, reading that report from Tom Deeson. It really provided a glimpse at where Cameron Greens at. And as you said, he is frazzled. He is low on confidence. The summer has gotten to him. And I think it is, it's worrying that it went into that, with the understanding that, oh, they told Tom Deeson, only talk about this shield game going on. Can't talk about form. As soon as a question came up at his summer, Cameron Greens refused to answer the question. And you just can't go through a professional career like that. The question that Tom Deeson asked was pretty standard. It was fairly regulation with what journalists would expect. And Cameron Greens can just say, no, of course, I was far from my best this summer. I know I can hear the opportunity to talk about improvements he's made to his mental side of the game, any technical deficiencies that he's resolved. He had that opportunity, instead he made a big story out of it that it really should have been. And Cameron is still in his career. He's only 26, 27. He's still got a lot of international career ahead of him. But he has to be better at dealing with scrutiny.

5:08Because that will come. At every stage of his career, it's inevitable. And you sort of can't really go, and maybe this is not on green and on the people around him. You can't go to a press conference only being asked about certain things, right? That doesn't work in any part, whether it's politics or CEOs or sports people. And he's not going to, he wasn't going to get grilled. But yeah, it was just, it was a sort of weird exchange. And my big take was really out of character. I know you probably dealt with Cameron very more than I have, but he's the most gentle, lovely, like never wants to make a story, or yeah, it just seemed really out of character. The gentle giant. He's the BFG of Australian cricket. It was very out of character. It was surprising to read that a lot. I think if anything, it shows that this summer has taken its toll on him. He goes to the IPO now. There isn't a lot of media has to deal with over there. Mostly it's going to be social media clips for the Twitter of his side there. So he gets a couple months to hopefully get some runs under his belt, have a bit of fun, hopefully over the IPL.

6:10And then he'll have a bit of a hopefully winter break and then come back refreshed for the next summer. I know he's had a rough summer, but he's going to be in that team, I'm pretty sure. At least in the squad when we get to August against Bangladesh. And yeah, hopefully IPL was a turning point for him. So it was the Cameron Green drummer in this game. This new South Wales Western Australian, which was a draw, by the way, was a thrilling draw came down to the last ball. W-A would nine down, managed to block out the draw. The other drummer, which was broken exclusively by you on the Fox Sports website, was involving Greg Shippard, Atrophy, and the incoming New South Wales coach, Brad Haddon, tell us what happened. Well, I think we have to maybe go back to January when Greg Shippard was told with 18 months still in his contract. Thank you. We will be done with us the end of this season. He obviously was really disappointed. He said that at the time, he was very disappointed with that decision. And as part of that announcement, the cricket New South Wales chief, Lee Jamon, said the reason for this is, we want to help New South Wales start winning titles. And so, of course, six weeks later, New South Wales win the one day Cup Final

7:12in a rein-affected final down in Hobart. Greg Shippard, he's lifting the trophy on the podium. And it's in his office, come Monday, when his replacement, as it turns out, to be Brad Haddon, comes in for his final interview, his final presentation to the New South Wales board. Apparently, Greg Shippard grabbed the trophy from his office, and on multiple occasions walked past the room, holding the trophy off, essentially parading it in front of the board. It was very tongue-in-cheek. Apparently, it was a bit of a laugh. It took everyone by surprise. There were certainly some shocked faces, but it wasn't a very malicious act. It was meant to be a bit of a laugh. And then Shippard did also take that into the New South Wales Sheds ahead of his final day, that fourth day of the shield, matching in Swiss and Australian. It almost worked. They almost took seven... They took seven wickets in that final session to almost get an unlikely win. So the trophy did act as a bit of inspiration in the end. But yeah, Shippard is now done with New South Wales. All his assistant coaches have also been released, and Brad Haddon will take over in June when he finishes over in the IPL. And a really exciting signing,

8:12I think he spoke really well at his press conference yesterday at Cricut Central. And yeah, a new chapter for Cricut New South Wales. I love it from Shippard. I guess it's just... It's so funny. And because he's been around Australian Cricut not just for years, but for decades. Right. And he's won a lot of trophies with the Sydney Sixers as well. I just think it's so funny just walking past that interview holding the trophy. I think it's great. Brad Haddon's going to be the new New South Wales coach. New South Wales for maybe a century has been the juggernaut of Australian Cricut has not been the case for the last five years. That's going to be Brad Haddon's big challenges. And you know, the old joke was, once you get your baggy blue, you get your baggy grain in the brown paper bag, that has not been true in the last five to ten years. Who was the last player that New South Wales produced that was an international regular? Well, there was, well, Constice was the most recent test debt bethons and obviously only played five games, I think. Before that Curtis Patterson, who was dropped after two tests. And before that, I think I have to go back to Nick Maddenson

9:13who only played a couple of games. You do look at the Australian side, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins, Mitch Stugge. The New South Wales progression is still there. Those players are still dominating in the South Wales. The wrong choice, though, since they, well, like they all came in we're talking the early 2010s. It's the, yeah, it's 10-15 years ago now that those guys debuted. It's a strong New South Wales tends to mean a strong Australia. New South Wales is not that strong at the moment and the New South Wales core that are still in the Australian side are all the wrong side of 30. New South Wales will need to be fining some players. That's exactly what Brad hadn't spoke about in his press conference. He said he was under no illusions that I need to produce Australian cricketers and he looks at this squad and he sees a lot of exciting young players. Sam Constas is the obvious one. But Jack Edwards, the captain, he's still early in his career. He's had a taste of international cricket now but he's certainly a prospect for future honours in the national side. Lucky Shore, Joel Davies, Oli Davies, who's fallen out of favour in the blue side

10:13but still an exciting player. There are a lot of young kids in this squad who have potential to become, as Haddon puts it, generational talent. There are the makings there of that next generation. His challenge now is diving straight into it in August, September when the players return is going to be making sure that they can not only just offer a glimpse of excellence but be consistent performers and become Australian players and Australian superstars and so it's a big challenge ahead for Brad Haddon and his team. And I like to his quite about providing Australian players. We all know that Shield Cricket, there is a dual purpose for Shield Cricket. Yes, of course, winning the games, winning the title is important. Also important is developing those players for Australian cricket. That is the reason Shield Cricket exists. That's the reason Shield players are paid pretty well when there's six people watching in the stands is because it exists to make a good test team. One of those players that will be a big focus for Brad Haddon is Sam Constas. Funny little period since the Big Bash for Sam Constas. He's been out for eight consecutive scores

11:13between 27 and 44. Now that is better than having eight consecutive scores of fewer than 10. But he's getting starts and just not being able to go on with it at the moment. He's doing the hard part. As an open eye, it's surviving that new ball spell and he's done that every single opportunity since Christmas. He has gotten past the tough part. His challenge now is just converting. It's just going on with it. Once the ball is lost at shine, once a little bit for T comes into the ball, it's just going on making those big scores. There's match winning performances. He's contributing. I think he actually finished the season as the Blues leading Runscore even though by his own standards, it would be a pretty underwhelming summer. Leading Runscore, but he just needs to become a match winner now. You know, you don't want to put on one player, but the open is not converting as a big reason. The Blues didn't make it into that top two on the Shield standings. The ball is, for the most part, we're doing their job. We've spoken before about how there's a bad in crisis in Australia. They just need to start converting those 20s, 30s, 40s into 80s and 100s, because that's how you win Shield Games. First innings runs are so important.

12:13The Constice doesn't really done enough to put himself back in a test conversation. The incumbent. Jack Weatherold got 62 against Queensland after 95 against New South Wales a little earlier. He's actually ended the Shield season with an average of 40. So that's not too bad. For you, has he done enough to hold his test place? I don't think his test career is over, but in my mind, if I had to put money on at this stage, I think Matt Renshaw is probably going to take that opening role purely because he has performed really well throughout the summer across all three formats. He was the only player this summer to score three Shield 100s, and that's despite missing a lot of Shield Cricket. Yes, Renshaw tapered off towards the end of this season. He got a lot of low scores since returning from the subcontinent, but my gut feels that the National Selectors are really going to back Renshaw heading to next summer. He's performed well across all three formats. And in my mind, he's most likely to take that opening spot. There is the potential of Matt Slabishay missing out. Renshaw are going at three with whether or not opening.

13:15I don't love that configuration necessarily. I think Labishay's experience will be really important next summer, but in my mind, whether or not Ash is just going to come back to hall and, unfortunately, he did struggle, especially towards the back end of that Ash's. If he can sort out that issue that we spoke about a few weeks ago with his front pad being blown off time and time again, it just really comes down to being more consistent, unfortunately, and he hasn't got a 100s... Did he get a hundred this summer, even? I don't think he did. So it's hard to say you're going to get dropped up to five tests, but with Renshaw breathing down his neck, I think it's a strong possibility. The only thing that would count in Whether World's favour is nobody else is really, especially this back half of the she was summer. No one's stood up to grab that position. You know, we talked about how few hundreds there have been. And Cameron Grimm was the only one who scored a hundred this round. So that's seven centuries in the entire she was since Christmas, and there's been four rounds. So that's 12 matches, potentially 48 innings, and there's been 700s.

14:17So I don't quite think Whether World is the favourite to keep his place, but there hasn't been someone that's gone and grabbed it. I remember that summer where Cameron Bancroft just went and got nearly a thousand runs. It was like, well, he was picking. It's not that easy at the moment. Mana Slappishan is the other one that's struggled since Christmas, as an incumbent in the Australian test team. Scores of 10, 41, 8, 2, 0, 13, 20, 29. Those are not the scores of an Australian number three, going back to Shield Cricket. It feels like he's stuck in that spot that he was last summer, and when he got dropped in the West Indies, came back and started this summer so well, 100 after 100 in Shield. He did get 100 in that period in the one-day cup. I wonder how much selectors take into account 50 over form in test conversations, certainly more than T-20 form. It's closer to that, but it's just, it's not quite clicking at the moment for Labashan,

15:19and it feels like if they select him, which I think they probably will, he'll be again being selected on his potential and what he's done in the past, rather than what's happening right now. He's been teasing the National Selectors. It's been four years since he got a test 100, which for a number three is just not good enough. And for a guy with what's he got 11 test centuries? Yeah, it's just, he's been so far from his best, and it's hilarious that he gets off from the test side, had that West Indies tour, and then gets back to Queen's Amphidmestic summer, and in September October, he's unstoppable. He's peeling off runs for fun. He's so far ahead of everyone. He has to be picked for the ashes, like it doesn't even become a debate at that stage. He's so strong, and then the ashes start and he starts struggling again. He once again, he gets 150 early in the season, and then just struggles and tapers off as the summer progresses, and now towards the end of the season, he's just so far from his best at the moment. And yeah, it is exactly who he's said. He's being picked on promise. He's been picked on what he did years ago, rather than what he's producing now. I do feel like his spot will be safe,

16:21because the leading people who could take a spot Curtis Patterson, Peter Hanskin and Matt Renshaw, do I see the National Selectors going back to one of those guys over Labeshame? Probably not at this stage. As superb they have been this summer, the consistency hasn't been there from Hanskin or Patterson. They're both averaging mid-30s, I think, in the shield. Which is, which is it? All the batsmen. Exactly, exactly. If someone had stepped up and pushed up to high 40s early 50s, that would have been really cool. The National Selectors attention, but the lack of consistency from Labeshame is a problem. I think, luckily for him, there's now, with the exception of the shield final, there's no cricket until August. He'll probably all play against Bangladesh. Is that a chance for him to hopefully get some big runs under his belt? As I've said, I forgot, well, Australian cricket fans will certainly hope so. Well, you're certainly on paper. The Bangladesh side looks to be a weaker opponent than your shield side, probably. So there is the opportunity for those guys to rack up runs. It's an opportunity for those that are selected to rack up runs, and you really need to do the work to get there.

17:23And whether those guys have done that, we wait and see. The shield final coming up, I love the shield final. I feel it's one of the great days on the great weeks on the Australian sporting calendar. Those scenes last year, everyone running on the grounds at South Australia, that was awesome. And we're going to get another one, this time in Victoria. Looks like Brendan Dogget is not going to play. Have you read on that? He's not going to be... It seems unlikely. It seems unlikely. I mean, for hamstrings here to recover within a month is it would be close to miraculous and I just think they're going to risk him. He might be able to bowl, but can he play a five-day game and bowl 20 over spells and innings, probably not at this stage. But we'll wait and see. There's still a few days to go until that final, but it seems to own likely. South Australia still have plenty of bowling stocks in there. Like, it's a big miss. I think he was one of the leading wicket takers on last year's final, but there's a lot of depth in that squad, so it shouldn't be a problem for the Redbacks. What's that Victoria are going to be without one of their leading wicket takers as well, but purely through their own choice because they've got to fit Ferguson Neil back in.

18:25Scott Polon's going to play. Will Sutherland is the captain. So he's going to play. Todd Murphy's going to play. So it looks like either Sam Elliott or Mitch Perry are going to miss when they've been two of the best bowlers in Shield Cricket so far this year. Just shows the embarrassment of riches that Victoria have at the moment, the embatting and bowling, which reminds you of New South Wales, 15 years ago. Yeah, that's going to be really tough call. It's interesting that with Ferguson Neil, his batting has come leaps and bounds. He's averaging, ooh, mid-30s. I think there's someone with the bat, which is more than handy. Could he bat at seven? Could you have Sutherland and him as an all-rounder to pick in the extra bowler? Then I feel like you're short of batter. It's difficult for Victoria. There's going to be some tough calls. My gut feels like Perry might miss out. That's for no reason, other than really, really bad luck. Is the way to fit them all in, probably not, because there's so many strong batters in this Victorian side as well. Like the experience you've got with Peter Hansen with Marcus Harris, the fresh faces in Campbell-Calloway.

19:26It's going to be really difficult to fit all of an in, but it's a cliche, but it's a good problem to have for Chris Rodgers and his team. The Shield final for Forever and a Day has been your path to the Australian test team. If you put a big hundred up, especially a guy like Campbell-Calloway or Nathan McSweeney, even Sam Harper, who's spoken about had such a good summer, if they put a big 150 up in a Shield final, there have been countless examples of people performing in Shield finals to basically get them baggy greens. When Pat Cummins got with me out of the match in a Shield final and made a test debut with 18, six months later, I think Phil Hughes got to be a hundred in a Shield final and that got him in the test team. I think there's a real opportunity for those guys who are not, it wouldn't be out of nowhere for like a McSweeney or a Calloway. They're in the conversations anyway. McSweeney, of course, played test cricket. The Shield final is your best opportunity. That's when most people are just normal fans are watching Shield cricket.

20:27It's when the selectors will be watching. It's the highest pressure first-class game that you can play in Australia. I think there's a chance that somebody liked that. If they play a match-winning knock, those knocks are worth double and I think they someone can play themselves into the test team next week. Well, it was Dog at last year. I think it took 10 wickets in that final and got his test selection partly from that. You know, you're exactly right. Who's going to win this match for your state? Who's going to step up and actually produce the performance that gets them that trophy? Whoever does that absolutely puts himself in the national frame. Cable Calloway, he's so hot and cold with the bat. But if he gets a match-winning hundred in the final, he'll be right in that conversation heading into August. Todd Murphy, we saw him miss out in the Sydney test controversially when it really should have been his selection. If he can now produce a match-winning performance in a shield final, that'll go a long way making sure that he is not only lion's understudy, his future understudy, but the national actors trust him to pick him when they need a win if it's too all-in-india or whatever situation it might be.

21:29If you can perform in a shield final, it goes a long way. Absolutely right. And the funny little dynamic that we spoke about about the teams playing the round before, that match, the last round match, was, I'll say, it was ruined by Queensland's getting bowled out on that first day in collapsing, so that meant that even if Queensland had a beat in Tasmania, they still couldn't make the final. And then it just felt like South Australian Victoria would go through the motions. Neither wanted to really throw a punch because next week is what's more important. It sort of felt like the story of the shame worn used to tell about how Alan Bauder didn't let him bowl anything other than leg breaks in that tool match before the 93 Ashes and Graham Hick hitting for 13 sticks or whatever because all he was bowling was leg breaks. That would have felt like that South Australian Victoria game was like, ah, let's just play this one out. We'll focus on it next week. It felt like it was a foregone conclusion after day two was going to go down. Hopefully, both teams got something out of it. Like, yes, they were probably going through the motions a bit, but hopefully did help them prepare for the final and some capacity.

22:32But really, it's going to come down to day one on the, I think, it's the 26th of the game started. It's all going to come down to that. And, yeah, five day game, I think it does come down to the first inning's points. If there is a draw, which fingers crosses unlikely, just rain, please stay away. Yes, there'll be a lot of tension on the footy down there and Victoria, but hopefully the fans turn up. Because, yeah, as you said, the atmosphere last year in Adelaide was really, really special and be cool if the Melbourne fans could replicate that. I'm sure they will. It's Victoria and South Australia. The Sheffield Shield final, it starts. First down, the 26th of the match. Every ball live on Fox Sports and care.