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And I'll start this cricket coach, Andrew McDonald,
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is with me in the studio now.
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Andrew, good to see you.
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Thanks for having us, Jared.
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What did you make of the shield, final?
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It wasn't another wicket that offered plenty for the bowlers
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and it was compelling viewing.
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It was happening to be up there on Friday and Saturday.
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So, yeah, magnificent game of cricket.
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Unfortunately, Vick's didn't win,
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being a former Victorian player,
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but I also played for South Australia.
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So it was one of those ones where I couldn't really lose,
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but to see Alex Carey sort of Frank the summer
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that he's had an incredible sort of,
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I think it was a match winning 100 in amongst the scores.
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As you saw, there was a lot of starts
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and that wicket offered plenty with the ball,
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but yeah, compelling game
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and I'm sure we'll dig a little bit deeper into it.
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It was a great final point to Alex Carey's summer wasn't.
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He got the accolades that he will deserve
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for his keeping and his batting and the ashes
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and then that he's still going at the end
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and that's two shield finals in a row
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that he's made the decisive century in.
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Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to be said
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around maintaining your excellence across a period of time
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and particularly on the back of such an intense summer,
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which was the ashes, but to see him performing,
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managing and adding in with Nathan McGandrew
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and then even the catch off Oli Peak later in the game,
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diving sort of full stretch left.
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He's under fatigue under the summer that he's had
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to push through to maintain his excellent excellence
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is a lot to be said around the way that he prepares
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his physical traits, but also that sort of mental hardness
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to be able to do that and perform.
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And I know how much he loves playing for South Australia.
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I love how much he loves going back there.
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He can't always go back there because he's got other demands,
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but yeah, an incredible game for him
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and amongst others for South Australia.
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And there were some good performance for Victoria as well,
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but unfortunately they couldn't conjure up a win
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to sort of frank their season.
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It's the shield final, still an important game.
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I think the pressure, you know, the spotlight,
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the pressure, I think Chris Rogers
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have sort of stated around saying that it's almost
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like the sixth test match of the summer
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and he sort of went down the path of some,
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you know, should there be DRS and things like that.
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So there's a huge importance on it,
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but the C-players under extreme pressure in those moments
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gives us as selectors and coaches a real window
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to what they potentially would be like at international level.
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So I think there's a huge connection there.
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I think the shield season has been so competitive,
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so we even, there's quality crickers there.
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And sometimes we don't appreciate how good the talent is there
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and that underpins our Australian team
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and I hope people have seen that through this summer
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where we were stretched in an ashes.
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There was opportunities for players to stand up
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from Shield Cricket and some great stories with Doggard
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and obviously Michael Neser being two of those
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Scotty Baham, not that far back.
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So Shield Cricket does underpin
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a lot of our success at the test level.