Tim Murray's view on the State Team.

January 24, 2006
Now the majority of State events are over and the season is fifty per cent complete we are getting a clearer picture as to who deserves to travel to contest the interstate series.

This is the time for a "Changing of the Guard".

Rink 1 Robbie Ball (skip) Daniel Trewhella (third) Kyle McIIroy (second) Ross Dempsey (lead)

Rink 2 Trystan Smallacombe (skip) Rhett Butler (third) Russell Hughes (second) Daniel Brown (lead)

Rink 3 Pieter Harris (skip) John Goddard (third)) Clive Adams (second) Gary Caffell (lead)

I picked the side on current form and compatibility with all rinks having not only team-mates but friends in the team. This usually means that you tend to play much more team orientated bowls rather than playing for yourself. I believe, the latter being one of the causal factors in Western Australia's poor showings at the last couple of interstate series.

The most notable absentee from my team is Graeme Wishart who has been selected in every State side for nearly twenty years. At the time of writing I do not believe that Graeme is in the best three skippers in this State. When I tried to squeeze him into other positions I finally concluded that the players selected were better suited to positional play.

Robbie Ball & Pieter Harris in my view pick themselves as skippers. My selection of Trystan will surprise some but over the past three years he has proven himself week in and week out as one of the outstanding skippers in First Division Red.

This game is all about OPPORTUNITY and it is time we gave a player who possesses great skill, coolness under pressure and the ability to communicate with team-mates just that.

On a consistency basis, I believe that Trystan is currently the best player in this State.

If Anthony Provost was not under that controversial suspension he would also be included. It is not only a shame for Anthony but for Western Australia bowls when we can't send our best away when they are fit and in-form.

November 16, 2005
Sherro seeing as you asked me what were my thoughts regarding the State selection debate. At first, I thought this would be a relatively simple task but the further I thought about it more questions were raised than answers.
Good luck to the selection team particularly when it comes to picking only twelve players this series.

I cannot go along with the reasoning of the State selectors picking basically the same group that represented Western Australia last year. If it was not for the effort from the rink of Pieter Harris, John Goddard, Clive Adams and Trystan Smallacombe our performance would have been abysmal.
This win/loss ratio at the end of the series is misleading because most of the time our under-performed rinks "tidy up" their overall result up with huge wins against the likes of Tasmania and Northern Territory (who would not beat many First Division Red teams in our pennant competition).
The real analysis should be testing how the rinks and more importantly the individual played against Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria and to a lesser extent ACT and South Australia.

I am a firm believer that for us to improve our results we must invest in youth with experience. I have not been able to comprehend for a few years how we consistently leave out the talents of the Opie brothers, Daniel Trewhella and I would certainly not be leaving out Anthony Provost. They are fearless, and I for one love that in a bowler.

The continual selection of Kyle McIIroy, Daniel Brown, John Slavich & Bruce Urquhart is a must. They should be joined by the experience of Graeme Wishart & Robbie Ball. The new inclusions must also include Russell Hughes and Rhett Butler.

We are far too political in our selection process and should select on what they are capable of producing on the green and not concentrate on our own personal views and/or prejudices of particular individuals personalities.

There are many other sports where people are still selected even though their actions went way past behaving badly. They actually transgressed the law quite seriously. Only prison sentences were going to keep them from being selected.

We, the bowling community, need to take a much more mature and open minded approach before we cast the genuine talents away.

My State squad of twenty in alphabetical order would be:

Clive Adams
Stuart Bainbridge
Robbie Ball
Ron Bates
Daniel Brown
Rhett Butler
Peiter Harris
Russell Hughes
John Goddard
Kyle McIIroy
David Opie
Justin Opie
Anthony Provost
Jarrod Rainoldi
Jon Sharp
John Slavich
Trystan Smallacombe
Daniel Trewhella
Bruce Urquhart
Graeme Wishart

I will not list the unlucky ones as there are too many to mention.




Tim Murray