Sometimes a fine line between excuses and reasons I suppose.
What I think are genuine reasons for England fans to cite:
1.Simon Jones being injured.
2.Trescothick illness.
But when these reasons become null and void is when England fans say McGrath injury and Gillespie's bowling didn't make a difference in 2005.

The point for me is cricket is more to cricket than England/ Australia. Sides are not judged of a particular series they are judge over period of time. The great Australian side were judged over several series against several sides.

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"Checkout the big brain on Brett" Pulp Fiction

By and large I agree with most of your Ern-baiting. Sorry Ern.

However, if your best seam bowler is McGrath, and I think we can safely that he is.

At least you had him for the 2005 tour, at least he bowled a bit (and with some success) in England.

Simon Jones started that season as a bowler that the fantastic (?) Michael (my best mate is Ashley Giles so he's always going to play, and even if I never play again, cos I'm a crap fielder with terrible knees, I'm gonna be whispering in the coaches ear for eternity cos I won the Ashes in 2005) Vaughan didn't trust to bowl.

And by the fourth Test when he limped off injured he WAS the bowler we couldn't do without. And he hasn't bowled since.

Your chap, the tall lanky one, bowled throughout that series, except the one Test, with the total trust of his captain, coach and backroom staff, and he's here again. Granted, not quite up to standard, but he's there.

And our bowler (who we can't do without) isn't.

And that IS an excuse.

He probably wouldn't get a game if he was fit. Fletcher, Flintoff and Graveney would find some ridiculous reason ("He plays for the wrong County..." "can't have a Welshman taking wickets in Australia" "he speaks the wrong language at home" "he's a methodist") for leaving him out.

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Red-it, Red-it, Read it and wept

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Bill Ponsford - The only one who could play in Bradman’s company and make it a duet.

No and No with respect, we don't know that the doctors or so called experts know, he was not worth the risk as it turned out, but being there was a risk, there should have been adequate cover for when he went home.

No this is not the same team as last year, be a long while before we get a collection like that again IMO.

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Ern

Here's the excuses/reasons Quagmire.

1) The bowlers are not good enough to bowl Australia out twice on Australian pitches. They never have been and never will be.

2 The batsmen are not good enough to put together two good innings against an Australian attack. They never have been and never will be. Even if you look at the last Ashes series, England struggled to bat well in both innings.

QED: England are not going to win the series.

All hail Sir Milo.

When will people finally understand that we got lucky last summer................yes, we played well but it took the Aussies to (collectively) forget how to bat in those conditions that gifted us the Ashes.

I'm not sure we'll ever get a chance like that in the next 10 years.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing

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Six and Out: Fine cricket journalism: http://www.sixandout.net/

It depends what the odds are at the local Ladbrokes when our number eight goes out to bat again and we're still trailing by over one hundred and fifty.

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Red-it, Red-it, Read it and wept

Why does England need an excuse??

They tried and couldnt retain the ashes... its a game someone has to win.

They won last year they lost this year so what?

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Its not the English side making excuses it will be the English supporters making excuses. It is not over yet, but it will be after the third test.

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Bill Ponsford - The only one who could play in Bradman’s company and make it a duet.