Halfway through BBL14 and after just one game in Victoria, the Melbourne Stars are on track for a fifth consecutive season without playing in the BBL finals. In the first three of these years five teams made the finals.
In the WBBL, the Melbourne Stars have not played finals in the last four seasons and won the wooden spoon this season.
So, on recent form you could replace the words Melbourne Stars with two other words: embracing mediocrity.
In the early years, supporters of the other seven teams mocked the Stars for being chokers because they made multiple semi-finals and finals, without winning a title. I thought that was bad enough but at least the Stars fans saw plenty of wins and had chances to win titles. Now those same fans are revelling in the Stars being losers.
Who could forget some of those semi-final and final losses? There was the rain affected BBL02 semi-final in Perth, where future 100-game AFL player Alex Keath was hit for 27 runs in the only over he ever bowled for the Stars and James Faulkner bowled a no ball on what should have been the last ball of the match.
After going undefeated in BBL03 preliminaries being knocked out in the semi-final by a Cameron Boyce and Tim Paine-inspired Hobart Hurricanes at the MCG.
In BBL05, despite a brilliant 74 by Kevin Pietersen, three wickets from Marcus Stoinis and two wickets from Adam Zampa, the Stars fell short in the final at the MCG against Sydney Thunder. Usman Khawaja’s 70 and the benefit of the doubt on a couple of (pre-DRS) close LBW decisions helped the Thunder to victory.
Marcus Stoinis of the Melbourne Stars. (Photo by James Worsfold/Getty Images)
There were two other semi-finals where the Perth Scorchers had comfortable victories over the Stars.
Then in BBL08 was the infamous Melbourne derby final at Marvel Stadium. Firstly, when bowling the Stars had the Renegades at 5/65 then Tom Cooper and Dan Christian put on an unbeaten 80-run partnership to get the score to 5/145.
Even with the bat the Stars seemed to be cruising with Ben Dunk and Marcus Stoinis putting on 93 for the opening partnership. The Stars required 53 from 43 balls with ten wickets in hand. The Stars batters lost their heads and their wickets, losing 7/39 to lose by 13 runs.
The Stars were able to recover from that final loss and finished top of the table in BBL09. In the qualifier the Sydney Sixers had a comfortable 43-run victory to earn hosting rights for the final. An 83 not out from Nick Larkin in the Challenger against the Sydney Thunder helped the Stars earn a rematch with the Sixers.
In a rain-affected final at the SCG the Stars never looked like chasing down the runs and the Sixers won a 12-over contest by 19 runs.
In the WBBL, the Stars have been consistently poor, only reaching finals once in ten seasons. The Stars have won two WBBL wooden spoons.
The only time that the Stars have made the WBBL finals was in WBBL06 when they finished on top of the table. Unfortunately, in the final they were decimated at North Sydney Oval by a Sydney Thunder bowling line-up spearheaded by Shabnim Ismail and Sammy-Jo Johnson. The Thunder comfortably chased down the total in the 14th over.
Trent Woodhill coached the Stars for their only finals appearance. That was Woodhill’s only season as coach before he moved onto a role at Cricket Australia. One wonders why the Stars were not able to replicate what Woodhill did in WBBL06 in following seasons.
One other thing that needs to be discussed is the 2019 takeover of the Stars and the Melbourne Renegades by Cricket Victoria.
This came just months after the BBL08 derby final. The Stars made the BBL09 final but have not made the finals since. The Melbourne Renegades have made the BBL finals just once since then and have won three wooden spoons. The Renegades have started BBL14 well, with two wins from three matches.
In the WBBL, the Stars made their only finals and final appearance under Cricket Victoria’s watch or should that be Trent Woodhill’s watch. The Renegades made the finals on three occasions, won a wooden spoon and more importantly won their first title in the recently completed WBBL10 season.
Going from wooden spoon to champions in one season, so hopefully that is an omen for the Stars next season.
It looks like Cricket Victoria has discovered the formula for success with the Renegades but have not found the same with the Stars.
Conspiracy theorists could even ask questions about some of the player movements from the Stars to the Renegades leading up to this WBBL season with young quick Milly Illingworth, who you could build a team around for decade, Nicole Faltum and Alice Capsey moving. Then as soon as the WBBL10 season was over Tess Flintoff, who at 21 has 62 games of experience, changed her green for red.
Some of the contract signings across the years also need to be assessed. Firstly, the announcement of Michael Clarke as player and captain for BBL05. Clarke pulled out of the contract before the season started.
The Stars signed Ben Dunk on a five year contract, which is a lengthy period. At the time, it might not have seemed so bad given Dunk had been a leading run scorer twice in BBL seasons, once with Hobart and once with Adelaide. However, in 42 matches for the Stars he only scored 621 runs at an average of 16.34 and a strike rate of 115.64.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
A signing that was promoted on social media by the Stars as a big player signing announcement prior to the official announcement was Joe Burns. At the time of the announcement, I messaged a friend that I “hope that wasn’t the “big player” announcement”. Stars fans were burnt by that signing within nine matches, Burns going on to score 135 runs at an average of 19.29 and strike rate of 97.83.
In January, the Stars announced the re-signing of 34-year-old Stoinis for three seasons. In BBL11, 12 and 13 respectively Stoinis scored 170, 190 and 169 runs and didn’t bowl due to injury, took two wickets and one wicket. When this signing was announced I predicted he would be our new captain.
Stoinis has been a great contributor to the Stars having played the second most games, being the second leading run scorer and sixth leading wicket taker. But his diminished output for the previous three seasons in my opinion did not warrant a new contract and if he received a contract, it should only have been for one year.
Given the current results in BBL14, you would expect BBL coach Peter Moores to follow his compatriot former WBBL coach Jonathan Batty out the door.
An assessment of the playing list needs to be performed. The following players have been with the Stars in the past five seasons, including BBL14: Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell (missed BBL12 through injury) and Hilton Cartwright. Beau Webster and Tom Rogers (only one game in BBL11) have played in the last four seasons.
Whilst these players have made significant contributions to the Stars, some difficult decisions need to be made on some of these players as they have provided the core of the team that has continually missed finals in recent seasons. Although, I believe a number of those players are already contracted for next season.
We keep seeing and hearing about “poor execution” – fielding, bowling, power surges with bat and ball, timing of the power surge and now failing to appeal for a run out.
There needs to be significant changes of administration staff, list management and recruiting staff, coaching staff and playing list.
Kermit the Frog was correct: “It’s not easy being green.”
Scott Reahttps://https://ift.tt/9qJ4hfQ another season all but written off, it’s time for a Melbourne Stars overhaul
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