Selectors Boys Club Does for McSweeney as Marsh Survives Again

It must be great to be a part of the Boy's Club. Keep being fun and popular with the boys, and you'll never have to worry about whether you are performing or not.
A few short weeks ago, Nathan McSweeney would have been the most excited cricketer in Australia. He had lived his dream, getting the Baggy Green of Australia, and becoming a Test cricketer. He had proven over a lengthy stretch that he was in good touch and had scored the runs necessary to make the team. Sure, he was going to bat out of position, but he would be given plenty of opportunity to succeed, and the experienced batters around him would score enough runs to provide the support he needed early on.

Well... no. McSweeney ran into a red hot Jasprit Bumrah, and has found the going tough. So too though has most of the rest of the batting lineup. Indeed, the new kid has done just as well as two of the other batters, and not much less than one other. But that's okay, because we know it is harder to get out of the team than to get in, and he would be given that support by the selectors to help him find his feet. Just like certain others have had before him.
Well... no.

Once again, our selectors have flown in the face of a reasonable selection policy and thrown out the baby with the bath water. McSweeney is now deemed disposable and is dropped. Looking at the situation can anyone see how he gets back into the team in the near future? There is no Shield cricket to play, only T20 rubbish. The next tour is to Sri Lanka, with the selectors currently mulling over a guy who doesn't play first class cricket, Glenn Maxwell, as a possible middle order player. After that is the Ashes next summer. Even if he makes runs in February and March... who will be watching? And given the selectors don't even seem to watch Shield cricket anymore, will it matter?!

Meanwhile, the 38 year old opener has scored few runs in the last 12 months, someone who is surely closer to the end of his career than anyone suspects. And the 33 year old allrounder who rarely bowls because he's injured has also scored less runs than the man who was dropped. Indeed, with his Test batting average now less than 30, what is the justification for his place apparently being secure?
I applaud the selection of Sam Konstas. It is one that probably should have solved this problem by being done for the 1st Test rather than the 4th Test. He looks a long term proposition. We can only hope he is given longer to find his feet than they have offered the previous incumbent. And here is where the problem lies. The differing time players are given, and the number of chances they are offered.

We can talk more about this later. For today, I feel sick for Nathan McSweeney. He doesn't deserve to have had this happen to him, while the others around him, the experienced players who should have been performing better in order to support him, are again left untouched. If the selectors are serious about generational change, they are not showing it. Callum Ferguson's Test career was destroyed by the same sort of selection madness. So too Nic Maddinson. They were cast aside in the most heartless and thoughtless of ways without giving them a chance to settle into the team. Others seem to be given far more chances. It is a difficult thing to watch