Yep! Right now Australia can do with every average cricketer they can get a hold of, Watson is the lesser of many evils ffs even No Show is wearing a baggy green. To think that once upon a time they could have fielded three XI's who'd dominate anybody.
When the Australia A concept was first introduced during the 1994/95 World Series Cup to compete against Australia, England and Zimbabwe, just take a look at the players who played for the 'A' team that summer:
Darren Lehmann, Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Tom Moody, Phil Emery, Gavin Robertson, Paul Reiffel, Merv Hughes, Joe Angel, Greg Blewett, Michael Bevan, Mark Atkinson, Shane George, Peter McIntyre.
All of them bar Atkinson and George wore the baggy green for Australia at some stage of their cricketing careers. And this squad finished runners-up to Australia (eclipsing England and Zimbabwe). That is just how much depth we had in the lower ranks back in those days, and it's no surprise that during 1994-2004 (when we had more depth in talent than any other country in the history of cricket during that era) there was a very heavy emphasis on Sheffield Shield cricket (for grooming future test players) and the MM/ING Cup (for grooming future ODI players); something that - along with the Australia A concept - has been heavily neglected since Hilditch took over from Hohns in 2006. So, yeah, we could've fielded three XI sides that would've given every other national side in world cricket a run for their money during that era (only the West Indies could've challenged the 2nd and 3rd XI sides during the 2nd half of the '90s and even then, that's only because of Brian Lara as they pretty much were in decline but still competitive).
Now, I know the 'A' team still plays the occasional match during the summer, but no one gives a stuff about ithem, let alone knows who's even in the 'A' team. Heck, even Ch9 televised Australia A matches (both ODI and some 4-day tour matches against the touring international sides) after they were excluded following the conclusion of their inaugural World Series in 94/95. Yes, we had the depth and talent during those years. Think of all the players who scored thousands of runs in domestic cricket and either couldn't crack or struggled to cement their positions in the national side - Siddons, Love, Maher, Bevan, Hayden, Elliott, Gilchrist, Lehmann, Hodge etc. However, the important thing to note was that talent was unearthed because we made Shield/Aus A cricket a priority unlike today where the BBL has superceded Shield cricket, which is sad because we do have far better players in domestic cricket compared to some that are in our national side, but they're going to really struggle to get any recognition from the selectors because that is no longer where the selectors' priorities lie. To the selectors now, they seem to think that Tests/ODI/T20 are all the same thing and that form in T20 justifies a position in the test team.
