This is what I was referring to prior to the match about Siddle. People are way to eager to right off players before they've had a decent chance to prove themselves. If they don't pick up 5 wickets or score a century in their first innings, they're pasted. If consistency is an issue, that is only going to sort it self out by playing more games and gaining more confidence.
The problem isn't with the players, for the most part. Although some latch on to them out of frustration I think think the general concensus is the selectors have been and are still picking the wrong players. Even with the bowlers this series, they haven't been up to it for the most part.
Johnson has, what, 15 wickets for the whole series? He took 8 of those in one innings (and an excellent effort it was too) and has since taken 7 in 4 innings. South Africa's right handers, apart from that fat lump Kallis, have worked out that anything pitched on middle-off is an easy leave because he's not going to swing it back at them. Until he does that, he'll continue to be inconsistent IMO because teams will quickly work out what South Africa have worked out.
Siddle has taken a 5/ today, sure....but did he bowl that well? I don't think he did as well as his figures suggest. What he did well was use the conditions, and that's worth praise...but really all he did was put the ball in the right spot and let a cracking and crumbling pitch do the work. Again, he deserves praise for using the conditions the way he did, but he's shown no real signs of being able to use the ball rather than the wicket. Not his fault, picking a player for Test cricket as a front line medium pacer with 12 FC games under his belt is a poor call, because he's not going to have the experience or guile to get world class batsmen out.
Bollinger, on debut, looked threatening but ultimately couldn't get a wicket. He was nice and fast and aggressive, but a little expensive and by his standards underwhelming. Sure, he got three turned down plus a missed catch, but his inexperience showed at times. We'll see how he goes in the 2nd dig and in another Test or so if he gets that far anytime soon
Hauritz is simply useless. Doesn't turn the ball, doesn't flight the ball, may as well be classed as "Slow-Medium".
The point, for me, is that this should not be an issue. Obviously our front liners in Lee and Clark are out at the moment, and both have been obviously injured and out of form anyway. IMO the selectors should have been blooding guys like Bollinger and Hilfenhaus in previous series, giving them a taste of the big time and working on them with a view to bringing them in full time. The coaching staff and captain should have Johnson working on his action and learning to swing the ball, because at the moment his shoulder, arm and wrist position is terrible. And if he can't get that happening, send him back to WA to work on it and get someone who does swing it. I don't believe there has been enough foresight over the past few years to now by the selectors and the coaching organisation of this side. It seems, from the outside, that they expected the likes of Lee and Clark to simply take over from McGrath and Warne, when those guys simply aren't in that class.
Back a few years ago, if Warne went down, we had guys like MacGill and Hogg to step in and do that job well. If a quick went down, guys like Bichel, Kasprowicz, and the like to step in to that gap. These days we don't have that. We barely have an experienced front line quick, with Lee on the way out and Clark up in the air, and I personally lay the blame squarely on the selectors lack of foresight. And what the hell happened to our spinners? Did they even have a plan for the post Warne/MacGill years? Cos I can't see it...
