DANE ELDRIDGE: Despite plenty of success, Aussie cricket needs its edge back

Australian cricket has enjoyed relative success under Andrew McDonald, and better yet, there’s been nary an ugly sledge or cultural review throughout.

But despite the coach’s softly-spoken style and the civilised bunch of young men he’s nurtured, has his team become too nice?

Life under McDonald, selector George Bailey and skipper Pat Cummins has been a reflection of the coach himself, with the Aussie team switching type to play with good spirit rather than a scowl.

In fact, there’s only been two guys to get under anyone’s skin — other than David Warner, of course — and that’s Marnus Labuschagne for talking too much and Cummins for believing climate change is real.

And while the team certainly plays its cricket hard, compared to former Aussie teams it’s “hard” like Christian rock music.

But while we craved a solid self-fumigation following the parasitic behaviour of the Sandpaper debacle, history says this country only tolerates pleasant behaviour for so long.

With recent results deteriorating in South Africa and our aging side getting bullied by the hosts in the second test, Australia is turning attention on to the current hierarchy.

Bailey is too chummy with the players, the players are too powerful, and the tactics have become too woke for their own good.

And most critically, when the side meekly buckles to an opposition playing like a pack of bull mastiffs, suddenly stuff like stuffing around with the batting order, benching Nathan Lyon and refusing to sledge becomes a stick to beat the team with.

History says this is where Australia regresses to being mean, and it usually begins with the coach.

We dug ourselves out of a rut in the 80s with mental disintegration under Bob Simpson and John Buchanan, then buried the shame of Mickey Arthur’s Homeworkgate by enlisting a cricketing carnivore in Darren Lehmann.

And if similar results continue under McDonald, calls for a similar factory reset will only grow louder.

That’s because in times of crisis, Australia grows a mustache, ramps up the aggro and leans on conservative cricket values.

Our logic dictates that if you’re losing the war then you may as well win the pub brawl- even though none of us can agree on what “aggression” in cricket really means.

Being a game of fine motor skills unlike footy, you can’t impact cricket by simply pumping your legs harder or thumping an opponent.

It’s a non-contact gentleman’s pursuit, meaning purveying aggression is like angrily catching smoke with chopsticks.

Add the flannels, and the whole concept is about as intimidating as getting shooshed by a librarian.

But whether it’s short pitched bowling, verbal terrorism or just a fourth slip, this is a country that fights for its cricketing manhood by getting pissed off.

McDonald is not in the gun in the short term by any means, but you can feel the nation collectively cracking its knuckles for a blue.

And if the softly-softly approach continues to waver, the name on everyone’s lips will be former captain Ricky Ponting.

The diminutive titan is too much of a cricketing dux to coach like a boxing cornerman, but we all adore him as a big-brained straight-shooter with the hairiest arms known to mankind.

And while he wasn’t nicknamed so because he liked to fight — except once outside the Bourbon and Beefsteak — who could argue in a testosterone shortage with a bloke coined the Mowbray Mauler.

With our on-field strategies fraying and a playing group so high on power it could oust Justin Langer and dictate their own career exit plans, Ponting is the perfect answer because he offers peerless IQ and the decorum of a bull shark.

And in an Aussie cycle that swings like politics between progressivism and old school conservatism, there’s no better name to lead us from benign diplomacy back to unapologetic shirtfronting.