• last year
The Examiner’s Rob Shaw, Brian Allen and Josh Partridge unpack and discuss the sports news across Northern Tasmania.

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Transcript
00:00 Welcome to episode 25 of the Pressbox, the Examiner's weekly sportscast.
00:11 We've got a bit of interchange going on this week with Ben Hahn taking a spell, but Brian
00:15 Allen and Josh Partridge are leaping off the bench.
00:18 Brian, completely fresh from the Balfourburn.
00:21 How was that?
00:22 Yeah, not so fresh, mate.
00:23 I'm very sore, refusing to take the stairs and preferring to take the lift today.
00:31 What a challenge it is.
00:32 That was my debut.
00:34 Balfourburn and myself and our colleague Duncan Bailey took on the almighty challenge of,
00:42 I think, I believe it's 420 metres up the steepest road in Launceston.
00:49 It is one of the great novelty and unique events I've come across.
00:55 I think that this community should be so proud that we have this.
01:02 Just to sum up quickly, the tension at the bottom before the race was incredible.
01:07 Duncan said you could cut it with a knife.
01:10 He likes a bit of boxing.
01:12 He said it was a bit like going out into a fight, that sort of vibe.
01:17 When you're at the bottom of the hill looking up with no traffic or cars, that usual movement,
01:27 it's imposing.
01:29 We did it, no training.
01:31 I'd gone down a few days earlier just to have a look and suss it out.
01:36 Incredibly, at the top, I toppled over.
01:39 With one metre to go, my legs just gave way.
01:46 I had no control over myself.
01:49 I fell over, but the knowledge of trying to beat Duncan was on my mind.
01:53 I sprung up as quick as I could in that circumstance.
01:57 The footage shows I just got him.
01:59 I'm sore, but I'm feeling pretty good about myself.
02:02 Good on you.
02:04 Cricket season is underway and we'll be spending today looking at cricket seasons.
02:10 Cricket North, TCL, Cricket Tasmania, Premier League and even WBBL, which kicks off in Launceston
02:15 on Friday.
02:16 So, Brian, you'll be kicking us off with Cricket North.
02:18 How's that looking?
02:19 Yeah, it's looking really good.
02:20 We're two weekends in now and South Launceston are on top of the table.
02:26 The Greater Northern Cup, which is the one-day competition, involves the North teams around
02:33 here and also the North West teams.
02:36 This weekend, we actually got the first bit of crossover where the North teams take on
02:40 the North West.
02:43 I guess just to run through that quickly, Launceston has Devonport, Mowbray has Latrobe,
02:48 Westbury has Sheffield, Ulverston plays Riverside and Wynyard has South Launceston.
02:53 So, yeah, it's a little bit of unknown.
02:57 It's the first time there's a North-V-North-West competition this season.
03:02 You mentioned obviously being two rounds in.
03:04 Some of the clubs have kind of bolstered their stocks with recruits, I suppose.
03:07 Who have been some of the recruits that have helped their side earlier in this year?
03:12 Well, there's the cheese, Mitch Cheeseman.
03:16 So yeah, he's making a bit of a name for himself.
03:19 I think he obviously hails from the mainland and I think he played a bit of footy this
03:23 year and he seems to be throwing himself right into the community, which is great.
03:29 He's playing a bit of good cricket.
03:31 He had a match-winning role against Riverside on the weekend, making an unbeaten 53 and
03:38 I think hitting a four to just bring up those winning runs for the night.
03:43 So yeah, he's doing well.
03:45 Our very own Ben Hand, he's out there and he's playing for Riverside.
03:52 He opened the bowling on his debut and yeah, he took a wicket and yeah, he's all smiles
03:59 about cricket, so it's good to see him up and about.
04:01 A shame he's not here today to...
04:04 Probably not a shame.
04:05 Yeah, I suppose.
04:06 Yeah, I suppose, yes.
04:07 And then we...
04:08 Yeah, just a few other off-season notes.
04:12 The big ones were, so South Launceston's former South players, Cisco and Ian LeBroy have moved
04:19 to Westbury, so it'll be interesting to see how they go.
04:22 And Westbury won the two-day premiership last year, so they appear to have gone from strength
04:28 to strength, but they did drop their opening game.
04:31 So yeah, there's lots of intrigue.
04:33 Yeah, and the synthetic local competition, the TCL, how's that looking, Josh?
04:37 Yeah, so they've only had one game this year and Evendale Panthers, Hadspen and Trevelyan
04:42 all got the wins on the weekend, but similar to the Cricket North, every team's kind of
04:47 bolstered their stocks a bit.
04:49 ACL have welcomed 20 new faces to the club over their grades.
04:54 Evendale have added two really strong faces to their top order in Mark Cooper and Nikhil
04:59 Bhatkar, and they both scored 50s on the weekend.
05:03 Hadspen have bolstered their stocks with their new coach, Tristan Weeks, and he's brought
05:08 a couple of faces along with him, but they've lost some of their big names in Leon Reynolds
05:14 and Justin Reeves, who have led them in the past.
05:17 Lugana had the ball on the weekend, they're yet to play, but they've added a few new faces
05:21 under their new coach, Dean Hawkins, who is well-known around the Northern community for
05:25 his involvement in cricket.
05:27 Longford lost two and gained two, pretty much filled what they lost.
05:32 Perth had a lot of returning players coming back, so they've kind of added to their club
05:35 that way, and players that have been gone for a couple of years.
05:38 And Trevelyan have a couple of inns as well, and they've added arguably the biggest in
05:41 former Launceston quick, Dan Smith.
05:43 So it'll be interesting to see how the season unfolds.
05:46 Who's the reigning champion?
05:49 Longford are the reigning premiers.
05:50 They actually got done on the weekend, so Hadspen, between Hadspen and Longford, they've
05:54 won I think it was the last eight between them.
05:57 So they've obviously held the stranglehold over the competition, but Hadspen got the
06:02 win over them on the weekend, getting the runs in the 39th over.
06:05 Do you feel that this might be a closer comp this year, like we might see a new champion?
06:10 Yeah, well Evendale broke through and made the final last year, though they put some
06:15 really strong performances towards the back end of the season but weren't quite able to
06:18 do it on grand final day.
06:19 But adding those two other batsmen to the top order really lightens the load for Jonte
06:25 Magtalo, who won the competition award last year.
06:28 He's their captain and coach and one of the best batters in the competition, comfortably
06:32 and scored a lot of runs last year.
06:33 So I suppose adding those two in and already having a pretty strong batting line-up outside
06:38 of that could really make for an interesting season I reckon.
06:42 We've also got sides in the Cricket Tasmania Premier League.
06:45 This was an initiative that Cricket Tasmania introduced a few years back to try and reverse
06:49 the fear that northern players didn't have a pathway to the elite level.
06:54 And so there was a composite team, men's and women's teams, that both play in the Hobart-based
06:59 CTPL.
07:00 Alistair Taylor has taken over the men's team from Tim Coyle and Darren Simmonds continues
07:05 to coach the women's team.
07:07 And I keep an eye on these two sides and they're going really well.
07:10 The men yet to pick up a win but they're looking strong and the whole point of the programs
07:15 is to produce players to become state league level players and a good example of that was
07:20 Aiden O'Connor who progressed up from Riverside through the Raiders and is now a Tigers contracted
07:27 player.
07:28 The women won the T20 final last year and lost the one day final so they'll obviously
07:32 be looking for similar success this season.
07:34 But I think the program's working well isn't it?
07:36 Yeah I suppose and you mentioned Aiden but with the women as well they've had a few,
07:40 I think they had a couple of players go away in the pre-season trip with the Tigers.
07:44 So Meg Radford and Ava Curtis are there and thereabouts in the Tasmanian set-up.
07:49 They've been in a couple of their squads as well so it's really good to see not just
07:53 Aiden but there's a few of the girls that are really pushing their case for Tassie selection
07:56 as well in what is a really strong WNCL line-up.
08:00 And even somebody like Emma Mannix-Jeeves we've watched her go from a good Northern
08:04 player to being a regular at national level.
08:08 Speaking of national level, so we've obviously got Tassie teams in their men's and women's
08:13 state competitions and of course in the BBL and WBBL.
08:17 So Tassie Tigers getting underway soon, in fact got underway in the WNCL, they're going
08:24 for a third straight title so they're looking very strong this season as well.
08:29 And the men's team as well and then we've got in the BBL coming up and the WBBL which
08:34 starts this Friday.
08:35 So we've got Launceston hosting the first game for the Hurricanes.
08:39 The Hurricanes have, I was doing a preview story about the Hurricanes and the WBBL and
08:46 I think they've underperformed over the history of the competition.
08:49 They're just one of two teams yet to make a grand final.
08:53 They've only reached finals three times and they've finished bottom in the bottom three
08:59 five years in a row.
09:00 So it's about time I think that the Hurricanes women started performing.
09:04 They certainly got the experience in the side.
09:06 They've got four of the competition's most experienced players in their side.
09:11 Nick LaCherie, Molly Strano, Elise Villani, these are players that have played 113, 114
09:16 games.
09:17 So they've got the experience and it all starts on Friday night.
09:20 How do you think they're going to go?
09:22 Yeah I think as you said mate they've got some really strong experience there and that's
09:26 backed up by the likes of our young guns, Emma Manx-Jeeves and Hayley Silver-Holmes
09:31 and then the overseas players they've got as well.
09:33 So it'll be really interesting to see, hopefully they can take that next step further and I
09:37 suppose what they've done with the Tigers, there's a fair crossover between the Tigers
09:40 and the Hurricanes.
09:41 So they've really built this belief that they can take that next step so it wouldn't
09:45 shock me at all if they're able to do that this year.
09:48 And you're right that is a complete contrast, back to back titles in the WNCL and yet really
09:52 struggling in the WBBL.
09:55 Yeah I guess just before we go fellas, it's probably a good chance to promote a couple
10:01 of new things we're doing.
10:02 So in the Cricket North and TCL we've introduced both the team of the week but also a player
10:11 of the season.
10:13 So we're doing a 3-2-1 of who we think based on match winning efforts, the best of the
10:22 round for each of those competitions and then just picking apart the best performances over
10:28 each weekend so you can catch that in Wednesday's paper of each week.
10:33 Perfect and just a reminder, so the WBBL starter for the season is this Friday 7.10pm at Utah
10:41 Stadium and that's the Hurricanes against Perth Scorchers.
10:44 Read all about that next week.
10:45 Thanks for tuning in and see you next week.
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