The Examiner’s Rob Shaw, Josh Partridge and Ben Hann unpack and discuss the sports news across Northern Tasmania.
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00:00 Welcome to episode 29 of the Pressbox, the Examiners weekly sportscast.
00:12 We're down to three this week but in fact we're actually up to five with the wonderful
00:15 news that Brian has become a dad.
00:18 So he's got his hands full today.
00:20 We'll give him a couple of weeks and he'll be begging to rejoin us.
00:24 Cricket, basketball and footy this week.
00:26 We'll be looking at the Tassie Tigers vs Victoria Marsh Cup, we'll have a preview to the Jack
00:31 Jumpers NBL game here against New Zealand on Thursday.
00:34 But we'll kick off by looking ahead to the AFL Draft on Monday and Tuesday.
00:39 And Ben we've got a few specials planned around it.
00:41 Absolutely, there'll be a Pressbox mini-series, four part mini-series coming up over the next
00:45 week.
00:46 We're going to be, when I say we, it's going to be myself and Josh over on the other side
00:51 of the desk.
00:52 We're going to be doing individual profiles on the four Launceston players who are predicted
00:56 to go in the Draft.
00:57 Hopefully, potentially all four will go in the first round, who knows.
01:00 But I suppose that's what you'll be finding out on those little mini-series episodes.
01:06 So that's something to look out for on your feed.
01:09 But for today I suppose we're going to do a bit of an overview of the Draft and where
01:14 the state of play is.
01:16 There's seven players that could be drafted from looks of things to this Draft.
01:20 What do you think Josh, take us through the players who can get drafted, where they're
01:24 from and where they're from.
01:26 So we've got the four main chances I guess are the ones that Ben touched on.
01:30 We've got Colby McCurchir from Launceston, Riley Sanders who was originally from North
01:34 Launceston before moving to Victoria to play for the Sandringham Dragons.
01:39 Then we've got Ari Schoenmaker, Launceston as well and James Leake from Launceston as
01:44 well.
01:45 So they're the four, the main ones.
01:47 And then the other three we've got, we've got Heath Ollington who's originally from
01:51 the North West Coast but plays his footy with North Launceston here.
01:55 Jack Callinan from Clarence whose father Ian was a really strong VFL player before
02:01 taking the step up to the AFL as well.
02:03 And we've got Jordie Payne who's also from the North West Coast.
02:05 So we've got a fair smattering around the map of players and it's going to be really
02:09 interesting to see where they all go if they all go as well.
02:12 So it's not just quality, we've got quantity as well.
02:15 We've got chances of top teams haven't we?
02:17 Yeah, I think you talk about the quantity first.
02:20 We've had some really low numbers over the last couple of years so to have seven, it's
02:25 just, well it is unprecedented in recent times now.
02:29 We've had something like four combined over the last four years so to have seven and four
02:35 potentially in the first round is huge.
02:37 You have to look back at the 80s until you can get these sorts of numbers and to be honest
02:42 it's not a true representation because the footy pathway for Tasmanian footballers up
02:47 until then was really limited so it was just sort of, there was always footballers who
02:51 hadn't had a chance to go over who were just all getting a chance at the one time so it's
02:55 a bit sort of distorted.
02:57 So the seven number is truly remarkable.
03:00 Launceston as a city of only less than 100,000 people to produce four players, two very likely,
03:08 three potentially in the top ten of an AFL draft is, I don't know if you'll see it from
03:14 many other places at all, that aren't a city of twice, three times or even more the size
03:21 of Launceston so it's quite an achievement.
03:23 And Joshua you've seen these boys play and you've interviewed them, what do you think,
03:29 how are they feeling about the whole thing?
03:31 I think for a lot of them, for especially Colby and Riley, it's been a long time coming.
03:37 Like they've kind of been touted as these really top notch talents for the last two
03:42 or three years so come Monday night it'll just be refreshing to be able to say yep,
03:47 I'm finally an AFL player.
03:49 Whereas the likes of Ari, Ari had a really talented year last year, struggled a bit early
03:54 this year due to some off-field stuff which we won't go into at the moment but he was
03:59 kind of one that went off the draft radar for a little bit before really finding his
04:02 feet again.
04:04 Whereas James, James' development's been all this year, he's really shot up the ranks and
04:10 potentially from not even being drafted to now being within this top 5-20 radar that
04:16 he could go anywhere in between there.
04:19 And without treading on the toes of what you guys are doing in this mini-series, have we
04:24 got any idea where they're likely to go?
04:28 Yes and no.
04:29 I mean there's a fair, with especially Colby and Riley because they are such high prodigious
04:34 talents, it's going to be somewhere probably in the top seven for both of them so there's
04:38 a few clubs that are kind of sitting within that range that have been talked about as
04:43 being eager on them so it'll be interesting to see how that turns out.
04:47 Good stuff.
04:48 Moving on to the basketball, we are currently between our two NBL fixtures in Launceston
04:54 at the Silverdome, second one coming up this Thursday.
04:58 Talk us through it Ben.
04:59 Yeah so we obviously reviewed the game against the Bullets last Pro Spox episode, that was
05:03 a really great game, comfortably the best one at the Silverdome being played by the
05:07 Jackjumpers so far.
05:10 New Zealand Breakers are a familiar opponent for Launceston fans because not only did they
05:14 have this as their home for a little bit during COVID era, this is also going to be their
05:18 third game out of the six total games the Jackjumpers played where the Breakers are
05:23 the opponents so they do enjoy getting sent to, or maybe they don't enjoy it but they
05:27 certainly get sent to the north of the state a lot.
05:31 It should be a really good game.
05:32 These are the opponents in last year's semi-finals so New Zealand actually got the better of
05:36 them over in New Zealand, they played the Sydney Kings who ended up winning the whole
05:40 thing so the Jackjumpers will be keen to get one back on them for sure.
05:45 It's the first time they're playing this year so only them and the Cairns Taipans who
05:49 they play on Saturday, the other two teams left that haven't played.
05:53 They've had a strong start to the year again, the Breakers, they're very similar to the
05:56 Jackjumpers, really, really good, well run organisation who know how to pick up players
06:02 and know what characters they want to bring in.
06:04 It should be a really good game but I fancy the Jackjumpers for this one.
06:08 So talk me through the Breakers, mate.
06:10 Obviously when they played here during COVID times it's completely different because they
06:14 weren't able to get home and do all that thing.
06:16 Aside from the obvious of being able to go home, what's happened in the last couple of
06:20 years that's really brought them forward in the league I guess?
06:22 Yeah, so they've got usually a really good mix of local talent and then they can bring
06:28 in usually not necessarily the flashiest name in terms of import but they usually bring
06:33 in high quality, high production players.
06:36 They've actually, just because of an injury, brought in a player who's fresh from the NBA.
06:42 First names that's came to me, it's one of the Lambs, not Jeremy, it's the other Lamb
06:45 that played in the NBA but he's had a hot start to start with so far.
06:49 Look they're a really tough team to play away because they're famously in a different country
06:55 so it's just a bit harder to go and beat them over there.
07:00 Look I think they're probably about the same level as where they were last year, maybe
07:05 slightly down if that's being a bit harsh but I think the Jack Jumpers are probably
07:09 better than what they were last year so that's where I get my prediction from.
07:13 Look forward to them defending the island, that's the national basketball competition.
07:18 We also had the national cricket competition visit Launceston last weekend.
07:21 There was a Marsh Cup game played here, Tasmania against Victoria.
07:24 I covered the game.
07:26 Unfortunately Tasmania did about as well as the Hobart Hurricanes when they played the
07:30 WBBL game here as well a couple of weeks ago.
07:32 They were bowled out for 156 inside 38 overs so Victoria knew they could get a bonus point
07:38 if they got that within 40 and they got it in 36 so to win by four wickets.
07:43 There were some Tasmanian highlights, I thought Bo Webster was far and away the best batsman
07:48 but really Victoria were a different class.
07:50 Some magnificent catching, two of the best catches I've seen at York Park since it became
07:55 a cricket venue.
07:57 So there was plenty of entertainment but Tasmania just not good enough in that game.
08:02 And I suppose talk me through the crowd.
08:04 I mean it was tough scheduling, Saturday, local cricket, all that kind of stuff going
08:09 on.
08:10 You're taking out a fair chunk of your market.
08:12 What was it like?
08:13 I sound like a broken record but it was very similar to the WBBL game.
08:17 There was just nobody there and you're spot on.
08:20 I think their core audience were all playing cricket, they were playing their own game
08:25 so they couldn't come along to watch that game which is very disappointing because it
08:28 was a good, not necessarily a good contest but there's certainly some very strong players
08:32 out there and like in the WBBL game that was held, it's not like it's a low standard of
08:36 sport, it's really high standard sport.
08:39 We're getting these fixtures, we complain when we don't get them but we're just not
08:42 supporting them but the rostering didn't do us any favours and once again the promotion.
08:46 There were so many people that didn't know there was a national game going on here which
08:51 is a shame.
08:54 I think that's just about it for the week so thanks for tuning in.
08:57 Read about all of this on Facebook, examiner.com.au or in the paper.
09:01 Thanks for tuning in and see you next week.
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