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 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Welcome to episode 34 of the Press Box
00:10 The Examiner's Weekly Sportscast.
00:13 We're gonna be talking AFLW Draft this week,
00:15 plus NBL and a bit of local cricket.
00:18 We're gonna kick off with the AFLW Draft,
00:21 been you all over it yesterday.
00:22 Talk us through what happened.
00:23 - Yeah, absolutely.
00:24 It was, I think it was a night of mixed feelings
00:26 for a few Tasmanians last night.
00:29 Obviously, the night kicked off with a bang
00:31 for Tasmanians with Brooke Barwick,
00:34 who spent all of this year with an ACL injury,
00:37 hasn't played any football,
00:38 but such is her talent that she's shown in previous years
00:41 that Weston Bulldogs, who finished last in the ladder
00:44 with just one win, took her pick four before Collingwood,
00:48 then took her Glenorchy teammate,
00:50 Georgia Clark, at pick eight.
00:52 And then the third Hobart player was taken,
00:55 Kingborough's Mackenzie Ford,
00:58 who will stay in the yellow and black.
00:59 She'll be going to Richmond after being selected at pick 43.
01:02 But there was, yeah, one to miss out,
01:05 unfortunately, Tanisha Kikowet.
01:07 - And obviously, Tanisha now, I suppose,
01:10 it's a tough thing from here.
01:11 I suppose, where do you think she possibly goes
01:13 with her football from now?
01:15 - Yeah, well, look, it's tough for Tanisha
01:17 because she came in, she'd spoken to at least
01:20 six or seven clubs.
01:21 Kevin Sheehan, a football guru, put him,
01:25 sorry, put her in his top 30 prospects of the draft.
01:28 So I don't think anyone really saw it coming
01:30 that she would be overlooked.
01:32 Devils is obviously no longer an option for her.
01:35 She's 18, so she'll probably look to go to the VFL,
01:39 VFLW, I should say.
01:40 Probably maybe even in North Melbourne.
01:42 She played a game against Collingwood earlier this year
01:44 for North Melbourne in the VFLW.
01:46 So it is by no means the end of the road for Tanisha.
01:49 She's a really resilient character.
01:50 She's getting better with leaps and bounds
01:53 over the last two years.
01:54 So I don't expect this to be the last time we hear her name.
01:57 - Yeah, and on the back of the success that we had
01:59 in the men's draft, it's been a huge year for Tasmanians.
02:02 - Yeah, I suppose to have, what was it, seven all up,
02:06 to have seven young adults go to AFL clubs, AFLW clubs,
02:10 it's a fantastic result for the state.
02:12 And to have them spread out across the state as well,
02:15 obviously the four men were from Launceston
02:19 and the three women have been from Hobart.
02:21 So to have those results,
02:23 and especially someone in Brooke's case, as you said,
02:26 who didn't play any football at all this year,
02:27 was ruled out basically on the eve of the season
02:30 with an ACL injury,
02:31 it just shows how much of a quality player she is.
02:34 And obviously person as well.
02:36 I know she helped out with the Devils program
02:39 in the coaching role at times as well.
02:41 So it just shows, I guess, her footy IQ
02:44 and how much that's valued in the AFLW landscape.
02:46 - Yeah.
02:47 Staying with national competitions,
02:49 I covered the NBL game at the weekend,
02:51 Jack Jumpers against the Sydney Kings.
02:53 It was nice to get an opportunity to go down
02:54 to the Derwent Entertainment Centre
02:56 and watch the game live.
02:58 And I actually watched it from the crowd.
03:01 I wasn't there on a press pass.
03:02 I went in and joined the crowd and loved it.
03:04 And it's such, my son had been telling me
03:06 what a good atmosphere the games are.
03:08 And Sydney Kings won the game,
03:10 but the spectacle that they put on at the deck there
03:14 is so strong and it was a great event to be a part of.
03:17 - Yeah, and I've been to the games up in Launceston
03:20 this year in the press box.
03:22 (claps)
03:23 (laughs)
03:25 You know, it's obviously a great event.
03:27 They really make it a show.
03:28 Like an event, massive light sort of spectacles,
03:32 really loud noise.
03:33 And I think maybe the smaller environment helps,
03:36 but it's a really loud atmosphere
03:37 and it really shows you live sport at its best.
03:40 Do you feel like they get it just as well done
03:43 down in Hobart?
03:44 - Oh, I would say even better.
03:46 And the other, I hadn't been to an event at the DEC
03:48 for a long time.
03:50 And the other thing that really impressed me was
03:52 we didn't rush to get away at the end,
03:55 but we got in the car, we drove away and left.
03:57 And it was that easy.
03:59 We were at Bridgewater within about 10 or 15 minutes.
04:02 So it can take that long to get anywhere near
04:05 getting out of the car park at the Silverdome.
04:07 So the whole setup down there is really good.
04:10 It's a good spectacle.
04:11 It's easy to get to and enjoy.
04:14 It's very family friendly.
04:16 There were so many kids there.
04:18 And kids as young as well, there were babies in arms,
04:20 but there were a lot of kids aged nine, 10, 11,
04:24 just loving it.
04:25 - I know it's always hard to compare sports
04:27 and we don't really like doing it,
04:29 but how well do the Jackjumpers do that
04:32 compared to some of the other sports
04:34 that we've had hosted events in Tasmania?
04:36 - I think they're the benchmark for doing it.
04:38 You contrast the promotion
04:40 and the fact that they're selling out every game
04:42 to the WBBL and the BBL,
04:45 as you experienced the other week.
04:47 I just think that they show how to do it,
04:49 how to promote a game, how to put on a spectacle
04:51 and how to get families involved.
04:52 And that's what the BBL was like when it started
04:55 10, 15 years ago,
04:57 but I don't think they're succeeding anymore.
04:59 - Yeah, no, absolutely.
05:00 And I think probably helps that the Jackjumpers
05:03 have a really exciting team at the moment.
05:06 The Hurricanes, probably, you know,
05:09 their constant sort of not being quite,
05:11 you know, the perennial team,
05:12 except maybe a couple of years there,
05:14 probably means that some fans are probably
05:16 just not as enthused about the occasion anymore.
05:19 But yeah, there's something to be said about,
05:21 you know, packing people into a slightly smaller arena
05:24 and just making as much noise as possible.
05:26 They give them the clappers,
05:27 like they give them everything to make
05:29 as much of an experience as possible.
05:30 - And it probably helped that it was second against fourth.
05:33 A lot of the Jackjumpers players are real fan favorites.
05:37 Everyone loves Scott Roth as well.
05:38 So they're a good team.
05:41 They're likeable people and they put on a good spectacle.
05:43 What's not to like?
05:44 - Exactly right.
05:45 - And you do mention the smaller arena.
05:46 I suppose that obviously does help things
05:49 and it does make the place as atmospheric,
05:52 I don't know if that's a word,
05:53 but I've just made it one, as possible.
05:55 So, but yeah, as you said, they're constantly filling it.
05:58 And the demand as well is the bigger thing.
06:00 I think there's so much demand outside of the,
06:03 however many they can fit in there.
06:05 People just want to get there and go, don't they?
06:07 - Yeah, absolutely.
06:08 Moving on to local sport,
06:10 and obviously still very cricket dominated
06:12 right in the middle of summer as you'd expect.
06:14 So a cricket North this weekend, Josh,
06:16 they moved into the T20s.
06:17 - Yeah, they had their T20s.
06:18 So all of the five teams played each other
06:21 across the weekend and Riverside came away with four wins
06:26 and Westbury with three.
06:27 So they'll meet in the grand final Friday,
06:30 January 12th at Windsor Park at 5.15.
06:33 So that'll be a really interesting clash, I suppose.
06:36 In the match between the pair,
06:38 it was the first game of the weekend.
06:39 So it was really hard to, I guess,
06:40 gauge which side is potentially the better one
06:43 because it was so early into the weekend
06:45 that I hadn't really,
06:46 neither of them had obviously played a game before that
06:48 and had a chance to really adjust to the shorter format.
06:51 So in a couple of weeks time,
06:53 that'll be really interesting
06:54 to see those two teams meet at Windsor Park.
06:56 - And it helped that there were no
06:59 Greater Northern Raiders commitments.
07:00 So a lot of the big players were available.
07:02 - Yeah, on the Sunday.
07:03 Yeah, on the Sunday.
07:05 Lots of teams had their full strength outfits on the park
07:09 on the Sunday.
07:10 And as you said,
07:11 there'll be no Greater Northern Raiders commitments
07:12 on that Friday.
07:14 So that'll be really interesting
07:15 to see the likes of Cooper and Thizzen.
07:18 Probably not Aiden O'Connor.
07:19 I think Aiden O'Connor will have--
07:20 - He flies out two days earlier.
07:21 - Yeah, so he'll have his
07:22 under nine World Cup duties at that time.
07:24 So he won't be going to the,
07:26 gracing the park,
07:26 but Westbury will have the likes of John O'Chapman as well,
07:28 who will come in and steam in for Westbury.
07:32 Another big thing that happened over the weekend
07:34 was in the TCL competition.
07:36 Longford's Richard Howe, their captain coach,
07:39 smacked 190 off 128 balls
07:42 in what was a club record for the Tigers.
07:45 I have mates at Lugana who they played against
07:49 and they said that they dropped him on zero
07:52 and potentially 30 as well.
07:54 So a very long day for the Lugana men out in the field,
07:58 but he hit 19 fours and 12 sixes
08:02 and they made four for 341 off 40 overs.
08:07 And then just because he hadn't had a bigger day already,
08:10 he went out and took five wickets.
08:12 So--
08:13 - Gee whiz.
08:14 - Will he sneak into your team of the week?
08:16 - Yeah, he might do.
08:18 - Batting at 11?
08:19 - Yeah, a bit down the order, I think.
08:21 - Honestly, though, I'm not sure I've heard
08:22 of many better local cricket individual games.
08:26 Five wickets and 190 is nearly unheard of.
08:29 - Yeah, it's an okay effort, isn't it?
08:31 I think that was quite funny on the,
08:33 Longford put up a Facebook post
08:34 and he'd overtaken another club mate who'd scored,
08:39 I think it was around 180 earlier this year
08:41 for their individual record,
08:42 and he just replied, "Average strike rate."
08:44 (laughing)
08:45 It just shows what local cricket is,
08:46 a bit levelling, isn't it?
08:48 - Yeah, that's right.
08:49 I think that's all we've got time for this week.
08:51 We're gonna take a couple of weeks off for Christmas,
08:53 but we'll be back mid-January.
08:55 We hope to see you then.
08:56 (upbeat music)
08:59 (upbeat music)
09:02 (upbeat music)
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