The Examiner’s Ben Hann, Brian Allen and Josh Partridge unpack and discuss the sports news across Northern Tasmania.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello one and all to another episode of the Press Box.
00:10 Episode number 40 today.
00:12 Rob is off on a mountain somewhere once again,
00:15 so I'll be retaining hosting duties for another week.
00:18 I'm joined by Josh Partridge and Brian Allen alongside me.
00:21 We've got an action packed show today,
00:23 so we'll just do a quick shout out first of all
00:26 to Adno Conno who won the Under-9s
00:28 Cricket World Cup with Australia,
00:30 the Tassie Tigers who've secured another WNCL final,
00:33 and the Jackjumpers who have made the NBL playoffs
00:36 for a third straight year.
00:37 But we'll start off with cricket north, Brian Allen.
00:42 It was a pretty action packed weekend.
00:44 - Yeah, I was just talking to Sol Scott from Riverside
00:49 over the weekend after he'd got a hat trick,
00:52 which is very rare in two day cricket.
00:56 They were all bowled out, which is,
00:59 I think, even more impressive.
01:01 And he said a great line.
01:04 He said, "Every week somebody's doing something crazy
01:09 in like this league this season."
01:12 It summed it up really well because there's been
01:15 two hat tricks that Jack Colgrave from Riverside's
01:17 got one as well in the T20s.
01:19 There's been numerous centuries,
01:22 there's been coming of age stories
01:24 of teenagers stepping up.
01:26 So yeah, we had Sol with the hat trick
01:29 and South Launceston's coach, Nathan Phillip,
01:32 with 130 not out from 170 balls.
01:35 So they were two of the big individual performances.
01:40 And yeah, just talking to Sol Scott was very funny
01:45 because his hat trick over, it went for 11.
01:49 He was hit for two fours, a two,
01:51 then he bowled a front foot no ball,
01:53 and then he got the three wickets.
01:55 So, and what topped it all off is in a celebration,
02:00 he got hugged and dragged to the ground
02:03 and all that sort of stuff.
02:04 And he ended up with a blood nose.
02:07 He went back, the next over he goes back to
02:09 feeling the slips.
02:11 He ends up on the wrong side,
02:12 but in fairness to him, it was a left hand batter.
02:14 So, an easy mistake to make,
02:16 but the guy was disorientated.
02:18 And he was trying to clean up his nose.
02:21 So yeah, it's truly one of the great stories.
02:24 (crowd cheering)
02:27 - And just for South, obviously,
02:33 such an impressive knock from Nathan there.
02:36 How important is it for them that he's finding his form
02:39 at the right time of the year?
02:41 - Yeah, it's kind of scary because like I really rate
02:44 Nathan Philp as probably the top batter in the group.
02:47 - And you're certainly not alone there.
02:49 (laughing)
02:49 - Yeah, look, yeah, he's just somebody that,
02:52 I've only been here for two years,
02:53 but it's clear that he's a highly consistent run scorer.
02:58 And he really showed that last year.
03:01 Pretty sure he got a couple of centuries.
03:02 And yeah, this season it's been different.
03:05 We're not kind of used to seeing big runs from him,
03:08 but what's been happening is that South have often been
03:11 winning games, thanks to their bowling
03:14 and then their openers and their top few batters.
03:17 And he bats at five.
03:17 So he hasn't actually been out in the middle all that often.
03:21 And yeah, it's really good to see him doing well.
03:24 It's kind of scary going towards finals
03:26 because I'm pretty sure South will make it
03:28 and if he's playing well,
03:31 you know, it's going to be tough for the other teams.
03:32 - Absolutely.
03:33 We'll move right along to TCL.
03:35 It's been pretty, you know, I suppose,
03:38 hotting up that sort of top spots, you know,
03:41 Evendale Panthers and Longford and the rest.
03:44 How have you seen the last sort of few weeks with TCL?
03:46 - Yeah, this week there was some upsets.
03:48 I mean, it's kind of run its course
03:50 and kind of been pretty, not obvious,
03:53 but it seems like the results have been going to plan
03:56 for a whole bit of the year.
03:57 But over the weekend, the top two teams,
04:00 Evendale and Hadspen, both were defeated
04:02 by Lugana and Perth, who, to be honest,
04:05 they haven't had the seasons that they would want to,
04:08 wanted going into this year.
04:09 They're both sitting in the bottom three
04:11 and probably will miss out on finals.
04:13 It looks like the top four is pretty well set,
04:15 but yeah, they both emerged victorious
04:19 with some pretty big upsets on the weekend.
04:20 So both games went down to the final over.
04:24 Perth's to the final ball with a two off the last ball
04:29 with the 10th wicket pair.
04:30 So that game really, and it could have gone either way,
04:33 right until the very end, but yeah.
04:36 And Lugana defeated Evendale by three wickets.
04:38 So it's a really massive results for those teams
04:43 towards the back end of their season,
04:45 but it'll be interesting to see how the makeup
04:47 of the top four is going forward.
04:49 - And how important is it to a competition like this
04:51 to keep it sort of vibrant that these sorts of teams
04:53 can beat the top teams on any given week?
04:55 - Yeah, it's fantastic.
04:57 I mean, if you look at the TCL over the last,
05:01 you're probably gonna say 10 years,
05:02 it's not always the same teams,
05:05 but you've got a pretty strong top three or four
05:07 that are pretty much going to win.
05:09 And it's really good to be able to see your Luganas
05:14 and your Perths, especially Lugana,
05:15 who have been relegated from Premier League before,
05:19 so, and then come back up.
05:21 So it's massive to see that club
05:23 who are going through a fair bit of change at the moment.
05:25 They're about to relocate to the new primary school
05:28 and all that kind of thing.
05:29 It's massive for their club and their community
05:32 to be able to pull off a win like that.
05:34 - Yeah, 100%.
05:35 We'll keep moving.
05:36 NGFA, so Football Changing Currents now
05:38 to that middle bowl just there.
05:40 There's obviously been a lot of change over the off season
05:44 with the announcement of the Northern Premier League,
05:47 where four teams will be joining
05:49 North Launceston and Launceston in 2025.
05:52 We've had, firstly, a bid from Bruton North
05:55 announced late last year,
05:57 but Brian, there's been two more teams join the fold.
06:00 - Yeah, well, we're coming up to this early March
06:04 sort of timeline that we're being told
06:05 is when it will be revealed,
06:07 which six teams are gonna be playing
06:09 in the Northern Premier League.
06:10 And yeah, South Launceston,
06:13 we're happy to announce that last week,
06:16 which was no surprise.
06:17 They've got a strong junior program,
06:19 and they've got under 18s, women's,
06:23 men's, seniors, and reserves.
06:25 And the president, Steve Hibbs,
06:27 yeah, just said the criteria,
06:30 the one key part of the criteria
06:31 is you need to have those four teams.
06:33 And so, and that wasn't really a secret to us.
06:36 We kind of knew that.
06:37 So, and then, yeah,
06:40 he would have also announced that they're going forward.
06:42 And yeah, slightly different with Hillwood.
06:44 They don't currently have an under 18s,
06:46 but yeah, the president there, Max Pearce,
06:48 was sort of saying that there might be some leniency
06:52 from the NTFA about if you don't have,
06:54 you know, say an under 18s,
06:55 they might be able to help you and reestablish that.
06:58 - Yeah, I certainly think that once the teams are locked in,
07:02 they then become destination clubs.
07:04 You will have kids that will go,
07:06 "Oh, Hillwood are in this league.
07:08 Let's go play at Hillwood."
07:09 And you'll have groups of mates.
07:10 You'll have four, five, six people
07:12 who might play footy elsewhere and go,
07:13 "Okay, that's where we want to go play our footy now."
07:16 And it'd be interesting to see if Hillwood are selected,
07:20 I suppose, how that will go.
07:21 But I think I read in your piece
07:23 that they've already,
07:24 they appointed a coach as well, maybe?
07:26 - Yeah, Todd Russell.
07:27 So that, yeah, that's, yeah,
07:29 appointed him with the idea of having a structure in place
07:33 to cater for the juniors.
07:35 Yeah, you know, hopefully if that eventuates.
07:39 - So, yeah, what about yourself, Ben?
07:42 What are you making of all the N2FA stuff?
07:43 - Well, I find it interesting that they've announced,
07:46 or they hope that they can get Tamar Cats,
07:49 oh, I said Tamar Demons, sorry,
07:50 'cause they're involved as a junior football club
07:53 to develop a junior pathway.
07:55 I get the feeling that's also where Bridge North
07:58 are looking for their bid,
08:00 is the Tamar Demons for a junior pathway.
08:03 So it'll be interesting that these two clubs
08:06 effectively are trying to grab this one junior club
08:09 to be part of their successful bid.
08:12 It's gonna be interesting to see who has a stronger bid,
08:15 'cause it does look like they're competing
08:17 a little bit directly with each other.
08:19 But there's a lot to play out still,
08:21 obviously, as you said, about a month, I'd say,
08:23 until we hear anything about this.
08:25 But, yeah, I suppose it's probably not a bad thing
08:29 that the more teams that apply,
08:31 'cause it means you get to pick from the best of the bunch,
08:34 rather than, you know, just whoever applies.
08:36 - Hmm.
08:37 With everything there,
08:39 I think that's all the time we have.
08:40 Thank you for joining us for another episode
08:42 of the Press Fox 40, can't believe it.
08:44 We'll see you next week for another one.
08:46 (upbeat music)
08:49 (upbeat music)
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