The Examiner's Rob Shaw, Josh Partridge, Ben Hann and Brian Allen unpack and discuss sports news from across Northern Tasmania. Video by Aaron Smith and Paul Scambler (4/6/2024)
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:07 Welcome to episode 55 of the PressBox Examiners Weekly Sportscast.
00:12 We've got another huge week that we've been through this week.
00:15 We're gonna do our own show and tell to start with.
00:17 Brian, what have you brought for the class?
00:19 >> Well, Rob, I've got my Lonnie 10 medal.
00:24 >> [LAUGH] >> For coming 260 odd.
00:29 >> [LAUGH] >> Out of the field.
00:32 >> I didn't mention you among the winners.
00:34 Sorry, I must have overlooked that.
00:35 >> [LAUGH] >> What was it like?
00:39 >> I loved it, mate.
00:40 Yeah, it's a lovely medal too.
00:42 It's of the King's Bridge, which is near Penny Royal, looking out the gorge.
00:46 But no, it was fantastic.
00:49 Mate, it was very chilly on Sunday morning, and
00:53 I was glad I wasn't in the half marathon, because that started at 8 AM.
00:58 And by the time it became 10, 15 AM, it was okay.
01:02 The sun had been out a little bit longer.
01:04 But yeah, I really enjoyed it.
01:07 I, yeah, obviously, like to just participate.
01:10 And the fact that I like these sort of novelty events, or at least for
01:15 me, where you can do, you can say, and you feel like you've been in
01:19 a Launceston running festival, and you've done the Belford Burn.
01:22 So I just enjoy ticking them off.
01:25 >> At least you didn't fall over in this one.
01:27 >> [LAUGH] >> I suppose for you, Rob,
01:29 there's been 17 Launceston, and you've been involved with them,
01:33 with each and every one of them as either a competitor or a journalist.
01:37 I suppose, how has the event changed over time?
01:39 >> It has changed a lot.
01:41 And the biggest change, I would say, is when it first started,
01:44 it was all about the 10 kilometer.
01:46 That was the big deal.
01:47 Burnie had their Burnie 10.
01:49 Launceston wanted to get the equivalent, and it was very popular.
01:52 And the first couple, I took part in the first four or five, and
01:56 they were getting crowd attendances of 4,000 or 5,000.
02:01 Then they started to spread out, and now the big event is not the 10K,
02:05 it's the half marathon.
02:06 And this was the first time they had a world athletics label for
02:09 the half marathon, which made it a big deal.
02:11 Because it's such a flat course, because it's a cool time of year,
02:14 the athletes like coming down.
02:16 Since Richard Welsh is the organizer, and
02:18 he gets some big names down every year, we get Olympians, and
02:22 they come down, they set fast times, they love coming down here.
02:25 >> Yeah, with Sinead Diver, she is obviously someone that's gone to
02:29 the Olympics before for Australia.
02:31 And unfortunately, she wasn't well, but she still won.
02:34 Can you talk us through what happened at the end there?
02:35 >> Yeah, so we were all waiting at the finish line to interview the winners.
02:39 And she crossed the finish line, and I went to pounce on her.
02:42 And she just collapsed, and she was in a really bad way.
02:45 They were putting a heat blanket around her.
02:47 And I thought, I'll give her a few minutes.
02:50 And she was in a really bad way, but she got up, I went and
02:53 talked to her, and she apologized, like she'd done something wrong.
02:57 But she said, she sounded terrible, she could barely speak.
03:00 And she said, I felt sick the whole race, but I thought I can just get through it.
03:04 And she literally got to the finish line, and then it all came out, literally.
03:07 And yeah, she was in a really bad way, but she won.
03:10 She's won the event now two or three times.
03:13 The following morning, she was named in the Olympic team for
03:15 Paris for the marathon.
03:17 So she proves the credentials of the athletes that they get for this.
03:20 >> And I suppose while you two boys were involved with the Lonnie 10, Ben,
03:23 tell us what you were doing on your Sunday.
03:25 >> Yeah, mine was a bit different.
03:26 You might be seeing some vision right now.
03:28 I was at the long walk ahead of the Rocha-Lee-Bracknell Aboriginal round match.
03:34 And it was a really good event.
03:36 So you had the junior women's teams, you had the senior teams.
03:42 You had the state inclusion team who won the premiership last year,
03:46 walking from, it's not the longest long walk ever,
03:49 from Brooks High School to Rocha-Lee Oval.
03:53 But that was a really cool event.
03:54 And then obviously, they had a few games get played before.
03:59 There was a welcome to country, some more vision here.
04:01 It was really cool to see, really, really awesome experience.
04:05 And then the game itself.
04:07 >> And we know you like your moments of the week.
04:09 What was your moment of the week?
04:10 >> My moment of the week was, well, I think it's a pretty obvious one, but
04:14 it was Old Launcestonians playing against Perth.
04:16 Old Launcestonians were trailing by 20 points with eight minutes to go.
04:21 A few late goals, and all of a sudden, it was four points the difference with a minute
04:26 and a half to go, and they got the ball forward, and then this happened.
04:30 >> Come on, come on.
04:31 >> Come on, mate.
04:33 >> All good out there, boy.
04:34 >> Come on, come on.
04:35 >> Come on.
04:45 >> That's the goal that won them the game, obviously.
05:00 It was Will Archer, and he spoke after the game.
05:07 He was pretty self-depreciating.
05:09 He said he doesn't train at all, and he had fresh legs.
05:12 He hasn't kicked the ball since the first quarter, so maybe that's why he kicked the goal.
05:16 But it's a massive win for the O's, and yeah, it was really great to be a part of.
05:20 >> And I suppose, Rob, you were at plenty of soccer on Saturday.
05:22 I suppose talk me through some of your moments from those soccer games.
05:26 >> Well, from one Archer to another, because I was going to talk a little bit about the
05:31 import strikers that have come into the NPL this season.
05:35 Every season, the import players come in, and there's quite a weight of expectation
05:39 on them.
05:40 Everyone expects them to be blimming good, and largely, they have been.
05:44 And this season, there's been two really good success stories in Lonnie City and Riverside
05:49 Olympics import players, and I've mentioned him a couple of times before, but Thierry
05:53 Swabie, who's playing up at Lonnie City, is very entertaining to watch, and he scored
05:56 another goal at the weekend and did his Archer celebration into the crowd afterwards.
06:01 And simultaneously going on at Riverside, there was a cracking game between Riverside
06:05 and Kimbra, and Emmanuel Ponce, who's Chilean, he scored a wonder goal in that, and we'll
06:10 show you footage of both of these while I'm rabbiting on here, but they're worth watching,
06:14 because they're both good goals.
06:16 They both just keep scoring wonder goals, and they're living up to the billing.
06:19 I was going to say, you've mentioned in an article before how important these imports
06:24 are to help these young Australian kids coming through to play against these top opposition.
06:28 Yes, and I interviewed Longstress and United coach Lino Schioli, and United aren't having
06:34 the best of seasons, they're struggling, but he said he encouraged more clubs to make the
06:39 step up to the state league, because he said what a great opportunity it is for young Tasmanian
06:43 players to play with these type of players.
06:45 He mentioned the two Japanese guys up at Devonport, there's a Kiwi playing for Glenorchy, these
06:50 are good quality players.
06:52 You'd go along just to watch these guys play.
06:54 Ponce is amazing to watch.
06:58 His acceleration over the first five or ten metres is blistering, and he just gets away
07:02 from people.
07:03 There was one point during the game on Saturday, he stopped, the defender was in front of him,
07:08 and the defender was clearly scared.
07:11 Ponce put his foot on the ball and pretended to tie up his shoelaces.
07:15 The sort of thing that George Best used to do.
07:18 And then of course as soon as the defender comes in, he kicked the ball away and started
07:21 running away.
07:22 So they're entertaining to watch, they're box office.
07:26 And I suppose this weekend there's not so much local sport going on, but Brian, talk
07:29 me through what we'll have at UTAS Stadium on Saturday.
07:32 Yes, it's a huge game.
07:33 We've got the Hawks against Greater Western Sydney Giants at 1.45pm start at UTAS.
07:42 I think this will be the best quality game of the four that we get in Launceston this
07:48 season.
07:49 The other teams, the Hawks are playing, we've already had the Saints, but Fremantle and
07:54 North Melbourne.
07:55 GWS are a quality outfit with genuine A-graders in the AFL.
08:01 Toby Green, Lockie Whitfield and Sam Taylor to name a few.
08:08 Hawthorn are just in some great form.
08:12 They're exceeding expectations.
08:13 They've got Dylan Moore, he kicked five goals and had 27 possessions last week.
08:25 Will Day is a midfielder playing really well.
08:28 And Jack Guinnevan has been doing really well too since joining from Collingwood.
08:34 So expecting a high quality contest, but also feel that this might be the best attended
08:41 game of this season because we actually have the league by in the NTFA.
08:48 And because it's a long weekend, there's sort of buys in numerous sports like basketball.
08:55 But Pardew, obviously you have keen interest in this game as well, having watched both
09:03 teams across the season, what have you made of where they're at?
09:06 Yeah, they both play really exciting brands of football, like obviously Hawthorn over
09:09 the last couple of weeks have just really come into their own and started really, I
09:14 guess, buying into whatever Sam Mitchell's telling them because they're just playing
09:18 really aggressive, really fast-paced footy and GWS have always had that characteristic
09:22 about their game as well.
09:23 So yeah, it's going to be a really interesting contest between two sides that are in a fair
09:29 bit of form at the moment.
09:30 GWS had a bit of a slump, but now they're kind of rebuilding and kind of really playing
09:35 pretty well.
09:36 So it'll be a really interesting contest, I reckon.
09:37 I'll just piggyback on what you were saying before.
09:40 David Cox, the head of Tasmania operations for Hawthorn, was talking about how not just
09:44 NTFA, the NTJFA as well have been buying, Netball has been buying.
09:47 So a lot of all junior sport and senior sport is all pretty much being stopped.
09:53 So there's going to be a massive audience for people who are interested in the sport
09:57 who will want to see this game.
09:58 So I think you're right, it could be a really well-tending event.
10:00 Yeah, I suppose the only thing going against it is being the long weekend, people usually
10:04 go away, but I think hopefully, yeah, they'll get enough buy.
10:09 Yeah, not much troubling sport either, but I think we're definitely looking at over 10,000,
10:13 which I think is a success for Hawthorn.
10:15 And they got a good crowd for the St Kilda game, didn't they?
10:17 Yeah, that was one of the best crowds since, the best crowd since COVID, before COVID.
10:22 So yeah, it's good to see people flocking to the footy at UTAS.
10:26 And just following on from that, so it's not a buy in the soccer, but it is the statewide
10:31 Cups and the big three are being played on Monday.
10:34 So there's very little soccer on on the Saturday.
10:36 As you said, no netball, no basketball.
10:39 Yeah, it's a great opportunity to get along and we're going to throw, all three of us
10:43 are going to go to the game.
10:44 We're going to get the photographers there as well.
10:46 So we'll have plenty of talk about next week.
10:49 Yeah.
10:50 Okay, thanks very much for tuning in.
10:51 Read all about it next week and tune in again next week.
10:54 Thanks.
10:55 Thanks.
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