The Examiner bids farewell to sports editor Rob Shaw in this special episode of The Press Box. Video by Aaron Smith (22/10/24)
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00:00Welcome, one and all, to a very special episode of The Press Box.
00:11It is episode 72.
00:13My name's Ben Henn.
00:14Joining alongside me is Josh Partridge and Hamish Gill, our special guest, recurring
00:19guest I should even say.
00:21Before we get into anything, we'll start off with everybody's favorite segment, numerology.
00:28I do have a bit of a special one today, so a little bit of personal info.
00:43If you take the ages of Josh and I, 23 and 25, that equals 48.
00:49If you then minus Brian's age, he's the big 30, 30, that's 18, and then Rob, for the purposes
00:56of this film, is 54 years old.
00:59That equals 72, so there we go, and that's fitting because we do have a really special
01:05episode for you guys today.
01:07We are saying goodbye to an institution of the Examiner, Rob Shaw, the Sports Editor,
01:13retired a couple months ago now, but we thought today was a really good opportunity to say
01:19goodbye to one of the boldest of the bold trio that we had running there for a little
01:26If we go by the numbers, 22 years Rob has been at the Examiner, that's roughly 960 stories
01:33per year, which equates to about 21,120 stories in total for the Examiner.
01:43He has been Tasmania's best Olympics, cycling, soccer, athletics, croquet, and orienteering
01:49reporter for some time, but for us, as I'm sure it is for you, his writing ability matters
01:56little compared to the brilliance of his character as a boss, as a colleague, and for us, as
02:01a friend.
02:02He has recently had to step away due to a health scare.
02:06Fortunately, he is in great shape and we, you know, first of all, wish him all the best
02:12for the future, but today we're going to be reflecting on what's been an institution of
02:17long session of Tasmanian sport.
02:20So I'll hand it over to you two to go through potentially a few of your favourite moments
02:26or stories that he may have written or anything else during your time with him.
02:30You guys have spent an extensive amount of time with him.
02:32Josh, I'll let you go first.
02:34Yeah, I just, I think there was one in my very early days on sport, he got a phone call
02:39to his desk and it was, that wasn't out of the ordinary, he got a lot of phone calls
02:42to his desk, but he's chatting away and this one sounds a little bit interesting and I'm
02:46like, yeah, what's, what's going on here, blah, blah, blah.
02:48And he gets off the phone, I was like, who was that, Rob?
02:51He goes, oh, it was just Caroline Wilson.
02:53She just wanted to get a bit of background in before she went on air tonight.
02:57And I was like, what?
02:58Like, yeah, she must have been doing something on Tasmania and the AFL bit at the time.
03:04And I was just like, okay, just so she comes to you often.
03:08He's like, yeah, she, she knows that I know more about Tasmania than she does.
03:11So she gave me a call.
03:14So that just blew me away, but it kind of showed, I guess, the, the impact that Rob
03:17had, not just in Tasmania, but around Australia and all that kind of thing in, in how in-depth
03:23his knowledge is and all that kind of stuff.
03:25So yeah, that opened my eyes pretty early.
03:27Hey, what about you?
03:28That's excellent.
03:29Well, one of my first interactions with Rob was, I came in for kind of work experience
03:34when I was, I don't know, let's say 18, 19 or something.
03:38And I was there for about two weeks and he spent those whole two weeks kind of making
03:43me cups of tea, which I think is the opposite of how I like usually runs, but, um, no, there's,
03:49there's obviously so many like amazing memories, but I think, um, something that's really kind
03:54of fun that people may or may not know about kind of Rob is his ability to do like shorthand,
03:58which is pretty much like, well, all journalists like these days have like a phone recorder,
04:03like, and you kind of record everything and then go back and write it all down, use auto
04:07or whatever.
04:08But, um, if kind of Rob was doing like an interview, he could, he had this kind of writing
04:13language that as people were speaking, he would just kind of write it all down.
04:18And it was in this crazy language that obviously no one, it's very similar to hieroglyphics.
04:23Yeah.
04:24But it's, um, I think that was always a spectacle kind of both for, um, journalists and also
04:29people that he was speaking to was really kind of fun and yeah.
04:34And obviously, um, you know, he's had a lot to do with you guys personally and professionally,
04:38but like, I suppose, how important Josh, has he been to your development, um, as, as
04:43a journalist and, and obviously outside of, outside of your work as well?
04:46Well, allegedly I wouldn't be hired if it wasn't for Rob as he likes to tell me as much
04:52as he can, but no, um, I, I came into this job having only done some freelance things
04:57here and there.
04:58Um, I'm not a university educated or anything like that.
05:01So I, I owe everything to Rob, uh, as, as big as that sounds, but I learned on the job
05:07from Rob.
05:08Um, and yeah, he walked me through for the first probably year or so how to make each
05:13of my stories better.
05:14And I think, uh, every time I sit and write a story now, you think of the things that
05:19Rob's told you on how to write stories.
05:21So, um, and that's not just for me or the sports journalists, it's for other news journalists
05:25as well.
05:26We've got some new journalists in the newsroom that just before he left, were able to tap
05:31into his knowledge and he was really excited to be able to teach them how to, to go to
05:35the profession.
05:36So, um, I owe a fair bit to him as, as you would as well, Hammer.
05:39Yeah, he's, he's an ex like he's a really brilliant teacher.
05:43He's a really great teacher.
05:44And I think one of the great things about kind of Rob is kind of not only is he an excellent
05:49journalist, he's great at it, but he also makes everyone else in the newsroom better.
05:54And he really, he, he, he really likes helping people.
05:57He loves helping people.
05:58He loves kind of seeing people grow.
06:00So he's, he isn't only like a great, uh, kind of writer in his own right, but he's also
06:06a great, he's also a great team player.
06:08And that's really special about Rob.
06:09It'd be pretty similar for you as well, Ben.
06:11Yeah, a hundred percent, um, infinitely better writer than when I started here.
06:16And that's Joshu, uh, no small part on, on, on, on his front.
06:19I suppose for you guys, you know, he often talks about a writing voice.
06:23He says, Hammish, you have a great writing voice and, um, you know, he obviously has
06:27his own book, which I found in the, in the discount part of, uh, Petrux recently, uh,
06:33$9.99.
06:34The price should go up.
06:35$9.95 is a steal.
06:37Uh, but I would just sort of the, to have that sheer body of work, he's obviously covered
06:42multiple Olympics.
06:43He's been, um, at forefront of a massive, uh, sort of period in Tasmanian sport.
06:49Um, how influential, I suppose, has he been, um, not just for us personally, but for the
06:54broader community in, in letting us understand just how big, you know, Ariane Titmuss, Ricky
07:00Ponting, all these other teams, uh, the Jack Jumpers, um, have been, um, in Tasmanian's,
07:05uh, sporting history.
07:06Yeah.
07:06I think it's a testament to him that he's actually close friends with some of these
07:10athletes now.
07:10Like that would have started as just a journalist and athlete relationship, but especially,
07:15uh, Richie Porte is obviously the first one that springs to mind, uh, George Bailey or
07:19Ricky Ponting, which one wrote the forward to his book?
07:21One of the George, George, yeah, they, they formed a working relationship.
07:24George penned a column for the examiner for, I think it was a few years.
07:28And, um, that, yeah, George Bailey then wrote the forward for Rob's book.
07:31So it's those things that you can see that he's cracked behind the journalist athlete
07:36relationship and really showing what some of these athletes are like as people.
07:40And so that's the real testament to him, I think.
07:42Yeah.
07:42And I think we saw kind of when the news that came out about, um, him, I suppose, leading,
07:48like, I think we really saw all of those athletes that come online and say, Rob, you are a
07:53champion, like, well done, thank you.
07:55So I think that really kind of shows the, um, respect that he has in the sporting, um,
08:03community.
08:03Yeah.
08:04Yeah.
08:04I suppose, um, just one last question is, um, besides the shorthand, uh, what's maybe
08:10something that people don't necessarily know about Rob, uh, that he might not show publicly
08:15for me, I just always love how passionate he is about Brighton, a place he came from,
08:20um, obviously and used to write about them.
08:21He can really claim to have been there since the start, um, back when they were down in
08:25the fourth division or, you know, um, but for you guys, I suppose, what's, what's one
08:30thing that maybe not everyone might know about him as a character, um, that, that you've
08:35grown to love?
08:35I think equally it's his love for Tasmania as well.
08:38So, um, originally he just came to Tasmania as a holiday because his wife was born in
08:43Tasmania and then effectively they've rarely left since apart from Olympics and all that
08:48kind of jazz.
08:49But, um, yeah, they were only meant to come over just to, uh, with their son Daniel in
08:532002 and, and barely left since.
08:56So, um, yeah, I think he's love for Tasmania and all things, not just Tasmanian sport,
09:01but the wilderness especially, um, is something that you'd read through some of his writing,
09:05but it's just something to behold really.
09:08Yeah.
09:08He's, he's probably kind of walked or, or like ridden his bike around every like mountain
09:13or even like a small hill in Tasmania.
09:15If like, have you seen, he's probably like traveled in some areas.
09:18So yeah.
09:19Yeah, absolutely.
09:19Um, and it takes us to, uh, our landmark segment that had to stay in, even with this special
09:25episode, uh, it's Hanny's Hard Hits.
09:27Yeah, we love it.
09:35So fellas, um, to round this out, um, what about Rob are you most grateful for in terms
09:43of his impact on you or, you know, his character, his humor, anything else?
09:47Yeah, I think I mentioned it before, but it just has to be hiring me.
09:51Wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for him.
09:53So, uh, yeah.
09:55Thank you, Rob, I guess.
09:57Yeah.
09:57I think I'm kind of very much, you know, I'm similar, but on this part, I owe a lot of
10:01my employment to Rob Shaw.
10:02So thank you.
10:03Several times.
10:05It is a legacy of all being employed by him.
10:08Um, I really, and I don't think this is going to be something that goes away for at least
10:11us.
10:12Um, I've always loved his humor.
10:14He's sort of dry, dryness and ability to be, uh, uh, you know, really almost sarcastic
10:21with, with how he thinks about life.
10:22And it's, it's always been a breath of fresh air.
10:25And, uh, you know, he's always really looked after us as people, um, you know, uh, work
10:31life balance is not something that comes easily in this profession.
10:33And he's always put that, um, first and foremost, and something that I know we're all very
10:37appreciative of.
10:38Um, and unless there are any final thoughts, um,
10:42Oh, I just think it's been an excellent time and excellent job, Rob.
10:46They'll miss you.
10:47Yeah.
10:47And I think for me, Joshua just did that.
10:49Yep.
10:49Yeah.
10:50I'll put you back off that.
10:51Right.
10:51Yeah.
10:51Well, that's all we have time for.
10:53Thank you, Rob, for all the memories and we'll catch you guys for the next one.