Sports reporters Ben Hann and Josh Partridge unveil Scottsdale's new coach in episode 75 of The Press Box. Video by Aaron Smith (12/11/24)
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00:00Welcome one and all to another episode of The Press Box, it's episode 75.
00:11My name is Ben Hand, joined alongside me once again is Josh Partridge.
00:15We're deep into November, you'd think cricket territory, but in fact we're still in footy
00:20territory as it turns out, but before we get to any of that, first of all it's everyone's
00:24favourite segment, Numerology.
00:32So for this week Josh, we've gone to Scottsdale-born cricketer Xavier Doherty, obviously more known
00:39for his Georgetown exploits, had a really good career, you'd agree Josh?
00:45His test career was a bit brief, unfortunately that is the bit we're going to focus on just
00:49for this, a bit of a Scottsdale themed episode.
00:52Xavier Doherty averaged 79 as a test bowler, the lack of wickets probably hurting him there,
00:59and he only played 4 test matches, so 79 bowling average minus 4 equals 75, so that's the numerology
01:06for this week in Tasmanian sport.
01:09Look unfortunately for Xavier, the left arm orthodox wasn't quite getting it done in the
01:13Red Bowl 5 day game, but you know, still a great cricketer nonetheless.
01:17Yeah absolutely, I think it was that game in Adelaide that really, I think he went one
01:21for 150 odd and that might have hurt him a bit.
01:23Yeah, that doesn't do a lot for the figures, there's no doubt.
01:26Speaking of Scottsdale, we've actually got some really hot news off the press pretty
01:31much by the time you guys are watching this episode, it might have been a couple of days,
01:35but you're about to head out to Scottsdale Josh, some pretty massive news.
01:40They are about to announce a coach, it's been a big search to find this person, but Ricky
01:47Dolliver, who is a Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame, he's in that, so he's been inducted
01:53there.
01:54He's played everywhere, so he played as a 17 year old, he made his debut in Hobart,
01:59then he played in Burnie when he was 23, and South Lawney when he was 33, so he's played
02:04in every corner of the state, he's a very experienced football head, which is really
02:08what Scottsdale need, obviously to start with they might have wanted a playing coach, but
02:13that ship kind of sailed I think, given how late they had to appoint someone, but they've
02:19got a really experienced footy head, which is what they need down the North East.
02:22That's it, and there's probably been a lot of outside speculation that they didn't necessarily
02:26deserve or influence themselves, so how important is this for the club that's been through a
02:32pretty tough period, to be able to now have some really positive news and hopefully use
02:37this as a launching point to have a really positive campaign next year.
02:40It's massive, they've got a really strong behind the scenes group there at Scottsdale
02:45with President David Mullins, they've got Peter Gutwin as their patron coming out and
02:50basically saying how strong the North East could be, so to have Ricky there as the figurehead
02:55is going to be brilliant.
02:58That's the second coaching announcement that we've had in the past week with South Lawney,
03:02also announcing Grant Holt and Tom Foon as their co-coaches, so they've gone with a different
03:08vein, they've gone two younger, inexperienced co-coaches to go together, so it'll be interesting
03:14to see I guess how the approaches go when the season comes next year.
03:18It really is one extreme to the other, they're 24 and 23 respectively, obviously very good
03:23senior players, there's no doubting their talent, but it'll be really interesting to
03:25see how they coach, for a lot of the players, players that are older than them, obviously
03:31you've got Brendan Taylor there as assistant coach too, so Grant actually spoke on the
03:36matter and said, look this is not just going to be us three, this is going to be an entire
03:39club driven process, you've got a really great development program which you also touched
03:43on as well, I think South Lawrence has been really well placed going into next year, so
03:48good times at Yonge Town Oval, but we'll move on to the landmark segment, the bit that really
03:54everyone tunes in for, it's Annie's Hard Hitters.
03:57So Josh, for this week's Annie's Hard Hitter, we've got, where do Scottsdale finish in the
04:10inaugural NTFA Premier League season?
04:13That's a good question, I think they finish 5th, so that's above Deloraine who are currently
04:19the only side without a coach at time of recording, reason for that is, because they haven't had
04:26a coach both teams, they haven't really been able to announce recruits, attract players
04:30to the club and all that kind of thing, and Scottsdale did beat Deloraine in their last
04:34game that they played each other last year, 27 points if I'm not mistaken, so I think
04:40history is going to repeat itself in that clash throughout the year, but I wouldn't
04:44be surprised if they share the chocolates when they play each other.
04:48That's it, it's really hard to predict obviously because we don't know what Deloraine are going
04:51to have and we don't really know the full extent of what players are going to be where,
04:55but I probably do agree with you at this stage, it's so important getting a coach in as early
05:00as possible, Deloraine could be imminently announcing a coach, but for now you've got
05:07to say that Scottsdale are a better place than Deloraine and as you said, prior record
05:11would indicate that maybe they will continue to have that slight advantage.
05:16Moving on to slightly more serious matters I suppose, and onto a different code, we've
05:22got basketball and the Tasmanian Jackjumpers, they sort of righted their ship a little bit
05:27on the court, they got a really strong win against league leaders New Zealand Breakers,
05:30but unfortunately any of the on court performance was completely overshadowed, Scott Roth was
05:37quite emotional in his press conference after the game, here is some of what he had to say.
05:41This last 24 hours has been quite emotional for our group, very emotional and we have
05:51a lot of distraught players and family members and wives and spouses and children, and we
05:58have been attacked brutally through social media to the point where it's ugly, the threats,
06:08we have a player that's wife is pregnant and they wish for a miscarriage, and these
06:13attacks have been going on for weeks and it came to a head yesterday, we deserve better.
06:25So obviously really alarming claims, the players themselves probably cop a lot of hate from
06:33social media, anonymous people all the time, which is obviously not acceptable in itself,
06:39but unfortunately it's a little bit of given.
06:41But when it comes to approaching and directly messaging wives, families of players, that's
06:50really where it becomes really not acceptable, even more so than what it is.
06:56Christine Finnegan spoke to me after Saturday night and said, I would be surprised if there
07:03were actually Tasmanians, but until we've got to the bottom of it, I guess everyone's
07:07under the microscope.
07:09I think if Basketball Australia deem it necessary, they will refer it to the police and we'll
07:14leave it with people much more qualified than us to deal with that.
07:19In terms of punishment, match day ban, which seems like the obvious punishment, also not
07:25match day ban, a lifetime ban seems like the obvious punishment, but likely as Christine
07:29said, they're not actually from here, they're not even from Australia.
07:32And they're probably not even basketball fans.
07:36It's high chance it's gambling related, which is really disappointing, but it's unfortunately
07:42something that's kind of crept into Australia's sporting culture, especially with the social
07:46media now over the past decade or so, but yeah, it's obviously very disappointing nevertheless.
07:53That's it.
07:54There's criticism and then there's what was alleged to have been said here, and obviously
07:59we hope that the player and the family affected are doing okay, because it's really disappointing
08:05and quite upsetting to hear about.
08:08Unfortunately, whatever was going to come next was going to sound a little bit trite,
08:11but we do have a slightly lighter end to the show.
08:16Following its storming debut, Josh, we've got another little segment of Josh's Hero
08:22of the Week.
08:30And I'm just going to give a quick shout out to our video editor, Aaron.
08:33This is a fantastic little introduction that's probably better than the segment itself.
08:37I'm not going to talk down my segment, but it is a fantastic video.
08:40That's how good the intro, the sting is.
08:43Yes.
08:44My Hero of the Week this week comes from another cricketer.
08:46It comes from Westbury's Tom Chambers.
08:49He took 4 for 36 off 10 overs for Westbury against Wynyard.
08:56It was...
08:57It was against Wynyard.
08:58Was it against Wynyard?
09:00On the weekend.
09:01And as a young leg spinner, that's incredibly challenging in A-grade cricket.
09:04So it's really good to see Tom, who's a ripping fella as well, really go well at the A-grade level.
09:11Yes, him and Ludwig Einkemeyer, I should say, from Riverside are the two upcoming leg spinners.
09:17And unfortunately for Tom, there's such a depth of spin bowlers at Westbury.
09:23There's every chance he might end up getting dropped, which I think is a brutal way to react to that.
09:27But I think that probably says more about the strength that Westbury have in their stocks.
09:32I think that's all the time we have for this week.
09:34We'll see you guys for the next one.