The Examiner's Ben Hann and Josh Partridge discuss construction works at sports facilities across northern Tasmania for episode 77 of The Press Box. Video by Aaron Smith and Paul Scambler (27/11/24)
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00:00Welcome one and all to another episode of The Press Box.
00:10My name's Ben Hand.
00:11You're alongside me once again.
00:12It's Josh Partridge.
00:13Episode 77 for you guys today.
00:15So entering the end of the year, I definitely fully into cricket season, Josh.
00:20And with that in mind, it's everyone's favorite segment, numerology.
00:31So Josh, in light of this week's wonderful performance from Cricket Australia in the
00:38test match over in WA, where we convincingly lost to India by nearly 300 runs, I thought
00:46I'd shine a light on our Chairman of Selectors, George Bailey.
00:50Obviously a Tasmanian, in fact from Launceston.
00:55George Bailey's List A Average and ODI Average combined makes today's number important in
01:04Tasmanian sport.
01:0540.5 ODI Average plus 36.8 List A Average equals 77.3.
01:15So that's where we get today's numerology from.
01:17Getting better every week, mate.
01:19Well, we are off to a flyer.
01:21With that in mind, we are going to do a fair, quite literal, around the grounds.
01:27There is a lot of construction happening, Josh, at various prominent Tasmanian sporting
01:33venues.
01:34We obviously start off with Launceston's big ticket item, UTAS Stadium.
01:39You were at a press conference recently.
01:42Take us through maybe, we all have a basic understanding maybe of what's happening, but
01:46what's actually happened in the last few weeks.
01:48Yeah, so pretty much North Launceston's change rooms, which are the ones directly underneath
01:53the Carlton Draft Stand at UTAS Stadium, pretty much they have created a bit of a blank canvas
01:58in there to revamp it, pretty much.
02:02So they're upgrading the player, umpire, and officials' change rooms.
02:06But the good thing about all this is there's going to be no disruptions to when Hawthorne
02:10come here.
02:11So it's meant to be done in March or April, which will then mean that Hawthorne will be
02:15able to use those change rooms with no disruptions at all, which is pretty handy.
02:19Well, it's going to be pretty important that they get done in March and not April, because
02:23that first game is March 29.
02:25It's going to be a theme for a lot of this UTAS Stadium build is that they're going to
02:29be under a lot of pressure to make sure this stays right on time, if not beforehand, because
02:34there's a lot of things that are relying on these milestones happening when they are said
02:39to happen.
02:40Because the last thing I think UTAS Stadium needs is a pretty construction-looking build,
02:48just as the Devils are trying to get everyone involved and everyone happy, because infrastructure
02:53obviously has been a hot-button issue.
02:55Speaking of which, another sporting organisation that's not been happy with Launceston's infrastructure
03:00has been the Jackjumpers and the NBL.
03:03The Silverdome, it looks like, will get the fixes that they say are needed.
03:09I'll just quickly take you through roughly what's going to be happening over there.
03:14It's quite fan-directed as well as team-directed.
03:18There'll be more amenities, so your food and beverage stands, there'll be more of those.
03:25They're increasing the capacity to 4,000, which I think is a really good number for
03:29NBL games.
03:31But I think something that will please the Jackjumpers most of all is new change rooms.
03:35So, said to be elite new change rooms, and I think that's always been a bug there,
03:41have been the current existing change rooms.
03:43I think elite are several levels up from what is currently the facilities.
03:47You might be right.
03:48At the Silverdome.
03:49And then adding to that is a new floor system, is what they call it, but effectively a new
03:53floor, because they ended up having to transport Hobart's 1-up for this season because it
03:58was considered so poor.
03:59So that's really well.
04:00And then obviously a sport that we both play, Josh, Launceston's Tennis Centre, perhaps
04:05the longest waiting of all these.
04:07Take us through maybe how that's going.
04:09Yeah, so the Tennis Centre was open in the early 2010s and since then they haven't had
04:15a facility there, a clubhouse, a facility for the players to kind of sit and relax while
04:21they're not playing their games and things like that.
04:23So that's, how close, how far away is it from being done?
04:27It's looking very good.
04:28It's looking fantastic there.
04:29Yeah, I've actually spoken to someone who is at Fairbrother and has been leading the
04:34project and he said it's been all hands on deck, expected to be done by the end of December.
04:40So we're hoping for it all to be ready to go by the end of this year, which I think
04:45is needed.
04:46So everyone knows exactly how it all works, all the buttons, everything else by the time
04:50that Launceston International comes in February, I think it's going to be really important.
04:53But it's a really positive thing, something that's really well overdue, but how great
04:57for the sport.
04:58Yeah, and it's not just for the members that use that thing, it's also a community space
05:03as well.
05:04Obviously right next to Kmart there, right next to the gym, it's in a pretty central
05:08location where a lot of people go past on the daily, so it's going to be really good
05:12for not just the sport but the community as well.
05:15It's going to be a central hub for tennis players in the north, whether you do play
05:19at that centre or whether you play at a regional, like a Riverside or a Trevallon or something
05:23like that, to have everyone in one place and be able to converge on that.
05:27I think something that's often been pitted against Tennis World is that there isn't that
05:30much of a community there.
05:32A lot of people are members of that venue, but you'd argue that's because there are no
05:37places for people to, after they've played a game of tennis, stay, have a beer, have
05:42a drink, have some food and be an actual club and a community.
05:46And I think hopefully this will be what is needed for that to happen.
05:50Another community venue that has long awaited this new development is Churchill Park, obviously
05:57the home of junior soccer in Launceston, but hosts to a lot of other sports as well, Josh.
06:02It's getting a new bathroom.
06:04Rob wrote a very funny, our sports editor, Rob Shaw, wrote a very funny opinion piece
06:09about this last year.
06:11But I suppose how important is it getting things like, you know, more toilets so that
06:16when you host these big events that they're actually catered for.
06:19And it's not even the big events as well.
06:20It's just, of a weekend, so many people are going through that facility that the little
06:25small things like that are going to be, it's just going to be so much easier for families
06:29of all sizes to use Churchill Park because it's a venue that so many people go through
06:36and it's a little bit dated as well.
06:38So just to have the simple facilities there, more of them will be fantastic.
06:42Yeah, exactly right.
06:44It's such a crucial venue for Launceston.
06:46It hosts so much sport that I think people probably think it's a bit underappreciated
06:51because it isn't necessarily the most popular sport.
06:54It doesn't really host footy.
06:55So I think it flies under the radar just how important that venue is to Launceston, especially
07:00junior sport.
07:02And we're very pleased to see that there's a proposal there to bring some more facilities
07:07to the venue.
07:08Now, Josh, we're going to go to a different Around the Grounds, this time a bit more in
07:13the usual sporting sense.
07:15Take us through how the Cricket North season's going so far.
07:18We're what, six, seven weeks into the season so far.
07:21Yep.
07:22So leading the competition at the moment is Riverside.
07:24But just to give a bit of context to the readers, they're currently playing the Greater Northern
07:30Cup.
07:31So they play against, the Cricket North teams play against teams from the Cricket Northwest
07:34competition as well.
07:35So Riverside are on top of the ladder there, but then you've got a big bunch of Cricket
07:40Northwest teams in La Trobe, Ulverston, Sheffield and Burnie.
07:43Most of those actually have played a game less than the teams above them.
07:46So it's really, really big for the Cricket North teams to get a few wins on the board
07:52soon.
07:53You've got Westbury, Mowbray and South all on three wins and four losses just in this
07:57middle patch there.
07:58That's going to be really important for them to jump each other and to see who's going
08:03to be the strongest Cricket North team out of that bunch.
08:06And then you've got Launceston on two and six as well with Devonport just above them
08:11and Winyard just below.
08:12So it's a really interesting part of the ladder.
08:15So all of those one day matches get finished before Christmas and then after Christmas
08:20the Cricket North teams play their two day competition, but then they also try and finish
08:25this Greater Northern Cup competition out of the top four.
08:29That's it.
08:30And I suppose for a bit of context, how many wins do you think are required?
08:35You know, you talk about in AFL how sometimes the 12 win mark is the one that gets you into
08:40finals.
08:41Would you say it's maybe six or do you reckon maybe even seven is probably the watermark
08:45to confirm finals?
08:46Yeah, I think with 11 teams, if you win your seven, you're only losing four games.
08:52So I suppose you're probably only losing to one member outside of that top four.
08:56So I think seven is going to have to be the number.
08:59Yeah, good stuff.
09:00I suppose another thing that's been going on in the background that's, you know, I suppose
09:07sport in a sense is the Tassie Devils have announced that a member survey has come out
09:13to members who have effectively applied for it, that they can have a contribution to what
09:21the club song should sound like.
09:23So who will produce it?
09:24What sort of process goes into actually choosing the song?
09:26We've obviously had two most recent examples.
09:29JWS obviously have a real hit of a song.
09:31I think everyone likes their song, but West Coast, when they change their song, I'm not
09:34sure I know anyone who likes their song.
09:36So you can really hit and miss with this.
09:38And I think it's really important, a small thing to get really right for the Devils.
09:42So my hand is hard hitter.
09:44Well, first of all, we introduce the segment.
09:46Everyone's landmark segment, I think, hand is hard hitters.
09:57So my hand is hard hitter this week, Josh.
09:59I got a bit excited.
10:01What artist would you choose to develop the Tass Devils theme song?
10:06I think they're going to have to take a page out of the Jack Jumper's book here as they're
10:09going to have to do with many things and pick Luca Brasi.
10:12I mean, Tasmanian band and just really lend themselves to that style of music.
10:16I've seen them live a couple of times and that's what they do.
10:20So I think that's probably going to be somewhere they'll go.
10:23What do you think, Ben?
10:24I think maybe go with Brady.
10:25I think, you know, it's such an icon of AFL, you know, singing obviously up there because
10:30it's such a famous song.
10:32You know, I would also be happy with Luca Brasi as well.
10:35But I think, you know, someone like Brady would be obviously a really good choice.
10:38Now, Josh, it's picking up some real steam, but I think this week might be the absolute
10:44very best.
10:45I'm really excited to present this.
10:46This is Josh's Local Hero of the Week.
10:56My Local Hero this week goes to another cricketer, Aidan O'Connor, who has recently been picked
11:03in the Prime Minister's XI team.
11:05He's going to play India this week.
11:07That's pretty wild for an 18-year-old kid from Launceston to be taking on India.
11:12Follows in the footsteps of his girlfriend as to getting the Local Hero of the Week nomination,
11:17so he'll be thrilled with that.
11:21But no, very, very quality young lad and he's currently playing in the Tasmanian Second
11:26XI as we speak, so he's got a really big week ahead of him as to really press his future
11:31claims for higher honours.
11:33Yeah, so obviously one day you're playing against Rohit Sharma, Mo Shami, potentially
11:38even other Indian or global stars, and then the next day having to take a bus trip out
11:44to Burnie.
11:45It is really the highs and lows of Tasmanian cricket.
11:48That's a bit harsh on Burnie, but I suppose that's all the time we have for this week.
11:53We'll join you guys for the next one.