In Episode 81 of The Press Box, Ben Hann and Josh Partridge discuss the Hobart Hurricanes' Big Bash League victory. Video by Aaron Smith (30/1/25)
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00:00Welcome, one and all, to another episode of The Press Box.
00:10My name is Ben Hand.
00:11Joining alongside me once again, or for the first time this year, is Josh Partridge.
00:15It is episode 81 of The Press Box, Northern Tasmania's second best sports podcast going
00:21around, I'd say.
00:23And to kick things off for the new year, Joshua, is another landmark segment of numerology.
00:36So elephant in the room, you're wearing a hurricane shirt for pretty obvious reasons
00:43for those who have been living under a Tasmanian-sized rock for the past 24 hours.
00:50The Hobart Hurricanes, for the first time in BBL or WBBL history, are title winners.
00:55They are the champions, held at their home ground of the wonderfully named Ninja Stadium.
01:02They knocked off the Sydney Thunder by, I think it was, seven wickets in the end, largely
01:07thanks to one man.
01:09A man who, before the start of this season, not many people would have much clue about.
01:14Mitchell Owen has launched himself, not only into the spotlight of Australian cricket,
01:20but into quite high paychecks, I'd say, around the world.
01:24He's going to be a very sought-after man.
01:26He's scored a record century, we'll get into that later.
01:30But for this segment, it's important I preface that, because for this segment, he's 108 was
01:40his score, and we're going to minus that by, and in brackets, please, Joshua, we might
01:45even get a little bit of a graphic up showing this maths equation, Harry's shaking his head.
01:5113, which was Caleb Jewell's score, plus that 13 with another 13, which was the extras for
01:59the Hurricanes innings, plus Chowdhury's single run that he made in that knock, so that's
02:0527.
02:06So if you take Owen's 108 and that 27 combined total, you minus the 27 to get 81, and that's why.
02:13What a fantastic, brilliant, and straightforward segment, man.
02:16What a great start to our combination for the year, but no, it was obviously a fantastic
02:20win by the Hurricanes last night, chasing down the Sydney Thunders' score of 178, which
02:26was already, if they were to get that total, was going to be the highest chase in a Big
02:31Bash League final, and they just came out and did it rather comfortably, thanks to Mitch
02:36with 35 balls remaining.
02:37So Mitch, I mean, we can just talk about it all day, really, but as you said, 108 off
02:44just 42 balls, brought up his century on his 39th ball, which tied with Craig Simmons for
02:50the fastest BBL 100, hit 11 sixes and six fours.
02:55It was ridiculous, wasn't it?
02:57Yeah, Craig Simmons tweeted after the game asking if he can share the KFC meal voucher
03:02with him.
03:03Craig, famously, was a rather portly man, but equally big hitter.
03:08It was a game of massive swings of momentum.
03:12I think if you were to ask 14,500 out of the 15,000 Hurricanes fans at the ground on Monday
03:20night whether they thought the Hurricanes were going to win 10 overs into the Sydney
03:26Thunders' innings, I don't think any of them would have said yes.
03:31The Thunder were none for 98 after 10 overs, and David Warner and Jason Sane were just
03:38absolutely flying.
03:39It was a testament to, I suppose, what the Hurricanes have been so good at all season.
03:44They've got so many different contributors who can perform for them all night, but it
03:48all started, I think, with their captain, Josh.
03:51Yeah, Nathan Ellis.
03:52We were talking about this before.
03:54The 11th over that he bowled, two wickets in two balls to remove both Warner and then
04:00Matthew Gilkes.
04:02It was just simply fantastic.
04:05We almost had a hat-trick.
04:06I mean, the ball fell just short of Tim David, and we thought, oh, that's the best thing
04:10we're going to see today.
04:11An almost hat-trick, and we were very wrong, but yeah, Ellis to bowl his four overs, three
04:17for 23, have no boundaries hit off his bowling, and then Riley Merritt to back it up.
04:21Sure, some of his wickets were a bit later, but three for 27 off his four.
04:26When you basically put it like that, six for 50, that's a fair chunk of the innings,
04:30and that's really set up the win for Mitch Arnold to go out and do what he did.
04:34Yeah, absolutely.
04:35Riley Merritt, I think, helped really apply that pressure and make sure it wasn't just
04:40Ellis, that line effort.
04:41The whole not conceding a boundary in a game like that is simply a remarkable effort from
04:46him, but still, the Thunder were 181, I think, which is, as you mentioned, there was a record
04:53chase that the Hurricanes had to put down.
04:55I don't think they did a lot wrong in their batting innings, to be honest.
04:59I think what was probably the most revealing about that knock from Mitch Owen was just
05:08how much he never gave the Thunder a sniff.
05:11It was no chances.
05:13He seemed to know exactly where the Thunder bowlers were going to bowl.
05:15They chucked spin at him, they chucked pace at him, they chucked everything at him, and
05:19he just seemed to know exactly how he was going to play the next bowl, and it didn't
05:24seem to matter what the Thunder did.
05:27I think he brought up, as you mentioned before, how it's been a record of a half century and
05:31a century.
05:32You know, Caleb Jewell was sitting at the other end, having faced about three rocks,
05:38and he was part of an 18-run stand, and it was like six overs in, and it was just, yeah,
05:43it was simply remarkable what we saw.
05:47It will probably go down as one of the great moments in Tasmanian sporting history.
05:51And I suppose with Jewell's contribution as well, we can sit back and kind of laugh
05:54at that, but he knew that he had to be at the non-strikers end.
05:57He knew that, oh yeah, I can just hit a single, get off the mark, get off strike, and Mitch
06:01can just do what he's doing, because what's the point of me being on strike if my partner's
06:04hitting sixes nearly out of Belle Reve, the suburb?
06:08So no, it was a very good innings from both parties.
06:13I just want to lastly touch on, for the Hurricanes, you know, they probably have struggled in
06:19recent years with their crowds, as well as much as their on-field performances, I think
06:23that's directly correlative.
06:24I think they only average about four and a half thousand to their games, but the last
06:30two finals games have been packed out, and not just packed out, they've been really loud,
06:34great atmospheres.
06:35I suppose how exciting for you, as someone who's been around this sort of atmosphere
06:42the whole time that BBL has been around, was it to see, how great was it to see a full
06:46Blundstone Arena, Ninja Stadium, you know, making so much noise?
06:52Yeah, that's the most packed I've seen the Hill for quite a while, and even there was
06:57talk about, with the semi-final, they kind of limited a few tickets on the Hill to make
07:02sure that it was still a safe environment for everyone, but that was packed last night.
07:06And you can just tell, when balls were hitting to the crowd, blokes were trying to take catches
07:10and they were spilling over three groups of families in the background, trying to take
07:14hangers, but no, it looked like a fantastic place to be, and I think that's really what,
07:20not just Cricket Tasmania, but Cricket Australia want from the whole product, they want everyone
07:23to be able to take their families and have an enjoyable night, and that's really what
07:27that grand final looked like.
07:28Yeah, exactly right, and the chance of Let's Go Owen ringing around the stadium was something
07:32I know I'll remember, and I think Minge said at the time, that he'll remember for the rest
07:36of his life.
07:38With that being said, we will move into something that you've probably all been waiting for,
07:43you've probably almost skipped half the video just to make sure you get to this moment.
07:47It is the pivotal segment in this show, Handy's Hard Hitters.
07:59So this actually, I think, we are returning to a bit of a hard hit here, maybe some of
08:03my questions have been a bit soft in recent episodes, but what is a bigger moment in Tasmanian
08:08sport, bear in mind it's less than 24 hours when we're recording this since the final,
08:13between the Hurricanes' title win last night, and the Jackjumpers' made it to the NBL title
08:20last season?
08:21It's just the contrasting stories there, it's crazy, because obviously with the Jackjumpers,
08:26they didn't have to wait long, and that's made the beauty of that story as well, but
08:31then with the Hurricanes, the beauty of the story is that they've had to wait so long,
08:34so I am going to go with the recency bias and say the Hurricanes, I think it's being
08:42a cricket nut as well, it's something I've been slightly more invested in, and that'll
08:45obviously come to the fore when you probably have your say here, but no, I think it's just
08:51the Hurricanes and just what they're able to do, that's not discrediting the Jackjumpers
08:56at all, but no, I've gone with the Canes.
08:58I think it's tough, I tried to look at this question from a cultural standpoint, so what
09:05means more to the people rather than the achievement itself, because I think both, it's really
09:10hard to compare, because both are great achievements, I think my recollection of the Jackjumpers
09:20was that week, Tasmania, which has historically never been a basketball state, and obviously
09:29it's not just been that week, but that week especially, you could not escape conversations,
09:35banners in windows, cars going around, the whole state was grim, it was remarkable.
09:44Last night almost felt like it was like a road show, it was like this thing that we
09:49were sort of half lost interest in, and like, oh, is the BBL really what it used to be,
09:55and then for two days in Hobart, it went absolutely off, and the on-field performance obviously
10:01adds to that, because it was such a historic day.
10:04But I think the Jackjumpers, what they achieved culturally, will probably stand the test of
10:11time more than the Hurricanes.
10:13And I think with the Jackjumpers as well, it really united the state, a state that has
10:17historically never been united about anything, whether it be beer, whether it be whatever,
10:22we can't really agree.
10:24So the Jackjumpers still have done what they've done as well.
10:26You might have nearly turned me over the fence there, Ben, but move on to the next segment
10:31before I say anything too dumb.
10:34Exactly right.
10:36And with that in mind, it is the newest segment, but by no means the least popular.
10:40In fact, I'd actually argue it could now be becoming the most popular, Josh.
10:44It is Josh's Local Hero of the Week.
10:54This isn't a hard one.
10:55No.
10:56We've talked about him for most of the episode, but Mitchell Owen is the Local Hero of the Week.
11:01Being a Tasmanian, there's a famous photo now that's going around the internet of him
11:07on the hill watching as a kid.
11:11He's grown up around the hurricanes, and for him to go out and do what he did for the
11:14hurricanes on Monday night, it's truly special.
11:17And truly, I think this is going to be the best award he wins all week, but congratulations
11:21to Mitchell Owen, my Local Hero of the Week.
11:25That's a great assessment, and for now, I think now, we can probably close the book,
11:30he will stop being confused with Riverside middle-order batsman Matthew Owen.
11:36So Mitchell's finally climbed out of his shadow, which is good to say for the young man.
11:41I think it was a pretty simple choice, and it's just great to see that sort of generation
11:46of sport now, with the BBL, the kids growing up watching it, and now quite clearly a dream
11:51come true for him.
11:52It's obviously what they're hoping for for the AFL team in years ahead, so hopefully
11:56it comes to fruition.
11:57Exactly right.
11:58And that's all the time we have for this episode, we'll catch you guys for the next one.