The Examiner’s Rob Shaw, Josh Partridge and Ben Hann unpack and discuss the sports news across Northern Tasmania.
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00:00 Welcome to another edition of the Pressbox, the Examiner's weekly sportscast.
00:11 We still got no Brian Allen this week.
00:13 He seems to think a romantic weekend going around the Mediterranean with his fiancée
00:17 is more enticing than spending time with us three.
00:20 So he's a bit of a strange cat.
00:23 Speaking of Europe, Ben, you've just come back from Europe and I understand you went
00:26 to quite a few venues of sporting excellence, but you also went to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
00:33 Thanks for that, Rob.
00:34 Yeah, I did go to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
00:36 It's a very impressive stadium.
00:38 It's really, really massive, just even in the corridors and the halls, just the scale
00:44 of the whole thing was amazing.
00:47 But it's just about time that the on-field performance matches the off-field facilities,
00:52 but the less about that, the better.
00:54 Did you get to see Brian and Hovhjeilby win there?
00:56 No, no, I haven't been able to do that.
00:59 I'd recommend it.
01:00 Anyway, moving on.
01:01 So we're going to talk about the Netball Grand Final that was played last week and
01:08 that wrapped up the netball season and it was a very fitting end to what's been a fantastic
01:13 season in netball in Tasmania this week.
01:16 Grand Final was between the two northern sides, Hawks and Cavaliers.
01:20 Hawks had dominated the season but then lost to Cavaliers in the first week of the finals,
01:24 which put Cavaliers straight into the Grand Final.
01:27 Hawks then bounced back, beating Crips to qualify and it was a great showpiece.
01:32 It ended up being a really good day up at the Silverdome.
01:35 The Hawks won the Opens final, so they knocked Cavaliers off, bounced back from that defeat,
01:41 but Cavaliers had the consolation of winning the 19s finals.
01:43 It was a great way to finish off the season.
01:46 We'll just show you a little video of the last few seconds of the game as it was obvious
01:50 that Hawks were closing in on the win.
01:57 [Cheering]
02:05 [Cheering]
02:13 [Cheering]
02:21 [Cheering]
02:28 [Cheering]
02:36 [Cheering]
02:47 So like I say, it was a really fitting end to the season.
02:49 Ben, you've covered a lot more of the netball than I have this year.
02:52 How do you look back on the season?
02:54 Yeah, I think probably the best team won the season.
02:59 It's probably fair to say Hawks were dominant from the outset and you felt like maybe Cavaliers
03:06 could have stolen it just because of how impressive they were playing.
03:11 As each round sort of went on, they kept building and building and building.
03:15 But really, the Hawks just have so much class.
03:18 Obviously, it helps having probably the best player of the competition over the past five years
03:24 at goal shooter, but their ability to execute in the big moments, which they've done so many times
03:32 in the past and they've had so much experience with, I think probably was the main difference
03:37 between the two teams, especially considering how young the Cavs were this year with a lot of change
03:41 and stuff like that. But I'd expect both teams to be right there again next year.
03:46 So it bodes well for Northern Netball.
03:49 Yeah, what do you think, Josh?
03:51 Yeah, I think from the game that I went to, the Hawks were just fantastic.
03:55 They started well and they just maintained this level throughout the game, regardless of what the Cavs
04:00 were putting at them. So yeah, as you said, the best team won and the Cavs certainly weren't far away,
04:06 but the Hawks were certainly the stronger team.
04:08 And you mentioned the goal shooter, so you're obviously talking about Ash Moore,
04:11 and I interviewed Ash at the end of the game. I love talking to Ash.
04:15 She would make a great poker player. I wrote a story about her this week.
04:19 She never celebrates any of her goals, and when I was interviewing afterwards, I said,
04:24 "You don't show a lot of emotion, Ash," and she said, "I'm ecstatic."
04:28 As dead straight-faced as that. But there was a lovely touch, and it showed her class
04:33 with about five minutes to go, and it was obvious that the Hawks were going to win the game.
04:36 Ash grabbed the attention of Alicia Sargent, the Hawks coach, and pointed at the bench,
04:42 and within a couple of seconds, she had gone off and some of the reserve players had come on.
04:47 I shouldn't say reserve players, some of the non-starting players.
04:50 And it was because she wanted them to share in the grand final, and I thought that was a moment of class
04:55 from Ash, who could have gone on and got more of the 40-odd goals that she did get,
05:01 but she just wanted to share the moment with her teammates, and I thought that spoke volumes for the season.
05:05 I thought it was a great showcase to finish the season. The Silverdome looked magnificent.
05:09 I've heard a few rumours that there may be international netball fixtures coming back to Tasmania.
05:14 It would be great if they did. I remember seeing Australia playing New Zealand in a Constellation Cup game
05:19 at the Silverdome, and it was a great venue. And it's very clear where the hotbed of Tasmanian netball is at the moment.
05:25 Four of the last five grand finals have been All-Northern affairs, so it would be a fitting reward if they did get fixtures there.
05:33 I'd also just add that netball Tasmania themselves have always spoken really highly of netball up here,
05:39 saying that the South, they need to pick up their game up to the level of Northern netball,
05:46 because of just how dominant and how strong they've been over such a large period of time.
05:50 And on that, I interviewed both coaches at the end, Luke Harder of the Cavs and Alicia Sargent of the Hawks,
05:56 and they both spoke really well. They're great people to talk to. Here's a little bit of what Alicia had to say.
06:01 Oh, ecstatic. It's such a testament to the girls and all the work they put in, the sacrifices they make throughout the season.
06:08 And just, you know, that team attitude, that team presence out there, like from everyone, that typifies that.
06:15 And it's so nice to see it when it all comes together and they get rewarded for just putting the team first
06:22 and all that effort they've put in all year.
06:24 Moving on to football, and Josh, a few things going on in the State League this week.
06:29 Well, I'll start with the on-field. I'll get into it delicately.
06:32 So, North Launceston beat Launceston by 30 points at Windsor Park on Saturday.
06:37 They came out and they kicked seven goals in the first quarter to three, and that's about 24 points.
06:43 So that was basically the margin throughout the whole day, and it maintained like that.
06:46 Off-field, yeah, so...
06:49 Anything going on?
06:51 Today there is a meeting between AFL Tasmania, the NCFA and the TSL to kind of flesh out
06:57 what's going to happen in 2025 once the TSL license expires.
07:02 But one of the key parties, the North Launceston, they've said they're not going to come to this meeting
07:07 because they feel this workshop that they're doing is too far down the line.
07:12 They felt there should have been more consultation with some of the clubs before this workshop now
07:17 because kind of the decision was made to end the TSL without a lot of consultation, they feel.
07:23 They feel like it wasn't made with enough consultation, especially with the Northern clubs
07:27 being only two Northern clubs compared to five Southern clubs.
07:30 And they feel that they're kind of being hung out to dry and they're kind of just pieces in the chess game.
07:37 Without listing all 37 of Thane's questions, Thane Beatty had a lot to say about it this week.
07:42 What is the crux of his concerns?
07:45 So he's worried that...
07:48 North Launceston, he does use the word... he used the word homelessness.
07:51 He said that North Launceston could not really exist.
07:55 Obviously in its current state, they're not going to exist the way they are now.
07:59 But I think so he had 13 questions and then 24 sub-questions was what we went with.
08:04 And it was... the 24 sub-questions were all about the NTFA and I guess how...
08:09 one of them was how do the NTFA clubs feel about the TSL clubs coming into their kind of current operation.
08:16 Obviously it is going to look different.
08:18 It will be really interesting to see what plays on from here.
08:22 Some people still want the TSL and obviously the two Northern clubs are the two main drivers for really wanting the TSL to stay.
08:30 I can't see that happening.
08:32 I feel like there will be some sort of new competition of some sort.
08:37 But it's not going to be pretty from here on in, I wouldn't have thought.
08:40 Speaking to Fletcher Bennett about it, just from a player's perspective as well,
08:44 he was sort of warning that not just him but players will probably look to leave,
08:50 not only Launceston but probably Tasmania to look for that sort of high-level football.
08:55 With respect to the NTFA, they don't want to, what they feel is take a step backwards.
09:01 How do you, if you're out for Tasmania, how do you navigate that issue?
09:05 Yeah, it's a really interesting one because they feel that going back to the regional footy is navigating that issue.
09:12 Because Damian Gou yesterday, he said that while players from Tasmania have gone to the Sample and the VFL etc,
09:21 he said that that's not a positive thing.
09:24 It's really a negative thing to the current TSL model and how that works.
09:28 So it's really interesting to see and it'll be really interesting to hear what they have to say about that
09:35 because it's an issue that's not necessarily going to be sold for the sounds of what Fletcher had to say.
09:41 It's interesting that we've just been talking about the success of the State Netball League and the two strong northern sides
09:47 and how healthy that competition is.
09:49 We've got a similar situation in the State Football League with two strong northern sides and it looks like it's coming to an end.
09:55 Yeah, it's hard isn't it when you see the success of the Netball League.
10:00 It's so hard but there's so many invested parties in football in Tasmania so everyone has an opinion.
10:08 It's to its detriment but it is positive as well that everyone wants their cut of the pie with Tasmanian football.
10:17 I suppose I'll just, I know you're getting a lot of firing questions over here,
10:22 but I'll just also ask about the VFL team obviously is probably the instigator for change here.
10:29 Do you think the potential fruit of getting maybe VFL football down here will keep enough high quality talent down in the state
10:38 or do you reckon you'll see an exodus?
10:41 I would have hoped so, but one of Thane's main issues was that potentially they could migrate south
10:48 instead of staying in the north because the south have five TSL clubs that are going to go and play in their own little comp.
10:54 That's kind of the expectation I think. So one of Thane's worries is that the northern players would go down south
11:02 to be attracted by the VFL and AFL scouts or whatever's going to be around the place.
11:07 So I think yes, I think players will stick around in Tasmania. Some will leave like Fletcher said,
11:13 but you'd like to think that some would be attracted by the VFL model and hopefully it's able to work.
11:20 And we're recording this on Wednesday when the meeting is being held today,
11:24 so keep an eye on examiner.com.au for the updates of how that meeting's going to go and what resolutions it comes to.
11:30 So looking ahead to this weekend, what TSL have you got on this weekend Josh?
11:34 TSL, Northlawn system play Clarence, but it's down south so I'll be sitting in front of a live stream
11:39 trying to get all the things from that and obviously speaking to Brad Cook, it's good draft of the game.
11:43 Yeah. NTFA, what's happening this weekend Ben?
11:45 Well it's a big weekend in NTFA, there's only a few rounds remaining so pretty much every game matters
11:52 in terms of what next season will look like or even just post-season will look like for a lot of teams.
11:57 And I'd probably say this week's biggest game is South Launceston versus Longford in the NTFA Premier Men's Division.
12:06 Yeah, two really big hitters in the competition going out for it.
12:10 Also keep an eye on the Women's Premier Division because right now there's sort of two groups,
12:16 some of them playing for the top spot or higher positions in the finals and others are playing to stay in the league
12:23 so it's going to be really interesting to see how that one plays out.
12:25 We're kind of in that transitional period that we always get at this time of year where netball finished at the weekend,
12:30 basketball's now finished in terms of the Tawns and we're coming to the end of all the footy season.
12:35 So I'm focusing on soccer and the big game this weekend for Launceston is the NPL Derby between Riverside Olympic and Launceston City on Friday night
12:43 so that'll be my main fixture of the weekend.
12:45 Thanks for tuning in and keep reading The Examiner, there it is in newspaper form, keep buying it.
12:52 Thanks for tuning in and hopefully see you next week.
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