The Examiner’s Ben Hann & Josh Partridge unpack and discuss the sports news across Northern Tasmania.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello and welcome to another episode of the Press Box.
00:11 Rob Shaw, our usual host is away on leave for five weeks.
00:15 So I'm Ben Henn, I'll be your host for this week at least.
00:18 I'm joined by Josh Partridge,
00:19 who's back from a pretty interrupted January.
00:23 We've also got Brian not here today,
00:25 so it will just be the two of us,
00:26 but how have you been Josh?
00:28 - Yeah, not too bad mate.
00:29 - Ben, absolutely waiting, jumping at the bit
00:33 to get back in this seat and do the Press Box with you.
00:34 What number are we at today actually?
00:36 - We're actually at 38, so we're nearly at the 4-0.
00:39 We're nearly, we're getting closer and closer to one year.
00:43 We're well over halfway, so.
00:45 (laughs)
00:46 Thanks for joining us through all those times.
00:49 We'll start off today with the agenda items.
00:52 So we've got Adno Connor playing
00:54 in the Under-19s World Cup for Australia.
00:57 We've got Sophie Parker, Elise Page,
00:58 playing their 100th games for Riverside.
01:00 The first ever Riverside women's players to do that.
01:03 And then we've also got the NTCA development proposal
01:06 and the column I wrote in response to that.
01:08 And we'll finish off with some writers.
01:10 But we'll start off with Aiden.
01:11 You obviously know Aiden quite well,
01:15 having grown up with him and played a lot of cricket with him.
01:17 What's it been like for you watching him play
01:19 for Australia and South Africa?
01:21 - To be completely honest, it's been crazy.
01:23 I've known Aiden since he was about 12,
01:25 and he's now 17.
01:27 So to see his journey over time.
01:30 We haven't actually played much cricket
01:32 on the field together.
01:33 We were two ships passing in the night.
01:35 He was going up as I was sliding down.
01:37 (laughs)
01:38 So haven't done much with him on field,
01:41 but no, he's, despite our pretty big age difference
01:44 between us, he's always been around the boys and always.
01:46 So to see him playing at this level is fantastic.
01:50 And yeah, there was a lot of boys
01:52 down at Riverside Cricket Club the other night
01:54 that watched him and got around him.
01:57 And it was fantastic to see,
01:58 even though he kind of struggled with the bat.
02:00 He was very nervous.
02:01 You could just tell how nervous he was.
02:03 And he got dismissed for a third ball duck
02:05 before taking two for 17 off his four overs,
02:08 which his first wicket was an interesting one.
02:10 Short and wide and got caught on the point boundary.
02:13 But the second one, taking out off stump.
02:14 Showed what he can do.
02:15 - Yeah, absolutely.
02:16 And he taught, he said it as much in the interview
02:20 I did with him when he talked about how he was
02:22 just probably nerves were a little bit better
02:24 over him when he was walking out the bat.
02:26 But he was really settled by the time he got the ball.
02:28 He gets along really well with Hugh Webgein,
02:29 who's the captain of Australia at the moment
02:31 in the under-19s.
02:32 But he also spoke sort of, you know,
02:37 about that support he gets from Riverside
02:38 and how reciprocated it is.
02:40 He loves the club.
02:41 You know, he's played four different levels
02:43 of cricket this year,
02:43 but he's always spending time at Riverside.
02:46 So it's really great to see him forward the career club
02:47 into him just to be able to have that sort of relationship
02:52 even as he's, you know, sort of gone way beyond that.
02:55 - Yeah, he's still severely connected.
02:57 I mean, he's over there in South Africa at the moment
02:59 and he's still messaging.
03:01 Even on Sunday when you've got third
03:02 and fourth grade boys playing,
03:03 who, to be honest, if you're at Aidan's level,
03:06 you don't have to care about.
03:08 And he was still really getting around them
03:10 and seeing how they were going.
03:11 So it just shows kind of kid he is
03:14 and kind of, I guess, how he is as a person.
03:17 - And at the risk of being Riverside heavy
03:19 to start off this episode,
03:21 we've got obviously the massive news
03:23 of Sophie Park-Henley's Paige playing their 100th games
03:26 for the club at the same time against Westbury.
03:29 They had a big 103 run win,
03:32 slightly different fortunes for the two girls.
03:34 One made 78 and took three wickets.
03:36 The other didn't take a wicket
03:38 and made, I think, a golden duck.
03:40 But that's all right.
03:41 Their achievements have been established
03:43 well beyond the weekend.
03:46 Tell us a bit about sort of who they are as people
03:48 and how great and accomplished this is
03:50 considering they've only played for decades.
03:51 - Yeah, so Sophie, she started the first year
03:54 that Riverside filled the women's team.
03:56 So 2014, 15 when the Cricket North women's competition
04:00 started and she really promising junior
04:03 and she actually spent a year away
04:06 playing for university at Hobart.
04:07 So that's kind of why, I guess,
04:09 they're meeting now in the games
04:10 'cause Elise started the year after.
04:13 Started really young.
04:14 Her brother played for Riverside growing up as well.
04:16 So she was always around the club
04:18 and everyone kind of knew who she was.
04:20 So when she was able to step in and play,
04:22 she's developed a lot over the last couple of years
04:25 and really taken her game to the next level.
04:28 Played a bit of Raiders cricket as well.
04:29 So she's really developed.
04:31 Whereas Soph was always,
04:32 like you could always tell
04:33 that Soph was gonna be really good.
04:34 She made the under 15s All Australian team,
04:38 I think it was, back when she was a bit younger.
04:41 But yes, she's taken the next step
04:42 kind of into the coaching lanes as well.
04:44 Coaching the girls and kind of, I guess,
04:47 developing her cricket that way,
04:48 which has been really good to see.
04:49 - Yeah, she said, after taking a step back from the Raiders,
04:52 she said it's really helped her sort of just relax
04:54 and enjoy cricket a lot more.
04:55 She puts a lot of pressure on herself to perform
04:57 and play as that senior player.
04:59 But I think just relaxing it
05:01 and just playing for the fun of it a bit more,
05:04 I think has helped her play as well as she has
05:06 and have as much fun as she's having at the moment.
05:09 And Riverside are currently finding themselves
05:10 on top of the cricket and Auslan women's ladder.
05:12 So putting less pressure on yourself sometimes
05:15 causes better performance, you would have thought.
05:17 - Must be nice.
05:18 - Yeah, exactly.
05:20 We'll move right along.
05:21 Now, the next one we have is the recent NTCA proposal.
05:25 So to put it into short terms,
05:29 there's going to be, there's a proposal for a big,
05:33 I suppose, mirrored stand for NTCA 2 and NTCA 1 grounds,
05:37 which will benefit Northern Rangers Soccer Club,
05:41 South Launceston Cricket Club,
05:42 Launceston Cricket Club and Old Scotch Football Club
05:45 and East Launceston Junior Football Club.
05:47 So it's a great idea.
05:49 I think that would be the stand
05:50 has been long in need of a revival.
05:53 The proposal then moves on to helping get a clubhouse
05:57 for the tennis centre
05:58 and then also upgrading the Elfin Sports Centre,
06:00 which hosts basketball, futsal, you name it.
06:03 So it is a great idea.
06:05 I wrote a column about it in Monday's paper on Sunday,
06:10 sort of just pointing out one issue
06:14 with what I have, like the tennis centre
06:18 should have had a clubhouse God knows how long ago.
06:20 They pretty much had a clubhouse just before COVID
06:22 and then it all got stripped away from them.
06:24 And it feels like they've had to go through the route
06:26 of cricket and footy to be able to then have another crack
06:30 at having, I hope, having a clubhouse,
06:32 which I don't think is right.
06:33 And then I also went out to the Northern Hockey Centre
06:37 out at St. Lemons and just spoke about how
06:41 they've been crying out for an update.
06:43 That stand got built 30 years ago.
06:47 It's so outdated.
06:49 I went out with Dr. Wayne Ottaway,
06:50 who is a convener out there,
06:52 and pretty much went through all the issues
06:55 based out there.
06:56 - How long were you there for, Ben?
06:57 - Well, too long.
06:59 So the lights, obviously short-circuiting,
07:01 there was sewage issues,
07:03 there were no disabled access for any of the change rooms.
07:06 And the list goes on, honestly, it was really quite poor.
07:09 And my opinion basically was that it's the role
07:13 of governments to support all sports.
07:17 Some sports might be richer than others,
07:19 so it's actually the ones that aren't as rich
07:21 who need more support than the footy and the cricket,
07:23 who are a bit more self-funded.
07:25 And yeah, just sort of putting a spotlight
07:28 on how bleak it is at the Hockey Centre.
07:31 - And I suppose my thing, when you're looking
07:33 at the Hockey Centre, is that hockey hosts,
07:35 Tasmania in general, have hosted
07:37 a lot of national championships.
07:38 And Launceston as well, hosted a lot
07:40 of national championships as recently
07:42 as 2021, I might want to say, if not 2020.
07:45 But that's where this needs to happen
07:50 and this needs to be upgraded out there.
07:53 Launceston's going to get on the national stage
07:55 if the governments come to the party
07:57 and have a play with this.
07:59 So, and if not, well, it's just going to see numbers dwindle,
08:04 which has unfortunately been the reality
08:06 for the last probably four or five years.
08:09 - Yeah, and the real reality of it is,
08:11 the tennis centre's lost
08:12 its international tennis tournament.
08:14 These guys have lost, the Hockey Centre
08:16 have lost, effectively, national tournaments.
08:20 Damien Smith, the head of Hockey Tasmania,
08:23 said, "We can't share it while the facilities are like this."
08:25 And this plan for the NTCA grant,
08:29 as good as it is, is for local sport.
08:31 So, it shows you where the priorities lie
08:34 when we're already losing an abundance
08:36 of national and international sport in Launceston
08:39 that we still can't manage to find the funding
08:42 to support these roles.
08:43 I should point out, the local government
08:45 and the state governor on board is the federal government.
08:48 But yeah, that was a really interesting piece to write about
08:52 and I hope something happens soon.
08:54 I've been banging this door down for about a year,
08:56 I feel like, so I hope something happens soon.
08:58 We'll move on to our last piece for the day.
09:00 It's about Raiders.
09:02 A really mixed weekend for the men and the women.
09:04 - Yeah, well, I guess, typically,
09:06 if you look at the Raiders as a whole,
09:08 their journey, the women have had a lot of success.
09:10 But this weekend was different.
09:12 The women were bowled out for 68,
09:15 sorry, were bowled out for 64
09:17 before Newtown chased the nun down in the 10th over.
09:21 So, pretty quick game for them.
09:22 But the men, in their two-day fixture at Utah Stadium,
09:26 they made 209 before bowling Kingborough out for 171.
09:31 With Sam O'Mahony from Devonport,
09:34 big left arm quick, he was the star.
09:36 Four for 29, 21 overs after making 71
09:39 from 91 balls batting at seven.
09:41 So, he really led the way.
09:44 And then, in the second innings,
09:45 the boys, Daniel Murphet and Myles Barnard,
09:49 were able to make sure that Kingborough
09:50 didn't get let back into the game
09:52 and the Raiders won their third match for the year.
09:55 - Yeah, it feels like they've really taken it up
09:58 in their form recently.
09:59 They had a good win against South Hobart, Sandy Bay,
10:02 not long ago.
10:03 So, looks like the men are really starting
10:05 to turn around this season.
10:06 And for the women, obviously,
10:08 just want to forget about and move on to the next week.
10:11 - Yeah, 100%.
10:12 When you have kind of losses like that,
10:14 you can either really focus on them
10:15 or just forget about them.
10:16 And I think the latter is definitely
10:17 what they're going to be looking to do
10:19 in the next couple of weeks.
10:20 - 100%.
10:21 Well, that's all we have time for
10:22 on the 38th episode of the Press Box.
10:24 We'll see you again next week.
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