The Examiner’s Rob Shaw, Brian Allen and Ben Hann unpack and discuss the sports news across Northern Tasmania.
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00:00 [Music]
00:07 Welcome to the Press Box, the Examiner's weekly sportscast. We've got no Josh Partridge this week, but he is here in spirit and photograph.
00:14 What's that Josh? Get on with it Rob.
00:17 Yep, okay, no worries. We've got football, netball and soccer to get through this week.
00:21 We're going to start with State League. It's a big week in the TSL this week. Wins for both North Launceston and Launceston.
00:28 North Launceston won the grand final rematch against Kingborough by 51 points to go 6-0.
00:34 Declan Chugg getting five goals, big win for them. You spoke to Fletcher Bennett afterwards Ben.
00:39 Yeah, he started off by saying it was one that they definitely earmarked as one that they definitely wanted to win at the home of the reigning Premiers.
00:46 The team that beat them in the grand final. So I think he was pretty happy about getting that result.
00:51 They're now 6-0. They've beaten every other team in the league. Most of the wins have been quite convincing, including one in particular against their northern rivals.
01:00 Which does get a lot of mentions in the game.
01:02 It does, it does. And I suppose as it should.
01:05 Obviously there's this ongoing saga in the background with Thane and North Launceston and Launceston and their future and where they're going to be next year.
01:14 Fletcher last year actually spoke about how he felt about the move and said he's going to look potentially interstate to keep playing footy at the highest level he can.
01:24 He was asked again about it on Monday and he pretty much straight batted it.
01:30 Said it's easy to listen to the outside noise but we're just really focused on controlling what we can control. One of the great phrases.
01:37 No cliches there.
01:38 No, no. And he also said I'm not worrying about anything beyond this year. So that's at least what he's told us.
01:47 But if you do just look at this year, things could currently be going better. They're in rip-roaring form. They're clearly the premiership favourites already.
01:57 But as they enter the bye, it's obviously still just early in the year.
02:01 And Launceston beat North Hobart by 63 points. You were at that game, Brian. How was it?
02:07 Yeah, it was great. It's Launceston's second consecutive win of the year after the big thrashing they suffered in round one.
02:14 And yeah, there was lots of great moments but the game did start with a bang because in the first five minutes there was a high ball, a really high ball that went out on the full.
02:26 And it landed on someone's car windscreen right near the Launceston bench and created a crater-like divot.
02:36 So I was in the vicinity and there was probably quite a few people that saw it and of course there was the "oh" sort of reaction.
02:46 And I think this was the owner but it seemed to be the response was "at least I wasn't in it at the time" which I was referring to the car.
02:57 Silver lining.
02:58 Yeah, so that was a positive way to look at that situation.
03:03 But yeah, just in terms of the football, Ben Hyatt, he's a guy that played for Hillwood last year but he actually played his junior footy at Launceston Blues.
03:16 He returned to play with them to play with his younger brother Isaac.
03:21 And yeah, they both had big performances on the weekend but it was Ben that kicked six goals and had 25 touches and he's a forward essentially.
03:32 So it was a huge performance and yeah, it was good talking to him.
03:39 He's a guy that actually watched the Hillwood win last year's semi-final against South Launceston and he sort of tore the game apart in the third quarter.
03:49 So I was saying that to him and we both had a laugh remembering that.
03:52 But yeah, just a great player that loves to use his speed and agility and kick-lock to snap goals.
03:59 I suppose you've obviously only been to limited games so far this season, obviously this is usually Josh's round.
04:05 But just from your perspective, this team looks unrecognisable probably from that first week.
04:12 How impressed are you seeing this team now from where it started just six weeks ago?
04:19 Yeah, I actually really enjoyed the experience of watching them on the weekend.
04:23 They were clearly playing arguably the weakest team at the moment, the seventh-placed North Hobart.
04:30 So that was obviously in their favour.
04:32 But yeah, look, the context is it's the last year of the State League.
04:38 There's guys that were in the NTFA, etc., that wanted to test themselves that final time at the highest level that we currently have.
04:46 So there's a lot of nice stories that come with that and come with...
04:52 Like Auntsveston's triple premiership team of only a few years ago.
04:57 But I really like a build.
04:59 I enjoy a sort of underdog, the developing team that's having a bit of success as well.
05:11 And so you had the debutant Hunter McGee, who's 17.
05:19 And to be honest, he was the smallest player on the field.
05:22 But you just watched him the whole game, and he did kick a goal in the last quarter.
05:26 And everyone got around it, and you thought, "That's brilliant."
05:29 There's just things like that going on.
05:31 I saw the photographs from the game when we were working on Saturday night,
05:34 and I thought they'd put in pictures from the youth game when I saw his picture, because he does look very young.
05:39 Yeah, but you could feel in the crowd that everyone wanted to see him do well.
05:45 And it wasn't just the debutant.
05:49 It was Brodie Palfreman's 150th game.
05:52 So he kicked a goal, and everyone got around him.
05:55 And when I was talking to Mitch Thorpe after the game, I had already written this in my notes,
06:02 that there were lots of great moments.
06:04 And then he said there were lots of great moments and made him smile.
06:06 It was that sort of day.
06:09 And also, we've got our first AFL game of the season coming up this weekend.
06:13 Obviously Hawthorne still play four games a year at Utah Stadium, and it's the first one of those.
06:18 And probably the biggest, they're playing against St Kilda.
06:21 Big Melbourne derby. How do you think that's going to go for us?
06:24 Well, I think it's a massive game just in the AFL context for St Kilda.
06:27 The season's at a crossroads at the moment.
06:30 I don't think Josh will thank me for saying that.
06:32 But it's an important game for both clubs.
06:39 Hawthorne obviously coming off this big win against the Bulldogs.
06:42 It's probably going to be the highest selling ticketed game.
06:46 I think Hawks are hoping for about 13,000, which is a pretty solid number.
06:50 And then, Brian, obviously you may have mentioned that.
06:53 Something a bit different about this game to what we usually get down at UTAS.
06:56 Yeah, it's on at 1.45 on a Saturday.
06:59 And in my experience over the last few years here, most games have been on Sunday.
07:04 So it doesn't actually suit local football, clearly, like in the NTFA or TSL.
07:10 But in terms of the bigger picture, in terms of a time slot that potentially more people around the nation could watch,
07:20 Saturday often has more eyes on it, I feel.
07:25 OK, moving on to netball. Our two local netball sides both had won five and zip from the first five games.
07:32 And they met each other for the first time at the weekend.
07:35 So it was a big Northern derby and you went along, Ben. How was it?
07:38 Yeah, it was a great atmosphere. It's always good in Northern derbies because they draw a pretty big crowd.
07:44 It's always quite loud, quite vocal.
07:46 It's never one of those ones where you're fighting with each other.
07:50 But it is almost parochial in the sense that both teams really want to beat each other.
07:55 This time around, Hawks were just a bit too strong.
07:58 Cavs got off to a really fast start, but the Hawks just kept on finding an answer for anything the Cavs threw at them.
08:06 And in the end, it was a big third quarter run and then they just managed the game in the fourth quarter and ended up winning by more than 10 goals.
08:14 They are just such a professional club.
08:17 You just can't see any end in sight for this period of domination that they're enjoying.
08:22 Cavs have really got a fight on their hands if they want to take it up to the running premise.
08:27 Yeah, absolutely. And just finishing on soccer, another big weekend in state league soccer.
08:32 So we've got three state league competitions, genuine state league competitions in the state for football, soccer and netball.
08:39 We talked about two. Moving on to soccer.
08:41 Riverside lost heavily to South Hobart in their two games, men's and women's.
08:45 The big game of the weekend was Launceston United against Launceston City.
08:49 It's a bit like the derby and the netball in that that was played at Birch Avenue.
08:54 And we're getting really strong crowds for them. I've been to three or four derbies this season.
08:59 And the Friday night ones are very, very popular.
09:02 This one was Saturday at about 4.30 and Birch Avenue was probably the biggest I've ever seen it.
09:09 We were using the overflow car park.
09:11 I didn't even know there was an overflow car park at Birch Avenue. And it was just a really good fixture.
09:17 Lonnie City won the game comfortably 6-0.
09:20 Lonnie United are having another forgettable season, unfortunately, for them in the men's competition.
09:26 Their women's team is quite strong, but their men's is bottom of the league at the moment
09:29 and still looking for their first win in the state league a year and a bit since joining it.
09:34 Lonnie City are actually playing really well.
09:36 They're playing some lovely football and the scoreline didn't flatter them.
09:40 They fully deserved it.
09:42 And the goal that we're seeing at the moment is a lovely goal that began right in front of where I was standing,
09:48 coming out of the defence, down the right wing and finished by Thierry Swaloby for one of his two goals.
09:53 So it was a great evening and I think those fixtures are proving quite popular.
09:58 Yeah, it looks like Lonces and City are really proving themselves to try and make that lape up to that top four,
10:04 which is really great to see from a football perspective.
10:06 There was a difference to last season. There was a split between the top four and the bottom four last season.
10:10 If you have a look at the ladder now, there's a big gap between the top five and the bottom three.
10:14 So, yeah, absolutely.
10:16 That's about all we've got time for. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.
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