The Examiner's Ben Hann, Josh Partridge and Brian Allen unpack and discuss sports news from across Northern Tasmania. Video by Aaron Smith and Paul Scambler (18/7/24)
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00:00Welcome one and all to another episode of the Pressbox episode 60. Today, my name is
00:12Ben Hand. Joining alongside me is Brian Allen and Josh Partridge. We've got a bit of a different
00:15look for you guys today, but the same old segment numerology has returned.
00:27This week's numerology is dedicated to our beloved colleague Rob Shaw, who will be sitting
00:33at home no doubt. 60 is important, guys, because it will now be 60 years at least until England
00:40have actually won anything in soccer. That's dedicated for all the English soccer fans
00:45out there, but we actually do have a really action-packed episode today. Brian, you were
00:51off yesterday, but you've come into the office and there's now a new look about AFL Tasmania.
00:57It's probably somewhat not really surprising. Obviously, we probably knew that there wasn't
01:04going to be TAS VFL and VFLW teams in 2025, and now we know they're probably going to be in 2026.
01:13Now, they're basically planning to have these senior talent academies and two teams there that
01:21will take the best footballers across Tassie to play about five or six games against the likes of
01:26VFL and VFLW teams. I guess I'm wondering, do you guys think that it is a good substitute?
01:34I think it's really interesting because if they're playing against VFL teams,
01:38why aren't they just in the VFL? At the same time, I think everyone knew this was what they
01:44were going to do without TSL and VFL, and I think it'd be really interesting to see whether it'll
01:50keep some of the young talent here because I've heard that there's some already gone,
01:54so it'll be interesting to see whether this will be enough to, I guess, not blackmail,
01:59that's the wrong word at all, but to coerce them to staying here.
02:03It does seem like maybe a tight schedule may have beaten them a little bit for next year,
02:08but we'll have to wait and see whether it is effective or not. I suppose, Brian, you were
02:14here and working for the AFL on Sunday. You were at the game. You saw yet another close finish.
02:20We've had so many here at UTAS recently. This time, it was the Hawks beating the Dockers,
02:24Freo Dockers, by, I think, was it 14 points or something like that?
02:2713, yeah.
02:2813 points. Tell me through how you, I suppose, saw the game pan out.
02:32Yeah, well, it was sort of in Freo's control up to three-quarter time, and then,
02:38yeah, what was happening, I felt, was Freo often had the ball at half-forward, and we're looking
02:44at a flooded backline, basically. Every player seemed to be in the backline, so it was a little
02:49bit of a stalemate at times, but then the Hawks, which we had seen earlier in the year, got their
02:54running game going, and, gee, they were unstoppable in the last quarter. The likes of Jai Newcombe
03:01and James Sisley stood up. We had Newcombe burst out of a stoppage and snap a goal, and then
03:08Sisley had been swung from the backline up forward because of his sore shoulders,
03:15and, yeah, kicked three goals in the second half. So, yeah, it was a joy to watch Nick Watson
03:23at the very end do the ice in my veins celebration. You were also there with me, Ben.
03:31What did you make of that? And I think he's had a bit of trouble with goal-kicking, but it came
03:35right.
03:35Yeah, he has. Up until that game was six goals, 18 behinds in his AFL career. I think Sam,
03:42actually, Sam Mitchell, the coach, smiled right at the start and said, look, he was just happy to
03:46be there. I think having shots at goal in the AFL when he first came in, probably wasn't thinking
03:50much about his technique or anything like that. So I think there is progress clearly being made.
03:56Clearly, he comes under more pressure because he famously picked in front of our boat Riley
04:01Sanders, but comes with his nickname of the wizard, has all the tricks of the trade and looks
04:07so exciting. But, you know, when you can't kick it straight in front of goal, it just seems a bit
04:13like maybe you haven't earned that nickname. But, you know, I think it's, I want to sort of touch
04:18on the sort of home-grown advantage of the Hawks. I'll go over to you, Josh, in a second. But,
04:23you know, Longmuir said, Justin Longmuir said, look, that's really big ground. They play out
04:27really well. Mitchell obviously talks about the comforts at home, but there's so many other
04:31factors as well.
04:32Yeah, as Brian's interviewed through the week, just the difference in temperature, I guess,
04:36between here and Melbourne. It probably is only a couple of degrees, but it's just something that
04:40the Hawks have really nailed while they're down here. And you touched on it, Brian, as well,
04:44just how exciting they play their footy. They just know the ground. And looking at it on the other
04:49respect, Fremantle don't. They've played, or they've played the second most games here outside
04:54of Hawthorne and St Kilda, and they've only won two or three. They, for whatever reason it is,
05:00the heat might be an example, but they struggle here. They just can't seem to get
05:06the momentum that's needed here. And even though, as you said, they dominated for the first three
05:10quarters, they weren't quite able to put the finishing touches on.
05:14Yeah, I guess my thought part, it was like, and Longmuir brought this up, was that
05:20the goal kicking, they struggled with their goal kicking in terms of,
05:25they had a lot of set shots. And yeah, whether the wind was an issue, they were set shots from
05:33range. But one of the things that came up in the Fox footy commentary was about
05:37the sort of low roof at UTAS. And I guess it allows for this breeze. I've heard Josh Ponting,
05:43Rochelle's coach, talk about the breeze through UTAS as a former North Launceston player.
05:48Is it something that comes up? Do you hear that out of North Launee?
05:51Yeah, absolutely. And actually, the last couple of games that I've been there,
05:56the breeze has been going the other way. It's what it usually does. So it usually goes towards
06:02town. But the last couple of games, it's been going towards Invermere Park the other way. So
06:07it's really interesting to see how that can affect the games. And as Longmuir said there,
06:13it's obviously done a number on Fremantle for a bit there as well.
06:16They really did spurt their chance that third quarter. I think the Hawks,
06:20just three from three now at their home away from home. They've got another game against
06:24North Melbourne, they should win that. Having this home ground advantage for four games with
06:29such a close finals race could be really massive going into the final part of the season. But we
06:34now got to move on to what sort of almost what you're touching on there. We're a bit of a
06:39precursor. We've got the final ever TSL derby. It's quite a sad occasion, really. But it wasn't
06:45close. What did you learn from the contest, Josh? Well, I learned what I've learned for the last
06:5113 weeks, and it's that North Launceston are really good at football. But they have just so
06:57much depth. Like, for example, Sam Simpson, who's the younger brother of Ben, he's a fantastic
07:03player. And he was in Development League on Saturday. And you go, goodness me, like he's
07:07walking into the other six TSL clubs. And they've just, they just know their system. And like even
07:14their coach Adrian Smith, he was watching from the Gold Coast. He was on a family holiday. And he
07:19couldn't quite step away. He had to still remain involved. But he was saying that their forward
07:24line entries weren't quite what they wanted them to be. And, which is scary. And especially like
07:29Harvey Griffiths, he's the leading goal kicker in the competition, and he didn't kick a goal.
07:33And Lonnie really only, there was a five minute patch for the third quarter where they kicked
07:38three goals in a row. And it actually, the game got almost close. It was within, I think,
07:44within about 30 points for a bit there. And Lonnie kind of looked like they could, but it was just,
07:48they put all their energy into that. And after the fourth quarter, they were down,
07:51they had three injured players on the bench. Dylan Riley, who's their best defender,
07:56best forward. Josiah Burling's their best defender. And Caleb Brewer's a young up and
08:00coming ruck. And they were all on the bench injured. So yeah, they couldn't do much right,
08:05unfortunately, Launceston. It feels like, even though both clubs are at different stages of
08:09their development, both clubs will have multiple players who are potential players for this
08:16upcoming academy, squad, whatever you want to call it. How, I suppose, important is it for
08:22Damien Gillon out of Tasmania that they attract these players from both these clubs to stay
08:27not only in Tasmania, but in the North? Yeah, it's very important. Obviously,
08:31you've got the likes of Isaac Hyatt and Liam Jones, which this kind of program's effectively
08:35made for. They're early 20s. They've come through the Devils program, had limited game time
08:41throughout their Devils careers. And now they're really starting to flourish as senior footballers
08:46and Bailey Gillow, you can chuck him in the same boat as well. So it's really, it's made for these
08:51guys and, well, half of North Launceston will feature, if not more. So it's, yeah, it's going
08:56to be really interesting to see what kind of names pop up from this senior talent academy. And I
09:02reckon, yeah, if they're going to attract them, they're going to need to do it pretty quick.
09:07I reckon that's all we have time for, for this week. Thank you once again,
09:10and we'll see you for the next episode.