In Episode 80 of The Press Box, Ben Hann and Hamish Geale discuss the Greater Northern Cup semi finals and Meander Valley Football Club's new coach. Video by Aaron Smith (16/1/25)
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00:00Welcome one and all to another episode of the Pressbox.
00:10My name is Ben Hand.
00:11Joining alongside me is our irregular, regular guest, Hamish Gill, although I wouldn't call
00:17you a guest.
00:18I'll call you a presenter these days.
00:19Wow.
00:20That's high praise, Ben.
00:22You're going to be in the sports desk this week anyway.
00:23That's true.
00:24That's true.
00:25So, you know, right passage, I'd say.
00:27We have got a big episode for the audience today, episode 80.
00:31But before we get started, I think it's everybody's favorite segment.
00:34It's what they look forward to.
00:35It is.
00:36It's certainly what I look forward to.
00:37Yeah, exactly.
00:38When you open up the story and you go, oh my God, it's numerology.
00:41Numerology.
00:42And that's exactly what it is.
00:50So, numerology, Hamish.
00:52Wow.
00:54Well, there was a pretty remarkable weekend of cricket that's just gone by, Hamish.
01:00So, I've decided to delve into that and see what I can find in terms of the number 80.
01:05And I think you can't look any further than the cricket match on Sunday between Burnie
01:11and Olverston.
01:13We'll touch a bit more on it later, but a truly extraordinary game of cricket.
01:18Now, Burnie scored 211.
01:21Remember that number, 211.
01:23Ollie Walker, the English opener, scored 129.
01:28And the not-out batsman at the end of the innings was Tyler Johns, two not out.
01:34So, if you combine those two, it's 131.
01:38Now, Hamish, can you tell me what 211 minus 131 is?
01:43I've got a good idea, Ben, but I just need a few seconds to get my calculator out.
01:48No, is it 80?
01:50It is 80.
01:51I knew it.
01:52So, 80 is a big number in Tasmanian sport, at least this week.
01:56And it is a great segue for us to get into our episode because there was great Northern Cup action
02:02across the weekend.
02:05I'd be lying if I said I didn't have some sort of say in the matter.
02:08I was a part of it.
02:10We'll start off with our Northern representative in those two semifinals was Riverside,
02:15who played against Sheffield.
02:18And Hamish, well, if it wasn't for the other game, this would be an absolute contender for match of the weekend.
02:24Patrick Mackerel.
02:25He's obviously been one of the kind of premier all-rounders he's experienced.
02:31What can you tell me about his efforts and also his character?
02:35So, I think, well, the character almost is shown by the innings he played.
02:41Peter knew, said as much following the game.
02:44So, he's almost renowned for these moments in these big games, especially semifinals.
02:51He seems to really have a knack for it.
02:53There's a moment where it's 3 for 50, 4 for 60, that sort of low-scoring game where the pitch is doing a bit,
03:01facing really good opposition bowlers, and he just takes it upon himself to win the game for the team.
03:07He scored 63, hit five sixes, all of which against Mark Simmons,
03:11who, for those uninitiated, is a really, really good leg spin bowler, like genuinely a really good bowler.
03:16And he really targeted him and, yeah, look, he had help from his teammates.
03:24Ludwig Ankemira, young leg spinner, took four wickets in the first innings for Riverside, set up the game.
03:31He's 63 of Riverside's 145, or 144.
03:37It speaks for itself, doesn't it?
03:39And he scored an almost-runner bowl, which, in a reduced-overs game, is equally important.
03:45So, Riverside will now host a grand final.
03:49I think everyone in all of northern, northwest Tasmania would have guessed it was going to be against Ulverston at multiple stages.
03:56But, turns out, it will be against Burnie.
03:59I mean, it's going to be a great kind of grand final, but, yeah, I suppose on that semi-final,
04:05it was like, in terms of roller coasters, it had some pretty high highs and some pretty low lows.
04:13What did you make of that game? Have you ever seen a game like that before?
04:17Well, maybe we'll only dream of that exciting of a roller coaster, to be honest.
04:21I think that eclipses all of them.
04:23To be honest, I don't think I have really seen anything exactly like that.
04:26So, for those who are unaware, Burnie were 6-for-37 early in their first innings.
04:34Ulverston had an amazing bowling attack, as well as a batting lineup, too.
04:39And Burnie were just in all sorts, but Ollie Walker, as mentioned at the start, stayed in the opener.
04:45He stuck in there, hung around.
04:47And with Kurt Lamprey, they managed to put on 150 runs for the seventh week at Hamish.
04:54They dug themselves right out of it, ended up making 211 in a fantastic performance from Ollie,
04:59who couldn't play Saturday because he's had issues with fainting and stuff like that.
05:03So, I can't speak highly enough of how important, how amazing that knock is for the club.
05:09There was still another twist, though, as it kind of seemed like it was pretty much game over,
05:20but there was still another twist in the tale.
05:22Exactly right. So, then you thought, well, Ulverston, how are they going to react to this?
05:25They reacted by being 1-for-158 Hamish.
05:28So, at that stage, once again, you're thinking, gee, Burnie done really well to put up a fight,
05:33but Ulverston are just too good.
05:35They had Jacob Snare at the crease, who was on 50-odd, and Braden DeVries, who was in the 70s.
05:41Like, two really good batters, no pressure at all.
05:45And then, Hamish, in comes Varun Nadesh, a right-arm leg spinner for Burnie,
05:53and all of a sudden, wickets start to tumble.
05:56In the end, 8-for-13.
05:58They go from 1-for-158 to 9-for-171, and for the second time in the space of a few hours,
06:06it goes from an easy, comfortable Ulverston win to Burnie all over them
06:12in the space of what seemed like no time at all, and has come out of almost nothing.
06:18I'm not sure how that Ulverston change room would have felt after the game.
06:22I can't imagine it was the place he wanted to be.
06:25But I guess that's why we love the game of the cricket band.
06:28You don't know until it's all over.
06:31You don't know until it's over. Exactly right.
06:34And that brings us on to a landmark segment.
06:37It was the first ever segment brought into the press box, a little fun fact,
06:41and it is something that I think makes this show at least the second best sports podcast
06:47in northern Tasmanian history, I'd say.
06:51And that is Handy's Hard Hitters. We love it.
07:00In retrospect, after that crazy game at Ulverston,
07:04what is your favourite game of cricket that you've ever watched?
07:08That's a great question, Ben.
07:10Well, I think I do want to throw in there a bit of an honourable mention
07:15to Andrew Simons' knock in the 2006 Boxing Day Test,
07:19because I was always a big Andrew Simons fan,
07:21and even though he was actually out, I think, on 0 or 2 or something,
07:26he was not going to walk, and he made 150 or whatever.
07:29But I think the one that stands out the most for me was actually an ODI match in 2002.
07:38So we're talking kind of peak like New Zealand.
07:40Yeah.
07:41They've gone and made 245 in the kind of first innings,
07:47and then kind of similar to our, I suppose I'm great,
07:50our kind of match in the greater Northern Cup,
07:54Australia was in all sorts of trouble at kind of 6 foot 82,
07:58but have a guess who is still in there at the crease.
08:01So ODI's early 2000s Australia run chase.
08:06Who would you want there?
08:07I'm going to guess Michael Beverley.
08:09You're not wrong.
08:10Hamish.
08:11You're not wrong.
08:12So he's gone and partnered with, I suppose, Warnie, and then also Lee,
08:16and then a pretty handy number 10 in Andy Bickle,
08:19and he's made 102.
08:23He's hit kind of five like twos like in a row in this second last over,
08:27and Australia has scraped home with three balls left,
08:31and it was just a great match to watch.
08:32That is.
08:33It was excellent.
08:34That was a remarkable game of cricket.
08:35I was only one at the time, but I have seen replays,
08:39and one of many to add to the Michael Bevan collection of fantastic ODI performances.
08:47My own answer would probably be, oh, gee, it's a tough one.
08:55I think I'm going to go with a bit of a recency bias here.
08:58I think I'm going to go with that Boxing Day test just gone.
09:01Yeah, that's fair.
09:02That was a remarkable game of cricket.
09:04Just a wonderful pitch.
09:05Shout out to the curator, Matt Page.
09:07He put on a great pitch.
09:09Momentum swings all throughout the contest.
09:12Two, I'd say, comfortably the best test teams in the world going at it.
09:16I just thought it was fantastic.
09:18And then seven wickets in that last session to give Australia the win.
09:21That's probably a prerequisite that Australia wins.
09:24It is.
09:25Now, I will just quickly move it off the summer game cricket,
09:29and we'll move it into football.
09:31There has been a bit of movement this week.
09:33The final, we believe, senior coach for an NTFA club has been signed.
09:38Meander Valley have announced Adrian Collins.
09:40Hamish, he's got a bit of an interesting backstory, doesn't he?
09:43He is great.
09:44He's an excellent character.
09:45So he's kind of grown up in New Norfolk,
09:49and he's always been involved in, I suppose, in footy,
09:54but he's also been quite heavy in the kind of racing as well.
09:58He's been a jockey.
10:00What do you think his signing will undo?
10:04I think it provides stability, first and foremost.
10:06So the recruits there, also the existing players there,
10:10now will have confidence that the club's actually moving forwards.
10:13Recruits now will have confidence that if they want to come in,
10:16that there's actually a coach and a direction,
10:17and Adrian, from all reports, is a wonderful man and a great leader.
10:21So Meander Valley have had a tough few years.
10:24This is certainly not what they needed, having this sort of late coaching search,
10:28but they've got it done.
10:29They've got a really good coach in the process,
10:32and I actually think they've still got room for a really positive 2025.
10:36Yes, I think absolutely.
10:39We will move now on to our final segment.
10:42It is usually my colleague Josh Partridge's segment,
10:45but he is away on two weeks of leave watching this shine open, the lucky man.
10:49So in his place, we've got Hamish's Hero of the Week.
10:55What do you have for us this week, Hamish?
10:58Well, I've got a bit kind of left peeled here this week, Hanny.
11:03So I wanted to just kind of shine a spotlight on a man
11:07who has been actually one of the Big Bashers' strongest performers over the years.
11:14He's often overlooked.
11:16So there's a lot of stuff going on,
11:20performers over the years, but he's often overlooked.
11:24So there are, in the Big Bash history,
11:27there are kind of five players who have scored over 3,000 runs.
11:32Any idea who they are?
11:34I'm going to guess Aaron Fish.
11:36Yes, he's number two.
11:38Sean Marsh.
11:39No, Marshy.
11:40No, Marsh.
11:41No.
11:42Michael Klinger.
11:44That's the strongest Australian box, yeah.
11:49I don't know who else.
11:50So at the highest score with almost 4,000 runs is, of course, Chris Lin.
11:57Oh, Chris Lin.
11:58Then we've got Maxi.
11:59We've got Alstheim Short, who was a hurricane until the past year or two,
12:05and Enriquez.
12:06But I wanted to shine the spotlight on a man
12:09who is sitting at kind of number six on that kind of list.
12:12He's originally kind of from Tassie.
12:15He's on 2,999.
12:17He's one run short of kind of joining that, I suppose,
12:21that kind of elite kind of club.
12:23But it is, of course, I suppose, John O. Wells.
12:26He got injured in the kind of most recent,
12:29or I think it was two games ago for the kind of Melbourne Renegades.
12:33But he was so close to hitting that kind of milestone.
12:37He has got a hamstring injury.
12:39It kind of looks like we probably won't kind of see him for the rest of this
12:42tournament.
12:43Hopefully he can kind of come around like one last year
12:46and just kind of crack into that elite, I suppose,
12:50kind of tier of us, I suppose.
12:52But he's been an excellent player,
12:54and I just wanted to give him a big shout out.
12:57Fitting that he's one run short.
12:59Sorry, no, no.
13:00That's a height joke.
13:01I apologize, John O.
13:03No, he's been a great servant to domestic cricket.
13:05He's been a great player.
13:07Square of the Wicket is my main memory of John O. Wells.
13:09But that's a very well done Hero of the Week,
13:12and that will conclude our episode today.
13:14We'll see you guys for the next one.