Former Premier Peter Gutwein becomes new NTFA president | The Press Box 78 (4/12/24) - video Dailymotion

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Ben Hann and Josh Partridge discuss Peter Gutwein's appointment as president of the NTFA in episode 78 of The Press Box. Video by Aaron Smith and Paul Scambler (4/12/24)

Transcript

00:00Welcome, one and all, to another episode of the Pressbox, episode 78.

00:11My name's Ben Hand, joined once again by Josh Partridge.

00:14We've got a very busy show for you guys today, but starting off with everyone's favorite

00:20segment, Neurology.

00:28So Josh, this is one that I've been looking forward to for some weeks now.

00:33I found it a few weeks ago, and I've just been counting down the days to be able to

00:38release it.

00:39This one involves the famous AFL cousin duo of Nick and Jack Riewoldt.

00:47So 78 is an important number for specifically those two great AFL footballers, because it

00:52is the number of the highest number of goals that they have scored in a single season.

00:57So both of them had scored 78 goals, their highest tally for a year.

01:01Have we got the years on yet?

01:02No, definitely not.

01:03But they were both, I think, gold medalists, potentially, even in those years.

01:08So both obviously terrific footballers, you're a big Saints fan, and Nick Riewoldt was a

01:13big part of everything that they achieved in those late 2000s and early 2000s.

01:17Everything that they achieved.

01:18Well, I didn't want to say that, and obviously Jack has been multiple gold medalist, All

01:25Australian Premiership player, and most notably is now a Devils ambassador.

01:29So that will kick us off for what is actually a big day, a big week in football.

01:36We look at, you know, locally now, Peter Gutwin, former Premier, among many, many other roles

01:43as you'll get to in a moment, has announced his intention to be the next NTFA president

01:49he said he was going to run.

01:51Damien Ryan, the current NTFA president, announced his intention then as a result to

01:56step down from the role, which means he'll go out of post, meaning he'll very much likely

02:00take up the role at the AGM on Wednesday.

02:04Josh, take me through, I suppose, Peter's bona fides for those who don't already know.

02:09So as you said, Peter's obviously a former Premier and Treasurer.

02:13He was in state politics for 20 years here in Tasmania, and he's now currently got many

02:19shoes on.

02:20He's won three or four different boards and now takes over the presidency of the NTFA.

02:25But from a footy perspective, he's a former player as well.

02:27He played at University, Mowbray, he played at Heelwood, and he played at East Launceston

02:32that is now South Launceston.

02:34So he's done it all.

02:37I mean, he's a very credentialed man, and he was obviously one of the first people that

02:42really dreamed the dream of the Tasmania AFL team, which is now coming to fruition, obviously.

02:48He's done a lot to shape Tasmanian football in the last half-decade, there's no doubt.

02:54Even further, as you say, he's a very good player himself.

02:57He certainly describes himself as a football person.

03:00So I suppose, as a bit of background, how it all unfolded was there was clearly some

03:06discontent around how the new Premier League had been set up and how it had been managed,

03:13specifically in the women's space and in the representative space as well.

03:17So the ruling of only Premier League clubs being allowed to have representative players

03:23I think had taken a few clubs offside, and certainly a faction within the NTFA has driven

03:31this from our sources.

03:36It sounds as though they've been searching for that new candidate, and Peter Gutwin happened

03:40to be the one that they landed on that everyone was happy with.

03:43He's obviously stepped away from his role as patron at Unibro and at Scotstar.

03:50And yeah, I suppose probably the first positive for him, though he's not actually present

03:56yet, is AFL Tasmania's reaction.

03:58Yeah, AFL Tasmania backed him straight away.

04:01We got a statement sent through pretty quickly after we heard that Damien would be stepping

04:05down and that was praising both Damien's leadership and then into how valuable Peter's experience

04:11in both football and politics will be to unite and grow football in Tasmania.

04:17So speaking to Peter the day after everything was kind of announced, he was really vocal

04:24on his plan to make the NTFA the best Premier League in the state with the three regional

04:30footy models going ahead.

04:32So it'll be interesting to see how strong the NTFA competition can obviously be next

04:36year.

04:37Yeah, that's it.

04:38My word on Damien Ryan has obviously been brutally tough 12 months.

04:43He came into a role that was immediately thankless, overseeing a massive transformation, the biggest

04:50in the modern era, I'd say, in northern Tasmanian football.

04:54And it was never going to be a job where he was going to make a lot of friends because

04:57it required a lot of tough decision making.

05:00And you know, it's a role that not everyone is equipped to be able to do.

05:05And I thought, you know, whatever anyone in the football community thinks of the job

05:10that he did, you can only commend his willingness to take it on and actually really battle it

05:17out when I'm sure there are a lot of days that he probably didn't really feel like being

05:20NTFA president.

05:21So just to finish off with the Premier League clubs, sort of, on one hand really supported

05:30Peter Gutwin, if not a little bit unaware of happening in the first place, but they

05:35were very broadly supportive.

05:38They did make comment on AFL Tasmania, seeing this as a moment to seize the opportunity

05:43to really show some leadership.

05:45In a joint statement, they mentioned that AFL Tasmania's silence at that recent media

05:50launch was, I think, maybe a little bit disappointing for them.

05:54And I just hope that now that Gutwin's here, hopefully gone are the days of speculation

06:00about the league's future.

06:02And let's just use this as, I suppose, a yardstick.

06:05And on that point, we do come to our landmark segment, Handy's Hard Hitters.

06:17So Josh, with Peter Gutwin coming in, obviously a really strong figurehead now for this region

06:24in football, does this need to be a landmark moment for the NTFA's new era?

06:29Does this need to be a moment where we go, okay, enough, this is what's happening and

06:34this is the moment where we just move forward?

06:35Yeah, I think ever since the regional model was announced as the preferred model, there's

06:41been a lot of speculation as to how it's all going to play out.

06:44So I think the foot needs to be put down and going, okay, we've got seniors, we've got

06:49reserves, we've got under 18s, we've got the women's.

06:52And that's what it is.

06:56That foot's been put down a little bit, occasionally here and there, but no one's ever fully come

07:02out and said, right, have you got the numbers for this?

07:05Is this working?

07:06And now I think that now that Peter's in charge, he is a man that will certainly get things

07:12done.

07:13Not that Damien wasn't, that sounds pretty bad, but given Peter's background, I think

07:18he will be the man to sort things out.

07:20I think there's been a lot of positives recently, a lot of coaching announcements.

07:25There is still a lot of work to do with the under 18s and a little bit to work through

07:28with the women as well.

07:29We've got North Launceston, we didn't have a team as well as an under 18s team, so I

07:34know there's a lot of work to be done on both those fronts, but certainly the last month

07:39has been maybe the most encouraging month in the Premier League short history.

07:42So hopefully there's more to come from that.

07:44We'll move quickly onto a different code, the round ball game of netball.

07:50Pretty big news coming out of the weekend.

07:52I think pretty undisputedly Tasmanian netball is greatest of all time, certainly in the

07:56Tasmanian netball league.

07:58Ashley Moore has signed a contract with another Hawks, Hawks Netball Club in Melbourne.

08:06This is a big move, a big step closer to a potential Super Netball future.

08:13She didn't actually say that that's what she wanted to do, but I think she did want a new

08:16challenge and something else.

08:19She leaves having pretty much dominated the sport, Josh.

08:24You've been here longer than me.

08:25You can pretty much remember, I suppose, since your first day, Ashley Moore being one of

08:29the best players in Tasmanian netball.

08:31Having never covered netball full time, but covering it on and off, Ash has just always

08:35been the yardstick of the competition.

08:37She's had several, maybe two or three, maybe even four, a thousand goal seasons.

08:43That's finding the net pretty regularly, if you ask me, Ben.

08:47She's just a star.

08:48She just gets things done and she makes the team better, not just by her performance,

08:52but she's always got the back of her teammates as well.

08:56You can see that through the way she plays.

08:58She makes her other shooting partner better as well by passing off and getting things

09:03sorted.

09:04She'll certainly be missed for the Hawks.

09:07It'll be very interesting to see where they go from here.

09:09They've obviously had the likes of Courtney Treloar in the shooting positions as well,

09:14so they've had some young and up-and-comers underneath Ash, so it'll be interesting to

09:18see where they go from here.

09:20She's pretty irreplaceable, it must be said.

09:22Six MVPs and five premierships, she has, as we've said, pretty much done it all.

09:28I think a lot of other teams will be pretty happy, not to see the back of her in terms

09:33of a person, but in terms of a player, because she's just been so dominant for so long.

09:38We do wish her all the best in her move to Victoria.

09:41Now, Josh, to finish off, we've been finishing off on such a high now for the last month

09:46at least, and it is in no small part to your new segment, Josh's Local Hero of the Week.

09:53Well, no pressure at all there, Ben, thank you very much.

10:04This one feels like a bit of a cheat code, this one, but Local Heroes of the Week will

10:09go.

10:10My Local Heroes of the Week this week go to the Rigby family from Perth Create Club.

10:14They, for the first time ever, played a game with Steven, the father, and his three sons,

10:20Andrew, Matthew, and Jamie.

10:23They all played together in the same cricket team, but to make it even better, it was their

10:26top level cricket team.

10:27It was the Premier League team for the Perth Create Club.

10:31While the game got washed out, there was no result in the end.

10:34It was a massive game for the club in general, not just for the family, but Brodie Brown,

10:39who also plays for Perth.

10:40He scored 165 of 109 balls, which is something that you rarely see, funnily enough.

10:47But it was also a pretty emotional day for him.

10:49His mother passed away last year, and he was always saying how he wanted to go out and

10:53score 100 for her.

10:55To do it in such massive fashion is obviously massive, so congratulations to the Perth Create

11:00Club on a massive weekend for the club.

11:02Massive.

11:03Well, that's all the time we've got for this week.

11:05We'll join you guys again for the next one.

Former Premier Peter Gutwein becomes new NTFA president | The Press Box 78 (4/12/24)

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