00:00Welcome one and all to another episode of the Press Box. My name is Josh Partridge and today
00:11I'll be doing my best Ben Hand impersonation as our usual host is not on today. So he's away on
00:17golfing duties at the moment playing Cape Wickham on King Island. So we're all a bit jealous of him
00:23today but I'm joined today by Ryan Bentley. We've been holding down the fort in Ben's absence.
00:28We've got a pretty big show for you today but we'll start off with what Ben thinks is everyone's
00:33favorite segment numerology. Now Ben's numerology is usually a big bunch of maths combined and
00:45a bit a bit lengthy a bit of a stretch but I've gone pretty cut and dry today. Press Box 86 this
00:51episode is and 86 is important in Tasmanian sport because it is the year that Tasmania first joined
00:57the Australian Women's Cricket National Championships. We didn't have our own team
01:02in the national competition until about 2009 I think it was but this was the 1986 was the first
01:07year we had our team in the competition. So there you go every day's a school day you've learnt some
01:13new things today. Right so obviously on the weekend there was no NTFA Premier Division so
01:18Division 1 was the focus and Ryan you went out to Georgetown versus St. Pats. How did that go?
01:24Yeah we entered Georgetown St. Pats. A couple of good games the men's and the women's game. I'll
01:28speak on the women's game first. St. Pats won that by 15 points. Some wayward gulking from Georgetown
01:34probably cost them in the end because they had the same amount of scoring shots and but yeah it was an
01:39awesome game. You can see how much it meant to St. Pats who are have a fairly new women's program so
01:44it was awesome for them to get the win. And then the men's game as well another awesome game. St.
01:48Pats came out at the top of that as well. 14 points in the end but it was a very close game
01:54throughout. Ebbs and flows. St. Pats you know got ahead in the second quarter and then Georgetown
02:01just brought it right back I think to within five at the start of the fourth quarter and then
02:05Dylan Riley their star recruit kicked two in the last quarter to kick them away and get them that
02:1014 point win. Yeah it was the same kind of story at the game that I was at. I was at Lilydale Bridge
02:14North and it was similar in the fact that the star recruits really shone through and really stood up
02:19at big moments. So Lilydale were leading by up to four goals into the last quarter so it seemed like
02:27they had the game wrapped but then Bridge North kicked three goals in a row in a matter of five
02:31minutes to really get the game within a goal and scare them a bit but Lilydale's Jay Lockhart stood up
02:38and took a few big pack marks to really secure the game for the Demons and really make sure
02:44that they held on and now they're three and one coming in from the old Division 1 competition
02:49into the new one. They're sitting pretty strongly so yeah Division 1's been the competition that's
02:54been I guess the closest. Obviously the Premier Division and Division 2 have been a bit lopsided
03:00here and there so I suppose Ryan talk me through I guess the bigger margins that have happened
03:05I guess throughout the Division 2 competition that you cover. Well I mean this week was a pretty
03:09good example of it. Perth I think beat Uni Mowbray by 270-ish points and Perth I think did the same
03:17thing to Meander Valley the week before so it's just unfortunately in Division 2 I think there are
03:23two teams in Meander Valley and Uni Mowbray that are both I think at that similar stage where they're
03:28struggling to get players together. Yeah it's unfortunate but then at the same time you then
03:35at the top end you have five pretty equal teams I think in Division 2 so you know I think it's always
03:40going to happen that you're going to have two bad teams or one or two bad teams so yeah that's not
03:46the end of the world I don't think. Yeah it's a really interesting one obviously with that one you've
03:49got two teams at the bottom end of the scar but whereas at Premier League you've got two teams that
03:54have come down from the State League so they're two really strong outfits that seem to be cut and dry
03:59above the other four teams that have come in and with that they were the teams that dominated the
04:05rep squads that were announced yesterday so they announced 44 men and 37 women for training for the
04:12NCFA representative games so their training starts tonight actually on Wednesday and with that there
04:18was 16 North Launceston men and nine Launceston men sorry in the men's squad with the women's squad
04:25it was led by Scottsdale and Deloraine so there was nine Scottsdale and eight Deloraine so very
04:30interesting to see who will make those teams for those first games in May I think they are at the
04:35back end so yeah they take on the NWFL here at Utah Stadium and then the SFL at North Hobart Oval so
04:44big clashes there coming up and that wasn't the only rep games that we've had recently we had the
04:49Tasmanian rep game on Sunday which you went to Ryan I suppose talked me through that game against
04:54Sandringham yes so taking on VFL side Sandringham it was probably I mean on both accounts they're
04:59probably under man side particularly Sandringham heavy numbers were certainly a feature of the
05:05Sandringham side I think the lowest number was 44 as for Tassie I think it was a really good
05:11performance run really I've obviously come off the back of two disappointing losses to Norwood and
05:16Frankston yeah that just showed out I think nine new debutants for the side again so it was
05:23the Devils are achieving I think what they want to with this program which is that they want to get
05:30as many players through have a look at as many players going through it for the VFL side but yeah
05:35they came out I think winners by 30-ish points in there and you spoke to coach Jeremy Werrible about
05:40Theo Ives and the performance he had yes yeah Jeremy was really impressed with Theo hasn't had much to do
05:46with him apparently like this is about the first time that he's come through but yeah I thought
05:50Theo was awesome just around the back line kind of playing played a bit one-on-one then played as
05:55the spare just in that kind of goalkeeper role and just came across so many times and took some big
06:00pack marks and just yeah really made yeah that Tassie defense look really strong and to go on with
06:06the Devils theme the earlier this week the Devils announced some of their first off-field signings
06:12for the for the Tasmanian football team so Derek Hine will be the head of recruiting and Todd Patterson
06:19will be the list head of list management and strategy so Hine comes from Collingwood he's overseen
06:24some of their premiership success over the last decade or so so that's a really big signing for
06:29the Tassie side and Todd Patterson Tasmanian face Tasmanian name be massive for him to be involved
06:36with the with the Tasmanian team so next thing we'll go to is soccer so Ryan you covered the the
06:43soccer on the weekend a really big win for Launceston City yes massive win for Launceston City as they
06:47continue their march in the 2025 NPL season they knocked off the reigning premiers from last year
06:54Glenaukie Knights 5-1 it was a crushing victory really for City and I mean if it hadn't already
07:00been proven their premiership credentials are very much on show they'll be probably be ruling their
07:07loss to Devonport strikers I think that was three weeks ago I believe lost one they shouldn't have so
07:14they see a win behind Southover in second place pretty easy schedule coming up for them so they should
07:20get the job done and then the big match at Prospect Park on June 14th will be South Hobart versus
07:26Launceston City and I think that will be probably the title definer for Launceston City and Daniel Sison
07:33and you were saying that this is the best that a Launceston side's ever gone in the NPL Tasmanian
07:38competition yes I believe it was 2018 when City came fourth and that was the best performance ever so
07:44I mean even coming second for a Launceston team is going to be pretty awesome so
07:48get around to Prospect Park when they're playing there because that's bloody awesome to watch
07:53and now we'll wrap things up with the last segment the leading segment now that Ben isn't here
07:59Josh's local hero of the week
08:01my local hero of the week this week goes to a runner an athlete Sam Clifford who
08:14broke the Australian national road record for the 10k distance over in Tokyo at the Tokyo speed
08:22competition over there so he ran a time of 27 minutes and 34 seconds so it was a massive achievement
08:29not just for a Tasmanian but for an Australian obviously to break that record so I've Sam was a
08:35couple of years below me at school so I've known Sam for for quite a while and he was always destined to
08:41be a pretty big good runner and he was always doing laps around areas like the Lugana Oval and all
08:46things like that so to see that go on to an international scale is fantastic so congratulations
08:51to Sam and well done on being Josh's local hero of the week that is another episode of the press box
08:58we have for you today so be sure to pick up a copy of the examiner newspaper or to read our stuff online
09:04and have a nice weekend
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