00:00Welcome, one and all, to another episode of The Press Box, episode 91. My name's Ben
00:12Hand, and joining alongside me, as always, is Josh Partridge. Ryan Bentley's back on
00:16the show after a one-week absence on the sidelines. We've got a massive show for you today, but
00:21please brace yourselves, because this is probably the greatest ever running of this segment.
00:27It is, of course, numerology. Now, boys, and to give the audience a bit of a fourth-while
00:40break, this, when upon finding out that this was the numerology, that this was the important
00:46number in Tasmanian sport, there was gasps, audible gasps going around the office.
00:52The office stood up, applauded, all that kind of view.
00:54Now that we've built it up to the exact right amount, obviously 91 is the number. People
01:02who are in Launceston are probably aware that there was an AFL game played on Friday night
01:05between the Hawks and the Crows. A lot's been said about it, and we'll get to plenty of that
01:09later. But the game finished 47-41. The three-point winners were the Hawks. Now, if we add 47 and
01:1741, Ryan, what does that equal?
01:18You've botched this completely. Sorry, 47 and 44, I've botched it. You've got so excited.
01:2647 and 44, Ryan.
01:27That is 91, Ben.
01:29That is 91. 47 plus 44 is, of course, 91. It is also the lowest score ever recorded by
01:34an AFL game at UTAS Stadium. It's also that three-point win, the third time in a row that
01:40those teams have had three-point margins. So, there's a lot of great numbers going around
01:44there. It just requires someone to say it properly. But with that in mind, we will now
01:49move into that AFL game. It was obviously Launceston's first ever Friday night AFL competitive fixture.
01:57And we're just going to go straight to you, Ryan. You were the man on the ground covering
02:00it all. Take us through what happened on that historic night.
02:04Well, as a Crows fan, it was quite a sad day. That three-point win to the Hawks. John Newcomb,
02:11the match winner. Yeah, he was well held by Sam very all day, but he had his moment late.
02:17Jack Gunston set him up, who had another. I mean, we say it all the time, I think, about
02:21Jack Gunston. Gun, he kicked two goals himself. Kicked two goals on three or four. So, he could
02:27have a massive night. Game 150 for my man, Ben Keyes. Adelaide's finest, Ben Keyes.
02:33Was the only multiple goal scorer for the Adelaide Crows, which sums up Adelaide's night.
02:37Like, they had the run of play for all the first half, but just couldn't clue why. And
02:42Hawthorne did what Hawthorne always said to do and came back to claim the three-point victory.
02:47Yeah, Ben Keyes. Real moments player, isn't he?
02:49That's unfair.
02:51No, it was a tight game, wasn't it? There was, I think, other than the early stages, it
02:56was Crows pretty much up by that sort of two or three goal margin. It felt like the whole
03:01game, but, you know, it didn't take, I suppose, a necessary expert to say that you could always
03:07feel like the Hawks were going to come back and those missed chances, I think, really hurt
03:11the Crows. But there was, obviously, plenty of discussion about the ramifications of that
03:18fixture and how it was played. But before we talk about any of that, it's time to introduce,
03:22you know, the landmark segment, the one that ties the whole show together, really. It gives
03:27it the proper framework it needs. And that is, of course, Handy's Hard Hitters.
03:38I think half our show these days is just us previewing our segments. Anyway, the question
03:44for you boys today is the conditions. It was dewy, it was cold, it was slippery. What does
03:52it mean for the Tasmania Devils and this stadium, you know, roof, all that sort of stuff conversation?
03:58We'll go with you first, Josh.
03:59I'll start with, like, obviously the AFL are pretty contingent on having this stadium.
04:04I'm having the roof on the stadium anyway, but I don't think it means anything really.
04:09I think footy's a winner's sport. And in its purest form, it's played in challenging conditions
04:17and all that kind of thing throughout June and July. It's when real teams come to the
04:21fore. And yeah, I think both coaches said some good things about it after the game and
04:27said, yeah, look, it was challenging, but that's footy. So yeah, it doesn't do much for me.
04:32I'm not really that much, don't really buy in too much to that kind of chat, but up to
04:36you boys. Obviously you, Ryan, you wrote a story about this.
04:39Yeah. As Josh said, coaches were both, it's part of football, part of football in winter.
04:44At night, it's going to be a bit dewy, unfortunately, that happens. There was a lot of it, I think,
04:49down to coaching as well. Like, I mean, you watched a lot of Adelaide's entries inside
04:5450. It wasn't super exciting or creative. They just kept bombing it long. So I think
05:00there was a bit in tactics as to why the game was so low scoring. I mean, the first Friday
05:04night game in Hobart, we saw there was like over 170 points kicked between the two sides.
05:10So I think it was just a matter of support kicking in front of y'all probably. And yeah.
05:16Yeah. I think adding to that, like the conditions went down to Riley O'Brien snapping it out in
05:21the full from 10 metres out. Like Riley Philthorpe kicking it off the ground from 45 metres out
05:25instead of hand bowling it to one of his two open players in an open forward 50. Like
05:29Jack Gunston missing three set shots that he would always kick on another day. There was
05:34a lot of what happened that day that was not at all down to the conditions and was just
05:37poor execution on both of those teams behalf. And, you know, it's not like this is the only
05:42low scoring game we've had this year, you know, and just a couple of weeks ago, there
05:46was Geelong, Gold Coast down in Geelong that ended up with half the amount of scoring shots
05:51it felt like. And I think that was 61-37 and there was no conversation.
05:55And don't forget the St Kilda Fremantle thriller of earlier.
05:58Oh, yeah. Yeah. Just the Ross Lyons special, that one.
06:03Now, we've, I suppose that moved past. We've got another NFL game coming up in a couple of
06:08weeks. There was NTFA the next day and it was a pretty remarkable day of NTFA football.
06:15Some really close games across all divisions, which is what you love to see. First and foremost,
06:20I was lucky enough to be at the Bridge North Brackenville game at Parrot Park. They were celebrating
06:25Matthew Zanetto's 200th club game. And boy, did the two clubs put on an absolute show. It was
06:32a really, really cracking, high-level game of football. Brackenville sort of always enjoyed,
06:37similar to the Crows, always enjoyed this sort of two to three goal margin, this lead. But it felt
06:44like they hadn't put them away at three-quarter time. Bridge North coming home with the wind,
06:48you know, knocking the door down, smashing the door down. And then it was, you know, Matthew Zanetto
06:52who came up with the goods, got a free kick for a marking infringement and bombed one from
06:5750. And boy, the celebrations were, it's what you love about country community footy. It
07:02was just amazing to see the incredible support that he was getting when he scored, or kicked
07:08that goal, I should say. And then they kicked another one, Liam Mulder kicked another goal,
07:12showed good composure. And that's sort of the platform for what happened in the final 10
07:19seconds. Pretty remarkable sequence of events. It took a fair bit of time for me just to get
07:25the facts straight, really. There was a stoppage. A Brackenville player sort of kicks along the
07:33ground forwards into sort of the forward 50-meter arc, sort of on the paint pretty much. Billy
07:39Jack picks the ball up and pretty much runs, makes a beeline straight for the boundary and
07:44kicks the ball sort of as far as he can away from the ground, like into the paddock behind
07:49the scoreboard. The umpire pays deliberate out of bounds. And for the penalty of time
07:57wasting, Billy Jack is reported. And because he is reported, it is a 50-meter penalty. So
08:02I think that took a little bit of confusion because no one really knew what was going on. So
08:06there was a lot of confusion in the air. But it meant that Josh surely kicked probably the
08:09most anticlimactic of goals after the siren. And it's just another twist to this remarkable
08:16Division 1 season. Josh, you weren't at the game. It was actually wrong. I'm going to go
08:22to you. North Lonnie versus Lonnie was another really close game. We love to see it.
08:28Another.
08:28Another.
08:29On that day. I understand what you're referring to. But yeah, I suppose give us the context of
08:37why that game was really important for that league.
08:40Yeah. So North versus Lonnie, obviously the two state league sides earlier this year when
08:44they met, North were comfortable winners. So I suppose having a close game between these
08:49two is massive because it is first versus second in the competition, realistically. So
08:53North won by 15 points. And even though North had more scoring shots, Ryan, you were saying
08:59that Lonnie kind of could have taken more chances and could have actually come away with the good.
09:04So it's really interesting to have a side take it up to North Lonnie, who just a couple
09:08of weeks ago were averaging winning by 150 points. And that's not hyperbolic. That is
09:15exactly what it was. So yeah, no, it's really interesting to have Lonceston, I guess, put it
09:22all together and get close to North. It's good to know that they've got that in them for when
09:28it comes to the finals later in the year.
09:30Yeah, absolutely. And our new episode of the game, it's a game that featured a lot of what's
09:34going to be MPFA rep players for this upcoming SVL game. I suppose for you, how much of a
09:40treat was it to watch so many, I suppose, high quality players playing at Windsor Park that day?
09:44That was awesome. Windsor Park put on a treat after the fog lifted in the morning. I was so
09:48fogging down there this morning for the women's game. But yeah, it was an absolute treat to see
09:53so many of those good players. And Adrian Smith talked, I believe that was Thursday, pre-game
09:58about how it's good that those two sides are matching up and getting a good tune-up for
10:03the rep game. Because obviously, in Premier League, you're not necessarily getting week
10:07in, week out the toughest challenge. And coming in, having to earn the win like North
10:11Lancelin did, and so many of the players being from that North Lancelin side, yeah, it really
10:19helps with the tune-up for this upcoming game in North Hover.
10:22Yeah, and just quickly, here's the rep coach Josh. He fired a couple of salvos against SFL
10:29and maybe questioned some of their star players' commitment to this whole series. Do you expect
10:34NTFR to come away with the win? What do you expect out of that game on Saturday?
10:37Yeah, it'll be really interesting. I mean, given that North and Lonnie have kind of had
10:41the wood over the Southern TSL sides in the past, I think you'd somewhat expect it. But
10:47that would then mean the SFL would really want to win this game. It's a year's worth
10:52of history, not just this is the first rep game in a while between the two. It's a year's
10:57worth of, oh, we've been beaten by the North, let's stick it up them. So I think the NTFR do
11:02come away with a victory, but it wouldn't shock me if it went the other way.
11:05Yeah, it's going to be a cracking game. And before we end the show, we've got to absolutely
11:10go through just something that's going through strength to strength. And I'm sure we'll be
11:16able to produce a better one than my numerology that I watched earlier in the show. It is,
11:20of course, Josh's Local Hero of the Week.
11:22My Local Hero of the Week this week is Justin Hutton, who played his 344th game for Evendale
11:35on the weekend. Earlier, when prepping for the show, I said 314. So I could have nearly
11:40botched it like Ben botched his. I could have sold him 30 games short. But no, Justin, 344
11:46games. He kicked six goals in it as well. So I had a really good game. Been playing at
11:51Evendale for 23 years and overtook Kevin Lewis's previous games record. So massive congratulations
11:56to you, Justin. And once again, this is obviously the best thing you'll receive all week.
12:00I'm just getting people coming up to me in the streets just going, what can I do to be
12:04Josh's next Local Hero? So you're actually, I think, inspiring and improving the standard
12:09of local sport just because everyone wants to be your Local Hero of the Week. And with that,
12:15it's all we have for today. We'll catch you guys for the next one.
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