- 3 months ago
In episode 91 of The Press Box, the sports team discusses last week's AFL match between Hawthorn and Adelaide at UTAS Stadium. Video by Aaron Smith and Craig George (17/6/25)
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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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