- 2 days ago
The Examiner's sport experts Ben Hann, Josh Partridge and Ryan Bentley unpack the 2025 NTFA premier league grand finals as well as big developments in the Tasmania Devils camp. Footage and editing by Paul Scambler
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Welcome to another episode of the Press Box, episode 102. My name is Ben Hand.
00:13Joining alongside me once again is Ryan Bentley and Josh Partridge for what is the end of another terrific football season
00:20where it's been faced with plenty of challenges, lots of ups and downs, and I know a lot of people in northern Tasmania football
00:27have had plenty to say on what's been going on, but we're finally through to the end, or the beginning of next season maybe, you could potentially call it.
00:37But before we get into any of that, it is of course everyone's favourite segment, numerology.
00:44So, in light of recent Devils news, I know it's very exciting to talk about the on-field rather than the off-field stuff,
00:51I know the Devil is very keen to go on to that sort of stuff. Nathan Buckley coming out on radio and saying that he would take a contract today
01:01if the Devils offered him one. I decided to get digging into our favourite man, Nathan Buckley's career,
01:11and came up with some interesting numbers, Josh, let me tell you.
01:14So, Nathan Buckley, I went through his stats year by year, and the number that most came up when it came to marks in a season,
01:23in a single season, how many marks he took, the number that most came up was, you guessed it, 102.
01:29Wow.
01:29When he did it twice in 1994, and 2003.
01:342003 was, of course, his Brownlow year, so, 102 has obviously a terrific meaning to Nathan Buckley,
01:44who will very likely be a Tasmanian Devils' first AFL coach.
01:48So, there is another excellent segment of numerology for you guys,
01:52and building off of that momentum will, of course, be the segment that sometimes you don't get to see,
01:58but it's, unfortunately, the viewers' lucky day today, they get to see Ryan's incredibly difficult sports quiz.
02:06Well, after that little pot shot from Ben there, it is back for another week.
02:10The quiz is back.
02:12This week, we're going local.
02:14North Launceston and Rachel Lee, they both went through their season undefeated and won the premiership.
02:18Obviously, North Launceston winning last Saturday, Rachel Lee the Saturday before.
02:22Didn't in a very dominant fashion, may I add.
02:24So, my question is, combined, what was their average margin across this season?
02:29Gee whiz.
02:34Oh, the North Launceston, I think I'm going to go 134.
02:40Well, that's crazy, because the number I was thinking was 137.
02:44Oh, you can't cross me!
02:47I was actually going to come in over the top.
02:51137, locked in.
02:52Yep.
02:52Well, Ben Han, you've done the count.
02:55105 was the correct answer.
02:57Oh, yeah.
02:59Virtually letting the team down.
03:00Virtually a little bit of a letdown, I believe.
03:02Get your act together, Rachel Lee.
03:05That's quite remarkable.
03:06Quite remarkable.
03:08105 points.
03:10Between the two clubs, that is, it shows you just how well run those senior, senior programs are for both clubs,
03:16I suppose, is one way you could look at it.
03:19I thought you were going to look the other way, I'll be honest with you there, Ben.
03:21I thought you were going to produce a nice little pot shot that would have made our friends at AFL Tasmania really thrilled.
03:25I'm not about pot shots, despite what Ryan seems to think.
03:29Yeah, the NTFA Premier League, of course, was run and won over the weekend, as well as the under-18s, four games.
03:36Josh, I'm just going to let you take it away and take us through what occurred, I suppose, over the course of Saturday.
03:41Yeah, well, it started with the under-18s, and Ryan, you covered that one.
03:44It was an absolute thriller with Lonnie.
03:47Failing to score a goal in the first half?
03:49Yeah, well, failing to score for the first 47 minutes, I think it was.
03:52Yeah, and then they came back and beat South Lonnie, so a tremendous effort.
03:56Then it went through the reserves, where South Lonnie were victorious, and then the women's was, once again, Lonnie versus South Lonnie.
04:05And the South Lonnie women hadn't lost since May, and all of a sudden, Lonnie hadn't beat them all year and came out and beat them.
04:12So, that was a 12-point win to Lonnie.
04:18Tremendous performance from Georgia Hill, who was named best on ground, a famed examiner employee, so that was brilliant for all involved.
04:26Just a quick shout out to Georgia Habley, as well, I thought was very good.
04:29She was very good.
04:31I'm not going to say anything else there, that can wait.
04:34And then the senior men's was won by North Lonnie, as spoiled before by Ryan there.
04:41That was 91-42, but Lonnie really made a fair shake of it in the third quarter, getting to within 11 points, by kicking four goals to two.
04:48Two of which were in a matter of minutes, as Jake Hines got a nice little free kick in front of goal.
04:55So, that was a really good game of footy, but North were just too strong, as is the case all year, or the last two years, where they haven't lost a game.
05:04Yeah, it was quite emblematic, wasn't it, of maybe the games between those two clubs throughout the year.
05:09Launceston, in patches, can really take it up to North Lonnie and maybe even be the better team.
05:13But, just out of the course of four quarters, they are just far too strong.
05:16And that was the thing leading into it, is that Lonnie needed to play four impeccable quarters, whereas North could go missing for a little bit and still be dominant, and they still came out 49-point winners.
05:27So, that's basically what the year was, as you said.
05:30Yeah, exactly right.
05:31Well, that brings us quite neatly onto what brings this whole show together, really, and that is, of course, Hany's heart hit.
05:39Now, boys, I've given you a little bit of pre-warnings as I took a little bit of research.
05:45Effectively, the question I'm going to ask here, in light of the Devils' recent news, and of course with the Premier League playing on the weekend,
05:51how many players who played on Saturday, men and women, will be playing VFL or VFLW football come 2026?
06:02I'll start with you, Josh.
06:03Right.
06:03Well, I went through, as Ben said, there's a little bit of research involved, and I came with 17, was the number that I went through.
06:09So, that's obviously a fair bit of rollover between players, but I think that's what the VFL will be next year.
06:16I think they're going to be trialling to get as many players as they can to see who could potentially be that golden ticket winner to get on an AFL list.
06:25So, 17's the number that I've stuck with.
06:28Yeah, absolutely.
06:29I've gone through.
06:29I've only got 15, so I've got 10 from the men's, 5 from the women's.
06:33I think worth pointing out with the women's is that so many of the good women's players at the moment, they're all under 18,
06:38so they'll be playing talent league over the next couple of years, but I think 15, I think, makes sense.
06:43I've left Brad Cox's good year out.
06:45I believe, I have faith that he might be doing something else that's not playing VFL.
06:51Right, you pessimist.
06:53I've gone 16 neatly in the middle anyway.
06:55I do think North Launceston will be the major contributors to the VFL program, at least in the men's side.
07:02I think both South Launceston and Launceston will both produce a decent number of VFLW players,
07:09maybe three or four each, potentially, but I think you'll see, as you said, a large number of people
07:16actually get run to that VFL program as they sort of buy out who they think has, I suppose, the capability
07:22of stepping up to that level.
07:23And with a few of the names, I know on my list, I don't know about yours, it all depends on who gets drafted
07:27at the end of the year as well.
07:28Obviously, Avery Thomas from Lonnie is the main draft hope, but then you've got the likes of
07:33Toby Callow, Lucas Wooden, Riley McHenry, who are pushing for drafting, that once again,
07:40we talk about the golden ticket, next year could be the key if they don't get drafted next year.
07:44So, that's it.
07:45Yeah, absolutely.
07:46And that brings us, once again, quite neatly onto the Tasmania Devils.
07:50It was a pretty busy week for Tasmania's fledgling AFL licence.
07:56With the announcement or the release, I suppose, of the TPC, the Tasmanian Planning Commission's,
08:00final report on the stadium, they recommended against going ahead with the construction of
08:06the stadium, noting that the negatives outweigh the positives, effectively, the cost outweighs
08:11the benefit of building.
08:14Ryan, can you give us a bit more detail in about, if you can, about 30 seconds or so,
08:19on what this means and sort of what happens from here?
08:24Well, it can mean a lot or it can mean nothing.
08:26It's simply a suggestion from the TPC.
08:30Obviously, it was pretty damning.
08:32They strongly suggested that, as you mentioned, the cost outweigh the benefits.
08:36I think it was about, I think the benefit to cost was 0.5, so not great.
08:41But, obviously, government on both sides, so Liberal and Labor are both backing the stadium
08:46still, and I think Erica Betts was pushing for the vote to be done by Christmas.
08:50So, reason for belief, but yes, the TPC report was slightly damning, fair to say.
08:56Yes, Gavin, it has to come to the party in terms of financial negotiation with the independents,
09:01but we are not a politics podcast, so we will not be going on to that too much.
09:04There was, as alluded to at the start of the show, some really positive news about Nathan
09:08Buckley putting his hand up.
09:10This sort of stuff is really encouraging and probably shows you just how well the Devils
09:14have done in really challenging circumstances to provide and create an environment that people
09:20actively want to be a part of.
09:21The Devils sort of confirmed that the meetings have been happening and said, look, no decisions
09:28going to be bad on this yet, but, of course, this is really positive news, and I think if
09:34he was to sign, it would be yet another really smart decision from a club that is making nothing
09:41but smart decisions, and they're doing absolutely everything they can to get this project over
09:46the line, but we will move swiftly back into the local arena, that is, of course, the segment
09:52that has brought people off the streets demanding to be a part of the show, that is, of course,
09:58Josh's local hero of the week.
10:00Now, you've somewhat spoiled it before by mentioning a name here in the women's grand final, but Georgia
10:09Habbily is the local hero of the week.
10:11She was exceptional in the win for Launceston, kicking a couple of goals, setting them up.
10:17She was just really good as a teenager in a grand final.
10:20Yeah, just the amount of skill that she shows on the big stage is exceptional, and Georgia,
10:27yeah, you've obviously done a bit this week, but once again, this is going to be the biggest
10:32achievement of your week, so well done, Georgia, and congratulations on being Josh's local hero of
10:36the week.
10:37And we thought the grand final celebrations might have been over, well, they're going to be continuing
10:40for the rest of the week upon that information. With footy season over, we might have a little
10:45bit more content coming from cricket and basketball in the coming weeks, so those of you who are probably
10:50sick of talking about the Sharon. Well, good news, we'll have a bit more variety coming up in the
10:56next couple of weeks, but for now, we'll see you guys for the next one.
Recommended
0:46
|
Up next
10:35
10:46
12:13
11:05
9:22
12:42
12:25
10:43
10:37
10:10
12:41
11:59
11:33
11:50
8:55
12:56
11:57
10:48
Be the first to comment