Pressbox 105

The Examiner

The Examiner's Ben Hann and Josh Partridge discuss Greater Northern Raiders cricket, Aidan O'Connor's Big Bash contract and recent NTFA player departures in episode 105.

Transcript

00:00Welcome, one and all, to another episode of the Press Box.

00:10My name is Ben Hand.

00:11Joining me once again is Josh Partridge.

00:13We still are without our great friend Ryan Bentley for another episode.

00:17It does feel a bit like last summer.

00:19Josh was just us too, but that's okay.

00:21We will keep on keeping on without him.

00:24We do have a very busy show for you guys today, episode 105.

00:28We are well and truly in cricket season.

00:30There's a little bit of footy mixed in there as well,

00:32but before we get cracking with all of that,

00:35it's time for everyone's favourite segment, numerology.

00:42Oh yeah, Josh, we've got a little bit of a different one

00:44with how this is going to work a little bit differently today,

00:46but we will kick things off with what is probably

00:49the most informed sports person in northern Tasmania right now,

00:52and that is Cooper Ampies.

00:54I did give him a little bit of a disingenuous shout-out.

00:57Last time around, but this one is genuine.

01:00Cooper, based off of a couple of really, really good knocks

01:05so far this year in the CTPL for the Greater Northern Raiders,

01:09is of course averaging 105 runs.

01:12That's very, very helpful, Cooper.

01:14That's exactly right.

01:1674 not out, 36, and then of course scored a ton over the weekend,

01:22and it's only gotten out twice.

01:26That's where the 105 comes from.

01:29But in what is a press box first, I've been challenged.

01:33Apparently my numerologies haven't been up to scratch,

01:36and so Josh has gone away, gone through the numbers quite literally,

01:40and found one that he believes is better.

01:43So I suppose we'll leave it to the audience and see what you guys think,

01:47but Josh, take it away.

01:48What's your numerology?

01:49Well, Ben, as the leader of numerology, you love a stretchy sum,

01:52and this is the definition of a stretchy sum.

01:55So, on the weekend, we had an athlete make their Greater Northern Raiders debut,

01:59one Ben Hand.

02:01For Riverside Career Club, Ben Hand wears the number 85.

02:05For Greater Northern Raiders, he wore the number 14.

02:08In the first game, he bowled five overs.

02:10In the second game, he bowled one over.

02:13If you add all those together, it adds to 105.

02:16So, that is my version of numerology today,

02:18and Ben knew nothing about that, so there you go, Ben.

02:21Ridiculous, one of the worst numerologies we've ever had,

02:25and quite frankly, I think we should just leave it to the experts.

02:28No, thank you, Josh, that's very kind.

02:30We will stay on the Raiders theme, though,

02:33besides my inauspicious debut.

02:36We did have plenty of action, four games of cricket across two days,

02:40despite the weather, Josh.

02:42It was definitely rain affected, the Duckworth oil system in full swing,

02:46but we will start quickly with the women.

02:49They kicked off their season with two T20s against Clarence.

02:52Just take us through, I suppose, how they went to start off their season.

02:55Yep, so they played two T20s on Sunday, as you said.

02:58One win and one loss, and as you said, it was rain affected,

03:02but Emma Maddox-Jeeves just picked up where she always leaves off,

03:06and had 79 not out of 53,

03:08but she was joined by Courtney Sipple,

03:10who joined the Raiders in the off-season.

03:12She's from Queensland, has come down to Tassie to play her cricket.

03:15She scored 66 not out and 40 out across the two games,

03:19so she had a brilliant day.

03:21Start average 106, so we might need to hold that for next week.

03:25But no, a lovely start for her, and an interesting start for the Raiders,

03:30with one and one against the same team on the same day,

03:33which is always an interesting thing, which comes with the T20 format.

03:37Exactly right, and Emma Maddox-Jeeves obviously signing with the Sydney Sixers

03:40in the off-season in the WBBL,

03:42and we'll move to quite a nice segue to the BBL,

03:45where, of course, Aidan O'Connor,

03:47you know, Great Northern Raider, Riverside Career Club,

03:50well, now Tasmanian Tiger,

03:52signed with the Sydney Thunder.

03:54He actually signed with them back, way back in April,

03:58ages ago, and has sort of kept it under his hat.

04:01I think those who knew him probably had an understanding

04:05that this was happening quite a while back,

04:07but officially announced on Monday

04:09he will join the likes of David Warner, Ravichandran Ashwin,

04:13if I can speak properly, and obviously many others.

04:16There's a really talented squad up there, the Sydney Thunder.

04:19It would be an awesome experience for the young man, isn't it?

04:21Yeah, absolutely.

04:22I mean, the tough thing is,

04:24with the amount of stars they've got in that line-up,

04:27it might take a bit for him to actually break in and play a game,

04:29but I suppose that's not really what exactly this experience is all about.

04:32It's all about getting him in the nets

04:34and training alongside these people

04:35that have played so much international cricket.

04:38Like, you've got even Sam Billings in there,

04:39who's probably third or fourth string in that line-up,

04:42and you go, oh yeah, he's played every format for England.

04:45So, yeah, there's so many stars up there

04:48that he'll get to rub shoulders with over his time.

04:50Absolutely. I think he leaves in December,

04:52so he has a little bit more time down here before he moves up there,

04:54and obviously the Thunder's first game in the BBL

04:56in the BBL is a grand final rematch against the Hobart Hurricanes

05:00down at Ninja Stadium.

05:02So, you know, he won't be out of the state for too long anyway,

05:05but if it's just to carry drinks, who knows what the experience holds for him.

05:08But in the meantime, he was playing on the weekend

05:10in the Orange of the Greater Northern Raiders.

05:13A superb knock, I think 89, he scored in the first game

05:17on was a really difficult NTCA No. 2 pitch.

05:20The ball was doing quite a bit.

05:22He even got hit in the helmet.

05:23He had to survive.

05:24A couple of rain delays at the start of the innings again.

05:27Him and team-mate Cooper Enthies batted superbly

05:31to set up that win against North Hobart.

05:34Before, Cooper then stole the show on Sunday

05:38at Invermay Park against Kingborough,

05:41a really good Kingborough side,

05:43and scored an effortless century.

05:45Lucky enough to have played a lot of cricket with Cooper

05:48and that's bad as well as I've ever seen him bat.

05:51He ended up being run a ball,

05:52but I know you'll talk about this in a little bit,

05:55but really built his innings well

05:58and then set up the win for the Raiders

06:00in another rain-affected game.

06:02Yeah, his first 50 was off 71 balls

06:04and then the next one came off 26.

06:06So he certainly found his range.

06:09I think he took 15 off one over,

06:1114 off another over after that.

06:13Oh, that's hit!

06:14That's hit!

06:15Oh!

06:17As you said, he broke a window in Mowbray

06:20right near your head apparently,

06:21which is good fun.

06:22But no, he's, as we said before,

06:24he's in a fair bit of form at the moment

06:26and just needs to channel that in the right areas

06:28and see how it can go.

06:29Exactly right,

06:30and just a quick shout-out from Tim Martin of Kingborough

06:32had an unfortunate end to his day

06:34where a swarm of bees found his car

06:37to be quite a friendly place to stay.

06:39And unfortunately,

06:40I'm actually not sure what the end result was,

06:41but I know he wasn't exactly getting home immediately

06:46after that game with the bees all inside of his car.

06:48So, unfortunate day for Kingborough, I suppose,

06:50in that regard.

06:51We will move swiftly on, though, to football.

06:54The Tassie Devils continue their drip-feeding

06:57of signing their players.

06:59But obviously, by the time you guys have watched this,

07:02the latest announcement has been made

07:04that Northland Seston's Michael Stingle

07:06becomes the first Tasmanian-based player

07:08and obviously part of the NTFA,

07:10which is good news for the NTFA.

07:12First player to be signed to the Devils program.

07:15Josh, it's really good news.

07:17Yeah, tremendously exciting for Michael.

07:19I mean, he burst onto the scene in 2021,

07:22won nearly everything he could win as the Rookie of the Year

07:25and then made the Team of the Year

07:27and then played VFL the following year

07:29as a part of a little partnership with North Melbourne.

07:32Then went to Adelaide the year after that

07:34when the Tassie rep footy was kind of starting here

07:36and he admitted to me yesterday that he was kind of missing that.

07:39He was really sad that even though he was in Adelaide playing his footy,

07:42he was missing playing for the map.

07:44So, it was a bit of a no-brainer for him to come back in 2024

07:48and now, yeah, being the first Devil from the NTFA

07:52and based in Tasmania is really exciting for him.

07:54Absolutely.

07:55It's exactly the sort of person you want joining a program like that.

07:57Well, in light of some recent local footy news as well,

08:00we haven't got the time to really cover it extensively.

08:03Alex Lee and Josh Ponting have signed as coach

08:06and assistant coach at La Trobe in the NWFL

08:09and Jordan Cousins has left Rachel Lee for East Coast

08:12in a massive signing.

08:14We are going to set that, you know, little piece of news

08:18as the lead-in for, of course, the part of the show

08:22that ties everything together

08:23and that is, of course, Haney's hard hitters.

08:30So, based off of those aforementioned signings,

08:33what is the biggest departure?

08:35Lee for North Quarunceston

08:38or Pontingham Cousins for Rachel Lee?

08:41It's a really interesting question

08:42and, obviously, I must preface that I usually cover the Premier League.

08:45Ben, you usually cover the Division 1,

08:46so I'm going to go with the Premier League and go North Quarunceston.

08:49I think Alex Lee has been, he's been their mainstay ruckman

08:52for the last decade now.

08:53So, there's regular games where he has 50-plus hit outs

08:57and kind of just sets the tone for their midfield.

08:59They haven't exactly had a fully fledged back-up ruckman in that time.

09:03They've got some tall players, for sure, but, yeah, it'll be really interesting to see,

09:06I guess, how they, you can't cover that loss, but what they do with their game plan

09:11and everything else to try and, I guess, negate the loss that you've got of someone like Alex.

09:15So, talking to Alex, they've seemingly been planning a little bit of this for a little bit of time,

09:20so it has not exactly caught them off guard, but it'll be interesting to see what they can do without their leader.

09:26Yeah, absolutely, and I'll obviously zag on that one.

09:29I'll say that Jordan and Josh have just been absolute pillars of that football club now for some time,

09:35especially Jordan, who's been there sort of on and off since 2009.

09:39They've both just been unbelievable servants to the Rachel Lee football club.

09:45I think the fact that neither of them are playing at clubs against Rachel Lee will help,

09:51but you can't replace the work that Josh does and, you know, even someone like Jordan,

09:55who is probably at home in midfield, plays forward this year

09:59and just wins the leading goal kickers award, if you don't mind.

10:02So, both equally damaging players and both players that, at that level of football,

10:06that they don't grow on trees, like they're one of a kind in that respect.

10:11And with that segment now done, we move on to, it's probably the segment that's actually rivaling

10:16Henny's Heart Headers for just the most well-renowned, any piece of media really in all of Tasmania,

10:23and that is, of course, Josh's Local Hero of the Week.

10:29There's one kind of league we haven't really mentioned locally over the course of this,

10:33and that is Cricket North, and the Local Hero of the Week comes from Cricket North,

10:36and it is Sam Artis. So, congratulations, Sam.

10:39Someone who I've known for quite a while and played a little bit of cricket,

10:42both with and against, Sam took five wickets on the weekend

10:45and said he'd lost 15 kilos over his pre-season break.

10:49Well, not even a break, he'd been doing a fair bit of work.

10:51So, he's really got reward for effort early in the cricket season.

10:55So, congratulations, Sam, and hopefully you enjoyed a few beers on Saturday night

10:59to celebrate your five for me.

11:01Exactly right, and with the start of the cricket season, Cricket North,

11:05I know he's very motivated, and that will give him just that extra little piece of motivation

11:09to go one better for the Eagles this summer.

11:12That is all the time we have for this week.

11:15We'll catch you guys for the next one.

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