Baptism of fire for new AFL Tasmania chief Trisha Squires as Burnie quits state league
TSUNAMI survivor Trisha Squires’ received a “hospital handball” in her first day in the top job at AFL Tasmania as she dealt with the disappearance of one of the state’s foundation clubs.
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TALK about walking into the fire.
Tsunami survivor Trisha Squires’ first day in the top job at AFL Tasmania was dealing with the disappearance of one of the state’s foundation clubs.
Burnie has joined Devonport in pulling out of the state league competition which means the northwest coast of the Apple Isle — the birthplace of Darrel Baldock, Matthew Richardson and Alastair Lynch — is without a club.
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It’s what they call in the business a hospital handball for Squires who on Monday became the first female chief executive of any AFL state organisation.
People were lining up to give her a whack, including Australian Greens senator for Tasmania Nick McKim, who said on social media that footy in the state was in “disarray” because of the AFL’s “neglect”.
Squires was the 2006 Young Australian of the Year for her work in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which claimed the life of her husband, Melbourne player Troy Broadbridge.
She went on to serve as chief executive for the Jim Stynes-established Reach foundation and has most recently been AFL Tasmania’s partnerships and community engagement manager.
Squires started her professional career as an AFL sportsready trainee at Melbourne Football Club in 2000.
SKIPPER LOVES A GLOVE
BATSMEN continually calling to the rooms for replacement gloves has become an annoying part of cricket for some.
One of the chief offenders is Australian Test captain Steve Smith.
So how many pairs of gloves does Smith have?
Cameron White, who played with Smith in the one-day series against England, has revealed the skipper needs extra luggage to accommodate his gloves.
“I’d take 15 pairs of gloves (to a game),” White told RSN927.
“I’m a big sweater.
“Most of us have one cricket bag ... but I noticed that Steve Smith during the Australian series just has a bag for gloves and bats. So if you think 15 is excessive, he has a whole bag just for bats and gloves.”
CLOSE CALL FOR DEVON
Devon Smith knew why his good mate Taylor Adams was calling, which is why he kept not answering.
When it was crunch time during last year’s trade period and Smith’s name was being linked to Essendon and Collingwood, Adams was desperate to get his former Greater Western Sydney teammate to the Magpies. Luckily, Adams was overseas which made it easier for Smith to ignore him.
“I was glad he was in Bali because I think he would have been pestering a bit more,” Smith said yesterday.
“He tried to Face Time a few times, but I pretended I didn’t see them.
“It’s all good now though and I had dinner with him last week.”
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