DAVE: Alright boys, we are back for another season of let’s talk sport, Marcus looks refreshed after two and a half weeks off…
MARCUS: I think we’re up to three now.
DAVE: But that’s not the big news on the sports team this season, young Jonty has headed off to Las Vegas on a school exchange program and won’t be back till the middle of May. Let’s hope the young fella makes the most of his time over there.
MARCUS: Jury’s out on that.
DAVE: In his place, we have a Justin Schwarze, who I know a little bit about, Marcus do you know much about him?
MARCUS: I’m keen to learn more.
DAVE: Justin, tell us a little bit about you mate?
JUSTIN: I’m Justin! I’m 20, from Tyabb, Mornington Peninsula, grew up there, I went to school there. I come from a small family, just the parents and one brother, oh and the dog.
DAVE: Dog’s name?
JUSTIN: Oscar.
MARCUS: Breed?
JUSTIN: Rough coat Jack Russell, so he’s a lot hairier than a usual Jack Russell. He sheds a lot of hair that one (laughs). But yeah, always loved my sport. I’ve played basketball pretty much my whole life, since I was in grade 2, slowly progressing through different levels. I’ve always been interested in watching, coaching; just digesting the sport. My dad is a pretty big footy and cricket guy, and he helped me try a bunch of different sports when I was young, but basketball was the one that stuck out. Still love my cricket, love my footy, just never really played it.
MARCUS: Justin, what’s your sporting claim-to-fame? If you ask Jonty, it’s when he put a second gully in playing cricket and a catch went there the next ball. I’ve hit winning runs in a cricket grand final and Dave used to terrorise bowling attacks on the Mornington Peninsula.
DAVE: And don’t forget Club Champion at Pakenham Golf Club.
JUSTIN: Wow, that’s a really tough question.
DAVE: There’s no pressure, because Jonty set a really low benchmark here (Boys all laugh).
JUSTIN: My domestic basketball team used to run riot through leagues down at Western Port. We went undefeated for two years straight in the top grade. I think it was through under 14s. We beat a lot of teams by about 50 points, and we were a team full of guys who played pretty high level, so the league brought in a rule that you could only have three representative level players per team.
MARCUS: That’s a good one; his team was so good they changed the rules…the ‘Justin Schwarze’ rule.
JUSTIN: So I guess we were the dynasty of the Westernport under 14s domestic league (laughs).
DAVE: I don’t know much about the lingo of basketball, so tell Marcus what position you play and number you are.
JUSTIN: My number has always been 55 for some reason.
MARCUS: Just like Isaiah Hartenstein!
JUSTIN: Yeah true (laughs)! But when I was younger, I was a guard, I didn’t hit my growth spurt till I was about 16, so now I’m more of a big. My last two or three years of rep, I played big, played centre, but throughout my junior career I was mostly a two or a three.
MARCUS: Must’ve been a strange transition for you.
JUSTIN: It was really odd. I love physical play, love contact, rebounding, all the interior stuff, so it was strange to switch, but I loved it. Grabbing offensive rebounds has always been something that gets me going.
DAVE: Justin, one more question, just explain what you’re up to and what you want to do. Is this the industry you want to be in when you get older like me?
JUSTIN: I go to Uni, about to enter my final year of journalism at RMIT, and I’ve absolutely loved it over the past two years. I think it’s something I’ve always been interested in, writing about sport and being involved in the sports landscape. Not necessarily just media but being around sport just led to this. And that’s something I want to pursue, whether that’s print, or on-screen or some sort of media role. I just absolutely love being involved and finding out stories people don’t know. I love being immersed in the game on a deeper level, no matter what sport it is.
DAVE: That’s really good stuff mate…good luck with it all. Marcus, you created it, so you can kick us off in 2025 with your best action. You weren’t at the sport on the weekend but give us your best from over the Christmas break.
BEST ACTION
MARCUS: Well, this one is violating my own rule just a little bit, I am quite particular that I want best action to be a particular moment as opposed to a theme, but I’m going to go with the continued rise of Scott Boland.
DAVE: YES.
MARCUS: He’s going to retire with one of the most unique careers of all time. He’s got an average of 17 with the ball and he finished third in total wickets for the Border-Gavaskar series only behind Bumrah and Cummins. It just seems we throw him the ball and he can take a wicket within an over or two. He also doesn’t really have a trademark delivery like a Starc yorker or a Cummins rising length, he just hits the spot and it’s remarkable what sort of a career he’s had.
DAVE: That’s a very good answer. Justin, what caught your eye over the break?
JUSTIN: This is one that I love, a country boy over in the NBA, where Dyson Daniels has earned himself the nickname ‘The Great Barrier Thief’. I thought that was awesome, but also very appropriate as he’s currently leading the entire league in steals, and he looks like he’s going to absolutely smash the deflections record because he gets his hands on everything. He’s just a country boy from Bendigo earning a nickname on the main stage in the big leagues.
DAVE: I’m back covering CCCA Premier Division now that Jonty’s gone away. I headed down to Kooweerup to watch them play Cardinia, archrivals for years. Mark Cooper, the coach of Cardinia, is a former premiership captain and coach at Kooweerup, and this is his first game back at Denhams Road in different colours. The opener for Cardinia, Alex Nooy, he’s a hard-hitting left-hander and he smashed one over mid-on for six. That was probably the best action from the weekend, just a classy shot.
SAM KONSTAS
DAVE: Boys, one of the things that you just couldn’t avoid over the Christmas break was Boxing Day, young fella Sam Konstas walks out to the middle, tries to ramp Jasprit Bumrah, and we all go what’s he doing? Tries it again, and then starts getting a hold of him. Tell us your thoughts when you were watching that and what did you think of Sam Konstas’ debut into the test team?
JUSTIN: I think he’s a breath of fresh air. The Australian team has been set for half a decade at least, and it’s been really hard for players to break into that side and the selectors have been very reluctant to put young people in. They wouldn’t give them a try, so to see someone that young, with not much experience at this level rise so quickly through the ranks; it was really amazing to see. It was crazy to see the nerve of him to even attempt some of those shots yet it was entertaining cricket. We haven’t really seen much change in the top of the order, we’re so used to Warner, Khawaja and those mainstays, so it really was a breath of fresh air to watch him play those shots and have that aggression and confidence as a debutant.
DAVE: Marcus, do you think that’s going to be his style going forward or did he decide to play that way because of the quality of the bowler he was facing? And what were your thoughts first of all?
MARCUS: I was probably the only person in the country to miss it, I actually forgot it was on (boys laugh).
DAVE: You forgot that the Boxing Day test was on?!
MARCUS: I was watching the basketball; there were some good games on. I got a text from my dad saying ‘who the hell is this Konstas bloke?’ and I flicked over and I think he’d just gone out. He got 60 quite quickly, I checked Twitter and it was going nuts. I think Justin’s really right in the sense that he’s a breath of fresh air that the team probably needs after being set in its ways for a long time. But I’m going to be interested to see how long he can get away with this approach and his attitude as well. He’s not backwards in coming forwards and I think he’s largely afforded a honeymoon period because of how young he is, and sort of naïve and finding his feet. I did think it was very interesting the way Australian commentators were quick to jump to his defence in the whole last ball of Sydney debacle with Khawaja and Bumrah. The commentators were saying he’s 19, can’t have a go at him because he’s so young, yet when the same thing happened to Shubman Gill earlier in the day when Smith and Marnus were chirping and got him out, it was ‘oh how good’s this, Australia foxed out Gill’. I thought the disparity in that just because of his age and the fact he’s Australian, even though it was really the same thing, I thought that was interesting. But yeah, very entertaining but I wonder how long he’ll be given.
DAVE: I had a few different thoughts. Sitting on the couch, I was back watching the cricket, and pretty soon I was on the edge of my seat watching this bloke. My analogy for this is like watching someone at the end of the Pakenham Main Street going flat out in a 50-zone doing 120; dodging around roundabouts, just missing people, going through stop signs and ripping mirrors off other cars, but eventually you can’t keep going like that, it’s going to end in tragedy. I think if he keeps batting like that, like the way he does, that’s what’s going to happen. I think he needs to tone it down, and I hope Sam’s got more tricks in his bag.
JUSTIN: Let’s hope.
UPCOMING SPORT
DAVE: So, boys, what are some things to look forward to over the next week or two, Marcus?
MARCUS: I’m looking at DDCA Turf 2. We’ve got a thrilling run home, just because it’s so even. There’s only six points separating first to fourth, you could make the case that any of those sides could win the flag but you could also make a very strong case that they couldn’t. The second day of round 10 coming up this Saturday, we’ve got first against third.
DAVE: Which is currently situated how?
MARCUS: HSD need about 100 more to knock off Parkmore in first, so that would be a big result. Cranbourne is 3/30 chasing Coomoora’s 171. It’s interesting that the top four is pretty much set, we’re just waiting on seeding. Then round 12 you’ve got the same again with Coomoora-HSD and Cranbourne-Parkmore.
DAVE: Would be it too cruel of me to ask you for a premiership winner in all three DDCA grades without notice?
MARCUS: It would be cruel, but I’ll give it a crack. Turf 1; Buckley Ridges, Turf 2; Cranbourne, Turf 3; I’m still thinking Fountain Gate.
DAVE: This week, boys, there’s another set of huge cricket matches, and we’ve got Kooweerup taking on Tooradin which I think will be the grand final, so really looking forward to that. After that I’ll probably duck around the corner to Cardinia and watch them play against Pakenham, another top four battle. I think whoever wins out of that game will definitely make finals, but there’s a team called Clyde who’s making a big run for finals and the loser of Cardinia-Pakenham could be the vulnerable ones.
MARCUS: Alright, so I’m going to return the question to you Dave, who’s winning Premier, who’s getting relegated?
DAVE: Oh, wow.
MARCUS: Sorry, would that be too cruel for me to ask? (Boys laugh)
DAVE: It would be cruel. I think Kooweerup will win Premier and Officer in District. Relegation, well, Merinda Park is a game and a half behind Upper Beaconsfield because they got beat in round one when every other game was drawn. This isn’t going to be popular with Upper Beaconsfield people, but they should get relegated because they are the worst team in the competition. Alright boys, well done, that’s our first Let’s Talk Sport for the year and we’ll reconvene next week.
