Cricket at Metricon stadium

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Oct 24, 2012
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Sam Hain went to school on the Gold Coast
Now tipped to make the england test side in the coming years.
Decent T20 stats.

Might be would come back to Queensland for a pay check.

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Jul 21, 2010
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The Bulletin takes a look at what a Gold Coast Big Bash League team could look like
played against mcdermott (henderson), stanlake and stevens in junior cricket. was surprised stevens didn't go on to greater heights, he always seemed to be the talk of the town and pumped out runs.
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
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played against mcdermott (henderson), stanlake and stevens in junior cricket. was surprised stevens didn't go on to greater heights, he always seemed to be the talk of the town and pumped out runs.
I had no idea TSS was such a hotbed for cricket talent until recently. Certainly bodes well for our future BBL team! The Suns would be better served if they begin establishing strong cricket links with TSS now.
 

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
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Metricon Stadium pitch and outfield ready to go for Australia v South Africa Twenty20
METRICON Stadium’s curator believes there will be plenty of bounce for Aussie tearaway Billy Stanlake on Saturday night but would “love” to see 200-plus scores in front of a big Gold Coast crowd.

The moment of truth is coming up for Kerry Betihavas’ maiden pitch at the Carrara venue, which will host a Twenty 20 international between Australia and South Africa.

The outfield is looking in superb condition and Betihavas – who previously spent 12 years working at the famous Sydney Cricket Ground – confirmed pitch preparation is on track.

“Ideally we just want it nice and flat and hard so we can get a high-scoring game and get the crowd entertained,” he said.

“The pitch should play pretty well. I’m confident it will play pretty good.”

While batsmen are primarily being catered for, Betihavas indicated there will be a bit on offer for former Gold Coast Dolphins beanpole Stanlake.

“He should be able to get some good carry out of that pitch,” Betihavas said.

“We are trying to get the same characteristics as the Gabba.”

Metricon Stadium general manager Tim Carey added the wicket had been given the nod of approval by Cricket Australia consultant and ex-Adelaide Oval curator Les Burdett.

“He knows all about drop-in wickets. He has been here for a week and is really happy,” Carey said.

“We’ll have a hard, fast, consistent surface that should be conducive to good cricket.”

Having faced pressure to be ready for their cricket debut in a year where they have also hosted the Commonwealth Games and AFL action, Carey is adamant they will put on a show that will deliver more international cricket to the Coast in future.

About 15,000 tickets have been sold to date.

“We’re hoping for a full house, it’s every chance,” Carey said.

“There are still tickets available. We certainly know through footy that Gold Coasters like to leave it late so we would encourage them to get online, talk to Ticketek, get your tickets and get here early.”

The wicket began being constructed last December and was dropped in at the end of August.

Betihavas added a maximum boundary size of 77m was in line with most Australian arenas.

Nice to see 15,000 tickets have been sold and hopefully we can get up around the 20k mark once Saturday night rolls around. The stadium can only hold 22k in cricket mode so a figure around 20k would be pretty close to a sell out.
 
Jul 21, 2010
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I had no idea TSS was such a hotbed for cricket talent until recently. Certainly bodes well for our future BBL team! The Suns would be better served if they begin establishing strong cricket links with TSS now.
yeah i think i briefly remember TSS had a team that we played at some point, even though it was outside of our grade, or something like that? they were a crazy team, so much development goes into those sorts of schools. had a few of those boys recruited to our side towards the end of my junior career. played against sam hain too, he was a gun.
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
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Billy Stanlake discusses the past, the future, the rivals he fears and the state of Australian cricket
HE will be part of history on Saturday night when he lines up for Australia in the Gold Coast’s first international fixture - but it hasn’t been a smooth ride to the top for towering hometown paceman Billy Stanlake.

The 24-year-old paceman sits down with Brent O’Neill to discuss the past, the future and the rivals he fears.

PART OF HISTORY

Q. As a Gold Coast boy, you must be stoked to be playing in the city’s first T20 international?

A. Obviously it’s very exciting to play an international game for Australia, let alone to be able to do it at home on the Gold Coast for the first time. It’s exciting for future years as well, hopefully we can keep coming back here and bring more games in the future. All the family are going (on Saturday night) and a few friends are going so it’s going to be exciting. I’ve played in front of my family and friends plenty of times before so I don’t think that’s going to be any more nerve-racking having them there.

Q. The Big Bash will be here soon too - could you ever see the day the Coast gets its own BBL side?

A. I think it definitely has potential. Obviously the Heat are playing some games there this year so hopefully this game on Saturday night and the Brisbane Heat games in the big Bash become a success and hopefully we can start taking more cricket up there. I can definitely see the potential to have a Big Bash team there.

A BORN SPEED DEMON

Q. Talk us through the Billy Stanlake journey. How did cricket become part of your life?

A. I started playing cricket in the backyard with my brother (Jack) growing up and then I went into Milo Cricket and that sort of stuff. Once I got to the Gold Coast (from Hervey Bay aged six) I played underage cricket and moved around a few clubs … Southport Labrador, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach. Then I went on to the Gold Coast Dolphins when I was about 16 to play Lord’s Taverner’s.

Q. Looking back now, do you think you always had that natural ability?

A. I always had a bit of natural ability I guess. I played rep cricket pretty much all the way through from under-12s until senior cricket. I was always one of the taller ones in the group but I shot up around 14 or 15 and then I’ve been about the height I am now (204cm) since I was about 16. I always had a bit of natural pace growing up and I’ve been able to gradually put more pace on each year as I’ve spent time in the gym.

A HORROR INJURY RUN

Q. You’ve had a horror run with injuries in the past. That must have been tough.

A. Probably (from) when I was about 16, 17 I had a period of five years where it was one stress fracture after the other. Luckily the last 18 months or two years now I haven’t had any major bone problems, it’s just been a couple of fingers and the infected toe that I had last year. It’s been nice to have a couple of years where I haven’t had any major bony injuries. I had three (stress fractures) in the back, one in each foot and one in the pelvis so it was all over the place. It’s taught me the hard way about how to take care of your body so there’s some positives there as well as the negatives.

FEARS FOR THE FUTURE

Q. Were there times you feared you may never reach the heights you have?

A. Once you spend 10 months rehabbing and working your way back to playing and you get two games into playing again and you’re injured again and have to spend another 10 months on the sideline, you go through that five or six times in a row and you always have a few doubts your body is ever going to be right.

Q. How’s the ball coming out at the moment and how is the body feeling?

A. I’m really happy how it’s going, I’m really happy with how I bowled in Dubai in the T20s (against Pakistan last month) and then it’s been coming out well back in training and club cricket on the weekend. The body’s in really good nick so I’m really happy with how that’s going as well. The more you play the better you get and I think that’s been the difference with being able to play consistently. This has definitely been the longest stretch I’ve played (without injury), over the last 12 months.

RED-BALL DREAMS

Q. What’s the plan for the rest of the season ... any chance of Sheffield Shield action?

A. Not at the moment I don’t think. Obviously we’ve got this T20 series coming up and that pretty much leads right into the Big Bash, so there’s obviously a lot of T20 cricket coming up. I don’t want to look too far ahead but there’s more white-ball cricket for Australia mid-January … but I just want to keep the body feeling good, keep getting through games of cricket. I’m sort of just taking it one block at a time, not wanting to look too far ahead. It’s definitely still a goal of mine (to play Shield and Test cricket). If I can stay injury free for the rest of this season, I think red-ball cricket and Sheffield Shield cricket will come when the time is right. Hopefully it’s not too far off.

Q. Obviously the cultural review into Australian cricket has been in the headlines. What have you made of it all?

A. I think the main thing we’re trying to do is play good, hard, fair cricket. We want to earn the respect back of the public and you do that by winning and you do that by playing the right way. All we can do as a group is concentrate on playing hard but fair cricket for Australia, which we’ve all been working really hard on at training and in the background to get better outcomes on the field. They’re not quite coming at the moment but I’m sure all the work and preparation we’re putting in, it’s not going to be long until it turns around. We’ve got a great group, we get along really well and with the support staff as well. Although it has been tough times without winning, everyone’s working really hard to win games again.

RATING THE RIVALS

Q. You touched on club cricket earlier. As an Australian player, do you feel pressure to dominate when you turn out for Souths?

A. I always make sure that when I go back to club cricket I want to go out there and bowl how I always bowl - bowl fast. I always loved watching Brett Lee growing up, I always tried to bowl like him when I was younger. I do want to make sure I put on a good performance (in club cricket), especially for the guys that you don’t see very often back there. I always want to bowl well, be relaxed and have some fun with the boys at Souths, which I always do. They’re a great bunch so it’s always good to go back and have a bit of a laugh with the boys.

Q. Who would you rate as the three toughest players you’ve bowled to?

A. Probably Jos Buttler, Chris Lynn and Hashim Amla off the top of my head. Jos (pictured) is someone that can score to every part of the ground, that’s what makes him good. It’s something not many guys can do. Lynny with his sheer power hitting, he’s probably one of the best in the world, if not the best, doing that up front. He’s always a big challenge to bowl to. The one time I bowled to Hashim Amla, he was just a beautiful cricket player and played beautiful shots. The more you play the more you learn what works, how to plan for certain teams and all those things that go into preparing for a game.

PLANS FOR SUCCESS

Q. Speaking of preparation, how much work goes into getting ready for a game like the one on Saturday night?

A. You do your individual planning where you go on your computer and watch footage of all the guys and try and see what they do. We’ll go through that as a team in the team meeting, go through all the players, what their strengths and weaknesses are, what potential fields we’ll have and what balls we’ll bowl at the death of the innings. It’s obviously pretty stock standard early on up front with the PowerPlay. It’s also about knowing your plan going into the game so once you’re out in the middle you have your plan and you’re clear. That’s the most important thing.

Q. So how will the team go about beating South Africa at Metricon on Saturday night?

A. I think T20 cricket is very much about the lines you bowl and about having your fields set accordingly and knowing what ball you want to bowl. You’ve got to play to the conditions a little bit with T20 cricket with the dimensions of the field a little bit more. We’ll go through the planning leading up to the game. I think Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock and David Miller there are three very experienced batters so I think they’re going to hold a big key to their batting. And then (Kagiso) Rabada up front is probably the dangerman with the ball so if we can contain those guys I think that will go a long way. When you haven’t played for a bit you get a bit more nervous leading into the game ... but once you bowl that first ball you calm down and settle in.”

THE STANLAKE FACT FILE

Age: 24

Born: Hervey Bay (moved to Gold Coast at the age of six)

Lives: Brisbane (formerly Main Beach and Chevron Island)

Height: 204cm

Junior Clubs: Southport Labrador, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach Robina

Senior Clubs: Gold Coast Dolphins (former), South Brisbane (current)

Major Teams: Queensland, Adelaide Strikers (BBL), Sunrisers Hyderabad

Career Highlights:

■ Australian under-19 selection in 2011

■ List A debut vs Tasmania in October 2015 (20 matches)

■ First class debut vs South Australia in November 2015 (two matches)

■ T20 debut vs Sydney Thunder in December 2015 (38 matches)

■ One-Day International debut vs Pakistan in January 2017 (six matches)

■ T20 International debut vs Sri Lanka in February 2017 (15 matches)

■ Won BBL title with Adelaide Strikers in February 2018
Nice to see the local boy Stanlake is excited about playing an international match at Metricon.
 

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
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Traffic on Nerang-Broadbeach Road managed by police as T20 cricket comes to Gold Coast
POLICE will be managing traffic along one of the Gold Coast’s busiest roads tomorrow afternoon as one of the biggest sporting events comes to town.

The T20 Australia vs South Africa cricket match will be held at Metricon Stadium in Carrara tomorrow afternoon, meaning traffic along Broadbeach-Nerang Road and in the surrounding area could be congested.

More than 23,000 spectators are expected to turn out for the event.

Alabaster Road will be closed from 4.30pm until 10.30pm between Plateau Crescent and Nerang-Broadbeach Road.

Police will manage traffic at the intersection of Chisholm Road and Nerang-Broadbeach Road as well as the U-Turn facility close by.

Motorists are urged to use free public transport available on the day.

Police have also warned those attending the cricket that it is an offence to enter the field of play.

Major Events Group Inspector Mat Rosevear said it was a serious matter and if a person breached this, they could be fined up to $10,500.
GC Bulletin predicting a crowd of more than 23,000 tonight. I'm not sure the stadium is even capable of holding that many spectators in cricket mode but I'm happy to be proven wrong. It would certainly make a big statement if we pulled more than 20,000 to the game.

Also, here are yesterday's news reports from Channel 9 and Channel 7:


 
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GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
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Mr Bods
Damned private schools sucking up all the government school talent*

*that would otherwise go to waste
He can't hate on the private schools (TSS specifically) too much. After all, one of the Titans greats Mat Rogers is a TSS Old Boy and is still heavily involved in Gold Coast community events.

Whether people like it or not, elite private schools have the money/resources to hire staff who can greatly affect the students' development. Look at our very own Touk Miller. He was given a sports scholarship to attend Maribyrnong College (government school) when he commenced high school but accepted a scholarship to attend the elitest St Kevin's College (private school) in year 10/11 because it was better for his football development to be coached at a high standard and regularly compete with and against better juniors in the APS competition. It's really chalk and cheese when you consider an APS school like Haileybury has Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd regularly coming in to coach the students. Also, from an education standpoint, almost every parent would want their child to attend a school like that if they are offered a scholarship to attend - so that's a factor as well.
 
Nov 17, 2009
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That’s what I was getting at
My nephew in Melbourne went to Auburn High School
He’s now at Melbourne Grammar
They had no organised team sport at the High School at his level
Sad
It’s funding. Changing work practices Gender imbalance in teacher ranks Changing demographics
Multifactorial as always


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
May 21, 2017
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Don’t rate the pushing of imaginary friends too much on the public purse not forgetting the long history of child abuse at the taxpayer expense.
I quite like marvellous young men and women coming through a secular and grounded system ably supported by the open minded grounded professionals of the public system as found right throughout Australia but particularly locally at PBC where I live. The feedback I get is those glorious secular kids with grounded heads having mixed with all walks of life make the transition to Uni and post school much better.
I’ll leave you blokes now to talk about imaginary friends, wearing school ties to job interviews and the complete refusal to accept responsibility for systematic child abuse.
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
May 27, 2013
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Don’t rate the pushing of imaginary friends too much on the public purse not forgetting the long history of child abuse at the taxpayer expense.
I quite like marvellous young men and women coming through a secular and grounded system ably supported by the open minded grounded professionals of the public system as found right throughout Australia but particularly locally at PBC where I live. The feedback I get is those glorious secular kids with grounded heads having mixed with all walks of life make the transition to Uni and post school much better.
I’ll leave you blokes now to talk about imaginary friends, wearing school ties to job interviews and the complete refusal to accept responsibility for systematic child abuse.
You've got your head in the sand if you think child abuse is only present in the private school system, both historically and presently.
Queensland state school staff made 574 reports of suspected sexual abuse in 2015, according to a report which has been released 16 months after being handed to the Queensland government.


Back on topic, I really hope the rain holds off and we get a nice crowd at Metricon tonight!
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
May 21, 2017
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You've got your head in the sand if you think child abuse is only present in the private school system, both historically and presently.



Back on topic, I really hope the rain holds off and we get a nice crowd at Metricon tonight!

I’ve given my alternate point of view to the double baiting that you and Sandy did.
I’ve finished.
 

SunsGal

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You guys know your weather better than me or the broadcasters. How long will this rain hang around? And is there more?
Looks like its nearly passed, another patch coming but the wind is blowing it across pretty quicly
 

SunsGal

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That's a very good result considering the weather.

Cricket on the Gold Coast will be a huge success I reckon.

Seems they sold 10,000 more than that but all the severe weather warnings kept people away or sent them home

 
Jul 21, 2010
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that was some of the craziest weather i've ever seen. I was at the sydney game with 4000 other fans a few years ago where the rain was pretty torrential, but last night was something else. even sitting up in the back row of the second tier on the northern end we were still getting wet, the rain and wind was insane. full credit to the drainage systems of carrara, very lucky we got any cricket at all! average result but decent atmosphere, i'll be heading back for a big bash game i think.
 
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