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🔥 SILVER STORM! BUFFALOES BRING THE HEAT 🔥 · WCBH

• 0:17
  In baseball, the NT Buffalo Senior League Emerging Squad have just wrapped up
• 0:21
  their campaign at the 2026 Queensland State Titles.
• 0:26
  Kyle Moronan from Baseball NT joins me along with Lucas Parambo,
• 0:32
  one of the players and I believe the captain of the squad. Good morning,
• 0:35
  Kai. Good morning, Lucas.
• 0:37
  Good morning, Cam. How are you doing? Yeah, well, thanks, Kai.
• 0:40
  Great to have you back on WCBH. And Lucas, great to have you making your WCBH debut.
• 0:47
  Yep, Max. Hey, Kai, can you start off by just telling us who are the NT Buffalo
• 0:53
  Senior League Emerging Squad? It's quite a mouthful of a name.
• 0:57
  Yes, so it is quite a mouthful of
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  a name, but we do love being a bit high maintenance here at Baseball NT.
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  So the Northern Territory Buffaloes, as I hope most of your listeners know,
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  are the representative, I guess, umbrella of all of our baseball teams in the Territory.
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  The Senior League referred to the age group that we were playing in.
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  So the senior league age group from a baseball point of view is ages between
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  16 and 13, sort of like an under-16s competition.
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  It falls under the big Little League umbrella, which is a big US sort of age system over there.
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  And emerging just refers to the division of play. So emerging,
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  in our case, is sort of like a Division 2 competition.
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  So NT Buffalo Senior League emerging basically means NT Buffalo is under-16s
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  Division 2, for lack of a better word. side.
• 1:44
  Oh, okay. And Lucas, how old are you, mate? I'm 14.
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  You're 14. And was this your first AAA touring with baseball?
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  No, this was my fifth or sixth, I think.
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  Wow. So you're a fairly experienced campaigner and you were the captain of the
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  squad? Yeah, I was this year.
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  And do you know how many teams were
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  participating in the Queensland State Trials? I think there was eight.
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  Eight teams. And seven teams. And whereabouts was the competition played? In Ipswich.
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  And how'd the team go? We did pretty well. We were 3-1-2.
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  And it was just a really fun tournament. We were competing in every game.
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  And it was, yeah, a really fun experience.
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  So when you say 3-1-2, so three wins, one loss, two draws? Or is that what you mean?
• 2:38
  That's a fantastic result. particularly for a Northern Territory team.
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  Kai, can I ask, what was the format of the games?
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  Yeah, so seven teams is obviously a very tricky number. I mean,
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  any sort of competition format.
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  So basically how it went along was we played, the tournament was played across
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  three days and it was a doubleheader every day. So every team played each other once.
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  Pretty standard format, two points for a win, one point for a draw,
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  zero points for a loss with the aggregate standings at the end there.
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  So luckily enough with our record, we ended up with a silver medal.
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  So the first juniors, the first medal for a junior into Buffalo's side in 15 years, Kim.
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  Well, that's a fantastic result. Well done to you. And of course,
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  well done to you, Luke, as well.
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  Am I right there with a co-ed tournament?
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  Yes, it was a co-ed tournament. So all of the little league age groups are open to both boys and girls.
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  It was good to see a good split of females up across all the teams.
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  Like we had one girl on our team, young Chelsea Erickson, who was awesome to see.
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  But yeah, open to boys and girls right across the board.
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  And look, it's Baseball Northern Territory. And so you took away a squad that
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  wasn't just Darwin-based. There were players from across the Territory?
• 3:55
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was really awesome to see we took. So we took away 12 players and five staff.
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  So all five of our travelling staff, three coaches, an executive officer and
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  scorer were all Alice Springs based.
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  Then the players were split up, eight and four split towards Alice Springs as well.
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  So four kids from Darwin, eight kids from Alice, and then the five staff from
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  Alice as well, which was really cool to see.
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  That's tremendous to hear that Alice Springs is up there competing with Darwin.
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  Lucas, you're Alice Springs based, aren't you? Yes, I am.
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  And how long have you been playing baseball?
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  Well, I played baseball when I was in the States when I was seven or eight,
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  and I've been playing ever since when I moved here five years ago.
• 4:39
  Yeah, okay. So you're originally from the States and you've moved to Australia? Yeah.
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  And our listeners won't be able to see, but you're wearing a hat. Tell us about the hat.
• 4:50
  I think you're in competition with Kai for your Major League Baseball team.
• 4:54
  Yeah, so since I'm from Colorado, I'm a Rockies fan.
• 4:58
  Okay. Well, let's go through the results, and you'll have to help me out with some of the things here.
• 5:05
  So for this game, you came up against Brisbane South, a 11-all draw? Yeah, it was a draw.
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  And then you took on North Queensland next. How did that one go?
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  That was a very good game. It was still on the same day. And then we just were
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  driving in runs really well. Everyone on the team was supporting everyone.
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  And, yeah, it was a really fun game, good vibes, and we were able to win 14-7.
• 5:31
  That's a fantastic result. And then, Kai, a good win over Brisbane West?
• 5:36
  Yeah, Brisbane West, it was a good 11-8 game over them. They were sort of the
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  favorites going into the week, I think it was safe to assume.
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  So Brisbane West were actually the home side, I guess, with a lot of the local
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  players from Ipswich playing in that tournament for Brisbane West.
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  11-8 game, we actually had a young player, Austin Cunningley,
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  from Canberra join us for the week.
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  So he was, which I forgot to mention before when we're talking about the highest slits, unfortunately.
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  But he threw the whole game for us that game, recording eight strikeouts across
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  his four-inning pitch, which resourced in the state.
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  So, yeah, some really good baseball play that day.
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  Okay, so you're basically taking one pitcher into the game. Is that the game
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  plan or sometimes you'll bring on a second pitcher? Yeah.
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  I wish game plans all went that easy, only being able to pick one pitcher.
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  Unfortunately, it's not always the case.
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  Each game, we sort of nominate a starting pitcher to go forward.
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  And with youth baseball, there is a bunch of pitch restrictions on each of the
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  players, mainly just around safety with how many pitches they're allowed to
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  throw on a given day and how many days rest they need to have after the fact as well.
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  So it's a really key part for coaches in these tournaments to be able to,
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  I guess, organize and sort of plan ahead with all these restrictions.
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  And especially in the Queensland State titles where it's condensed even further
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  over three days as opposed to a Nationals, which might be five or six days,
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  we had to stay quite on top of the numbers.
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  So the coaches did a really good job in terms of planning out the weekend in
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  that facet as well as keeping on top of all the kids in their pitch count.
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  Yeah, gotcha. So there's a, there's a cap on the number of pitches you can throw
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  over in a particular day, so you don't sort of get those repetitive injuries. Gotcha.
• 7:26
  Lucas, can you explain this one to me? 13-12, you went down to Brisbane Metro,
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  but I've seen the note there that it was a walk-off. What does that mean?
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  So at the end of the game, we were fielding and then their team had hit the
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  ball and scored the winning run.
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  So once they scored, the game was over because we didn't have another chance
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  to bat since it was the bottom of the inning.
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  Gotcha. So it was the bottom of the final innings and then they scored the winning
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  run and that's what the term walk-off means? Yes.
• 7:55
  Thanks for explaining that. And then Brisbane North, I grew up on the north side of Brisbane.
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  So you came up against my old area, 15-4 win over Brisbane North.
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  Yeah it was it was a
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  very good game a lot of people recorded hits in
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  that game and the vibe was also
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  really high during that game that I we
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  had an early day that day as well so we woke up early
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  started training and then we had a
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  really early game where it was like pretty
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  much whoever had the whoever was ready to play that day
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  would have won the game and so we just
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  came out we were hitting really well but everyone was
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  cheering on everyone else and so that's why that's how
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  we won 15 to 4 and what what's
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  your role in the team are you a pitcher a batsman the
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  catcher um well everyone bats who's in the field
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  and then almost everyone had a chance to
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  pitch during this tournament but in that game I was shortstop and
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  so yeah I was in the middle trying to
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  run the infield make sure everyone's ready when the ball comes
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  and then helping out when the ball gets hit where to throw the ball okay so
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  I would imagine that shortstop is a fairly high pressure position you've got
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  to have fast skills in the field and to translate it into cricketing terms like
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  I would imagine it's almost like fielding it slips or it's pretty close to the wicket,
• 9:17
  I don't know anything about cricket, so I don't know what that means. Can I help me out there?
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  Yeah, I would probably argue that. I think shortstop is very much the general of the infield.
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  Basically, where it's positioned on the field is where most batters will more or less hit the ball.
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  Historically, especially in the major leagues, a lot of the most athletic players
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  generally end up playing shortstop just for the importance of the position.
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  So, I guess in terms of, I mean, relative to cricket, I would probably say mid-on
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  or mid-off, depending on the game.
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  So, very fast reaction speed, got to make quick decisions.
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  Yeah, and a lot of ground to cover as well. So, basically sort of got the whole
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  middle of the diamond and probably the longest throw across the infield as well.
• 10:10
  Yeah, okay. Okay, so pretty important position out there on the field.
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  And then the final game, I think, was that a combined Sunshine Coast-Gold Coast
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  team you came up against?
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  Yeah, it was. And that one ended up in a draw, I believe?
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  Yeah. So Lucas was Lucas Nixon. The other Lucas was pitching,
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  and he pitched really well.
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  And we hit really well, but there were just a few errors on our side that made
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  us end up in a draw. So that was about it there.
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  Just a few errors on our side. Everyone was a bit tired and the energy just
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  wasn't as high as some of the other games.
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  It's interesting, those carnival type competitions. I was watching the results
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  coming through on the social media.
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  I was sort of jotting down a few notes and what interested me,
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  it was just a ladder system. There was no final series in this comp? No, there wasn't.
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  Yeah, correct. So yeah, just with the three-day format, the 17s,
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  there's actually a limit for how many games that kids can play in a day just
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  from a safeguarding perspective.
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  So they're sort of limited to two two-hour games a day. So without extending
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  the tournament by an extra day, yeah, it was just sort of outright scoring at the end.
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  So probably a little bit, as Lucas can probably attest, probably a little bit
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  of a nervous wait in the afternoon there while we're waiting for the other results
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  to come in and find out where we wrapped up. because gold was potentially in
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  play up to the very last game of the evening.
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  But yeah, incredibly happy with the result and incredibly happy with how the
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  kids held themselves throughout the week. And they should be really,
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  really proud of what they achieved.
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  Yeah, fantastic result to earn the silver medal, but also just to go away as a travelling team.
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  And as we know, we're not from the same region. So you're sort of combining
• 12:05
  players from Darwin, one from Alice, you mentioned the player from Canberra,
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  so to come together whilst being away, that's a tremendous effort.
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  Is this all part of like a pathways program, Kai, for our young baseball athletes in the Territory?
• 12:19
  More or less, yes. These are our major events throughout the year that we're
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  trying to funnel all of our kids into.
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  Unfortunately, we're not, again, like you sort of mentioned,
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  being a small estate, we don't quite have the reach or the top-end talent to
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  be able to step into to the true performance pathway with Baseball Australia,
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  where there are those national events for full state teams, which take place in January.
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  But however, what our presence at these tournaments does provide is an opportunity
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  for our kids to be able to showcase themselves to those bigger states to potentially
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  take up opportunities at that higher level.
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  You might have seen on our Facebook page already this week, Cam,
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  we do have young Hannah Fior who has been a member of the Buffaloes over in
• 13:03
  past years as well and one of Luke's best mates.
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  On top of that, she was actually playing the Queensland Youth Women's Team at
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  the Youth Women's Nationals this week too.
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  So basically her performances with these NT
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  Buffalo trips away has sort of given her the launching pad
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  to be picked up by the biggest states and that's sort of what we're hoping to
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  achieve with all of our kids to go away and obviously
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  in the future we i would love to take an nt team back
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  to the back into the performance stream whether it's
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  next year or five years from now we'll have to wait and see but i think
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  just giving these kids opportunity to get out of the territory and play
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  quality baseball is is really really good for them and it makes it really easy
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  with how well they represent themselves when they're when they're away and we've
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  got we've got an incredible culture that's been set by by all of our coaches
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  that you know we obviously have this difficulty in distance with trying to meld
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  teams together from Darwin and Alice Springs quite often at short notice,
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  but with the expectations that are set and how hard the coaches work and the
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  communication channels we sort of set up,
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  you wouldn't tell within 20 minutes of this group getting together who's from where.
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  And that's probably the coolest thing on my part, sort of overseeing all of this.
• 14:14
  Yeah, brilliant. Lucas, what was the best thing about the tournament?
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  It's really fun to play six games in three days where in our springs there's
• 14:24
  not a lot of kids that play baseball.
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  So in our junior league we have two teams so we verse each other back to back to back.
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  So versing different people was really fun. But then also the other activities
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  that we did while we were there, laser tag, mini golf, go-karting,
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  that was also really fun.
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  Yeah, how good is that? Lucas, well done on representing the Northern Territory,
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  picking up a silver medal.
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  And Lucas and Kai, thanks so much once again for joining us on WCBH.
• 14:51
  Thank you.