Front and Centre

Justin Langer gives an update on the Australian Cricket Team and what we can expect for the summer of 2020 in Cricket. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are only a week away from West Coast and Fremantle playing again and Kim Hagdorn checked out their training sessions before the teams head to the Gold Coast and had injury updates from both clubs. 

Three time Premiership player for Geelong Matthew Scarlett joined Brad and Haggers on 6PR to take a trip down memory lane.  Although his playing days were impressive, Scarlett has since turned his hand to coaching and Brad thinks for the former fullback is set to be the next AFL head coach.  "I just love having a positive influence on young men that are trying to achieve something special in their life and I feel very fortunate in the career that I have," Scarlett said.  But he admitted he says he's still not sure if he wants the top job.  "I'm still unsure; I'm certainly not in a rush to get into a position like that," he said.   Matthew Scarlett is known for his toe poke that won Geelong the 2009 Grand Final, but West Aussies remember his for the punch he threw at Fremantle's Hayden Ballantyne.  He reminisced about both of those moments.  

Matthew Scarlett is known for his toe poke that won Geelong the 2009 Grand Final, but West Aussies remember his for the punch he threw at Fremantle's Hayden Ballantyne.  He reminisced about both of those moments.  

AFL clubs will continue to struggle financially for years to come and the Brisbane Lions CEO says staff cuts will go into next year with further changes coming.  "Logic says that's going to mean that you lose staff; you're going to try and cut costs wherever you can without having to cut your staff but I think it's inevitable," Greg Swann told 6PR's Front and Centre. 

It would come as no surprise to West Australian's that one of the most courageous AFL players comes from Perth.  Former Claremont and Carlton player, Ken Hunter, was Front and Centre's guest to take a trip down memory lane. 

As the AFL season looks to start back up again, clubs will gradually bring back staff to keep their team running, but what does it take to start a club from scratch?  Former East Perth and West Perth player George Michalczyk was part of the planning team that put together the West Coast Eagles back in 1986. 

Former AFL player and assistant coach Peter Sumich says if the teams are serious about getting back into the season, they need to make the hubs, players-only.  “Leave the families at home and get the job done” Peter Sumich told 6PR. 

"Fabulous" Phil Carmen is infamously known for headbutting an umpire during a game in 1980, 6PR caught up with the firey former player.  6PR's Front and Centre took a trip down memory lane with the VFL player who played for Collingwood, Melbourne, Essendon and North Melbourne. 

Hawthorn still want to play their four games in Tasmania when the AFL season starts back up again.  Hawthorn Football Club President Jeff Kennett told 6PR they have appealed to the AFL and the Government to allow them to continue their agreement with Tasmania.  "We've asked to play those four (games) down there because we have a very large membership in Tasmania, close to 10,000 and we respect them. "So we've made an application to the AFL, we've also told the Tasmanian Government that we're pushing hard to meet our obligation," Mr Kennett told 6PR. 

The West Coast Eagles are working hard to create a medical plan for a "Fly In, Fly Out" program for the WA teams when the AFL season starts back up again.  Kim Hagdorn spoke on 6PR's Front and Centre about the plans and some of the testing and quarantine regimes that would have to take place. 

East Fremantle Football Club put out a call for help and set up a GoFundMe page to raise $100,000 for the struggling WAFL club.  But Kim Hagdorn says it's "unprofessional, it's unnecessary while football authorities are trying to work their backsides off to save that competition."

Veteran GWS Giant Heath Shaw could be set to play on with the 34-year-old telling his teammate Matt de Boer, his body is feeling as good as ever.  Former Fremantle player de Boer spoke with 6PR about getting axed by Freo back in 2016 and starting again in Sydney with the Giants. 

Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn took a step back in time to remember some of the great sporting feuds over the years. One was between George Grljusich and Percy Johnson in the mid 2000s, the other was in 2008 between John Worsfold and Brad Hardie.  

Cricket Victoria and Tasmania are set to stand down a number of staff with the sport struggling to stay alive during the Coronavirus pandemic. Former Australian cricketer Dean Jones told 6PR he's upset about some of the decisions made by the organisations. Deano joined Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn on Front and Centre to chat about famous sporting feuds over the years, when he got fired up about the current situation.

Percy Johnson was a WA football player and coach and the 1957 Premiership Player was inducted in the WA Football Hall of Fame in 2010. The 87-year-old has seen plenty of football in his years so Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn asked him about the best Father-Son combos he's seen in the game. 

He's been lauded at the greatest West Coast Eagle to play since the club entered the AFL competition, so Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn caught up with Dean Kemp.  The 1992 and 1994 Premiership player says Mick Malthouse was looking at him as a young draft prospect before Malthouse came across to West Coast.  

Former Carlton Premiership player and WA football legend Peter "Buzz" Bosustow joined Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn to talk about the good ol' days of football.  Bosustow says he was meant to go back to Carlton after another stint at Perth Football Clubs, but an incident with a window and a club argument about clearance fees stopped the trip back East. 

The ever controversial Mal Brown took a trip down memory lane with 6PR, telling us the back story behind some of his suspensions as a player and a coach.  He also told us the best player he's played against Barry Cable and the best player he's coached is Stephen Michael.  The former Richmond player and WA football legend caught up with Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn. 

When it comes to a great kick for goal, a name that is likely to come up is former Collingwood and Carlton player, Peter McKenna.  The popular personality was playing AFL in 1972 and joined Darryl Somers on Hey Hey It's Saturday each weekend, until he played a shocking game for Collingwood and the club made him choose between footy and TV.  "I'm the only bloke in the history of television to be replaced by a stuffed ostrich [Ozzie Ostrich]," McKenna told 6PR. 

Former cricketer and footballer, Ken "Noddy" McAullay, says his only regret is not having another shot at cricket.  The right-handed-batsman and fullback took a trip down memory lane and shared his experiences in the two sports with 6PR's Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn. 

A former Swan Districts and Essendon player was involved with back-to-back Premierships with the Swans then back-to-back Premierships with Essendon.  Premiership maker Leon Baker took a trip down memory lane with Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn on 6PR.  Baker spoke about traveling to WA in a Combi Van and ending up playing for South Bunbury before finding his way to Swan Districts and his first meeting with the great Kevin Sheedy.  But he said he related to John Todd the most, and he had simple advice  "Three things: keep you're eye on the ball... don't panic... and get out and express yourself, people have paid money to come out and watch you, go out and show them what you've got." Baker reminisced.  "Kevin the plumber, certainly a different approach," he added. 

If you're missing your weekend WAFL fix, a local footy historian has found an alternative to bring the WAFL community together, an online watch party for classic matches.  This Saturday at 2:20pm footy fans can watch the opening 1984 match between South Fremantle and Claremont at Fremantle Oval.  A game where 6PR's very own Brad Hardie played his first game as captain of his club.  "I did the '78 Grand Final last night and I got a lot of good feedback from people who don't have any live sport to watch on a Friday night so it's nice to put a few smiles on people's faces," Sean Cowan told 6PR. 

AFL Hall Of Famer, dual Sandover Medalist and South Fremantle Premiership player Stephen Michael joined Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn to reminisce about the good ol' days of footy.  Footy, favourite teammates and food.... we took a trip down memory lane with 243-gamer Stephen Michael.  

The Geelong Football Club has stood down around 100 staff members with the AFL season put on hold until further notice.  An emotional Brian Cook says the staff have been given compassionate leave and their owed leave, but after that it will have to be leave without pay if there's no competition.  "It's been a tough time, mate, loyal people." The Geelong CEO says their coach, Chris Scott, had sacrificed his pay for the club: "What's become obvious is right through this is, and I think every club's the same, there's a lot of wonderful people out there. They ask about the health of the club."   

In one year he took the Brisbane Lions from five wins to 16 wins, but the coach says last year's performance won't be good enough for 2020. Chris Fagan turned his team around to finish second on the AFL ladder in 2019 and won the Coach of the Year award, but understands there's a lot to do ahead of this season.  "From the day we started working together we've just been on this thing about improvement and that's really all that we can control," Fagan told Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn.  "We've got to try and be a better team than we were last year because last year what we did, wouldn't be good enough this year. We all know that." The Lions do have a lot of young talent coming through, but they lose the experienced talents of Premiership player Luke Hodge.  "His job was to try and leave a legacy and he's very much done that over the last couple of years," Fagan said. 

The BBL Final is all but cancelled with heavy rain forecast in Sydney during the decider between the Sydney Sixers and Melbourne Stars on Saturday.  Cricket great and BBL commentator Adam Gilchrist arrived in Sydney on Saturday and although he's hopeful the clouds will part for a few hours, but it's not likely.  Gilchrist told 6PR he thinks the BBL Final should have moved location.   "I feel a bit frustrated like everyone. "They're big decisions, I know, but sometime's you've got to make the hard decisions," he told Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn.  "I just feel that the right thing is to try and get the game of cricket, the final, after 60 games. Get it somewhere where you can play it."

The Perth Scorchers are heading to a must-win match against the Sydney Thunder to secure their spot in the Big Bash finals. Perth all-rounder Ashton Agar says the pressure is on and they must start well. “Early wickets over at Spotless is really crucial because you can squeeze through the middle there; often it’s not the easiest wicket to start on there, often it’s a little bit slower and a bit lower. “So if you can get some early wickets you can generally restrict them to a really low score,” Agar told 6PR. You can hear all the action between the Sydney Thunder and Perth Scorchers from 11:30am on Sunday with Tony Leonard and Michael Beer LIVE on 6P

Fremantle skipper and dual Brownlow medalist Nat Fyfe is finding some relaxation ahead of season 2020 in some strange ways, he caught up with 6PR at Crown Sports Bar for a one-on-one interview.  Fremantle have the second youngest list in the competition in the Gold Coast and a new coach in Justin Longmuir at the helm, but Fyfe is expecting more wins on the board for 2020.  "We should be looking to win more games at home and a few games on the road, so I think, realistically between eight to 14 wins, in that range then that's where we should be aiming, that gives us an opportunity to play Finals," "I'm always ambitious, but realistic and I think we've got an advantage playing over here at Optus Stadium, it is hard for teams to travel and we should be looking capitalise on that." Fyfe's name has been thrown about to represent WA in the AFL's State of Origin Bushfire Relief match in February.  "I'm interested and if my body allows me to play and for a great cause with some of the best players in Australia then I'm hopefully going to be a part of it," Fyfe says. 

Suspended West Coast Eagle Willie Rioli was back on the training track with his Eagles teammates yesterday and their coach says Rioli was nervous ahead of his first appearance since his suspension. Adam Simpson says Rioli was brought in to the club last week and spoke with his teammates about his actions. "We did have to move on and address those issues from a player perspective and there's no other way to do it than to get him back at the right time and he spoke with the players last week and they had some conversations they needed to have with Willie," Simpson told 6PR. But Simpson says the bigger issue is, how to they replace someone like Rioli on the field.

The Perth Scorchers are still fighting for a spot in the BBL finals and tonight's match against the Brisbane Heat will be a big test for the side says their Skipper.  Mitch Marsh says they'll be aiming to come in strong against the Heat's top order.  "We know how good Chris Lynn is, but hopefully we can put some pressure on him early," Marsh told 6PR.  Marsh says bowler Jhye Richardson is hitting his straps after suffering a shoulder injury last season and will be good for them in their campaign. 

Australian cricket coach Justin Langer says they have a challenge ahead of them as they head into the Boxing Day test at the MCG on Thursday.  Speaking exclusively to 6PR Langer says he's not getting ahead of himself with calling his team one of the best test sides.  "When we play New Zealand it's an absolute arm wrestle, whilst we played great cricket in the first test we're going to have to be really on top of it to beat the second best team in the world. "If we can do that, we're certainly moving in the right direction," he says.    Langer has been at the helm of the Aussie cricket team since last year, but he's starting to reap the rewards after taking over a troubling side and shared a heartwarming story of a stranger who approached him in the streets of Fremantle.  "It looked like a farmer was just walking past me and grabbed hold of me and he goes 'thank you so much for bringing the Australian cricket team back... we really like them again', to see that progress is really heartening," Langer told 6PR. 

Perth Scorcher, AJ Tye, will have a delayed start to the BBL season after he sustained an elbow injuring during a training session.  Tye told 6PR he's hopeful to be playing in the back end of the season, but there's still some unknowns when it comes to his recovery. 

"This is a catastrophe, this is a fiasco that we have to get the bottom of," Kim Hagdorn says.

The Sheffield Shield game between Victoria and WA at the MCG has been suspended due to the condition of the pitch.  "A couple balls have just played a little bit up and down," Shaun Graf from Cricket Victoria told 6PR.  "[Marcus] Stoinis got hit in the ribs with one that jumped a little bit."

An incredible 20 West Australian young football players have been picked up by AFL clubs in the draft this week and the WA Talent Pathways Manager says some of those teens are ready to go at the top level.  Fremantle's Hayden Young and Melbourne's Luke Jackson are likely to make in impact early according to Michael Ablett.

Ian Chappell stepped aside from commentating the test between Australia and Pakistan to speak with 6PR about how the Aussies are looking and what he thinks of today's game. 

Western Australia's Under 18s coach, Peter Sumich, played golf with some of WA's best young footballers only a few days out from the AFL Draft; he spoke with 6PR about who is likely to go where. 

Radio News - Kim Hagdorn

Radio Expert Commentator - Brad Hardie

The latest footy player to hail from Western Australia has made their home at the Melbourne Football Club and she's got a lot to offer.  Krstel Petrevski is the first cousin of Sam Petrevski-Seaton and grew up in the small town of Halls Creek in WA's Kimberley region and now she's in the bustling city of Melbourne.  "I grew up playing footy with  boys up there in the Kimberley region because when I was up there, there was no girls footy around. There wasn't even a youth league for kids. "So if they boys wanted to play, they had to play in the mens' league," Petrevski told 6PR.  But, against all odds, Petrevski pushed through the obstacles to now make her name in the AFLW. 

Former Australia and Pakistan coach, Mickey Arthur, gave us his insight on how he sees the upcoming series playing out. And he told 6PR there's a chance his coaching career will continue with Sri Lanka. 

After Australia's 10-wicket win over Pakistan last night, cricket coach Justin Langer is keen to keep growing the Australian team.  "[My] strong philosophy from the start was to get back to how it used to be in Australian Cricket, where it's really hard to get into the side, it's very competitive. "There's so much talent in Australian cricket, we're really lucky for that, but the trick is to get the right balance of players and also the talent," Langer told 6PR. 

Big Bad Barry Hall is returning to his childhood sport on Friday night when he enters the boxing ring.  The former AFL player is going head to head with former NRL player, Paul Gallen in a battle of the codes at Margaret Court Arena on Friday night.  Hall spoke with 6PR's Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn about Code War. 

Brad and Haggers followed up the draft chat by speaking with Luke Jackson himself about how he's feeling in the lead up to the draft.  Jackson says although he plays in the ruck, he can see himself pushing forward.  "I think one of the players I want to be is a ruckman that can play forward as well. That's the player I'm trying to strive to be in the future. It was good to play a bit of forward at the back end of this year," he told 6PR.  The 18-year-old admitted that he will be heading to Melbourne when the AFL draft takes place.  "A couple of days ago mum got an email saying we'll be flying over," Jackson told 6PR. 

The AFL Draft is only a few weeks away and there's plenty of WA talent who are rumoured to be top picks.  AFL Draft Specialist Callum Twomey joined Brad Hardie and Kim Hagdorn to chat about who is likely to get picked up.  Twomey says Jason Taylor, Melbourne Recruiting Manager, confirmed they are looking at former Basketballer and current East Fremantle ruckman, Luke Jackson.    "The WA boy, Luke Jackson is definitely in contention." "He (Taylor) confirmed that Luke Jackson is well and truly in the mix for that selection. "It'll be a big call, a brave call. We don't see too many ruckman picked in the top 10," Twomey told 6PR's Front & Centre  "But I think clubs as well, look at Luke Jackson and think that he can play forward, so that's where I think he will go in the top 10," he said.  Perth Demons player and Under 18s State captain Deven Robertson is also likely to be an early pick and Twomey says, he can see the youngster being a future AFL captain after he played in the State game with a dislocated shoulder. 

Australian batsman Aaron Finch is sitting out the Shield game against WA with a side strain he sustained after a back niggle in last weekend's game against South Australia, but he's hopeful he will be good to go for the T20 against Sri Lanka.  Finch told 6PR's Front and Centre the Aussie team is in a really good position at the moment.  "The depth of Australian cricket is great at the moment and is really healthy." The Australian T20 captain says it's unlucky Marcus Stoinis missed out on being named in the squad.  "Marcus has been a player who's played really well at the top of the order for the Melbourne Stars for the last couple of years and reality is that there's just not that spot available in the top order at the moment," Finch told 6PR. "He's just got to keep chipping away and keep developing his game, no doubt he didn't have the World Cup that he would've liked with the bat. He showed some real promise with the ball as well and a package as well, when you look at him and Mitch Marsh and the other all-rounders around the country who offer a lot with bat and ball, it's really exciting, it's just about what balance of a side you go with," he says. 

The Australian Cricket coach Justin Langer is back in Perth after the tour of England, he spoke with 6PR during his short home visit.  Langer sets off to Brisbane tomorrow to look at a team for the T20 competition, and says it's up to the players to push for their spots for the upcoming T20 and test series.  "In Australian Cricket now we need to encourage and rebuild that real competitive instinct and competitive nature of getting back into the Australian Cricket team," Langer told 6PR. 

West Coast Eagles midfielder Luke Shuey has collected his second John Worsfold medal at the club's Best and Fairest event on Friday night.  The ball magnet beat the likes of Elliot Yeo and Brad Sheppard to take home the medal, but the 2016 and 2019 winner told 6PR he wasn't expecting the accolade at all.  "It's a privilege to win at such a great club. It was a great night; celebrated a good season for the most part," Shuey says.  The 2018 Premiership player also added it was difficult to watch this year's Grand Final after knowing he was there only the year before. 

South Fremantle's Marlion Pickett will become the first footballer to make his AFL debut in a Grand Final since 1952. Pickett was handed his team jumper at the MCG only an hour before the 2019 AFL Grand Final and his team manager says the mature age player is more than ready for the task. "If you're going to debut someone it's better than bringing in an 18 or 19-year-old, he's been through a lot," Pickett's manager, Anthony van der Wielen, said about the 27-year-old. The player manager also looks after Geelong's Tim Kelly, who has been the talk of the trades. "Won't know for a little while. He honestly hasn't made a decision," he told 6PR.