Hard truths: Manix-Geeves and her tough road back

After some hard truths forced Emma Manix-Geeves to remake herself as a cricketer and fight for her place in the game she loves, the Hurricanes and Tasmania wicketkeeper-batter is relishing her second chance at the elite level.

Manix-Geeves is in her first season as a fully contracted Hobart Hurricanes player, having earnt her latest shot in the T20 league after her stunning return to the Tasmania side last summer that culminated in a maiden century in the one-day domestic final.

She played her first Big Bash game since WBBL|05 on Monday night, called into the Hurricanes XI for their First Nations Round clash against the Renegades at Blundstone Arena.

It was a fitting occasion for the palawa woman's return - one that seemed a world away two years ago when Manix-Geeves was grappling with the loss of her Cricket Tasmania contract.

The 22-year-old wicketkeeper-batter, who had earned her first state contract while she was completing Year 12, was cut loose by the Tigers at the end of the 2019-20 season.

"It was a really difficult time ... I had no back-up plan and cricket was all I knew," Manix-Geeves told The Scoop podcast.

"For me at that time it was the worst thing in the world, I didn't really know what to do (and) I had to move home back to Launceston."

That exit interview with then-coach Salliann Beams included some tough truths for Manix-Geeves, strong words that she now accepts she needed to hear.

"I see things now in young girls that I wish someone had pulled that up in me at the time ... because I didn't appreciate what I had and I didn't want to work hard for it," she continued.

"And I'm grateful for Sal Beams, for giving me some hard truths and for making a really hard decision.

"It all paid off and I think that everything happens for a reason and I wouldn't be the person or the cricketer that I am today without that happening."

Returning home to Launceston in early 2020 to contemplate her next move, Manix-Geeves found herself in limbo as she tossed up either to stay in Tasmania and fight for her spot back on the Tigers’ list or move to Melbourne – where her grandparents live – and seek Premier cricket opportunities there.

Ultimately, COVID-19 made the decision for her and with closed borders thwarting any move to Melbourne, Manix-Geeves instead threw herself into a busy winter of cricket training, fitness work and a full-time job in a supermarket.

She enlisted the help of Tim Coyle, a former Renegades WBBL head coach, Australia women’s assistant and Sheffield Shield-winning men’s coach, to aid her mission to return to state level.

"People were like, ‘you shouldn't use wanting to prove someone wrong as a motivation’," she said.

"But I think at the time initially that's what I needed.

"That's what got me out of bed, to go to work nine to five and then go to the gym and for 6am hits in the freezing cold indoor centre in Launceston. I worked with Tim Coyle nonstop.

"I definitely can't recommend working nine to five and trying to make it as a cricketer (but) the motivation for me was getting back to playing for Tassie, I'm Tassie through and through."

It was playing club cricket in 2020-21 that Manix-Geeves rediscovered her love for the game, and it paid off in the middle.

She took out the Cricket Tasmania Premier League’s top prize, the Kim Fazackerley Medal, after scoring 597 runs at an average of 59.70, including one century and four half-centuries, for the Greater Northern Raiders.

"I just went out there and I did what 12-year-old me did, enjoyed the game and had fun," she said.

Her red-hot form meant when the delayed 2020-21 Women’s National Cricket League season finally started in late January 2021 and Tasmania were hit by injury and in need of additional players, Manix-Geeves got the call.

"They asked me to move back down (to Hobart) and they put me up in a hotel … I didn't play until the very last game of the season, but I was in the squad for that whole season."

While she was again left off the main contract list for 2021-22, opportunity again arose for Manix-Geeves as maternity leave cover for Emma Thompson.

She went on to play all nine games, finishing fifth on the overall season runs table with 300 runs at 42.85.

Her breakout moment came at Blundstone Arena in March, when she opened the batting for Tasmania in the Women’s National Cricket League final against South Australia.

Set 243 to take out their first title, Manix-Geeves joined with her captain Elyse Villani in a record 205-run partnership, scoring an unbeaten 104 alongside Villani’s 111 not out as the Tigers romped to a nine-wicket.

"I still get goosebumps every time someone mentions it," she said.

"My family were there and it was our home pitch ... to be out in the middle making my first WNCL hundred with Elyse Villani at the other end ... just to share that experience with her and put on the biggest-ever partnership for Tassie and to Tassie's first WNCL title, it was a fairy tale."

Unsurprisingly, Manix-Geeves was rewarded with a Tasmania contract for the 2022-23 summer, and soon after, the Hobart Hurricanes came knocking, offering her first full Big Bash deal.

With South African Lizelle Lee taking the wicketkeeping gloves in a squad stacked with batting talent, she had to wait until Monday evening to play her first game in Weber WBBL|08, but the delay did little to dull her enthusiasm.

"I've been having a blast," Manix-Geeves said. "I'm calling myself the hydration queen.

"As long as the girls are winning and playing good cricket, that's good enough for me at the minute and if I get a chance then hopefully I can take that and contribute to the team."

Manix-Geeves is one of six Indigenous players contracted to WBBL clubs this season.

Having watched from afar as the league held its inaugural First Nations Round last summer, she is rapt to have the chance to be involved this time around.

 

Image Id: ACF26784F77B46C3BAFB4CD7280E774E Image Caption: The Hurricanes and Renegades take part in a barefoot circle ahead of Monday's game // Getty

 

The palawa woman was unaware of her Indigenous background growing up, but has developed a thirst to find out more through her involvement in the Imparja Cup and National Indigenous Cricket Championships, and after taking part in the 2018 commemorative tour of England that celebrated the 150th anniversary of the 1868 Aboriginal team that toured the UK.

"I absolutely had a blast at the Imparja Cup," she said.

"It wasn't just the cricket, it was the cultural celebration and everyone just embracing everyone, regardless of where you're from, what you looked like, how much you knew.

"That for me was the thing that sparked a curiosity inside of me.

"I still don't know a whole lot about my background (but) Nan and I are trying to find out more.

"I’m really grateful for cricket and all the opportunities that I've gotten to learn about the culture and I can pass that on to the people around me and to my family.

"I don't pretend to know much about it, because I definitely don't ... but I'm slowly getting more confident.

"The bunch of girls that are in the Big Bash that each represent their own mobs, they're really great at it and inspirational to me as well, and hopefully I can be a role model like Hannah Darlington or Ash Gardner and inspire the next generation of young Indigenous people."

Tickets for Weber WBBL and KFC BBL games are on sale now. Get yours at cricket.com.au/big-bash