"I certainly hope the selectors have a good look at today, and how she's gone," Darren Simmonds said earlier this month.
It would appear they didn't.
The straight-talking Greater Northern Raiders women's coach was speaking after his opening batter Emma Manix-Geeves had scored 189 runs off 137 deliveries in a Twenty20 double-header against Clarence, only getting out when trying to drag her team over the line off the final ball of the day.
"She hasn't played a game yet for the Hurricanes, but when you're batting like that and making scores like that, she's put a hand up for selection," Simmonds added.
Admittedly, the Cricket Tasmania Premier League is a step down from the Women's Big Bash League, so EMG's case for selection would only be hard to ignore if there was a high-profile Hobart Hurricanes teammate under-performing.
Bryony Frances Smith is a 25-year-old from Sutton in Surrey whose cricinfo biography description as an all-rounder is being seriously tested by her performances in purple.
Since the Hurricanes used their gold pick to sign Smith (at no.13) in the inaugural WBBL overseas player draft, she has penned a new chapter in the franchise's lengthy history of turning cricket world-beaters into social league dropouts, a trend known locally as the Sangakkara Effect.
Beginning the campaign as an opener in the team's highly-forgettable 98-run humbling by the Scorchers in Launceston, Smith trudged off UTAS Stadium having scored five runs with her team sitting at 4-19.
Speaking after the game, she said: "We are looking to get some momentum and hopefully put in some strong performances."
Moving to first-drop, Smith followed up with scores of three, one, five, one, 11 and nine. Momentum and strong performances proved somewhat elusive.
She then returned to the top of the order - at the expense of the team's most consistent batter and the fourth highest run-scorer in WBBL history, Elyse Villani - to produce innings of 11, 28, one and Sunday's 15 against the Melbourne Renegades which took 29 deliveries.
That was an average of 5.75 from her first eight appearances, rising to 8.18 when that anomaly of 28 off 19 in the 53-run loss to the Brisbane Heat is factored in.
Meanwhile Smith's bowling statistics (0-13, 0-7, 0-8 and 0-11 on the four occasions she was used) have threatened to make compatriot Tymal Mills' Hurricanes career look positively impressive.
Having claimed her as one of three high-profile and presumably well-remunerated overseas signings, the Hurricanes have been reluctant to drop Smith, whose international Twenty20 career with England spans five years and has produced just 57 runs at 9.50 with a highest score of 16.
Meanwhile, Manix-Geeves has not only failed to start a WBBL game this season but has even been dropped from the match squad of late and again was not in the 13 for Sunday's game.
However, the 23-year-old Riverside wicket-keeper has been a pivotal part of the Tasmanian Tigers side chasing a third-straight Women's National Cricket League title.
She has reached double figures with the bat In each of her last six appearances, contributing 170 runs at 42.50 including two half-centuries.
Asked last month about being a part of both Tasmanian teams in national competitions, Manix-Geeves said: "We're lucky that a lot of our girls cross over from the Tigers to the Hurricanes. We're a very tight-knit group and I guess the form can hopefully carry over in the bonds that we have. I think you can't take for granted how much that helps with cricket."
The Hurricanes - whose hopes of an elusive maiden grand final, let alone title are hanging by a thread - could clearly do with some of those Tigers' bonds.
Dropping a big-name import is always a tough call but surely the fortunes of the team must take precedence over those of an individual.
When the men's team finally reached that point with under-performing Sri Lankan superstar Kumar Sangakkara averaging 14.41 in BBL06, Test cricket's fifth-highest run-scorer's spot at first-drop was taken by promising young batsman Ben McDermott
Hurricanes coach Damien Wright said it was the hardest decision he ever had to make.
However, the following year McDermott played the first of his 23 T20 internationals for Australia. He has, to date, played 152 T20 matches across five nations and in his last two Marsh Cup games for Tasmania scored 86 and 143.
Manix-Geeves might not be another McDermott but deserves the chance to try to be.
Rob Shaw
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
