EmmaManix-Geeves

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

Manix-Geeves became a fully contracted Hobart Hurricanes player in 2022, having earnt her latest shot in the T20 league after her stunning return to the Tasmania side in 2021-22 that culminated in a maiden century in the one-day domestic final.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Manix-Geeves was also part of the 1868 commemoration tour of England, becoming one of the first ever Indigenous female cricketers to tour the UK.