A Rugged Edge
A Rugged Edge
A Warriors win vs the Raiders, Steven Adams vs GSW, some Flying Kiwis winless streaks, Kiwi-NRL goodness & some County Cricket
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Podcast
The Niche Cast: Soothe Session
Reading Menu
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Christian Tuipulotu Emerges With Sea Eagles (NRL)
Exploring The (Relative) Kyle Jamieson Test Plateau (Cricket)
2021/22 Plunket Shield All Stars (Cricket)
What’s With All These Rocks Or Diamonds Wellington Phoenix Results? (Football)
Flying Kiwis – April 26 (Football)
Where Do Sean Marks and the Brooklyn Nets Go From Here? (NBA)
27fm Weekly Playlist - May 2 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors defeat Canberra Raiders…
There are always worse teams in the NRL than NZ Warriors, either on the field or in terms of dramas. Last Monday I highlighted how Newcastle Knights and Canberra Raiders stink which was then played out with Raiders fumbling their lead to lose to Warriors, then Knights were smoked on home turf by Melbourne Storm. Warriors have no drama and regardless of how poor they played against Raiders, they are good enough to beat the stinky teams.
This leaves Warriors 11th on the ladder with a 4-4 record, putting Warriors in a group of six teams with this record; Rabbitohs, Roosters, Sea Eagles, Broncos, Dragons. This tells you all you need to know about Warriors footy this season as it’s fairly similar to every other Warriors season - only that in 2022 it’s kinda admirable given the lack of a home advantage etc.
Daejarn Asi was impressive in his first game for Warriors. Asi made nice defensive reads to go with an aggressive attitude to go with nifty running and a slick left-footed kicking game. That’s what Chanel Harris-Tavita offers and while this throws up selection conundrums, sometimes injuries/suspension provide the answer.
Remember that there aren’t many, if any Warriors juniors developing as halves with Redcliffe. This is not an issue and instead seems like a plan. Warriors have immense outside back and forward talent in their juniors, while absorbing the lack of Aotearoa halves with young halves from Aussie clubs. Asi is an example and Warriors have signed Luke Metcalf from Sharks, plus Ronald Volkman from Roosters.
Given how players have improved with Warriors, that’s an intriguing idea. Matt Lodge did what most of us would do when trying to win a game of sport in milking a penalty and while Lodge has a heavy grub vibe, he is a leader for Warriors. Ahead of golden point it was Lodge spinning a yarn in the huddle, Lodge has been right behind Addin Fonua-Blake in production and Lodge’s grizzly mahi gives the Warriors a rugged edge.
Lodge is joined by Euan Aitken and Wayde Egan in being low key good. Aitken scored a try, had 7 runs - 71m (10m/run) and made 45 tackles @ 95.74% vs Raiders. Coach Nathan Brown noted his consistency and reliability which is crucial at the edge forward spot where more decisions need to be made - hence Eliesa Katoa is now a middle forward.
Egan had 6 dummy half runs for 56m (almost 10m/run). Egan also played all 83mins in the middle and made 47 tackles @ 92%. Egan is averaging 50m/game and this is his first season over 40m/game. Egan is been a slow brew since arriving at Warriors, Aitken embrace a position change and Lodge is a middle mongrel.
Development is coaching and those positive signs stand out more with the youngsters. Rocco Berry and Viliami Vailea were named as wingers but played centres, both have played most of their rugby league careers in NRL. Adam Pompey is now a solid NRL outside back while Bunty Afoa and Katoa continue to add oomph to the middle. Jesse Arthars is playing better with Warriors than Broncos and Asi demanded further footy with his first up game.
I’m not saying Warriors are bound for finals footy. I’m just highlighting that players are improving and that good coaching creates an environment for development. Such development then means that should Reece Walsh decide to leave, it’s all good as the system churns out a replacement. Walsh is also 7th in errors for the entire NRL.
Also, feel free to release any Warriors stereotypes…
Post Contact Metres: 15th.
Offloads: 16th.
Mal Meninga Cup/SG Ball Cup Finals…
Souths Logan won the Queensland Under 18s final, Penrith won the NSW Under 19s final. Kyson Kingi didn’t end up playing for Penrith with Isaiya Katoa starting at halfback. Souths Logan had Tre Fotu starting at centre, Nathaniel Tangimataiti on an edge and Te Hurinui Twidle (Turangawaewae) on the bench.
Stack this on top of last year and Kiwi-NRL mahi is ahi…
Tweed Heads won in Queensland last year with Deine Mariner (Marist - Broncos) starting at centre. Keano Kini (Northcote/Marist) didn’t start in the final but was a factor during that season and was fullback for this season.
Canberra Raiders won in NSW last year with Jack Sandford (Christchurch Boys) starting at fullback and Sione Moala (Manurewa) in their team.
As noted in Friday’s email, the losing teams in both finals had Kiwi-NRL lads. Jeramiah Matautia and Henry Teutau started for Townsville while Roosters had Cassius Tia, Joshua Wong, Benaiah Ioelu and Salesi Foketi in their team that lost to Panthers.
Funky Kiwi-NRL notes…
Lee and Paul Turner (Northland) started at centre for Tweed Heads in Queensland Cup. Lee is older than Paul and has been with Tweed for a few seasons before Paul joined via Gold Coast Titans.
Caius and Felix Fa’atili (Christchurch) again started as Wynnum’s props in Queensland’s Under 21s Hastings Deering Colts competition. Two weeks in a row now.
Last year Otago won the NZRL National Championship which led to Thomas McKenzie (Edendale - between Invercargill and Gore) and Sione Tonga Nau (Auckland - MAGs) getting opportunities in Australia. McKenzie is playing U21s with Norths Devils in Queensland where he’s mainly used as a bench forward, Nau has played a few games in the halves for Victoria Thunderbolts U21s who compete in NSW.
Will Young/Colin de Grandhomme in County Championship…
Both games featuring the two kiwis fizzled to finish as draws. Neither did much to add to their initial mahi either, leaving us with…
Will Young: 63 (146).
Colin de Grandhomme: 11 (13) | 16ov, 1w @ 3.31rpo.
Young now sits 35th for total runs in Division Tahi and is 2nd for Northamptonshire runs. Aotearoa loves beating England and kiwis love County cricket…
2021 County Championship: 9inns, 368 runs @ 40.88avg, 2 x 100, 1 x 50.
2022 County Championship: 3inns, 192 runs @ 64avg, 2 x 50.
Surely not…
Remix…
(South American concerts are the best and there are bunch of recent videos to explore for the big 2022 concert tours)
Wildcard’s Notebook
Further Tales from The Steven Adams Beat...
Game one between the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors took place this morning with the Warriors hanging on for a 117-116 win as Ja Morant missed a lay-up at the buzzer (to compensate for Klay Thompson missing a pair of free throws just prior). Crazy game in which Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr were able to rediscover more of what made them each so great during the regular season after some tough match-ups across the board against Minnesota though it wasn’t quite enough in the end.
Steven Adams missed this one with covid (or some illness, at least) and listening to his coach talk it doesn’t sound like game two on Wednesday NZT is going to afford him enough recovery time either. There’s then a few days off before they play again on Sunday after the teams travel to California for two GSW homers in G3 & G4 so hopefully that will be when we see him back on the court.
Because the Grizzlies may have gotten by without him in the first round but this game was screaming out for some Steve-o. The Grizzlies were outrebounded by a smaller Warriors team to the tune of 51-46. That should be an area where they have dominance and it wasn’t the case here at all – not even with Draymond Green missing the entire second half after a dubious ejection in quarter number two (not as much of a dubious call as some are suggesting - he straight up smashed Brandon Clarke in the head - but I thought it was probably only a flagrant-1.'
Anyway, 16 of those rebounds allowed were offensive boards with a number coming late in the game as the Grizzlies were unable to close out a few defensive stops. There was one instance in particular when Thompson hit a three on about the third possession in a row thanks to those boards. That’s a big problem.
Similarly the Dubs had a 56-44 advantage in points in the paint, as well as nudging the Grizz in second chance points (26-24) and fast break points (17-16). These things are literally the Memphis offensive identity. They shot an unusually efficient 40% from three point range this game and weren’t able to get the win. You can make a fair claim that the Warriors can’t continue to rebound this well all series, that there’ll be regression to the mean, but the same thing applies to those shooting stats too.
Hey but you know who helps the team significantly in most of those areas? Steven Adams. His screens allow Morant to get into the paint to score at a much higher rate. His box outs at both ends twist the rebounding stats in his team’s favour whether he’s getting those rebounds himself or not. His offensive boards in particular are naturally a huge source of second chance points.
Oh and nobody’s really talking about it much outside of a few of us Steve-o Stans but, other than a really nice game two against Minnesota, stand-in starter Xavier Tillman hasn’t actually been very helpful and there’s nothing he can do in this Golden State series that Adams cannot do better. Tillman still got the start here in G1 but as soon as Adams is healthy again he’s surely gotta slot back into his old role.
Although... maybe not for the same 28 or so minutes per night that he had been getting. Not when backup Brandon Clarke has been absolutely superb these playoffs, a trend he continued against the Warriors this morning. Clarke has probably been one of Memphis’ two best players to date in these playoffs along with Desmond Bane. There will be an opportunity to use Clarke alongside Adams in some situations, particularly if JJJ gets into his standard foul trouble (he committed 31 fouls in six games vs Minny lol), and those dual big line-ups were actually superb for Memphis during the season. But it feels like Clarke should be getting most of the fourth quarter opportunities. That’s only fair. He’s earned them.
Also there’s a precedent for Coach Taylor Jenkins rethinking things post-Timberwolves because DeAnthony Melton was basically out of the rotation entirely by the end of that series too but he logged 25 really good minutes against the Warriors and ended up with the best Net Rating on his team (+22.8).
Compare that to Tillman, by the way, who was -26.9 in his 13 mins. John Konchar also got torched while he was out there for around nine mins so we can pretty easily find 15+ for Steven Adams to play by game 3 or 4, surely. Get well soon big fella.
Flying Kiwis Downtime...
One of the strangest things in following some of these kiwi footballers around the traps has been the sudden convergence in terrible losing/winless streaks amongst some of the fellas. Over the weekend I watched full games of a couple of those continuing and let me tell ya it was kinda deflating.
When Joe Bell signed with Brøndby in January he was joining the defending champs of the Danish league who were heavily involved in a three-way battle for the title this time around too. Last season had been a bit of a shock. They’d won the championship much earlier in their rebuild than anticipated but two-thirds of the way through this one they were in position to back it up. Joe Bell’s first three games for the team were all wins in which they didn’t even concede a goal. Then things changed. Suddenly. Drastically.
BIF have lost seven games in a row and have not only tumbled out of the title race but have fallen out of European qualification too as things stand (and it’s unlikely they get back up there, especially not the way they’ve been playing). In hindsight, a team that won a lot of games 1-0 was dealing with some fine margins that could easily swing against them. Plus silly mistakes have been a problem. Self-inflicted wounds. In three of those seven games they’ve had a red card (two of them in the first half). They’ve conceded five penalties in those matches. Bruh.
Combine that with a team low on confidence and devoid of any kind of attacking variance outside of wide crosses and set pieces and that’s how things can swing so quickly. This is the flipside of the dream alignment that saw them win the Superliga a year ago. Gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that Joe Bell acquires quite a few new teammates in the next transfer window. Perhaps even a new manager too.
Down a division we have Elijah Just and Callum McCowatt at FC Helsingør where similar things are happening only worse. They were eight points clear in first place when the league split into the promotion rounds (the top six playing each other home and away with points continuing on). They’d only lost once in 22 matches, conceding fewer than a goal per game. Since the promotion rounds began: 5 games played, 5 losses, 5 goals scored, 13 goals conceded.
Not only have they blown that big first place lead but an injury time defeat this weekend combined with other results has seen them drop to third and out of the promotion spots. It’s been shocking. There was no hint of this up until they randomly started losing every game.
Why is this happening? A change in goalkeeper has definitely been a factor, particularly in the two starts that 19yo Hjalte Petersen had to start in which they conceded four both times. Experienced keeper Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard retired during the winter break which is why that all happened. They’ve brought in a German fella who’s been alright since.
Not a lot of injuries or suspensions to excuse the slide. There have been games when they play really well but then concede a sloppy goal and it rattles them. Probably missing a gun striker to put things away – Tonni Adamsen has 14 goals from 27 games which is good but for a team leading the league most of the season maybe not as dominant as you’d hope. Sebastian Czajkowski had been banging a few away as a complementary scorer but he retired aged 25 in December having had an injury plagued career. Kristoffer Munksgaard was signed to replace him and has 3 goals in 9 matches.
Other than that it feels like it’s mostly in their heads. They used to be able to control games defensively but a brittleness has emerged at the back and it’s spoiled the confidence of the whole team. They played fine against Lyngby on Saturday night NZT... but an early own goal against the run of play and then a poor concession at the death meant they lost 2-1. It’s been like that for them way too often.
Or how about Liberato Cacace at Empoli? The Azzurri had a nice first half to their campaign before Libby arrived which left them in no dramas regarding relegation but not nice enough that they were in contention for Euro spots or anything. And they’ve kinda stuttered through ever since. After beating Napoli 1-0 in mid-December they went four and a half months until they won another match... when they came from behind to beat Napoli again in the return fixture. 2-0 down when Cacace was subbed on, 3-2 final score. Cacace’s first Serie A win and it came in his eighth appearance... and he wasn’t even playing all of them.
All up they went 17 games without a win in all competitions. Then when they finally did win it required a remarkable choke job from Napoli who probably ruined their title challenge with that result. The reasons for this drought were less drastic than those other teams, mostly just a mid-table team playing slightly low on motivation. Eight of those 17 games were draws plus an extra time Coppa Italia loss to Inter Milan. Several of the defeats were against the top teams in the nation. Empoli have their limitations, especially in attack, but at least with them there’s no identity crisis.
Bringing us to Nik Tzanev and AFC Wimbledon. One of the recurring things in Flying Kiwis has been a little game I like to call: Did AFC Wimbledon Win A Game This Week? And the answer is invariably ‘no’ because AFC Wimbledon last won a game longer ago than Empoli’s first Napoli win and still haven’t broken that streak. This week the club suffered their first ever relegation since being formed in 2002. 27 games in a row without a win. The longest streak within a single season in any of the top four English divisions since Derby County went 32 winless in the 2007-08 Premier League term. Twenty-seven games!
This from Flying Kiwis this week...
Tzanev has copped it a bit from the fans recently, your standard lashing out in a poor season, and he did have a howler that cost them badly last week (taking a free kick to himself thinking it was a drop ball). But the bigger issues in this team were a lack of goals (particularly during the winless streak) and a complete lack of clutch. This team scored first on 19 occasions across the season and went on to win only three of them (winning six games from 46 all up).
Early on in the season they were involved in thriller after thriller but that levelled out during the campaign to where they were on the wrong end of far too many late result-altering goals. No League One team conceded more equalisers. Plus their recruitment sucked. They sold striker Ollie Palmer in the summer and didn’t adequately replace the goals he’d scored to keep them in League One last time. Several of their loan signings were duds. And as a fan-owned club there were no deep pockets to dip into for a fresh transfer splash when things began to go awry.
It’s too late for the Dons. They’ve been relegated which is exactly what they deserved after 27 winless games, let’s be honest. But Empoli have come out the other side of their drought and there’s still time for Brøndby and especially Helsingør (who are only two points off top with five games left) to turn things around and salvage what they’ve been busy throwing away lately. Here’s hoping they do exactly that.
There was a realistic chance when Joe Bell signed for BIF that he could be playing Champions League footy next season and now he’s probably gonna miss out on European stuff altogether. But if that’s not to be then it’s not to be. FCH missing out on promotion would be the bigger Flying Kiwis blow as it’d keep Just & McCowatt in a lower division for another year, compared to a decent run of Superliga fixtures ahead of a possible World Cup appearance later in the year. Fingers crossed on both counts.