A Surfboard In Your Quiver
Blackcaps Stats, CJ Bott to Leicester City, A-League Women's final round preview, Mini Mal Menginga Cup preview, plus some bonus Steven Adams chat
Podcast
Monday Patreon Podcast:
TNC Variety Show 53
The Niche Cast: Those Who Wander
Reading Menu
Updating Aotearoa Warriors Juniors With Redcliffe Dolphins (Benjamin Kosi & Tome Poona) (NRL)
Flying Kiwis – March 1 (Football)
Football Ferns at the SheBelieves Cup: Notes & Reaction (Football)
Exploring Gael Sandoval’s Impact On The Wellington Phoenix (Football)
2021/22 Aotearoa Test Summer: Who Is Using What Bats? (Cricket)
2021/22 Ford Trophy: Auckland Aces Are Champions (Again) (Cricket)
Amelia Kerr Is Now Aotearoa's Best Batter (And Among The World's Elite) (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Blackcaps Stats…
Below are a bunch of Blackcaps stats that intrigued me. Stats that I have plucked as I’ve followed a vibe in finding them - any stat nugget is just another surfboard in your quiver.
First up is Kyle Jamieson’s decline … relative decline. If Jamieson shrunk a bit, he would still be much taller than most of us. Jamieson hit lofty heights in his first year of Test cricket, lofty heights that aren’t sustainable and could only really decline. These are still world-class bowling numbers. A clear trend is evident nonetheless…
Bowling | Batting
2020: 25w @ 14.44avg/2.26rpo/38.2sr | 196 runs @ 49avg/65.77sr.
2021: 27w @ 17.51avg/2.51rpo/41.8sr | 105 runs @ 17.50avg/51.47sr.
2022: 14w @ 28.71avg/3rpo/56sr | 50 runs @ 10avg/46.77sr.
Another clear trend is evident for Jamieson…
Tom Latham as skipper: 21w @ 25.23avg/2.96sr/51sr.
Kane Williamson as skipper: 45w @ 15.68avg/5.35rpo/39.9sr.
Will Young had a tough series against South Africa. His first legit rough patch in Test cricket. There were no signs of poor form leading into the SA series with three consecutive 50+ scores against Bangladesh, then a Ford Trophy hundred. Here are Young’s World Test Championship prior to facing SA which is very solid and his last 10 games…
WTC prior to South Africa series: 290 runs @ 41.42, 4 x 50 (7inns).
Last 10 games: 6, 89, 2, 4, 20, 52, 69, 54, 23, 107, 40, 8, 3, 9.
It’s easy to say that no Trent Boult or Kane Williamson can impact the Blackcaps fortunes, so let’s check in that stats korero. Excluding 2011 where Boult played one Test, 2021 was his best year of Test bowling. Boult’s 2022 is on this track with a small sample size (19avg) and his next best was 23.90avg in 2018. 2021 was Boult’s best year by a decent margin.
2021 Career Best Year: 16w @ 20.62avg/2.87rpo/43rpo.
2022 Thus Far: 9w @ 19.33avg/2.49rpo/46.4sr.
So yeah, having Boult helps. What about this Williamson chap? Well, 2021 was his third best year of Test batting and that’s after 2020 was his second best year of Test batting. Nothing will compare to 90.15avg in 2015.
2015: 90.15avg.
2020: 83avg.
2021: 65.83avg
Other 60+ Average Years: 2014 (61.9avg), 2017 (62.8aavg).
No shit Sherlock. Boult and Williamson are good, great. What might slide under the radar here is that those stats lay out how Boult and Williamson have improved to be in career-best pockets. Who else is cut from this Northern Districts of Aotearoa cloth?
Maungakaramea’s Tim Southee.
Southee has averaged below 24 in four years since 2008. Southee’s best years are jammed together in the same pocket as Williamson and Boult. Sure, Southee hasn’t been as good to start this year (16w @ 28.1avg) but the trend filters through to suggest that Aotearoa’s legends still have plenty of slick mahi to offer.
2012: 22.64avg.
2018: 19avg.
2020: 17.03avg.
2021: 23.45avg.
Martin Guptill smacked 195 for Auckland in the return to Plunket Shield cricket. Guptill has been solid across the domestic competitions and his best mahi has been recently.
Last 10 games: 10, 32*, 16, 54, 63, 31, 90, 21, 137, 0, 23, 195.
Ford Trophy: 367 runs @ 52.42avg/102.5sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50.
Super Smash: 151 runs @ 30.20avg/117sr, 1 x 50.
Plunket Shield: 289 runs @ 96.33avg/70sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.
Jimmy Neesham took 3w for Wellington on day tahi of their trip to Southee territory in Whangarei vs Northern - took the new ball too. Neesham’s bowling is all about strike-rates. Translation: he’s always taking wickets. Here is his summer mahi from some sporadic bowling appearances and I have added his career strike-rates in the related format for context. For further context we have Boult operating at 54.4sr in FC, 32sr in LA and 18.6sr in T20.
Plunket Shield: 3w @ 11avg/2rpo/32sr - 57.6sr.
Ford Trophy: 2w @ 15.5avg/3.87rpo/24sr - 29sr.
Super Smash: 6w @ 23avg/8.62rpo/16sr - 16.8sr.
Mini Mal Meninga Cup (U18) Kiwi-NRL Breakdown…
Not every Kiwi-NRL junior in Queensland’s Under 18 competitions, just some notable names. Redcliffe have only named Jacob Laban from the NZ Warriors crew so keeping tabs on this too.
Tweed: Keano Kini (fullback, Marist Saints).
Redcliffe: Jacob Laban (edge, Te Aroha Eels/Randwick Kingfishers).
Townsville: Jeremiah Matautia (prop, Otara Scorpions).
Souths Logan: Nathaniel Tangimataiti (edge, Ellerslie Eagles/Mt Albert Lions).
Burleigh: Taniela and Dorian Lotaki (both starting centres, Manurewa Marlins).
Wildcard’s Notebook
CJB x WSL
Kinda crazy how the January Transfer Window ended and yet the Flying Kiwis deals keep on flowing. Obviously no more transfer fees going on but loan deals and free agents abound. Here’s an absolute cracker that was popped up last night...
CJ Bott to Leicester City on a permanent deal. She’s now third NZer in the English Women’s Super League this season after Ria Percival and Anna Leat. If she debuts she’ll become the 15th ever kiwi to play in that competition. Bott will wear the #4 jersey and could feature as soon as their away trip to Manchester United on Monday morning NZT.
This is a great move for Botty, who announced back in November that she’d be leaving Vålerenga (Norway) after two seasons during which she won a league title and two cup titles as well as becoming just the sixth kiwi woman to play Champions League. She’s also played in Germany and Sweden.
Despite her Norwegian success, getting in on the WSL train is a step up for CJ. It won’t mean UCL footy but it will mean a higher overall standard of league games, with an emphasis on technical play. If there’s one complaint about Bott’s game it’s that she can be inconsistent with her touches and passing accuracy sometimes. The WSL oughta help with that, sweet as. The more Footy Ferns we get playing in the very best competitions worldwide, the better positioned we’ll be heading into next year’s World Cup.
It’s a good time to be joining The Foxes too. Their manager Lydia Bedford just got given the Manager of the Month award after they won both games in February... quite a turnaround after some troublesome times earlier. This was a team club impressed a lot of people with the structure, integration, and investment they gave to their women’s team as they surged towards promotion last season but their first year in the top flight began with eight WSL losses on the trot and manager Jonathan Morgan was duly sacked.
Bedford came in and lost a ninth in a row... but then a 2-0 win over their main relegation competitors Birmingham City changed everything. Starting then they’ve won four out of six and are now eight points clear of the drop with seven fixtures remaining. Perfect time to start integrating a new fullback.
Bott won’t be the last such signing. Emma Rolston has also left her club in Norway with the hope of heading to England or the USA. There were whispers about Ashleigh Ward maybe moving up the divisions in England (though a transfer would have to wait ‘til next season, surely). The A-League Womens is almost done which’ll free up a few more players who may want to head further overseas, following the trend of Liv Chance whose impressive season with Brisbane Roar launched her into a move to Celtic a year ago. Also Meikayla Moore’s almost certain to get promoted to the WSL with Liverpool who are running away with the second tier comp.
A-League Women, Final Round
Hannah Wilkinson did this the other day, first game back from international duty…
Superb from Wilkie, who can not only break that club record on Sunday with a goal against Western Sydney Wanderers… but she can do the Wellington Phoenix a solid in the process too. The Nix play Perth Glory tonight at 7.05pm (just after the White Ferns game ends, hopefully - massive day of women’s sport in Aotearoa) which is a match they might get a result in, you never know. They were up 2-1 with ten to play last time they met them.
However it goes, the Nix are currently tied on seven points with WSW but a goal difference that’s three marks worse. Melly City need to win to keep the pressure on Sydney FC for the Minor Premiership (Sydney’s last game is away to Adelaide a day later) so hopefully they absolutely pump them and Wilkie scores a hat-trick.
She kinda needs to if she wants to win that Golden Boot. After her five-for against the Victory it seemed she might cruise to that title - you don’t even need me to say she’d be the first NZer to win an A-League W goldie (the previous best season tally was Emma Kete’s 5 in 2012-13). But those pesky Adelaide girls have been at it too. Wilkinson scored one this week but Fiona Worts scored a hatty to take her to 13 for the season. Her teammate Chelsea Dawber is still within reach too on 10 goals. Nobody else has more than 6. Grace Jale’s 5 for the WahiNix is eighth equal.
If Wilkie does miss out then the Football Ferns may be to blame. She missed two games there while at the SheBelieves Cup meaning she’s only played 11 games whereas Worts and Dawber have played all 13 so far. Though in fairness if Worts scores one more then 14 goals will be the highest ever Golden Boot tally (granted there were two additional games this season too thanks to the Phoenix). Golden Boot does not include finals series games either so it’s all on the line this weekend.
If the SheNix avoid the wooden spoon, that’d honestly be an incredible achievement. The fact that it’s even a possibility with one game left is crazy. Unfortunately if it’s not them it’ll be WSW so either Malia Steinmetz or Lily Alfeld, who were teammates for the winless Perth Glory last season, will be going back to back with that unwanted honour.
But the rest of the table looks brighter. Four of the six finals teams will feature a New Zealander. Paige Satchell at Sydney FC. Hannah Wilkinson, Rebekah Stott & Marisa van der Meer at Melbourne City. Claudia Bunge at Melbourne Victory. Liz Anton at Perth Glory. Bunge shared the championship with Annalie Longo for the Victory last season. Stotty has won four of these things. Emma Kete and Katie Duncan have also won A-League titles. Decent chance we add another name to that list in the next few weeks.
Bonus Steven Adams
I always enjoy a perusal of other people’s Steven Adams articles when they pop up. The ones from official/team/local beat writers always tend to have great quotes and insider info that you don’t get from anywhere else. The fan blogs often don’t add much to the conversation other than an echo but it’s worthwhile getting a gauge of the fan perspective – for example, the Memphis attitude towards Steve is a lot more glorious than the New Orleans attitude was (not a lot of personal criticism from NO tbf, it was more using his bad fit as an extension of existing front office frustrations). And then there are also the stat hunters whose write-ups are great because they have access to subscriber-only stat services that I don’t.
For example, reading this piece on FanSided (as well as a few hyperlinked ones) I can chuck up a few healthy addendums to my own Kiwi Steve column from yesterday, the theme of which being the ways in which Steven Adams is aiding Ja Morant’s rise to superstardom.
Like how the 34 points in the paint that Morant scored in his 52-bagger against the Spurs the other day, the most by any player in a game this season, also made him one of only 14 men to have achieved that many PITP in a game since 1996 (which I’m assuming is when such tracking stats become reliable). Of the twelve instances of a dude scoring more points in the paint, nine of them were done by Shaquille O’Neal, including his record 46 PITP in March 2000 (out of 61 points total). Morant is comfortably the shortest player on the list.
Also I’ve now learned that of the 37 made field goals which Morant scored across his last two games – remember he dropped 46 on the Chicago Bulls two days before his 52 vs SAS – 18 of them, almost half, came via a Steven Adams assist or screen assist.
Needless to say, he’s amongst the leading screen assisters in the entire league...
No secret there, although I was surprised to realise just how much he’s killing it in the offensive ratings...
That FanSided piece also has a bit of Jonas Valanciunas vs Steven Adams comparison. I’ve written a lot about that mutually beneficial trade myself though I’ve tried to keep the focus on the two of them specifically.
Definitely interesting to read things like how the Grizz’s free throw and offensive rebound rates allowed on defence have dropped massively since Adams arrived, but tbh I’ve shied away from team comps like that because it ignores the fact that the Jonas Grizzlies didn’t happen concurrently with the Steve Grizzlies. There’s been a year of growth and development for the rest of the roster in the time between, right? Jaren Jackson Jr is now healthy and playing like an All-Defensive Team candidate which proooobably matters at least as much as the disciplined prowess of Adams.
Also here’s a video...
Weekend Tunes
New SASAMI record. Got some co-production from Ty Segall. Deliciously raw and unhinged. Powerful. Plays up a punk/nu-metal influence. Searing guitars. Probably the first truly great album I’ve heard in 2022...