Bask In The Afterglow
Kiwi-NRL Nuggets, Welly Nix Happenings, Cricket World Cup, Bill Tuiloma's goals, Tom Latham's runs & more
Podcast
Monday Morning Patreon Podcast:
Reading Menu
All Whites WCQ Quest: A 5-0 Win vs Solomon Islands, Now Just One Step Away... (Football)
Football Ferns vs The ‘Tildas: Squad Yarns (Football)
Appreciating Hannah Wilkinson’s Goal-Stacked A-League Season (Football)
Flying Kiwis – March 29 (Football)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #10: The Old Stomping Ground (Basketball)
A Tip Of The Hat To Shane Warne’s Amazing Record Against The Blackcaps (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Women’s World Cup Final…
Praise Ranginui and Papatuanuku that Women’s Cricket World Cup Final was a celebration. Hagley Oval was packed which was fantastic to see and from that starting point, everything fell into place for a glorious conclusion to this World Cup. Australia are champions and the one of the many joys of sport is knowing what you are watching - knowing you are watching greatness.
Alyssa Healy was joined by England’s Nat Sciver in playing epic knocks. Healy set the tone though and that tone was set after England won the toss. “Hey Australia, go bat”. Healy responded alongside Rachel Haynes and the whole team. How Australia tinker with their batting line up and express their supremacy (keep slugging etc) isn’t seen too often. Melbourne Storm can do this in the NRL against Bulldogs as they opted for short goal-line droppies; “Xavier Coates is big and we know we can defend your fumbling plays.”
Shane Warne would express this by himself. That Aussie blokes Test team stayed in this zone for a decade. All Blacks have resided in such territory. This can be evident at grassroots levels as well, but when operating in the Aussie women zone it’s all about being your best, being the best team you can be. Nothing to do with the opponent, just greatness wanting to be better.
Ponder the inspiration for youngins drawn from watching Healy and Australia. A bunch of kids who never watch women’s cricket would have tuned in because it’s a Sunday arvo/evening, parents are chillin’ and nothing else is on so the old man tunes in. Blazing boundaries, packed Hagley and some of the best cricket … sport you’ll see.
Aotearoa’s glory on display. Aotearoa framing an example of cricket’s upper echelon.
Three Aussies hit centuries: Haynes, Healy, Lanning.
Perry, McGrath and Mooney also had 50+ scores.
Nine games and 15 scores over 50.
Mooney, Healy and Gardner finish the WC with strike-rates over 100.
Jonassen, Gardner and King took 10+ wickets each. All three are spinners.
Schutt, Brown, McGrath and Perry also took 5+ wickets.
Australia won all but one game by 5+ wickets or 50+ runs.
Aotearoa is the closest major cricketing nation to Australia. Most of the White Ferns have played WBBL, some numerous times. A few White Ferns have won WBBL championships. Some White Ferns have played one-day cricket in Australia. Joanne Broadbent is the only female coach in women’s domestic cricket - she played 60 ODIs for Australia.
Seems like an easy pocket for growth. The connection has already been working well, just keep grinding with kiwis in WBBL etc. There is plenty of talent coming through wahine cricket around Aotearoa (including South Auckland) and this will collide with more opportunities, resources etc. Trust the process here folks.
Wahine cricket can be self-sufficient in Aoteraoa. All women’s sports can be.
NRLWahine semi-finals…
Roosters defeating Broncos sprinkled among the WC final? Stank face!
Epic upset victory for Roosters wahine. Broncos have won all three NRLW competitions and apart from being upset by Titans, looked decent again this season. Being upset by Titans did happen though and showed it was possible, then Roosters took it a step further to come back. From 16-0 to 16-22.
The Roosters had Leianne Tufuga, Raecene McGregor and Mya Hill-Moana in their 17 from Aotearoa. Tufuga went to Howick College and Botany Downs Secondary College, playing rugby for Marist and Auckland Storm. Then Tufuga popped up on the wing for Roosters NRLWahine. McGregor is a Kiwi Ferns/NRLWahine veteran who was born and raised in Australia. Hill-Moana is a young prop from Waikato who has quickly risen through women’s rugby league in Sydney.
Tufuga: 1 try, 10 runs - 124m @ 12.4m/run, 1 LB, 1 TB, 5 tackles @ 83%.
McGregor: 14 runs - 96m @ 6.85m/run, 1 LB, 1 TA, 3 TB, 2 offloads, 10 tackles @ 91%.
Hill-Moana: 33mins, 9 runs - 94 @ 10.44m/run, 16 tackles @ 84%.
That’s three wahine executing their roles perfectly.
Amber Hall and Lavinia Gould were in the Broncos team. Dragons almost got upset by Titans, but Madison Bartlett and Page McGregor did end up winning with Dragons. Bartlett scored a try and the Kiwi Ferns winger is now leading all try-scorers with five. Not the best mahi from the Titans wahine; Kimiora Breayley-Nati, Destiny Brill, Tiana Raftstrand-Smith, Georgia Hale.
Kiwi-NRL brain dump…
First is putting the Kiwi-NRL wahine into some kinda team…
Madison Bartlett
Leianne Tufuga, Katelyn Vaha'akolo
Page McGregor, Autumn Rain Stephens-Daly
Kimiora Breayley-Nati, Raecene McGregor
Mya Hill-Moana, Annetta Nu'uausala, Georgia Hale / Krystal Rota
Amber Hall, Tiana Raftstrand-Smith
Charntay Poko, Destiny Brill, Maitua Feterika (Nita Maynard, Ngatokotoru Arakua)
Next is an Aotearoa Kiwis group. Only those who feel in legit World Cup contention…
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Jamayne Isaako
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Bailey Simonsson, Ken Maumalo, Greg Marzhew, Jaxson Paulo
Joseph Manu, Peta Hiku, Reimis Smith, Patrick Herbert, Morgan Harper, Matthew Timoko,
Jahrome Hughes, Dylan Brown, Shaun Johnson, Kirean Foran,
Jesse Bromwich, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, James Fisher-Harris, Joseph Tapine, Braden Hamlin-Uele, Isaac Liu
Kenny Bromwich, Tohu Harris, Briton Nikora, Isaiah Papali'i
Brandon Smith, Kodi Nikorima, Jeremy Marshall-King, Erin Clark
Siosifa Talakai, Ronaldo Mulitalo, Sione Katoa, Sitili Tupouniua are all eligible in various ways. Mulitalo could opt for Samoa. Talakai and Katoa have flirted with NSW. Along with Tupouniua these three may go with Tonga.
NZ Warriors defeat Broncos…
What’s the funkiest NZ Warriors thing right now? Addin Fonua-Blake.
Fonua-Blake is currently 5th for Total Run Metres and 2nd for Post Contact Metres. This is Fonua-Blake’s best season for Average Run Metres (172m/game) and he has 105 Tackles with just 5 Missed Tackles. The mere presence of Fonua-Blake provides Warriors with an advantage through the middle. What happens around Fonua-Blake in the forward pack and how the play-makers pounce on any advantage will dictate how good Warriors are this season.
A few Tom Latham stats…
Tom Latham has hit ODI centuries in back to back years for the first time since 2015-17.
Latham did not hit an ODI century in 2018, 2019 or 2020.
Prior to 2020, Latham didn’t have a year with his batting strike-rate over 90. This is his third year in a row with 90+ strike-rate, 2020 and 2022 featuring 100+ strike-rates.
Latham’s last four ODI games: 110*, 18, 8*, 140*.
Latham has already hit a Test and ODI century this year.
When Latham is captain in ODIs: 13inns, 725 runs @ 72.50avg, 3 x 100, 4 x 50.
Latham in Plunket Shield: 4inns, 262 runs @ 87.33avg, 2 x 100.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Welly Nix Happenings
The Phoenix and Warriors combined to do something special last week: both winning games against Brisbane teams at Moreton Daily Stadium in Queensland. The Nix won 3-0 against the Roar on Wednesday night and then the Warriors won 20-6 against the Brisbane Broncos on Saturday afternoon. Funny thing is, the Nix game was an away game but the Wozzas game was a homer. Strange times that we live in.
But we didn’t get to bask in the afterglow for long coz almost as soon as that Warriors game finished the Phoenix kicked off and were promptly smoked 6-0 by Melbourne City. Their worst loss since going down 7-1 to Sydney FC in 2013, which itself was their worst ever defeat so we’re talking about an equal worst-ever losing margin. That’s... disheartening.
What I’d say in response is that this was a definitive flush-the-dunny-and-move-on game. The Nix were playing their third match in eight days (and they’ll make it four in eleven on Tuesday night against CC Mariners) with a hefty injury list and a couple more guys out with covid. Tim Payne had only just gotten back from international duty and was on the bench. Reno Piscopo only just returning to fitness, also on the bench. And they were up against the top of the table team in Colonial Manchester City.
Finn Surman’s oggie was unfortunate. A couple of the missed chances in that first half were unlucky. It was only in the second half when things turned ugly as the Phoenix’s depth and fatigue issues caught up with them. Uffie did the right thing in rolling some subs, getting the youngsters out there, and prioritising other games. This team has three more midweek fixtures to get through this season as they try to make up for earlier postponements. They’re going to be down at least three starters for most of the rest of the regular season (if not longer).
Realistically... there are going to be games that spiral out of control like this one. There already have been and there will be more - it’s the nature of working with a young team. That’s exactly why the back to back wins over Perth (97th minute winner) and Brisbane (Oli Sail masterclass) were so crucial. Six ginormous points on the board.
No dramas. Goal difference won’t be their friend after all these big losses but what’s one more obstacle in their path at this point? If this wasn’t already a team surviving on siege mentality then they oughta be now.
Speaking of which...
Riley Bidois and Luis Toomey adding to the academy crew. We’re now at the stage where there more homegrown players in the squad than non-homegrown. Alex Rufer and Oli Sail don’t count as academy players since they were signed from other senior clubs but they did come up through the WeeNix pathway. Louis Fenton predates the academy but was developed by the club. Even if you don’t include that trio (and I still count Fenton) then we’ve still had all these dudes be a part of matchday squads (Gray and Mogg are the only ones without ALM minutes)...
James McGarry, Ben Old, Ben Waine, Sam Sutton, Henry Gray, Kurtis Mogg, George Ott, Finn Surman, Jackson Manuel, Alex Paulsen & Oskar van Hattum.
With two more names to potentially add to the list soon.
A lot of them ain’t making mere cameos either. Waine, Sutton, McGarry, and Old have all played 600+ minutes. Ben Waine’s goal against Brisbane makes him the club’s equal top scorer for the ALM season with four, tied with Gary Hooper (and it’s 6-5 to Waine including FFA Cup strikes). Surman and Paulsen have also made three starts each.
So what have we got coming in Bidois and Toomey? Luis Toomey was one of the WeeNix’s top performers in the South Central Series and can rightly be a tad annoyed he wasn’t called upon earlier. Developmentally I’d have said he was ahead of the likes of Van Hattum, Surman, Ott, and Gray at this time a year ago. But his positions simply haven’t been the ones that needed aid... until now.
Toomey is an attacking midfielder also capable of playing on the right wing. He’s a rangy dude with solid technique and an eye for a forward pass, plus he’s also something of a set piece specialist. Most likely to see time in the dual ten roles but could play as a midfield eight in a pinch so long as he’s got a defensive-minded partner.
Riley Bidois didn’t play South Central Series but, like Toomey, already has a couple years of National League experience under his belt. He’s a speedy goal-scoring striker who likes to get in behind the line and can also play on the left wing. Bidois scored 16 goals in 14 Central League games for Lower Hutt last year (while Lower Hutt were still the storefront for the WeeNix which is no longer the case) and has already scored in both games for the WeeNix in the 2022 edition. Meaning that he’s actually scored in the last twelve Central League games that he’s appeared in... which is quite something.
Both fellas are 20 years old. Toomey joined the Phoenix after a season with Hawke’s Bay United having attended Napier Boys High. Bidois has been with the Nix since 2019 when he was snapped up from outta the Tauranga region.
Billy T Golazo
A warning to Costa Rica right there. Bill Tuiloma may or may not make a starting All Whites eleven for that intercontinental playoff (probably not barring injuries – though he’s a hope if we play a back three) but there’s every chance we’ll see him at some point if he continues on this recent rend of scoring. Chuck him on if we’re chasing a goal. The attacking CB option. Dig.
Dude whipped in a screamer of a free kick there in a 3-1 loss to LA Galaxy this morning to make it four games out of his last six for club and country in which he has scored. Including a double in one of the national team ones. Five goals in his last six pro matches and he’s been a centre-back in all of them.
That’s the kind of damage you can do when you combine an excellent heading ability with laser dead ball prowess. Whether he’s taking the set pieces or whether he’s the target for the set pieces, doesn’t matter. In fact his craving for goals might even be getting kinda unhealthy because he also scored an own goal in that LA Galaxy match. The lad is unstoppable.
Kiwi Steve & His Grizzlies
These things move fast but the Memphis Grizzlies only have four games left in their regular season and have already wrapped up the second seed. Not only that but they just beat the top-seed Phoenix Suns despite resting almost all their starters – including Steven Adams. Laying down yet another gauntlet in a season full of them even though people keep saying “well, I’ll believe it when I see it in the playoffs”. That’s not a completely unfair thing to say either... they just haven’t had that chance yet. And they’ve done absolutely everything they can to show that they’re ready for it (after a pre-Adams Memphis team won play-in games last season against both the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors but then got bounced 4-1 by the Utah Jazz in round one).
As the second seed, they won’t meet the Phoenix Suns again until the Western Conference Finals if they should both advance so far. Their first round game will be against whoever wins the first play-in game between the seventh and eighth placed finishers. Probably looking like the Timberwolves or Clippers but Minny still have a chance of moving up. A couple of tasty ties there. Minnesota have been sneaky decent this season, improving as it goes along, and split the regular season series 2-2 with Memphis. Meanwhile Memphis won all four against the Clips... though there is still hope that Kawhi Leonard will make his season debut in time for that possibility.
By the way the Memphis Grizzlies best ever season record is a 56-26 finish in 2012-13. This is already their first ever divisional win (in as much as divisions even matter any more). Such an incredible season already and it may just be getting started.