Beginner's Mind
Beginner's Mind
Aotearoa Rugby League, Flying Kiwis: A-League Women Edition, Kiwi-NRL Notes, and The Batman
Podcast
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Reading Menu
2022 Women's World Cup: Australia Hijack Wellington's White Ferns Party (Cricket)
A Tip Of The Hat To Shane Warne’s Amazing Record Against The Blackcaps (Cricket)
Labyrinthine Squad Yarns For The All Whites OFC World Cup Qualifiers (Football)
The Wellington Phoenix’s Inaugural A-League Women’s Season In Review (Football)
27fm Weekly Playlist: March 14 (Music)
Flying Kiwis – March 8 (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Aotearoa Sporting Priorities…
Aotearoa sports is in one of its ‘hectic’ pockets right now. This happens a couple of times a year, usually now and in the winter/spring phase where major competitions overlap. Today I wrote a White Ferns recap from their loss to Australia, meanwhile we still have Blackcaps ODI cricket lurking and Plunket Shield cricket being played. I’m loving the Women’s World Cup so that has my top spot right now and this is about covering the White Ferns as best as I can, as well as learning about wahine cricket in watching the other teams play.
Watching the other teams play has been enjoyable - just as funky as White Ferns matters. This pushes my Plunket Shield focus out a bit, while still able to tab in and process what is happening. At least there is a Blackcaps break, plus Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s absence for Auckland Blues has allowed me to tap out of that beat and Lydia Ko met covid which hits pause there.
I need to tap back into UFC mahi as Dan Hooker fights in London this weekend, dropping down a weight division to face Arnold Allen. The weekend after that is Kai Kara-France’s fight against vs Askar Askarov in Columbus. Both fights are crucial Kiwi-MMA bouts as Hooker shifts weight divisions with the hope of sparking a championship push, while Kara-France is in the midst of a championship push.
Then we have all things rugby league. This is similar to the cricketing beat where covering cricket in Niche Cache fashion means the various levels and equal energy shared between wahine and blokes. Rugby league coverage includes junior matters in Aotearoa and Australia, NRLWahine and then NRL footy.
Learning is fun. We reference ‘shoshin’ (beginner’s mind) a lot on our podcasts and throughout all of the above in my current sporting beat, learning is a common thread. I don’t want to fight anyone, ever. I cover kiwis in the UFC so I need to learn how the kiwis fit into that business as well as how they excel in fights. I enjoy learning about wahine cricket and what makes it unique (/extra fun). I enjoy learning about amazing people like Ash Gardner.
There are always youngsters to learn about. Context and sporting landscapes to learn about. Learning about how athletes respond to scenarios. Learning about people and sport. Sport is often thrown up as entertainment, yet my experience is about learning and right now I’m learning a lot. Learning is exciting.
Aotearoa Rugby League…
Apart from Women’s World Cup, I’m doing the most learning in rugby league. NRL started this weekend and I’ve got some notes below this that will help set up some key ideas I want to cover during the week. Round tahi of NRL and I’m learning the least in this pocket as everything felt the same; from NZ Warriors to the NRL vibe.
The overbearing nature of this sporting beat led me to dip off the radar over (make one day a week your ‘sabbath’ folks - no religion stuff just focus your energy on doing what makes you happy for a full day. No phones, no stress, no woes. Just loving life) so I didn’t do a Kiwi-NRLW wrap for the weekend’s games. Every round of NRLWahine footy has me learning though.
In recent emails I’ve covered Tiana Raftstrand-Smith, Leianne Tufuga and Jocephy Daniels as NRLWahine who I’ve learned about. This round had me learning about Destiny Brill from Taranaki who is starting for Gold Coast Titans in the middle. Brill is like many of these wahine as she moved to Australia to pursue more footy opportunities and had a swift impact; Brill has already represented Queensland in Super Rugby and State of Origin.
My emotions lead me to feel stink when folk don’t want to represent Aotearoa. I’ve touched on various eligibility notes in wahine footy and some like Botille Vette-Welsh prefer to celebrate the Australian opportunities than represent Aotearoa. Brill seems similar and that’s all good, although Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns will need to attract these types of players to compete with Australia - who have a massive advantage via their resources/opportunities.
Regardless, I’m learning and this helps me frame Kiwi Ferns ahead of their World Cup as well as exploring relevant Samoa/Tonga notes. For Aotearoa blokes the whole vibe has changed under Michael Maguire, yet systems in Aotearoa via NZRL are the real factor here as most juniors who are good enough to fit into NRL systems have received some type of NZRL investment; tournaments, development games, better framework around school footy etc.
The latest of which is the NZRL Under 20s competition, plus the Auckland U18/U16 competitions. All three started this weekend and they all feature notable juniors, plus there are the plethora of Kiwi-NRL juniors in Australia. This framework doesn’t exist for the young wahine but it’s coming.
I’m reminded about the ‘young people are dropping out of sport omg’ narrative that is driven by sporting organisations - who benefit from players paying fees so if there are less players paying fees, organisations make less money. Maybe that’s the real issue, maybe I’m cynical. I see young folk excelling in sport and the NZRL U20s competition is an interesting example as lads aged 17-20 want to take part in a national rugby league tournament.
The South Island team that lost to Akarana featured hearty South Island talent (Ethan Faitaua, Uriah Tuli) as well as young men who moved to Dunedin/Christchurch to study. Upper Central defeated Waikato and both regions now have ample playing stocks to fill teams at this level; Upper Central U18 and U16s defeated South Island late last year in the Youth Competitions, Upper Central defeated Canterbury in the National Competition. Otago blokes also enjoyed a win over Wellington.
All of that presents the nek levels for wahine rugby league. The funkier takeaway though is to keep learning and through that learning, you might find that lazy narratives don’t apply. You might learn that young folk are pretty amazing.
Kiwi-NRL Stats/Notes…
Leo Thompson (Napier Boys High School) on debut for Knights: 25mins, 7 runs - 71m @ 10.14m/run, 3 tb, 12 tackles @ 100%.
Isaiah Papali’i (Te Atatu) is still a dominant force for Eels: 80mins, 17 runs @ 11.35m/run, 9 tb, 1 offload, 26 tackles @ 89%.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona (Upper Hutt) missed much of summer training and is still a dominant force for Storm: 41mins, 13 runs - 130m @ 10m/run, 4 tb, 2 offloads, 17 tackles @ 85%.
Kiwi-NRL Rootsers Breakdown…
NRL: Joseph Manu, Sitili Tupouniua, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
Wahine: Leianne Tufuga, Raecene McGregor, Mya Hill-Moana.
Reserve Grade: Naufahu Whyte, Renouf Atoni, Fa’amanu Brown.
Jersey Flegg (U21): Moala Graham-Taufa, Petelo Kepaoa.
SG Ball (U18): Cassius Tia, Josh Wong, Salesi Foketi.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Flying Kiwis: A-League Women Edition
It was a thrilling weekend of A-League Women’s finals football and it’s a pleasure to report that there will be at least one kiwi champion this season. Same as there has been in eight of the last ten ALW seasons. Rebekah Stott accounts for a large proportion of those titles all by herself and she may yet win another one, though it’ll have to happen the hard way as Melbourne City lost in extra time against Sydney FC in the major semi-final.
Stott and Hannah Wilkinson were both amongst the starters and Wilkie especially kept up her great form from throughout the campaign. Two more goals to her tally and City were up 2-0 with an hour gone and seemingly marching towards the grand final. The first finding her in the right place at the right time to capitalise on a defensive error (21’) and then the second a sharp near post finish after a great bit of build up play which involved Rebekah Stott showing off some mean skills before sliding Leticia McKenna into the area for the low cross (58’).
Slightly surprisingly, Paige Satchell was given the start for SFC after scoring the goal that clinched them the Premiers’ Plate last week but it didn’t last too long as she was replaced by Cortnee Vine at half-time – a bit of a bummer though it was cancelled out by Marisa van der Meer being brought on for MCY soon after Wilkinson’s second goal... a semi-final in which four different kiwis featured? Yeah that’s the one.
It was Vine who scored the goal that got Sydney back into it. 2-1 with twenty to go and now Sydney FC were on the charge. City in that awkward position of leading the game but being under severe pressure at the same time. Vine also rattled the frame of the goal another time and it was her run in behind in the 87th minute which truly changed the course of this game. Veteran keeper Melissa Barbieri rushed out of her area and was caught in between. Defender Tyla-Jay Vlajnic also cut across Vine in the process and it was TJV, who injured her ankle stepping on Vine’s foot, that was given the red card. Could have gone either way (though probably better to go to the defender who was likely to miss next week anyway).
Sydney didn’t score direct from the free kick but it wasn’t long before another sub, Maria Rojas, slid one home in stoppage time. Bit too much space in the area against a scrambling defence and there ya go. All tied up.
At which point Sydney were always more likely to win it in extras. They had all the momentum and an additional player on the park. Sure enough, teenaged forward Sarah Hunter put them in front on 96’ and then Cortnee Vine scored another in the second half of extras. Probably not the wisest call from Barbieri to then rush out of her area and risk the red card that followed for a handball (against Vine, of course) which now means she misses the preliminary final next week. 4-2 to Sydney FC the final score.
Full 120 minute game for Hannah Wilkinson who spent a good part of the latter stages of the match sitting quite deep, basically as a midfield with City hoping to counter-attack. Didn’t particularly work but she was excellent earlier on when City were leading. Rebekah Stott was replaced while the score was still 2-0 so that one didn’t quite work out.
And while Marisa van der Meer did look a bit raw at times with some of her touches, overall she was pretty bloody impressive on a massive stage like that. Showed good pace and work-rate as well as some smart decisions playing out of the back. Had she not already signed with MCY when the Wellington Phoenix got the green light then she may well have been one of the first names on the roster – MVDM would have bossed it at fullback in that team.
Helpfully, by virtue of the new playoff format, Melbourne City do get another chance next week when they’ll face the winner of the other first round finals game... Adelaide United vs Melbourne Victory. One NZer involved in that one and it was Claudia Bunge holding things down at the back for MVC as she has done all season despite the many injuries and unavailabilities in their backline. She’s been excellent and she was excellent here once more.
Not nearly so much drama in this match. More of a typical tightly contested finals game. Adelaide came in with all sorts of recent goal scoring hype but it was the defending champion Victory’s finals experience which proved most important.
It was 1-1 at the break after Lisa Privatelli’s goal for Victory (29’) had been swiftly matched by Nanako Sasaki for Adelaide (32’). Victory’s a well-worked effort to reward some positive play. Adelaide’s an outrageous free kick catching the keeper out of position. This was an Adelaide team with golden boot winner Fiona Worts (13 goals, one ahead of Hannah Wilkinson – though behind Wilkie if you include post-season strikes) and Chelsea Dawber who also scored in double-digits... but Bunge and company shut them out. Closest either came was a curler from Dawber that went over the top early second half.
Meaning that when Melina Ayres made a great untracked run into the area to attack the pinpoint cross from Privitelli and guided it in for 2-1 on 57 mins... that was the winner folks. Melbourne City vs Melbourne Victory next week for a place in the grand final.
To put this in further context, Claudia Bunge is in her second ALW season with the Victory and is going for back to back championships. She played every single minute last season and the only reason that’s not the case here too is she missed time for Footy Ferns duty. Hannah Wilkinson is in her first ALW season and, including finals, has scored 14 goals in 13 matches. Didn’t win the golden boot because, again, she missed two games for international duty... but scored at a better strike-rate than the women who did win the GB (Worts with 13 goals in 14 games).
Rebekah Stott is going for her sixth grand final and fifth ALW title. She’s also coming back from cancer treatment. Marisa van der Meer is in her first professional season of any description and just played 55 minutes of a finals game. And Paige Satchell is in the midst of a breakout year at the international level and is likely to feature in a grand final in two weeks.
There were 20 different kiwis played ALW in 2021-22. Obviously 13 of them were with the Wellington Phoenix but even aside from that it’s still a massive number. Beats the previous record of 2011-12 (Rebekah Stott’s first season) when there were eight NZers who got minutes in the comp.
Goal Zone
It was actually much more of an assists kind of weekend in the Flying Kiwis realms so check in for those yarns tomorrow.
The Batman (2022)
Early days of the email I liked to use it to work out a few ideas about films sometimes. Haven’t done that for a wee while but then also the film industry’s been pretty whacky recently and there simply haven’t been that many must-see movies. But I did watch The Batman over the weekend. So here are some unedited ideas...
I’m not usually a super hero movie guy, tbh. They don’t do much for me and I’m not a huge fan of how much of a stranglehold they have on the industry, though fair play if you disagree. That’s merely where I’m at with it. But I did watch The Batman for three main reasons: one is that I was recently out of home isolation so I wanted to do something, two is that Robert Pattinson is increasingly fascinating as an actor, three is that I kept seeing Batman x Nirvana memes.
Shout out to R-Patty because that dude is nuts. Made bank as an actor at a young age in a massive teen franchise, then despised his own success so much that everything since has been bonkers. I watched Good Times recently – Safdies before Uncut Gems – and that film is an insane ride, what a movie. I’ve seen him in The Lighthouse which is deservedly earning cult classic status already. He was in Tenet. Lost City of Z is underrated. He’s absolutely wild in The Devil All The Time and The King. Did High Life with Claire Denis. Now he’s been The Batman.
Don’t forget the The. I was sitting there in the theatre watching the opening credits wondering what this movie is actually called and it popped up on the screen: The Batman. With Batman in massive letters and The in tiny ones but for some reason I like the idea of the The. Not Batman but The Batman. Be sure to get it right.
Okay so, first things first... it was good. I enjoyed it. Way too long which is something that most movies could do to learn, anything over two hours flat you’d better be bloody earning it. And I did feel like the last half hour took things too far over the top – had it ended at... not sure how to say this without spoilers but if the diner arrest were the climax then I think it’s a tighter film on the whole. But it did enough interesting and entertaining things to keep me locked in so pakipaki for that.
Starts off like Blade Runner. Didn’t fully dig the voiceover but the vibes were great. Then it evolves into this detective procedural thing, not quite a film noir style but definitely influenced by that. These types of movies are always so dark – visually and thematically – and this is no difference. Plus it’s always bloody raining. And in all honesty it does lean hard towards the pessimistic yarns which can be gruelling, though unlike that Joker film (which I didn’t like for that reason) it does at least try to suggest a few solutions. As well as turning the mirror back on the idea of vigilante action quite hard at the end.
I dunno, I find it hard to see how these films can take themselves seriously when there’s a dude dressed up like a bat out there punching petty criminals in the face. It’s so absurd lol. Also Pattinson (who’s intense but understated) has an extremely distinctive square jaw. Like, everybody in town instantly recognises Bruce Wayne but nobody can place the obvious unmasked jaw?
Fantastic cast all doing great work with the material. Had no idea John Torturro was gonna pop up, he was superb. Zoe Kravitz obviously smokes it. Paul Dano has all sorts of fun as Riddler. Colin Farrell is buried in there under heaps of make-up as Penguin. Andy Serkis brings some lovely grace to the role of Alfred. Jeffrey Wright holds the whole damn thing together.
The Batman veers away from anything more than little hints at an origin story. Bruce Wayne is much less of a character than The Batman is and the film doesn’t feel the need to spend too much time setting up its world, just kinda dropping us into it instead.
Some other complaints... more than a couple times The Batman resembles The Terminator in his indestructibility. Not sure that really helps the movie. Already mentioned the length. I massively respect the fact that director Matt Reeves isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, settling for what’s mostly just Detective Batman, though it does wear its influences a little too thinly in places. Again, not so bad as Joker which was painfully derivative. Also this version of Gotham looks like a straight-up dump and I don’t know why anyone who has a choice would choose to live there. Oh and as with most movies... when they try to weave in internet culture it gets extremely hit or miss.
I think The Batman works best within its bag, to be honest. It’s to the film’s credit that it isn’t trying to be some kind of serious crossover... it’s happy just to be A Batman Movie. And it’s a pretty good Batman Movie. Couple nice twists in there. Wonderful performances. A decent enough script. It’s nothing special… but it knows what it’s trying to achieve and it mostly succeeds. Mostly.