Boundary Bangers
Several Blackcaps ODI blokes of intrigue, Black Sticks hockey lessons, Sean Marks quiet mahi, Kiwi-NRL notes & Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
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Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Marata Niukore Loves Rugby League (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Inspiration With Fa'amanu Brown (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Further Ascension With Isaiah Papali'i (Rugby League)
Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: A Guide Through The End (Rugby League)
Reliving The Trauma of the All Whites Loss To Costa Rica (Football)
Flying Kiwis – July 13 (Football)
Here’s How Indiah-Paige Riley Fits Into A Football Ferns Team In Need Of Creativity (Football)
Don’t Look Now But Maybe, Just Maybe, The Breakers Are Starting To Turn Things Around (Basketball)
The Quotable Steven Adams: 2021-22 Edition (Basketball)
Michael Bracewell Is The Latest Slow-Cooked Blackcaps Test Cricketer (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Black Sticks wahine lost their quarter-final to Germany 0-1 at the World Cup and now prepare for Commonwealth Games hockey where they should be in the medals mix. Australia are the only team from World Cup semi-finals that will be in the Com Games - Netherlands, Germany and Argentina round out the rest of the World Cup semi-final spots.
Aotearoa, England and India were all in Pool B and join Australia as the teams competing for Com Games medals. Aotearoa and England made the quarter-finals at the World Cup, India were knocked out in their first crossover game. This lays out the Com Games vibe and how different that tournament is to a World Cup, which should give the kiwis a boost of confidence heading into the Com Games.
This also frames expectations. Winning Pool B was a strong World Cup result and while it was a bummer that they couldn't reach semi-finals, a young Black Sticks wahine team showed many layers of improvement since the Tokyo Olympics. This team should at least be competing for a medal, perhaps even aiming to challenge Australia as gold medal favourites.
Aotearoa defeated Australia 4-1 in the 2018 Com Games final and England grabbed a bronze medal thanks to their 6-0 win over India. Aotearoa have recent games against England and India to learn from, while they have also played plenty of hockey against Australia during pandemic times. The challenge for Aotearoa is that they haven't won vs Australia in 11 games since the start of 2021.
The notes below aren't delivered as analysis of Black Sticks women's hockey, they are delivered as basic sporting analysis that can be applied to any relevant sport. First and foremost, this is why many strikers wear gloves and wearing gloves should be encouraged…
That pass across goal bounced off the glove and into the goal post. It only went towards the goal because of the glove and players are more willing to embrace these positions because of extra protection. Then we have a German break down field and a defensive idea to deploy in all sports is 'players in the frame/more of our jerseys in the picture'. Work hard to get more of your players around the ball when hustling back on defence.
Aotearoa does well to get their defensive numbers in the frame but this is where Germany scored their only goal. Aotearoa has six players in their defensive zone, Germany has three. Most of the kiwis are chasing the play and the Germany attackers are allowed to flow into the circle, making this a two vs two scenario. The learning here is about defensive numbers and what a team does with those defensive numbers as clogging the middle of the field to make a defensive play outside the circle would have helped this scenario.
In any sport, get as many defensive numbers in the play and clog things up. Rushing in for a tackle is not ideal when out-numbered, but if there are even numbers then clog things up asap.
Then there is a lapse in deep defensive marking as the kiwi player loses their striker behind them. In any sport, standing in front of the opponent helps stop that player receiving the ball - but we don't have eyes in the back of our heads. Hence goalies are crucial in communicating movement - always communicate from the back forward. Germany roll out a designed play by the looks of this as they leave a channel of space in the right pocket of the circle for the striker to move into, after slipping behind the kiwi…
Billy Slater was always thrown up as the best communicator in rugby league, directing play from fullback. Sports like football or hockey require defenders to tell those in front what is happening. Communicate from the back and help out those in front.
Blackcaps continue their ODI series against Ireland tonight before moving into T20 mode. Small sample sizes, but here are the Blackcaps bowling stats...
Glenn Phillips: 6ov, 2w @ 13.50avg/4.50rpo.
Mitchell Santner: 10ov, 2w @ 16avg/3.20rpo.
Lockie Ferguson: 10ov, 2w @ 22avg/4.40rpo.
Ish Sodhi: 10ov, 2w @ 31avg/6.20rpo.
Michael Bracewell: 18ov, 2w @ 34avg/3.77rpo.
Matt Henry: 19ov, 3w @ 34avg/5.36rpo.
Jacob Duffy: 9ov, 1w @ 52avg/5.77rpo.
Blair Tickner: 16ov, 2w @ 56.50avg.
News came through today that Adam Milne drops out of this tour with injury, replaced for T20Is vs Ireland and beyond by Jacob Duffy. Duffy is an intriguing character as he has enjoyed more Blackcaps opportunities in the last few years and I don't have Duffy rising up my seam rankings with those opportunities. Duffy bowls steady out-swing and he's a big lad, allowing him to hit the deck hard along with bowling fuller for extra movement.
I'm curious about his scope as an international bowler. Duffy doesn't have much x-factor, nor does Henry but Henry finds all sorts of seam nibble. Duffy has played four T20I games with 5w @ 15avg and he took 4w in his debut game against Pakistan (Dec 2020), before taking 1w @ 42avg during a series in Bangladesh.
That series vs Bangladesh last year was a bit weird considering that the Blackcaps are in a similar spot, testing depth in Ireland. Ajaz Patel, Colin de Grandhomme, Rachin Ravindra, Scott Kuggeleijn, Cole McConchie, Hamish Bennett and Doug Bracewell all bowled in that series but are not in the T20I squad to face Ireland. Ravindra, Kuggeleijn, McConchie, Bennett and Bracewell have all been overtaken by other depth players.
Back to Duffy who took 8w @ 40avg/5.16rpo in two County Championship games with Kent recently. Duffy bagged some wickets and despite not playing for Kent in the past few weeks, Duffy still stands as the most expensive Kent bowler this season. Duffy also took 13w @ 54.84 in the Plunket Shield and 6w @ 53avg in Ford Trophy last season, with his 10w @ 35.90avg in the Super Smash his best mahi.
All of which leaves me curious about Duffy's Blackcaps future. Various Blackcaps have entered international cricket and snapped up their opportunities to command further selection. Duffy could still feature in upcoming squads if they keep rolling with depth selections yet there are more enticing prospects such as Ben Sears in the T20I squad to face Ireland.
Blair Tickner would the next bloke to keep tabs on in this regard. Kuggeleijn is a recent example of a kiwi bowler who got plenty of chances, didn't snap them up, and has now been bumped down the depth chart.
Finn Allen is the other bloke we have been pondering about in podcasts and our cricket coverage. Blackcaps will swing into lots of T20I cricket after this ODI series and all the chat about Allen building his innings, adapting to conditions etc won't matter as much. In ODI cricket Allen needs to flow with the innings before banging boundaries. In T20I cricket Allen can bang boundaries straight up.
Allen has low key got worse at longform cricket - headlined by 40 runs @ 6.66avg in 6inns during the 2020/21 Plunket Shield. Last season was slightly better with 183 runs @ 22.87avg in 8inns and he has a career average of 20.23 after 28inns. Allen has a bonkers T20 career record of 30.29avg/176sr and his List-A career record of 27.96avg/108.71sr reflects his ability to bang boundaries.
ODI cricket presents a nigglier challenge to start his innings but there is still boundary-banging upside if Allen can endure the opening exchanges. Allen is highly unlikely to be a 1st 11 ODI factor ahead of the next World Cup though and his short-term future is all about T20I cricket where Allen has a meh strike-rate of 190.24.
All six of Allen's T20I games have been against Bangladesh, three in Aotearoa and three in Bangladesh. This frames his upcoming T20I stuff for Aotearoa as his talent suggests that he should be in the T20 World Cup mixer, although Allen hasn't performed in an elite T20I spot. Opportunities will come and the sniff of T20 World Cup selection should bring out the best in Allen against weaker European nations.
Here are some Kiwi-NRL notes that I've got stashed away for this round of footy and upcoming Kiwi-NRL Spotlights...
Griffin Neame's Cowboys role. Cowboys picked up Luciano Leilua mid-season and he has grabbed a bench spot straight away, which might impact Neame's minutes. Neame is a low key beast in the middle for Cowboys and earned Kiwis squad selection but Cowboys have various forwards gathering more buzz than Neame. Cowboys face Sharks tonight and I'm tracking the Greymouth products usage, plus impact off the bench.
Sharks have Braden Hamlin-Uele (Glenora) returning from injury. Hamlin-Uele should be in the Kiwis World Cup squad and he was eased back into his mahi for 13mins last round vs Storm. Hamlin-Uele started the first six games this season before his injury and has a 5-2 record in games played this season which signals a low key connection with Sharks winning. Sharks feel like their best version with Hamlin-Uele, Toby Rudolf and Dale Finucane in their middle which requires a 'ramp up' phase for BHU.
Whangarei's Dylan Brown (Hikurangi) faces Warriors tonight and has already hit his best season yet. Here are some Brown markers this season compared to previous bests...
Tries: 7 this year, previous best of 4.
Try Assists: 9 this year, previous best of 5.
Offloads: 8 this year, previous best of 6.
Average Run Metres: 121m this year, previous best of 116m.
Brown is doing far less kicking than previous seasons (averaging fewer metres and fewer forced droppies). That energy has shifted to his running and play-making.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona (Upper Hutt) vs Joseph Tapine (Harbour City) goes down Sunday afternoon. These two should never be underrated, nor should their funky battles in NRL as two of the best forwards who are also from Wellington.
What happened to Morgan Harper (Ngaruawahia) after that 'horrible' performance against Sharks/Siosifa Talakai? Harper has started six consecutive games at centre which is funky as nothing changed despite the perception, although there has been a shift in Harper's mahi. Harper had one game with 100+ metres in his first six games and has four games over 100m in his last six games. Harper has more try assists, linebreaks and tackle busts in his last six games compared to his first six.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Spare a thought for Sean Marks at the moment. He’s proven time and time again that he’s a clever bloke who is very good at his job... but dealing with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant will test any general manager to their limits.
It’s hard to know what’s truly going on beneath a whirlwind of fake news and exaggerated rumours. I’ve seen rumours that Kyrie is desperate to go to the Lakers, I’ve seen rumours that he never wanted to leave the Nets. Kevin Durant is being linked to every damn team out there, as he should, and yet no trade has yet emerged.
Don’t think that Marsky hasn’t got a plan though. Durant is under contract for several more years so just because he’s asked out doesn’t mean they need to trade him. And if they are going to trade him, as seems more likely than not, they don’t have to do so immediately. Marks was never gonna take the first offer that came his way. The way I look at this, the longer the saga plays out the better it will be for Marks. He’s been spotted at Summer League chatting with various other GMs (Lakers, Heat, Raptors were all specifically noted) as well as Adrian Wojnarowski. Things are definitely happening behind the scenes.
DeAndre Ayton signed a restricted free agent max deal with the Indiana Pacers today which the Phoenix Suns swiftly matched but this still drastically alters his presence in any trade talks between the Suns and the Brooklyn Nets. Phoenix were suggested as the frontrunners in the KD stakes from the start but are running out of tradeable players barring some kind of insane draft pick gift basket.
Elsewhere Donovan Mitchell could be on the move out of the Utah Jazz, not sure if he’s the kind of player the Nets should be targeting (they can do better for Kevin Durant, surely) but Utah do have picks to burn having acquired a king’s ransom in the Rudy Gobert trade... which has seemingly set the standard for what Brooklyn want to exceed for Kevin Durant.
Who knows what else could happen between now and the start of Nets training camp? Things change quickly. Right now there’s no team willing to offer what Sean Marks will accept but that’s not to say that some GM won’t get starry eyes and change his mind in a hurry at any moment. The NBA is a wild place and Sean Marks knows how to traverse it.
Also spare a thought for Martin Guptill. Not for any particular sympathetic reasons, simply because Guppy continues to score ODI runs. It feels worth stopping to acknowledge those things every now and then, particularly for a truly great player like Guptill has been. Albeit he wasn’t so sharp in that second Ireland game in which he was skittled first ball... but he scored a solid 51 in the first match and we’ll see how he goes overnight.
Fun fact: that was the seventh golden duck of Martin Guptill’s ODI career. All of them as an opener, five of them facing the first ball of the innings. Two of those were at the 2019 World Cup – including a game against the West Indies in which fellow opener Colin Munro also got a golden duck... luckily Kane Williamson came in at three and scored 148. Guptill also once got a diamond duck against South Africa, run out in the first over without facing a ball. Gup does have a reputation for starting his innings slow sometimes. I guess that’s probably a reason why.
If that sounds like a lot, it is. Guptill has 16 ducks as an opener in total. That’s seventh all time. But then to be fair the guys ahead of him are mostly all legends so it might be one of those things that just comes with the territory.
Most Ducks as ODI Opener
Sanath Jayasuriya – 29
Chris Gayle – 23
Tamim Iqbal – 19
Herschel Gibbs – 17
Adam Gilchrist – 17
Nathan Astle – 16
Martin Guptill – 16
Upul Tharanga – 16
Most Golden Ducks as ODI Opener
Sanath Jayasuriya - 8
Martin Guptill - 7
Chris Gayle – 6
Aaron Finch – 6
Desmond Haynes - 5
Ramiz Raja – 5
Virender Sehwag – 5
Shahid Afridi - 5
Almost got there, one more to go. Gayle’s six were all from the first ball of the match too, the only one with more first-ball first-ballers than Guptill’s five.
However this isn’t meant to be a Guptill critique, quite the opposite. There was definitely a time a couple years back when Guptill’s form was under scrutiny. Specifically at the 2019 World Cup when Guptill was rubbish, scoring 73no in the opener vs Sri Lanka and then only averaging 12.56 across his next 9 innings with a top score of 35. The Blackcaps have played bugger all ODI cricket in the three years since then but in those sparse innings Guptill’s had scores of:
32, 79, 66 vs India
40 vs Australia
38, 20, 26 vs Bangladesh
2, 6, 106 vs Netherlands
51, 0 vs Ireland
That’s 466 runs at an average of 38.83 with 1 hundred and 3 fifties. About three runs under his career average so we’re not talking about Prime Guptill or anything however it’s also a long way from a guy trailing off at the end of his career.
Guptill has played 191 ODIs. He’s got 7092 runs with 17 hundreds. That’s 42nd all time in terms of overall runs and he went past Nathan Astle for third in the Aotearoa stakes during that half-ton he scored on Monday morning. Luteru Ross Taylor is first with 8607. Stephen Fleming is next with 8037.
Before the end of the home summer Guptill’s got the opportunity to bat up to 17 more times in One Day Internationals thanks to all the rescheduled Super League fixtures we’ve gotta play. And guess what? 2023 is a World Cup year so there’s plenty more where that came from.
Guptill will be 37 once that tournament rolls around so he may not go much longer but it’s not inconceivable that he goes close to Taylor’s record. Let’s say he gets 30 more innings. Average of 41. That’s 1230 runs which’d take him up to 8322, less than 300 runs away. He’s probably gonna need to play another year on top of that to have a genuine shot at Taylor’s mark but you never know. He’s certainly still churning them out.
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
Anna Leat has signed with Aston Villa. This is actually one that’s been on the cards for a couple of months ever since she left West Ham. See this tweet right here...
On the same day as Leat was unveiled by Villa, Sian Chambers was sent on loan to Charlton (whose previous keeper Eartha Cumings was in turn was signed by Liverpool a day later). Peep at the date. All of that came true.
This is a good solid move from Leat, who appeared nine times in all comps for the Hammers in her first season as a pro – including a run as the number one while Australia’s Mackenzie Arnold was away at the Asian Cup. She was part of a decent exodus of West Ham players after their club record sixth place finish - including kiwi manager Olli Harder - which gave the impression of a team that wasn’t going to be able to back that effort up. So she’s moved sideways to Villa who were ninth last term but feel like a team that could push on higher next term.
But it doesn’t really change the personal situation for Leat (other than moving from London to Birmingham). She’s still the backup keeper at a WSL club. Aston Villa already have Hannah Hampton there as the incumbent number one who is the same age as Leat and is currently a part of England’s Euro 2022 squad. Rogers played seven times as the backup in 2021-22 so Leat will certainly get her moments. All goods.
This also means that all three of the NZers who played in the English Women’s Super League last time are all returning for the next campaign: Ria Percival (Spurs) and CJ Bott (Leicester) being the others. Still plenty of time for more to join them too as the season doesn’t kick off for two more months.
Also had confirmation of that Grace Jale move to Canberra United this morning... and it came with a sweet little surprise. Jale was top scorer for the Wellington Phoenix in their inaugural season but has expressed a desire to move outside her comfort zone, leading her to Canberra which, ironically, was the team that the Nix beat for their first ever win with Jale scoring in the match. Jale has been playing for Heidelberg United in the Victorian NPL over the winter.
That’s all fair enough and as I mentioned a week ago every kiwi that leaves the Phoenix is going to mean one more kiwi that is signed in their place. It’s all expanding the player pool. Bit of a sideways move from Jale given that Canberra weren’t up to much last time around... but then the ALW tends to fluctuate a fair bit from year to year – Canberra were semi-finalists the time before that.
As for that sweet surprise... Jale was one of three players unveiled by Canberra United, the others being defender Grace Taranto and midfielder Rebecca Burrows. Yes, that would be the same Rebecca Burrows who played both U17s and U20s for New Zealand and has been a regular sight for several Auckland clubs over the years, most recently Eastern Suburbs, before moving to Heidelberg Utd as well.
Should probably mention that Jale and Burrows are engaged, hence it’s not really a surprise that they’ve shared a few clubs in recent years. However Burrows earning an ALW gig is not just something that happens because you ask nicely. There’s presumably an import spot at stake here (granted Canberra had a free one open last season) so even if Agent Grace has been doing the lord’s work getting another kiwi a shot at pro footy it’s still a strong indication of how good Burrows has been in the NPL lately.
Last season featured a record-equalling eight New Zealanders signed to Australian ALW clubs (that’s including a ret-conned Ally Green). We’ve now got two on board who weren’t part of that previous group… plus Liz Anton who was, having already re-signed with Perth. Again, that player pool just keeps expanding.
Not gonna forget the Wellington Phoenix here either because they signed their first player for season two this week as well: central defender Mackenzie Barry locking it in for another year. Outside of two games missed with injury, Barry played every minute she was available for and impressed immensely with her composure and tackling ability. She was called up for the Football Ferns for the first time on their last tour (joining Jale, Kate Taylor, and Lily Alfeld from that inaugural Nix squad).
Great re-signing and a great bit of continuity for the WahiNix... it’ll be curious to see how many more of that inaugural group they’re able to bring back though. Despite being wooden spooners that group achieved beyond expectations and they’ve already seen Grace Jale snapped up by a rival club. Several others must surely have been discussed by other teams too and not only in Australia. Kate Taylor and Alyssa Whinham certainly feel like players destined for much bigger things.