Bringing The Heat
Sophie Devine in the WBBL, Warriors release David Fusitu'a, Hemi 'The Heat' Ahio & the NFL's International Player Combine
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 37
Reading Menu
Here’s That (Very Young) Football Ferns Squad For The Canada Friendlies (Football)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Exploring The Redcliffe Dolphins Link Up (NRL)
The Kiwi-NRL Juniors Who Helped Australian Teams Make Finals (NRL)
All Whites vs Curaçao: 692 Days Later... (Football)
All Whites vs Bahrain: It Feels Familiar, Somehow (Football)
First Impressions Of Steven Adams With The Memphis Grizzlies (NBA)
Matua Strike-Rate: Jimmy Neesham's T20 World Cup Upside (Cricket)
Lockie Ferguson vs Kyle Jamieson: The Battle of Perception (Cricket)
The T20 World Cup Quest For Batting Leadership With Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson (Cricket)
Aotearoa's Gots Them T20I Spinners: Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Sophie Devine starts WBBL…
Due to niggly logistics, there are very few kiwis in this summers Women’s Big Bash League. Former White Fern Rachel Priest is captain of Hobart (23 runs @ 79.31sr from two games so far) and Sophie Devine is captain of Perth. And that’s all. Usually there are at least five kiwis involved but I’m not too bummed about this as this boosts Aotearoa’s Hallyburton-Johnstone Shield (50-over) competition which starts October 30th.
This actually points to schedule alignment that works. Kiwi women can play WBBL in this October/November window and then return to Aotearoa’s Super Smash. Kiwi men have to choose between BBL and Super Smash as they are played at the same time - choosing BBL has ramifications. This is the first summer in a while with a gang of White Ferns playing HBJ Shield and I’m eager to see who commands attention with the World Cup held in Aotearoa early next year.
Meanwhile, Devine is battling away with Perth. Devine took a break from cricket earlier this year and hopefully she got her mental vibes right because this has been her worst batting year of international cricket for quite some time.
ODIs: 8inns - 146 runs @ 18.25avg/64.60sr.
T20Is: 7inns - 114 runs @ 16.28avg/94.21sr.
The last year Devine’s ODI average dipped below 20 was 2009 and last time her average dipped below 30 was 2010. The last year Devine hit at least two 50+ scores was 2018.
The last year Devine’s T20I averaged dipped below 20 was 2009. The last year Devine’s strike-rate dipped below 120 was 2014. Devine’s T20I batting strike-rates are actually on the decline…
2017: 162.88sr.
2018: 144.20sr.
2019: 131.89sr.
2020: 126.47sr.
That’s the framework for this WBBL campaign. Devine hit 19 runs @ 158.33sr opening the batting and bowled 2ov with 1w @ 10rpo in the first game. This game went to a Super Over and Devine cracked two sixes to seal the win. Perth now play against Brisbane on Tuesday evening before rounding back to play on Saturday.
Stephen Fleming and Chennai…
Stephen Fleming has won his fourth Indian Premier League championship with Chennai. Fleming has also coached Chennai to 2nd four times and Chennai got suspended from the IPL for two years. 14 years of IPL and Fleming has coached Chennai to 2nd or better in eight years, also finishing 2nd in 2008 as a player.
Something is obviously working there. On the one hand IPL coaching is easier as the best players are coming together, on the other hand this is pretty tricky to get everyone on the same page. I love sports team culture and especially those organisations who establish a winning culture, hence I’m kinda fascinated by Fleming. I don’t know much about what he’s done specifically with Chennai but it’s on the hoist to learn more about Fleming’s style.
Fleming didn’t do Mitchell Santner any favours though. Santner did not play an IPL game for Chennai this year.
David Fusitu’a & NZ Warriors…
What I settle on when pondering NZ Warriors: mayhem, change, upheaval, niggle.
I don’t view such changes as negative though, I’m just dwelling in observation mode. The Warriors are clearly re-shaping their roster but the low key thing here is the style of moves and for Fusitu’a this means shuffling salary cap investment around while also getting much faster/more nimble. In 2018 the Warriors re-signed Ken Maumalo to end of 2022 and Fusitu’a to end of 2023 - these deals were made official three weeks apart.
First - never buzz about the length of a deal. Both Maumalo and Fusitu’a have been moved on at least a year prior to their deals winding up. In the NRL any deal can be escaped from.
Those were heavy-dose Stephen Kearney moves. Head coach Kearney’s style of footy kinda sucked though and 2020 started with two of the most downbuzz Warriors performances I’ve covered (0-20 loss vs Knights, 6-20 loss vs Raiders). Then came covid and suddenly rules changed with an intention for a faster, funkier style. Kearney’s style was grindy and limited, then the whole script flipped and everything got worse.
Maumalo and Fusitu’a are victims of this. Neither is very fast, both are big lads. Maumalo got a gig with Tigers and with the right balance (Daine Laure at fullback, David Nofoaluma on the other wing), the Tigers can play with Maumalo on the wing. Maumalo wiggled straight into a deal with Tigers and others like Patrick Herbert (Titans) and Peta Hiku (Cowboys) quickly picked up new gigs; while Fusitu’a is off to England?
Low key - lots of Tongan players have moved to England and Tonga’s coach Kristian Woolf just coached St Helens to back to back Super League championships.
There have been whispers of Fusitu’a needing time away from footy for his own wellbeing. Chuck in injuries and Fusitu’a was a mystery absence through much of this year. Fusitu’a also moved back to Aotearoa during the covid season, now he’s off for an adventure in England where Tonga will be prepping for the RLWC.
The Warriors though … feel like they are stacking building blocks. Here’s the outside back depth…
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Marcelo Montoya, Edward Kosi, Adam Pompey, Rocco Berry, Viliami Vailea, Junior Ratuva.
Remember that while NZ Warriors don’t have many young halves in their system, they have an immense amount of outside backs and forwards. Warriors are unlikely to dish out big long-term deals to any winger moving forward under Peter O’Sullivan as we are seeing the value of the outside back production line; there is always a fresh, cheaper lad coming through the pipeline.
Hip de hop…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Hemi ‘The Heat’ Ahio…
Absolutely wrecked him, bro. Hemi Ahio earning the WBC Middle East Heavyweight title with a second round stoppage of Mohammed Ali Bayat Fayid, who he’d dropped in the first round, on his way to a 17-0 record with 13 knockouts.
Ahio was completely dominant. Those quick hands, that deceptive power (Junior Fa, his training mate, has sparred with the likes of Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder and reckons that Hemi Ahio’s power is up there with the best), the rapid combinations. So busy. He slugged him into submission. And remember that this guy had to prepare for this bout with Aotearoa in lockdown, meaning no sparring or teammates to help him. Just his coach who he had to move in with.
Ahio fights out of City Kickboxing and probably announced himself to a lot of kiwi fans with his dramatic win over Julius Lloyd Long on the undercard of Joseph Parker vs Junior Fa. He did get dropped in the fourth round but ended up getting the KO in the seventh while well ahead on the cards, otherwise ravaging the dude. A very weird fight due to the size difference – Ahio is an even six feet tall but JLL is 7’1 - but that was a solid win now this latest one puts him in a whole new territory. With a title to his name it’s going to be that much easier to get fights.
Speaking of which, old mate Lou DiBella’s tweeting enthusiastically about it all so seems like Junior Fa’s gym-mate is also now Junior Fa’s promotional mate...
The WBC Middle East Heavyweight title is a new one, if you were wondering. Not something you can trace back to Muhammad Ali or Joe Frazier or anything. In fact it was only created late last year as part of a series of moves instigated by retired British fighter Amir Khan, who is president of the WBC’s middle eastern council and was the promoter for this event in Dubai – it was called the Amir Khan Crypto Fight Night and along with a few tasty pro fights it was also stacked out with crypto currency traders. There were also auctions selling a few random cryto-related assets (whatever that means) and some NFTs. All proceeds went to the Amir Khan Foundation. Strange but okay, all for a good cause.
While we’re talking about the boxing, news is that David Nyika is off to England where he’ll link up with Joseph Parker’s camp ahead of fighting on the Parker-Chisora II undercard.
Nyika made his pro debut on the undercard of Parker vs Fa at the start of the year. Having trained out of City Kickboxing in the past, he acted as the main sparring partner for Parker in that one. Junior Fa is a CKB dude so it was a little funky, Eugene Bareman joked about it in the pressers, but Nyika is a freelancer so fair enough. Such a freelancer that at times he’s been his own trainer. A refreshing difference (and a huge risk) in the manipulative world of boxing... though it did mean that it was hard to predict what direction he’d head in next after skipping away to win an Olympic bronze medal.
Now we know. For his second pro fight he’ll take on an as-yet-unnamed opponent in Manchester, working with Parker and trainer Andy Lee and the lads in camp until then. Tyson Fury might even be hovering around, who knows. Nyika hasn’t signed a promotional deal anywhere yet but he’s bound to run into Eddie Hearn during all this.
He’s also still eligible for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next year too. As long as he’s not gone beyond five fights as a pro (and he won’t have by then), he’s in with a shot of a third straight Comm Games gold. Might not be able to get back to Aotearoa between now and then, might not even want to, but it’s shaping like exciting times for Nyika.
More exciting than in 2016 when he missed out on Olympic qualifying due to some dodgy officiating and no surprises here but an independent investigation, commissioned by AIBA (the amateur boxing association), came back a few weeks ago with the suggestion that more than a dozen fights at Rio were manipulated and that qualifying tournaments were also exposed to corruption.
AIBA weren’t involved in the Tokyo games. The IOC gave them the boot after all the suspicions. In all honesty, the idea that amateur boxing gets rigged from time to time is hardly a shocker. Nyika was beaten by eventual bronze medallist Rustam Tulaganov (Uzbekistan) in qualifying for the 2016 games despite landing significantly more punches. Tulaganov has since gone pro with a 4-0 record fighting mostly out of Russia. Say, I’ve got an idea who Nyika should fight on December 18…
NFL International Yarns…
The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Miami Dolphins 23-20 in the early hours of this morning, Trevor Lawrence throwing 319 yards with a touchdown and James Robinson rushing for another as the Jags won their first of the season and snapped a losing streak that had dragged back a mind-boggling 20 consecutive games. They’d last won in week one 2020. The game was also notable for being held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
Funny that... because Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is also where the NFL International Player Pathway invitational try-outs were happening last week. Try-outs that included not one but two New Zealanders pushing for a chance to maybe latch onto the fringes of an NFL wider roster. 44 players drawn from all over the world with a selection of them to continue on in the IPP programme with three months of specific training and four of that group earning bonus spots on practice squad teams for 2022.
Lone Toailoa of Aotearoa made the three-month thing last time but didn’t get onto a roster, he was the first NZer to make it that far. But amongst the 44-man combine list were Lance Leota and Shawn Tuione.
Read a bit about these fellas in a previous Substack mailer, if you will.
Thus for a couple of days all these fellas (about half from England or Germany with New Zealand, Japan, Nigeria, and a few other European nations represented) went through all the kinds of drills you usually see before the NFL Draft. 40-yard sprints and broad jumps and running around cones and all that. There were strength tests in the gym. Defensive backs and wideouts did some route drills. There’s also gonna be a second IPP combine next week in Mexico City for players from that side of the world, mostly Mexican nationals with a few from Brazil by the sounds of it.
Both the kiwis involved are defensive ends. Tuione wore number 45 while Leota wore 77. This wasn’t something that was closed off to media but there also wasn’t a whole lot of outside coverage so no idea how they went. There are some brief clips of Leota running around cones in this piece, along with some chat to the camera (endorsing Marcel Dabo – the consensus breakout player of the crew)…
And here’s Shawn Tuione talking to the Washington Post...
But both have said they reckon they left it all out there, as the saying goes. Proud that they gave good accounts of themselves. Thus now we wait.
