Building The Vista
Kiwi-NRL junior roots, Wellington Phoenix luck, domestic footy notes, Black Sticks hockey, Tall Blacks, and more
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2022/23 FIH Pro League: Previewing A Curious Anzac Weekend Of Black Sticks Hockey (Hockey)
The Breakers Struck The Ideal NBL Next Star Balance With Rayan Rupert (Basketball)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: The Warrior Tom Ale (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Leo Thompson Settles In Knights Forward Pack (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Matthew Timoko Keeps Getting Better (Rugby League)
Flying Kiwis – April 18 (Football)
Hail To The Chief, Giancarlo Italiano Will Be The Next Wellington Phoenix Blokes Manager (Football)
2023 Blackcaps ODI Tracker: 1st in World Cup Super League After Series Win Vs Sri Lanka (Cricket)
2022/23 Ford Trophy: The Josh Clarkson Takeover And More Notes From The Final (Cricket)
2022/23 Plunket Shield: Central Districts Are Champions (Cricket)
How Northern Brave Won Back To Back Super Smash Championships (Cricket)
How Canterbury Magicians Sent Amy Satterthwaite Out As A Champion (Cricket)
2022/23 HBJ Shield: Maddy Green's Ascension, Amy Satterthwaite Bows Out and More (Cricket)
2023 T20 World Cup White Ferns Debrief (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
On the back of Friday's newsletter dispatch, the roots of positive NZ Warriors vibes run deep like a kauri tree. I went watch the NSW Cup team dispatch Eels on Sunday afternoon and while North Harbour Stadium reminds me of how weird it is for Auckland to have three large stadiums that are under-used, a decent crowd was there.
A bigger crowd than you might catch on a rainy evening for a North Harbour NPC game, which is more than Tuatara baseball games got. That crowd includes whanau for the Eels Kiwi-NRL players and this sums up rugby league in Aotearoa right now; Kiwi-NRL is sizzling and Warriors are fun.
Warriors are now first in NSW Cup. They share a 6-2 record with Bulldogs but have a better points differential. Warriors defeated Bulldogs 30-18 a few weeks ago. Let's wander through the mangroves...
Remember all the news last summer about Karl Oloapu and Bulldogs paying a fee to snare him away from Broncos ... when he was 18-years-old? Well the Randwick junior is a key figure in the Bulldogs spine, playing fullback and halfback.
Redcliffe's win over Titans featured a composed performance from Isaiya Katoa, a 19-year-old from Wellington who has five try-assists in his first season. Katoa flashed his nifty footwork in the epic comeback win but the ease with which he controls a game is bonkers.
That's what Oloapu is doing in reserve grade. Both have links back to Wellington. Oloapu may be eligible for Queensland and could be a consistent starting half for Samoa. Katoa may be eligible for New South Wales (not sure of arrival dates) and has already represented Tonga, as well as having Cook Island heritage. I think they are unlikely to represent Aotearoa Kiwis, yet the Kiwi-NRL funk is undeniable.
While I do my best to bask in Aotearoa's footy abundance, I observe the battle between league and union. There is a major difference between Aotearoa and Australia though; Aotearoa has footy abundance, Australia rugby union needs talent.
As I watched Katoa steer Dolphins around, I pondered how he was a 1st 15 star in Australia (while winning with Panthers junior teams). ARU went large for Joseph Sua'ali'i while Katoa may be more influential in games and would have been cheaper. Katoa's father has however stated that Katoa would be more eager to play for All Blacks in union though.
Lots of players are open to playing for All Blacks but not Kiwis, fair enough. It's also part of negotiations and Kalyn Ponga always whips up those headlines at contract time. The thing about union is that Sua'ali'i won't be playing for Samoa and the whole wave of young polynesians choosing to represent their heritage, hasn't arrived on union's shores.
Wahine stuff is also interesting. Mele Hufanga played Super Rugby before dabbling in league and being one of the best players at last year's World Cup. Now she is signed to Broncos along with former Sevens player Gayle Broughton. Niall Williams also switched to NRLW with Titans. Cortez Te Pou and Alexis Tauaneai were playing union in NZ before moving to Sydney to play league, now they are signed with Dragons.
Building the vista requires multiple layers. At every level league is growing and at least competing with union for buzz, talent etc. Maybe half of the Kiwi-NRL juniors I cover played 1st 15? NRLW is growing rapidly and that means more young wahine shifting to league, partly due to league offering more money for more folks.
As for the layered Warriors vista. Winning Warriors is cool, although this is also fickle with Warriors footy. Reinforcing good NRL footy is a strong NSW Cup team. Propping up those good vibes are lots of little things such as sound talent identification, growth, community etc. This Warriors thing isn't just moments of good NRL footy, it’s a compelling vista.
Warriors are the best team in NSW Cup. Taine Tuaupiki might be the best fullback in the competition. Ali Leiataua might be the best centre. Ronald Volkman might be the best half. Zyon Maiu'u and Demitric Sifakula might be the best young forwards. Not to mention the 17-year-old Leka Halasima who might just be the best forward in NSW Cup.
Other lads not mentioned are all really good as well. An added bonus is the tentacles of Warriors footy reaching Auckland's premier squads, which includes a bunch of SG Ball (U19) kids playing against men now that their season is over.
At the other end of this 'building the vista' spectrum sits Black Sticks hockey. Both teams have been quietly losing for a long time now. So long that different waves of players have come through and both teams continue to struggle. The ladies lost 0-2 to Great Britain on Sunday and the blokes lost 2-5 to GB on Saturday with games against Australia on Tuesday. Maybe it changes against the Aussies.
One last thing that has been loitering in my head. Instead of rallying behind Football Ferns, media (and men) are baffled by their struggles. I won't drop my footballing views here because other than knowing they will win a pool game at the World Cup, I'm no football wizard.
I am a White Ferns wizard though. This was written when the 2022 World Cup squad was announced...
The White Ferns World Cup squad has been announced and selections were typically quirky. Don't buzz about selections though, because the most important thing to know about the White Ferns is that they are 3-20 in ODIs since the start of 2019 and 2-15 under coach Bob Carter. Hosting the World Cup might provide a home advantage though, especially given the current joys of international travel ... right?
No one cared that White Ferns were a horrible ODI team heading into a ODI World Cup in Aotearoa. Buzzwords like 'accountability' and 'consequences' have been used in Football Ferns stuff. Meanwhile, coach Carter was celebrated for losing and was ushered straight into a different NZC gig.
Everything about the White Ferns lead in to their World Cup was worse than Football Ferns. It’s worth noting that Football Ferns will be the only team with a female coach of the three teams who hosted World Cups (White Ferns, Black Ferns).
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
It’s actually nuts how much has gone right for the Wellington Phoenix with other results in recent weeks, despite the team utterly bottoming out with their own form. They opened the round on Friday night with a stinker of a performance getting thrashed 4-0 by a rampant Western Sydney Wanderers team, making so many basic mistakes along the way. The defending was especially shocking. They were tentative and slow and clumsy and just never really turned up. Rotten way to play against a team that operates with the flow that WSW have had lately.
Yet while that seemingly put their finals place in even more jeopardy, everything else worked out beautifully. The following night saw the two teams that could draw level with them on points both suffer 3-1 defeats at home. Newcastle Jets were dropped in Central Coast in the derby despite Jaushua Sotirio opening the scoring in the ninth minute. James McGarry set up the third goal for CCM so that was nice of him. Gonna be a shame when he does the same to the Nix in the finals but oh well.
Then after that Melbourne City kept the hits coming as Jamie Maclaren scored a hatty to become the A-League Men’s all-time leading scorer. They beat Western United... thus keeping WU three points behind the Nix as well. Both have worse goal difference than the Phoenix so there’s still the potential for the Phoenix to lose next week, those other two both to win, and WP to still finish ahead of them. Lol.
On to Sunday’s fixtures and Melbourne Victory didn’t need to beat Macarthur, a draw was just as good for the Nix, so the 94th minute Lleyton Brooks winner was kinda inconsequential. The important thing was simply that Macarthur didn’t win and are therefore out of finals contention along with the Victory. The Nix play Macarthur away next week (although Mac will be scrapping to avoid the wooden spoon so they’re hardly unmotivated).
Meanwhile Perth and Adelaide saw out a bonkers 4-4 draw – in which Perth were trailing going into stoppage time, then got themselves in front with a couple quickies, only to concede a 90+9’ equaliser to youngblood Nestory Irankunda. That wasn’t quite the ideal result it was still enough to keep Perth at arm’s length even if it didn’t eliminate them entirely.
Then on Monday night Brisbane Roar hosted Sydney FC. A draw would’ve been perfect as that would’ve eliminated Brizzy while keeping SFC only one point clear of Wellington. But we shan’t complain about Sydney FC winning 2-0 to knock Brizzy out even if it means the Nix surely won’t finish higher than sixth.
Not sure that really matters at this point anyway, opponents are all the same when you’re out of form. The Nix are capable of turning things around pretty quickly, just not really showing many signs of it with their recent efforts. But they should still make the finals and that would at least maintain an impressive level of recent consistency – shooting for finals appearances in four of the last five seasons, only missing out in the other by a single point.
Week 26 ALM Fixtures (NZT)
Melbourne City vs Western Sydney – Friday at 9.45pm
Adelaide vs Central Coast – Friday at 9.45pm
Sydney FC vs Newcastle – Saturday at 7pm
Macarthur vs Wellington Phoenix – Saturday at 7pm
Melbourne Victory vs Brisbane – Saturday at 9.45pm
Perth vs Western – Saturday/Sunday at 12-midnight
Had a big yarn about the upcoming U20 World Cup in Friday’s newsletter and that draw has since taken place. Good news on that front: the Young All Whites have drawn hosts Argentina, Uzbekistan, and Guatemala in their group. One game against the senior World Cup champs on their own turf for the experiences after two very winnable games against similar calibre footballing nations. That’s a group that this team can get out of (in second place)... and if they do it would make it four Men’s U20 World Cups in a row that the Aotearoa side has achieved that feat. Maybe this time we go one further and win a knockout game.
That Argentina team is hoping to include Manchester United forward Alejandro Garnacho in their squad depending on when he recovers from his current injury. United making the FA Cup final was a bit of a blow to their hopes there so it may not happen but no doubt they’ve got plenty more talent where that bloke came from. Although keep in mind they didn’t actually qualify for this tournament. They weren’t going to be there at all until they answered the 25th hour call as emergency hosts.
Word is that the NZ U20s squad should be named next week. Not sure why they’re taking so long, perhaps there are a few more tough decisions to be made by coach Darren Bazeley.
The Tall Blacks are also patiently awaiting a World Cup draw for the Men’s Basketball event in August. That one’s happening next week (April 29 at 5.30pm NZT) in the Philippines. Luis Scola and Dirk Nowitzki are going to lead the proceedings, apparently. The seedings have already been allocated with eight groups of four teams, and the evenly matched and oddly matched pots to be drawn against each other. That means we can already eliminate 16 teams from having to play against the Tall Blacks. Those are...
France, Serbia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Canada, Venezuela, Montenegro, Puerto Rico, China, Latvia, Mexico, Georgia, Lebanon, Egypt, South Sudan & Cape Verde.
Chuck out Iran, Finland & Dominican Republic too since they’re in the same pot as us.
Further rules state that we won’t be drawn against a rival Oceania team, so no worries about catching Australia (although that does improve our chances of getting USA from 25% to 33%. No Asian, Americas, or African team can be drawn with another either and only two European teams can be in the same group. With that in mind, here are the four seeded pots we may come up against...
1 Seed – Philippines, USA, Spain
2 Seed – Greece, Italy, Germany, Brazil
3 Seed – New Zealand
4 Seed – Jordan, Japan, Angola, Ivory Coast
Japan and Philippines are co-hosts so they won’t be in the same group together, presumably. They can’t anyway as rival Asian confederation teams. Clearly it’s that Philippines group that we want too, otherwise we’re up against either the reigning World Cup champs or the reigning Olympic champs. But we’ll see how that goes next week.
Sneaky follow-up... it was suggested on Stuff over the weekend that Steven Adams was leaning towards finally representing the Tall Blacks at this World Cup. Pero Cameron’s got the mana to make the man commit and they’d even got as far as drafting possible marketing ideas... but of course this pesky knee injury he’s dealing with is now a large hurdle in the way of that potentiality. Cruel luck. But there is hope.
Domestic Footy Notes...
A couple of funky games/results in the NRFL Women’s Premier div. There was a National League grand final rematch between Western Springs and Eastern Suburbs on Friday night and... it went almost exactly the same way as the grand final. Only a 3-0 win for Suburbs this time instead of 4-0 but close enough. Springs had seven players in their line-up who also started the GF. Lilywhites had six. Always a decent amount of changeover between seasons at this level – in particular for those two high-fliers who’ve also lost a couple players to overseas moves.
On that topic... remember the yarn from a few weeks ago about how Auckland United signed Northern Rovers’ old coach and then took half their squad along with? We had the first meeting of those two teams on Saturday and United won 7-0. Yikes. Three of those goals were scored after the 84th minute but still. Auckland United named seven players in their XI who played Natty League for Rovers last year including their entire back four. However Rovers did have some form of revenge as they’ve scooped up the Barnard Twins going the other direction. Jesse did score an own goal in this game... but those two are quality, they’ll help them plenty.
That win sends Auckland United first with nine points from four games. Ellerslie, Eastern Suburbs, and Hamilton Wanderers are all tied second with seven points.
Northern League blokes was probably highlighted by Eastern Suburbs finding some goal-scoring action to go with their excellent defence as they put six past Manukau United. Martin Bueno and Jake Mechell each got doubles. It was only 1-0 at HT but things soon stretched out. Looks like it’ll be a long season for Manukau. Hell of a week for Suburbs though – men’s and women’s senior teams winning by a combined 9-0 scoreline.
Manurewa and Takapuna played out a rarity at this level: a nil-all draw. Also fair play to Auckland City who had to come from behind after an early Erik Panzer goal for visiting Melville but ended up winning 3-1. Joe Lee got a brace. Panzer was also sent off late in the first half... weird day for him. The other Waikato team had a red card too as Hamilton Wanderers finished with ten following Brock Messenger’s late dismissal in a 3-1 defeat against Western Springs. Auckland City and Eastern Suburbs are the two remaining undefeated Northern teams.
Only two clubs have perfect records though and those are Christchurch United and Wellington Olympic. The race is on to see whose 100% points tally lasts longest. Both were under serious threats this past weekend. Olympic had issues when they were 2-0 down against Petone after 35 minutes. Next thing you know a Kailan Gould goal was followed by a Jack-Henry Sinclair hat-trick and it ended 4-2 to Oly. As for Christchurch United, they brought out the Friday night lights again yet needed a 90+6’ winner from Dan MacLennan to get past a stubborn Nomads team 1-0. After winning each of their first three games by at least three goals, Chch Utd have had 2-0 (Selwyn) and 1-0 (Nomads) wins since with all three of those goals being scored after the 90th minute.
Josh Rudland grabbed a hatty for the WeeNix in a 4-0 win over North Wellington. That WeeNix group is going to be heavily represented in the upcoming U20 World Cup so depth shall be tested soon. Rudland is on the fringes for that one having been a non-travelling reserve for the qualifiers. He seems to be the best pure finisher in the Phoenix Academy right now though and a three-for here certainly does his chances no harm.
Had to note Napier City putting the beat down on Waterside Karori too. 5-0 at Bluewater. WS have lost four out of five games to start the term so not really looking like they’ll be in the mix for top four come the end of the term. Also in the livestreamed game it was Western Suburbs who topped Miramar Rangers 3-1 despite having been 1-0 down after 74 mins. 22yo Canadian forward Kairo Coore got two of those goals, he’s one of the fellas who’ve followed new Ole boss Alan Koch over from maple leaf and moose country (Koch is South African but had been based in North America for the last decade-plus).