Checkpoints
Joseph Parker vs Zhilei Zhang preview, Kiwis at Canberra Raiders, NBL/WNBL Playoffs, the state of the White Ferns, Steven Adams in Houston, Blackcaps funky seamer bucket & more
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Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Getting The Ball To Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Rugby League)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: The Three Young Aussies (Luke Hanson, Jesse Soric, Tallan Egan) (Rugby League)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: NRL, NSW Cup, Jersey Flegg Round Tahi Breakdown (Rugby League)
Wellington Olympic Are Charity Cup Champs and the 2024 Domestic Footy Season Has Begun (Football)
Flying Kiwis – March 6 (Football)
Ben Old Has Dribbled His Way Into Golden Boy Status At The Wellington Phoenix (Football)
The Breakers Have Bowed Out Of NBL24, But It Wasn't Without A Fight (Basketball)
Recapping The Tall Ferns Efforts At The 2024 Olympic Qualifiers (Basketball)
Answering The Big Questions About Steven Adams Getting Traded To The Houston Rockets (Basketball)
2023/24 Plunket Shield: Second Stanza Youngster Report (Cricket)
2023/24 Plunket Shield: Hearty Seniors & Fringe Blackcaps (Cricket)
27fm Weekly Playlist: March 8 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
Lydia Ko is playing in China this weekend. She went -4 in the first round and starts the second round tied-8th. Here's hoping for her third top-five finish in four tournaments this year.
Raiders defeated Knights in Thursday's NRL game and the lads in lime green are an intriguing Kiwi-NRL outfit for those wanting a team to track. There is a hefty Wellington flavour in Jordan Rapana, Danny Levi and Joseph Tapine. Tapine is consistently awesome and forms a beautiful quartet of middle forwards for Aotearoa Kiwis alongside Nelson Asofa-Solomona (also from Wellington), James Fisher-Harris and Moses Leota.
Raiders also have Matthew Timoko who is an Otahuhu junior and also came through Auckland Grammar School 1st 15. Winning Kiwis footy last year featured Timoko at centre and he is quietly brewing into one of the best centres, while also offering a gauge for Roger Tuivasa-Sheck at centre with NZ Warriors.
Timoko vs Knights: 14 runs - 179m @ 12.7m/run, 3 tackle breaks, 16 tackles @ 80%
Timoko grabbed 14 runs without going too far beyond his right centre zone and I reckon Tuivasa-Sheck will hover around 12-15 runs per game without much 'roaming'. Timoko had 179m vs Knights and averaged 158m/game last season with brutal efficiency (10m/run or better). If Tuivasa-Sheck has 12-15 runs, he will be tricky to tackle in every run.
Here is how Timoko has progressed through his NRL career - 100m per game straight out the gate...
2020: 2 games | 93.5% tackling | 100m/game
2021: 9 games | 2 try assists | 1 linebreak | 88.9% tackling | 111m/game
2022: 26 games | 9 tries | 5 try assists | 9 linebreaks | 87.9% tackling | 109m/game
2023: 25 games | 11 tries | 5 try assists | 14 linebreaks | 87.2% tackling | 158m/game
Raiders Kiwi-NRL check up...
NSW Cup
Peter Hola (Marist), Trey Mooney (NZ-A), Simi Sasagi (Ellerslie)
U21 Jersey Flegg
Siamani Leuluai (Northland), Jack Sandford (Christchurch Boys)
U19 SG Ball
Kesaia Su'a (St Paul's)
White Ferns have an important few weeks coming up with lots of cricket against England and their touring party. This phase is more important than usual because of how the Ben Sawyer era has played out and lots of wahine will get playing opportunities to help us all sort through who are the best players. While my intuition is that White Ferns are underperforming and White Ferns teams do not represent the best female cricketers in New Zealand, I'm stashing that away to be open minded about the next few weeks.
As noted previously: Mikaela Greig was the funkiest player in North Island vs South Island. Greig has been selected in both NZ-A squads so that flows on nicely.
Molly Penfold and Kate Anderson have been dropped from White Ferns to NZ-A (any player may be called up to White Ferns due to crossover with Women's Premier League but this is just me trying to roll through key checkpoints). Penfold was consistently selected on potential so dropping her now is a bit weird, however Penfold and Anderson hadn't snapped up White Ferns opportunities - very few players actually do pounce on opportunities which is a red flag about the WF group.
Dropping Penfold and Anderson but sticking with Izzy Gaze doesn't make much sense. Rosemary Mair is selected ahead of Penfold and Halliday ahead of Anderson. Leigh Kasperek gets the headline selection but she is only there for two T20I games and should be a consistent squad member across both formats.
Below are a bunch of stats and things. These highlight the juncture WF are at where Ben Sawyer's record is alright (winning record at least), but everything else is underwhelming. WF have ODI series losses to Sri Lanka and South Africa away, plus the T20 series loss to Pakistan earlier in the summer. Losing to Pakistan in NZ summed up the plight of WF and combined with a horrible record vs England; this sets WF up as kinda plucky underdogs.
Under Ben Sawyer
ODIs: 7-5-1
T20: 15-9-1
2023 ODIs - 9 games
15 players scored runs. Five averaged 30+ (A-Kerr, Devine, Bates, Green, Halliday). Three had strike-rates over 90 (Devine, Tahuhu, J-Kerr).
11 players bowled. Two took 10+ wickets and also averaged below 30 (Tahuhu, Devine). None averaged below 20. None conceded less than 4.5rpo.
2023 T20s - 13 games
17 players scored runs. Three averaged 20+ (Bates, A-Kerr, Green). Seven had 100+ strike-rates.
12 players bowled. Three took 6+ wickets and averaged below 20 (Tahuhu, Carson, A-Kerr). Two conceded less than 6rpo (A-Kerr, Halliday).
vs England since Jan 1st 2015
T20Is: 3-11
ODIs: 5-13
Recent mahi
Lost ODI series in Sri Lanka and South Africa
Won T20 series in Sri Lanka, drew in South Africa
Lost T20 series vs Pakistan in NZ
Won ODI series vs Pakistan in NZ
Women's Championship (ODIs)
(Australia, South Africa, Pakistan)...
NZ: 4th | 7-6 | 16 points
England: 5th | 7-4 | 15 points
(India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Ireland)
How about the kiwis in WPL?
Amelia Kerr: 174 runs @ 34avg/138sr | 7w @ 24.5avg/9rpo
Sophie Devine: 64 runs @ 12avg/114sr | 5w @ 27avg/7.9rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 1w @ 38avg/7.6rpo
Devine is in a weird spot for T20 batting. Not many runs and a drastic decrease in batting strike-rates...
23/24 Super Smash: 16 runs @ 8avg/59sr
Yearly T20I mahi
2019: 51avg/131sr
2020: 54avg/26sr
2021: 16avg/94sr
2022: 29avg/112sr
2023: 17avg/118sr
Plunket Shield cricket starts another round of games today. Given that spin is top of mind for Aotearoa cricket fans, here are the spinners playing this round
ND: Joe Walker, Freddie Walker
Auckland: Louis Delport, Will O'Donnell
CD: Ajaz Patel, Brad Schmulian
Wellington: Peter Younghusband
Canterbury: Ish Sodhi, Michael Rippon, Cole McConchie
Otago: Ben Lockrose, Dean Foxcroft
Every team as two genuine spin options except Wellington. Every team has a frontline spinner who plays most games. Blackcaps are playing at Canterbury's home ground - where Canterbury deploy two wrist spinners if Sodhi is available.
Kyle Jamieson, Will O'Rourke and Ben Sears have all played Test cricket this summer. All three are in my funky seamer bucket with Jamieson's injury leading to O'Rourke's opportunity, repeat that cycle for Sears. I always chuck Henry Shipley in this mix because he has a funky bowling style (tall, whippy) and he is battling injuries like Jamieson/O'Rourke.
Below are their Blackcaps stats and their best bowling averages below international cricket. All four have excellent (below 25) averages in one international pocket as well as below that level. Translation: Aotearoa is flush with funky seam bowling depth to go with the more traditional types like Ben Lister, Jacob Duffy, Nathan Smith, Kristian Clarke, Ray Toole.
(Lister's still pretty funky. Matt Fisher bowls fast so he's kinda funky too. Zak Foulkes is super duper funky)
Kyle Jamieson - 29yrs
Tests: 19.73avg/2.6rpo
ODIs: 36.5avg/5rpo
T20Is: 41.2avg/9.2rpo
FC: 22.2avg, T20: 25.5avg
Henry Shipley - 27yrs
ODIs: 23.9avg/5.5rpo
T20Is: 70.5avg/10.8rpo
FC: 29.1avg, T20: 24.8avg
Ben Sears - 26yrs
T20Is: 20avg/7.8rpo
FC: 27avg, T20s: 19.6avg
Will O'Rourke - 22yrs
Tests: 17.3avg/2.8rpo
ODIs: 23avg/6.1rpo
FC: 26avg, LA: 20.6avg, T20s: 23.4avg
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Hey guess what? Joseph Parker fights tomorrow. He’s up against Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang as the co-feature on the Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou card which is on Friday in Saudi Arabia so should be late morning or something NZT – always hard to predict with the latter bouts because of the timings but the bell should ring around about 11am for us kiwis.
It’s a quick turnaround for Parker, who only defeated Deontay Wilder back in late December. About two-and-a-half months ago. But he got through that Wilder bout with limited damage, a massively improved reputation, and plenty of momentum so he was all about staying busy. And he has a tendency to just take the best offers as they come along, hence he’s getting a crack at the 40 year old “Big Bang” Zhang, who stands at 6’6 and has a 26-1-1 record. Long amateur career then a slow unfolding of his professional stuff, that’s why Zhang’s not a bigger name in the heavyweight division. However he’s on the precipice now having demolished Joe Joyce in a pair of knockout wins.
Wait, isn’t Joe Joyce the guy who knocked out Joe Parker? Yup. Therein lies the risk for Parker, that he’s coming up against a motivated opponent with power and size advantages over him. It’s a tough gig and he’s understandably the underdog. The Ring Magazine has Zhang as the third-ranked challenger in the division with Parker at fourth. Zhang’s lone defeat was a unanimous decision against Filip Hrgovic in 2022, also in Saudi Arabia, so there’s the blueprint for Parker.
Zhang is currently in position to be the mandatory challenger for the WBO title bout, meaning a possible bout against the winner of Fury vs Usyk. Should Parker upset ZZ then that honour would go to him instead... although he’d have to beat him twice, most likely, as there’s a one-way rematch clause in this contract. Zhang had the clout so he put some insurance into the matter. Frisky for Parker, although he’d want to see how that Usyk-Fury one went down first anyway as he’s already vowed never to fight his bestest buddy Tyson.
They did the weigh-in this morning and Parker clocked at 112.3kg which is about one kilo heavier than he was against Wilder. That’s the third-heaviest he’s been for a fight… and he’ll need every ounce of that bulk because Zhang tipped the scales at a whopping 132.3 kilos. Yeah mate. There’s a full twenty kgs between them.
Zhang is actually slightly shorter than Deontay Wilder but weighs FORTY kilos more than the American. Huge difference in opponents for JP. Hard to knock out a bloke with that size… but Parker doesn’t knock blokes out anyway. He takes them the distance and Zhang’s going got a lot to carry on those legs over 12 rounds if Parker’s plan comes to pass. As Joe himself said: “He’s a big man, big head, big body, and a big target”.
The WNBL journey has come to a close for the 2023-24 season with the last remaining kiwis eliminated at the semi-final stage. Those were Tera Reed and Penina Davidson of the Melbourne Boomers. They’d forced a game three against the Southside Flyers but then they got stomped by one of those Cometh The Moment instances... as the Aussie legend Lauren Jackson, scored 38 points (15/22 FG) with 11 rebounds in a dominant elimination game performance. 93-77 final score. Unreal from LJ. Davidson got about three minutes off the bench in her return from injury but wasn’t a factor. Reed played 21 minutes for 4 points and 3 assists.
Oh well, so it goes. Doesn’t change the fact that Reed had a spectacular rookie season in the WNBL, averaging 8.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in her 22 games, shooting 41.4% from three-point range which we know made her one of the very best in the competition. She was the one NZer getting major minutes this season, with even Davidson tending to play a smaller 10-15 minute role off the bench.
Here are the number for the NZers who featured across the season (note that Kirisome is a dual-national)...
As for the blokes NBL, the semis got underway last night with Melbourne United seeming to be in big trouble against Illawarra Hawks, trailing by 16 points in the fourth quarter... only to come back and win it 115-106 in overtime. Matthew Dellavedova was the main man there with 30 points and 10 assists, but you can already guess that Shea Ili played his role too with 13 points and 5 assists, a +10 on the plus/minus. Only got about a minute for Flynn Cameron in there, as expected on his playoff debut. They were always going to tighten the rotation at this stage. He’s out there with a team competing for the championship though.
The other semi-final series begins tonight. The Perth Wildcats boast Tai Webster and Hyrum Harris in very important roles. Corey Webster’s in more of a slippery place, not really playing much these days for reasons of both fit and fitness, but could prove to be a playoff secret weapon. There’s also Dontae Russo-Nance and Jack Andrew as development players but don’t expect to see them.
That lot are up against Tasmania JackJumpers who have Tom Vodanovich and Walter Brown. Vodanovich might play here and there depending on match-ups. Brown is a DP and won’t be seen unless there are garbage time opportunities. Add that all up and as long as the Illawarra Hawks don’t do anything then we’re getting multiple New Zealanders as NBL champions this season.
Meanwhile, here are a couple of graphs I whipped up for my Breakers playoff exit yarn, illustrating how much opportunities for kiwi players have dipped in the years since the current ownership came into town. At a time when the Wellington Phoenix are on course for their best ever season with a stacked kiwi contingent and a greater academy influence than ever before, at a time when the NZ Warriors might actually be in for Our Year whilst stacking their youth systems more than ever before... the Breakers are swimming against the tide here.
Obviously they don’t have to play New Zealanders. And to be fair they do still have a few, with Izayah Le’afa up near the top for minutes these past couple years and Finn Delany and Tom Abercrombie contributing plenty throughout the campaign (albeit both way below the levels of seasons gone by). TA has retired now. Delany may or may not be back next time. The depth guys barely got a run. Very curious to see where they go from here.
Speaking of the legacy of James Naismith, check out who made an appearance courtside for the Houston Rockets the other day...
Steven Adams was hovering in the huddles and everything, sitting on the end of the bench hanging out with the bro Boban Marjanovic – who isn’t really in the rotation any more and is coming off contract but surely they’ve gotta re-sign him just for the camaraderie. And also so we can get a Steve-o cameo in John Wick 5.
That game in question was the Rockets’ 114-104 win against the San Antonio Spurs. Always good fun to catch some Victor Wembanyama to see the freakish ways he affects games... but Wemby got dominated on this occasion by the Young Turk himself Alperen Sengun who had the finest performances of his career to date scoring 45 points with 16 rebounds and 5 steals. He was unbelievably good, even knocking down a couple of threes and flexing a few rare glimpses of Jokic-level passing (albeit nowhere near the regularity of Jokic, whose average assist is a career highlight for most centres). Sengun is the man who Adams will be deputising for next season, the starter to his backup. Nice way to introduce himself.
Adams was at team practice on Monday, then shootaround on Tuesday, before attending not only this game on Wednesday but also their game against the LA Clippers two days later. He’s been there all week, in other words. Continuing to build his way back to fitness after knee surgery – Adams is on record as saying he’s on track to return for preseason, echoing what his new general manager Rafael Stone had said a few weeks back. This was Adams speaking to Houston Chronicle...
“The knee’s still there, as you can see. All good. Good stamina and stuff. We’ll test it out a little bit. [The next step] has to be cleared by a few different medical professionals because if it was up to me, I’d be behind a long time. ’Oh yeah, I can do this,’ but then ruin myself. It’s up to the surgeons, the one who did the surgery and also medical people I trust.”
Those last few words about “medical people I trust” is curious in light of what went down with the Memphis Grizzlies and their misdiagnosis. But, no surprises, it looks like he’s settling smoothly into Texas life.
There’s a situation afoot with Elijah Just at his club AC Horsens. Two Flying Kiwis yarns ago, I wrote about how he’d been training away from the squad after leaving their winter break training camp slightly early. By then he’d resumed work with the squad again and would play ten minutes off the bench last weekend to mark his return. This was what his agent had to say at the time...
The Agent, Gustaf Grauers to Tipsbladet: “He's back in full training with the team now. It is true that there have been some personal reasons why he has been gone, but it is not something he wants to be dug into. But now he is back and running full, which is the most important thing.”
This was amidst a severe drop in form leading into that break which has left Horsens, freshly relegated from the top tier of Denmark, now looking like they won’t even make the top half cut-off in the second division. Just joined this team 18 months ago to move to the Superliga and now he’s stuck back in the division below again.
Keep that context in mind because it’s since been reported that Just was the subject of a transfer bid from Swedish top division club IFK Göteborg, who are currently being coached by Jens Berthel Askou who used to be in charge at AC Horsens where he signed Elijah Just in the first place.
That bid was rejected, as the transfer market is currently closed in Denmark (whereas the Swedish season operates on a different calendar so they’re still in offseason mode), hence ACH would be unable to buy a replacement. According to Fotboll Direkt the saga is not yet over, and IFK could come back with an improved offer to try and pry away a bloke whose contract runs until June 2026, and who has been in pretty sharp form for Horsens this term. Breaking through as an important attacking player after being in and out in the top tier following his transfer.
We don’t know if Just’s absence from Horsens was related to this transfer situation but it seems like a bit of a coincidence if it wasn’t. Coincidences do happen but we’ll be tracking this yarn for sure.
Righto, here’s a fresh Kamasi Washinton offering for the people to get their jazz on…