Diagonal Switches
Blackcaps vs Windies, Auckland FC vs Wellington Phoenix, NZ National League, Plunket Shield & domestic cricket, Kiwi-NRL movers, and more
Three things from the Blackcaps vs West Indies draw in Christchurch...
This result fits into a few patterns. West Indies have grabbed positive results (win/draw) in a few overseas tours recently...
Draw & win in Zimbabwe (2023)
Win in Australia (2024)
Win in Pakistan (2025)
Draw in New Zealand (2025)
Aotearoa is no Test cricket fortress either. They didn’t lose at Hagley Oval but Blackcaps have lost a home Test in four consecutive summers and this is their first home draw since the start of 2020.
2021/22: Loss vs Bangladesh
2022/23: Losses vs South Africa and England
2023/24: Losses vs Australia
2024/25: Losses vs England
Hagley Oval definitely isn’t a fortress. Of the seven home losses in this period, three were played in Christchurch. That includes back to back losses last summer and while they snapped the losing streak, Blackcaps haven’t won in their last three Tests at Hagley Oval. Graciously, Blackcaps have also lost their last two Tests at the Basin Reserve.
Mitch Hay will step in as wicket-keeper with Tom Blundell out injured. Hay is from the Burnside West Cricket Club in Christchurch and he’s been building towards this in the T20I/ODI/Test pipeline for Blackcaps.
FC: 49.68avg/54sr
NZ-A in Bangladesh: 102 runs @ 34avg/53sr
NZ-A in South Africa: 148 runs @ 74avg/64sr
Plunket Shield: 161 runs @ 53.6avg/50sr
Otago’s Max Chu isn’t far behind Hay. He leads a cluster of younger lads including Callum McLachlan (Wellington), Ben Pomare (ND) and Aryan Mann (ND). Auckland’s Cameron Fletcher and CD’s Dane Cleaver are excellent veterans keeping the standards high.
Michael Rae and Kristian Clarke join the seam bowling unit with Matt Henry and Nathan Smith out injured. Blackcaps seam depth continues to battle against bad juju but so far the team has responded well to losing the legendary mahi of Henry. Positive results without Henry would showcase the depth even more.
Josh Clarkson would be another option as he is the best seamer on the domestic circuit right now. My guess is that Rae/Clarke are a bit quicker and hit the deck harder. Clarkson would be the next best in the Jacob Duffy style, while Ben Lister has only just returned from injury as the next best lefty and Matt Fisher hasn’t played yet this season.
Michael Rae’s last four FC seasons
2022/23: 13w @ 34.3avg
2023/24: 25w @ 24.4avg
2024/25: 28w @ 33.4avg
2025/25: 10w @ 28avg
This is a fabulous phase for Aotearoa to show our seam bowling depth.
There are more Blackcaps bits and bobs beyond the paywall, as well as more Plunket Shield stuff, the full list of Kiwi-NRL movers and the start of my lists for the notable juniors at every NRL team.
Rhys Mariu is battling through a tough form patch with one 50+ score in seven games this season. No worries, there are other awesome youngsters like Curtis Heaphy and Bevon Jacobs.
22-year-old Heaphy has scores of 35, 58*, 5, 132, 119 and 17 this season for CD. Career stats aren’t too shabby...
FC: 43.91avg/40.6sr
LA: 52.88avg/66.7sr
T20: 30.9avg/113sr
23-year-old Jacobs has scores of 20, 67*, 1, 30, 0, 32, 94, 26, 66 and 125 this season for Auckland. You may have heard about Jacobs for T20 stuff but he has been one of Auckland’s best Plunket Shield batters over two seasons now with healthy career stats...
FC: 54.85avg/62sr
LA: 25.3avg/100sr
T20: 29avg/138sr
Some themes that appeared in my list of Kiwi-NRL movers...
Lots of NZ Warriors departures and not just to Panthers. Rabbitohs have picked up four players from the Mt Smart system and there will be updates to this as junior movements became known.
Broncos also have three at the junior level as they continue to take over Aotearoa recruitment. They already have elite evidence in Jordan Riki, Deine Mariner and Xavier Willison. Then the next crop led by Antonio Verhoeven (Greymouth) and Marley Igasan (Tauranga) follow that trend of quality from the regions. Things shift slightly below that as they are building out the numbers of Kiwi-NRL juniors at a lower level with lots of youngsters joining their academies in Aotearoa and Australia.
Cowboys did well to recruit and develop Greymouth’s Griffin Neame. They also recruited Wiremu Greig (Whangarei), Tukimihia Simpkins (Rotorua), D’Jazirhae Pua’avase (Auckland) and Jermiah Mata’utia (Auckland) as middle forwards who they couldn’t get firing to that level. Simpkins went to Tigers and now Titans, Pua’avase is with Sea Eagles, Mata’utia is in England and Greig left for Eels but has now returned to the wider Cowboys squad.
Warriors, Bulldogs and Roosters have all announced some kinda connection to Canterbury Meanwhile Storm had two middle forwards from Christchurch in their U21 championship team (K-Ci Newton-Whare and Josiah-Ekkehard Neli) and recruited Isaiah Savea from Warriors where he played U19s this year.
Musical jam...
Nick’s Notebook
Another NZ Derby in the A-League and another Auckland FC victory, aye? This one felt different though. This was the first time where I felt like the Wellington Phoenix’s scale of outplayed to unluckiness tipped further towards unluckiness. Not to say they weren’t also outplayed, AFC still had the bulk of the chances and they scored that crucial first goal (as they’ve done in every instance), but jeez the Nix were hard done by with some of the refereeing decisions. As much as I hate it when coaches whinge about the One Big Call that went against them, as though it were the only deciding factor in ninety minutes of football, it’s a little more justified when there are three of them in a single half.
Officiating/The Cosgrove Factor
I’m not convinced either penalty or the red card should have been given. With Manjrekar’s red, it was definitely a foul but I’m pretty sure James doesn’t realise that Cosgrove is even there until the ball has gone past him (he’s leaving it for the keeper) and then Cosgrove stutters in front to either draw the contact or protect the ball (depending on how generous you want to be). Free kick, yes. Yellow card, probably. But with Cosgrove slowing up and Lukas Kelly-Heald stepping over that’s not a clear goal-scoring chance to my mind. The first penalty was the most acceptable of the three controversies, even if Cosgrove was kinda playing for it, but the second one was ridiculous. Not only was there barely anything in it, the ball was never going to get there anyway. Kelly-Heald had already won the header. Some tough breaks for the Nix in there.
And yet those fouls were also symptoms of a tactical approach that blatantly did not work. Right at the start of the match, Manjrekar James picked up Sam Cosgrove and tossed him to the turf. Very funny... also indicative of how the Nix were going to handle that battle. After his pestilence in the previous derby, the Nix got all up Cosgrove’s his grill at any opportunity and that was how the red and both pens came about. All were fouls on Cosgrove (among the six fouls that he won in that game). By meeting him in the WWE ring, they gave him the duels that he wanted. They’d have been better off leaving him alone.
AFC Adaptations
On our podcast last week, I suggested two changes I wanted to see from AFC: Nando Pijnaker in for Jake Girdwood-Reich, and Logan Rogerson in for absolutely anyone. We didn’t get Nando but we did get Rogerson, adding his pace and directness on the right wing to give them another reliable goal scorer in the team. That also allowed Lachlan Brook to play through the middle where he was much more of a threat. Brook had taken ten shots from open play before this week, only one of which was on target (though he did score that magical free kick a few weeks back). Well, it was Rogerson’s overlapping run and perfect cut-back that set up a fine finish from Brook for the opening goal. That’s the good stuff.
In contrast, I thought Chiefy took way too long to get Luke Brooke-Smith out there considering how stretched the game became post-red card... as soon as they had to reshuffle, Ramy Najjarine should have been subbed, it just wasn’t his type of game any longer – they needed runners in transition.
Josh Oluwayemi
Commiserations to this bloke because he made ten saves including two penalties and a couple brilliant ones from open play, doing absolutely everything he could only to still end up on the losing side. Asked to play a role he’s not fully suited to, sweeping behind a high line, he’s done a perfectly commendable job ever since that first half vs Perth in week one. Alby Kelly-Heald is fit again now (although they released him to play the last National League game this weekend) but he’s not pushing Olu out of this spot. Not with the form that he’s found lately.
NZ Derby Crowds
#1 (Wellington) – 26,252
#2 (Auckland) – 26,253
#3 (Auckland) – 27,009
#4 (Wellington) – 12,091
#5 (Auckland) – 21,997
Another huge turnout at Mt Smart on Saturday (on a scorching afternoon/evening), as has been the case in all of these derbies except arguably the last one in Wellington. Even then, the Nix have barely gotten 3k to their last couple home games so that’s four times those numbers. Dunno why Wellington can’t fill the stands in the same way. The population factor is real but they’ve done it before. When there was some niggle over this a few weeks ago, the reasoning put forth was all about Cost of Living yarns. So… maybe lower ticket prices if you’re only filling 10% of the stadium?
At that point you might as well just go play at Porirua Park where there’s actually some atmosphere. Because forget all the other factors, there’s no doubting that AFC puts on a better event. They’ve got room to do so at Mt Smart. There’s the grass embankment, an array of food stalls, stuff for the kiddos, they’ve got that on-site bar now. You can have a day out at an Auckland FC game. The Nix are never getting that kinda vibe at Sky Stadium.
Opening Goals
Auckland FC have won all five derbies (and by a combined scoreline of 15-4). They’ve also scored first in all of them. The original derby too until the 88th minute for Jake Brimmer to capitalise but the next two games that season both came with goals on 31’ (Hughes OG & Moreno). This season it’s gone bonkers with Sam Cosgrove scoring in the first minute, then Lachlan Brook in the seventh. The Wellington Phoenix have scored in the last four games but never more than once and they’ve never held a lead against AFC. Even with teh Reserves in National League it was the same: AFC took the lead in the sixth min through Semi Nabenu then ended up winning 2-1 after an Aston Burns goal in the second half.
By the way, much more about the AFC and Welly Nix Reserves in the National League for our beautiful paid subscribers beyond the paywall.
Men’s National League MVP Rankings
Tor Davenport-Petersen (Wellington Olympic) – Out-and-out midfielders like this guy don’t often get the individual recognition they should but TDP got my vote for MVP as the most consistently great player throughout the full campaign for the Greeks. Powerhouse in the midfield and scored a couple of pretty useful goals. In my eyes, he was the best player for the best team.
Owen Smith (Miramar Rangers) – It’s a pity that Miramar Rangers slipped up at the end there, missing the final, and it’s even more of a pity that Owen Smith was unavailable for that last game (OFC Pro League commitments, apparently) because they really missed him. He’s the dude who makes them tick creatively. Led the league in assists by a large margin. He set them up from open play with his dribbling and crossing, from set pieces with his wicked deliveries, and a combination of both with the multiple penalties that he won.
Isa Prins (Wellington Olympic) – Had a bit of a spotlight on him after the Chatham Cup final and thrived with it, looking dangerous each and every week. That consistency is what usually evades young players but Prins is not normal. He was the only dude with at least
Christian Gray (Auckland City) – In terms of reaching the highest heights, Nikko Boxall is clear of CG... but it was Gray who played every single game for Auckland City anchoring them at the back and keeping up his tendency to score hugely important goals. Perhaps not as skilled as others in contention but every bit as valuable.
Finn McKenlay (Auckland FC) – The AFC Ressies had an incredible second half of the year, clicking in the last third of the Northern League and carrying that form into the Nats. Amazing how competitive they were each and every week and a key reason for that was having one of the country’s top young midfielders in there. Scored some bangers. Won a thousand tackles. Very good in possession, including those raking diagonal switches he continues to nail. This guy is so good.
(These are just my own personal rankings… but I was on the panel that decided the official award so I know who the winner is going to be. No spoilers here, it’s not who I picked but it’s a winner I’ll happily endorse in a season where there was no clear standout in the way that Maggie Jenkins was for the Women’s NL)
Musical Jam...
