El Niche Cache
April 19th, 2020
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 13
The Niche Cast - Tolerance (Kiwi Sports Buffet/NRL)
Reading Menu
The Premmy Files – 2020-21 Men’s Premiership Team of the Season (Football)
2021 Aotearoa Blackcaps Spin Landscape (Cricket)
2020/21 Plunket Shield All Stars (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Lydia Ko’s been simmering…
First off, what a kiwi sports Sunday. Lydia Ko won the Lotte Championship, then we had NZ Warriors, NZ Breakers and Wellington Phoenix wins. As you’ll read below and throughout the Niche Cache, other stuff happened as well - something felt divine about the Ko/Warriors/Breakers/Phoenix quartet though.
For the three teams, they aren’t the best in their respective competitions. More to the point they have been up and down, through the mud just as Ko has and it all came together for a lovely ol’ Sunday. Let’s break down some Ko bizo…
Nothing about Ko’s win was out of the blue or surprising. It may seem that way when dealing strictly in wins and that’s kinda all that mainstream media worries about, yet while Ko wasn’t winning tournaments she had found a nice groove as a top-five LPGA Tour player.
Ko finished last year with three top-10 finishes in her last four tournaments and a tied-13th. Ko started this year with three top-10 finishes in her first four tournaments this year and in her five 2021 tournaments, Ko has a tied-2nd, 2nd and 1st. Ko hit six birdies in the first round, followed by nine in the second round and seven in each of her last two rounds. One bogey in the whole tournament.
What has changed in Ko’s golf? One key aspect is her work with her driver.
In 2020 Ko averaged 254.41m per drive (big increase on previous years) and her driving accuracy was 66.62 percent.
In 2021 Ko is averaging 261.48m per drive and 69.29 percent driving accuracy.
That leads to ‘Greens in Regulation’ - how often you get on the green in 2 shots fewer than par. In 2020 Ko hit GIR 68.91 percent of the time. In 2021 that’s gone up to 75 percent. Longer drives, better driver accuracy and Ko’s on the greens in fewer shots, more consistently.
NZ Warriors win over Dragons…
Plenty of stuff to debrief here and I’ll cover all the details in tomorrow’s Aotearoa Warriors Diary. One little nugget from that game is the Warriors depth and how different players have shown positive signs in a non-tangible way.
Addin Fonua-Blake looked like a legit Warriors leader and is all in with the Warriors. Adam Pompey stepped in for Euan Aitken and has steadily improved. Sean O’Sullivan stepped in for Chanel Harris-Tavita and is steadily doing his job. No Eliesa Katoa? Josh Curran comes out of nowhere to play well. Kane Evans and Marcelo Montoya bounced back with nice games. Jamayne Taunoa-Brown played 34 and 21mins in the first two games, 54mins vs Dragons. Paul Turner is doing whatever is required. Wayde Egan is an 80min hooker now?
Take players like David Fusitua, Harris-Tavita and Fonua-Blake out of previous Warriors teams and meh. These days, anyone coming into the Warriors team is fizzing to perform and contribute. Ponder how the coaching staff under Nathan Brown has created this environment and while we can poke holes in Warriors footy, having a team that genuinely rips in regardless of who is selected to play is fantastic.
Then we have the behind the scenes folk who are building this out. Peter O’Sullivan’s in charge of recruitment and he snapped up Taunoa-Brown from reserve grade to start plenty of games last year. O’Sullivan brought in Fonua-Blake, but more interesting are getting Evans, Jack Murchie, Montoya and his son Sean. These type of dudes are rather cheap for the salary cap and offer solid NRL depth; Warriors are getting good value from players I’d rank in the bottom third of their top-30.
Meanwhile with Redcliffe Dolphins…
New signing Reece Walsh played in the halves.
1 try, 3 conversions, 7 runs - 58m @ 8.28m/run, 1 linebreak, 2 tackle busts, 2 offloads, 11 tackles @ 91.7%.
All of that comes from 27 touches, while his halves partner Cameron Cullen had 42 touches. Walsh had 6 kicks, Cullen had 9.
Other Warriors in reserve grade this weekend: Hayze Perham (centre), Walsh, Pride Petterson-Robati, Eliesa Katoa, Jackson Frei, Tom Ale, Preston Riki. Valingi Kepu was 18th man.
Blues Dude…
Auckland Blues are getting a bit of a wobble on having lost to Otago Highlanders and thus the campaign comes down to a hefty two weeks of Blues rugby. Blues are 3rd and will now play the two teams ahead of them on the ladder starting with Crusaders next week, then Chiefs. Crusaders are clear at the top of the ladder, while Chiefs and Blues are separated by a point; massive ol’ Crusaders vs Blues game coming up.
I’ll ponder that a bit more on Friday, right now I’m in awe of Crusaders being 1st in clean breaks, defenders beaten and offloads. Who is the best tackling team? Crusaders.
From a Blues perspective, the loss to Highlanders was a weird one. Weird but no reason for concern and perhaps some insights moving forward to Crusaders. All but one of the Highlanders starting 15 registered a missed tackle, Blues had six players with no missed tackles. Five Highlanders had 2+ kicks, three Blues had 2+ kicks.
Cough up ball to the Highlanders and Crusaders and they’ll score points no matter how well you show up defensively. Let the Highlanders and Crusaders enjoy better territory and you’ll probably lose.
County Championship/IPL Update…
Scores of 24 and 0 for Will Young in his first County Championship outing vs Essex. First ball duck in the second innings - footage at 2:50 of the highlights video…
11 off 4 and 3w @ 13.66rpo for Kyle Jamieson overnight, RCB are 3-0 to start the IPL.
Kyle Jamieson: 10ov, 5w @ 19.60avg/9.80rpo/12sr.
Trent Boult: 11.4ov, 6w @ 15.16avg/7.80rpo/11.6sr.
Adam Milne: 3ov, 11rpo.
Kiwi-MMA…
Everything is shaping up nicely for the Israel Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker rematch. Whittaker was damn impressive yesterday in defeating Kelvin Gastelum and since losing to Adesanya, Whittaker has gone 3-0 and he has fought three of the best in the division. Gastelum’s loss to Adesanya is known as one of the best UFC fights ever. Whittaker’s wins over Darren Till and Jared Canonier both came in 2020 and while Whittaker quickly moved on, neither Till or Canonier have fought since losing to Whittaker.
In Bellator, Jay Jay Wilson won his fight vs Pedro Carvalho…
Wildcard’s Notebook
First they came for the ISPS Handa Premiership... and I wrote a lot of words about it.
Then they came for the Champions League and I probably won’t write as many words about it.
But that’s only because everybody else is gonna go hard on this one. This Super League idea is a moral disaster led by greed at the expense of the integrity of the sport of football. 12 (maybe 15) powerhouse clubs ensuring that they can continue to cash in, more exclusively than ever, with no consequences. Liverpool can finish dead last in the Premier League and be relegated but still never have to worry about missing out on Super League profits. Not as if that would ever happen as the rich get unfathomably richer under this proposed model.
This is a dirty American, capitalistic version of sports. Branding over merit - I mean, damn, Arsenal are there. Arsenal who as this news broke were in the midst of scraping through to a 1-1 draw with relegation probables Fulham. As a Manchester United fan myself I’m well aware of how that insidious capitalistic dumbness has infested the game, United’s CEO is pretty much on record admitting that results do not affect profits for them. There’s always another noodle sponsorship to sell. No surprises that Joel Glazer is one of the main men behind this travesty...
Yeah, that guy. [*violent facepalm*]
This is a fascinating moment in football. The game has obviously struggled during covid with no fans in attendance and the financial ramifications and all that. During which time there’s been a lot said about how important the fans are to the game, how it’s not the same without them, plenty of nice things. There’s been the Black Lives Matter stuff too and a pushback from clubs on social media abuse. Trying to put a conscience to their brands. Now this... which flies in the face of all of that. Cynical and greedy and selfish and irresponsible. But can they get away with it?
It’s hard to see something with such universal disgust going ahead but I guess it’ll be a test of where the power truly lies. Because if fans are as important as clubs told us we are then sorry buddies but this Super League ain’t happening. But do fans realise that power? The insane profits on offer with a Super League are surely dependant on people buying into it completely so these dozen clubs in their unfiltered ugliness are openly abusing fans then expecting them to still come crawling to them for their Super League offerings by decree. The arrogance of billionaires has never yet been contained.
The thing is, and this may sound like a joke but I’m being completely serious... these people do not know how to lose. They exist in a culture where money equals power equals being able to do whatever they want. The money insures them. It inures them. It’s a proven fact that the more perceived power a person has, the less empathy they have space for. But being able to lose is the whole integral point of sports. You cannot win if there’s no room to lose, those things don’t exist without each other. It’s like what is light if there’s no such thing as darkness? What is happiness if there’s no contextual sadness?
So yeah I just really hope we see a loud and continued backlash to this obnoxious travesty. And while I’m not holding my breath for them given the rock and a hard place they’re caught in, I’d hope for some solidarity between players of the twelve clubs involved (there’s room in the framework for 15 btw, they’re holding spaces open for PSG, Bayern & Dortmund who have as of yet abstained... somehow PSG have become the good guys in the Champions League semi-finals. PSG of all teams!). We shall see how it goes.
In the meantime I’m with McGing on this one...
The Wellington Phoenix won 3-1 in Perth last night, back to back wins for just the second time this season and the first time they’ve won in Western Australia for about five years or something, I forget the stat. Ben Waine scored the first of the goals, following up after Jaushua Sotirio ran through but was tackled by Liam Reddy rushing out. Waine then lobbed it first time over Reddy and into the open net from 35-odd metres out. Deceptively tricky running onto it like that but Ben Waine scores goals. This is what he does. He has taken 10 shots this season and has scored 4 goals. That’s the best shots to goal ratio in the entire league, coming from a 19 year old striker. Nicholas D’Agostino is next up, for Perth coincidentally, scoring from 29% of his shots. Compared to 40% for Waineo.
That’s pretty rare. The players who score the most goals are the players who take the most shots. Jamie Maclaren is running away with the golden boot. 19 goals, eight clear of anyone else after scoring five-for in the Melbourne Derby on the weekend. Maclaren has also taken 12 shots more than anyone else. 19% shots to goals. You’d rather take more shots, more shots means more lottery tickets. Goal scoring is a volume game as I keep saying. It’s sheer quantity. But Ben Waine, a young player trying to work his way into things, is flexing an efficiency in front of goal that’s impressive to see.
Tweeted this out at damn-near midnight the other day and it therefore got minimal interaction so just gonna drop it back in here...
Now it’s time for some tunes.
Wildcard’s Album Per Annum Project – 1980s
1980: Prince – Dirty Mind
1981: Roky Erikson – The Evil One
1982: Misfits – Walk Among Us
1983: ZZ Top - Eliminator
1984: Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA
1985: The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
1986: Bad Brains – I Against I
1987: The Replacements – Pleased To Meet Me
1988: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Tender Prey
1989: Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – In Step
The 80s is where things get frisky. Those god-awful tinny drums and the dated pop production and yeah there’s some terrible stuff that came out in those years. A lot of great musicians went astray. You had the boomer heroes of the sixties hitting their middle age and not really knowing what to do with that new information. However a few champions emerged from the terror and one of those, of course, was Prince.
Many albums of his were in the hunt, it’s just a pity for him that his best one (Sign ‘O’ The Times) clashed with the Mats, but I really dig that Dirty Mind is the one that got in. A record that lives up to its name... and also includes maybe his best ever song: When U Were Mine. Dirty Mind is short and funky and sexy and it may have only been his second proper album but Prince was an otherwordly being who emerged fully formed.
Oh man, Roky Erikson. Head honcho of the 13th Floor Elevators and those albums are all brilliant. Acid-laced 60s rock and roll, straight outta Texas, one of the original garage greats. Erikson had a few psychological demons to work through and was disgracefully lumped into the War of Drugs as a so-called Acid Casualty, taking him out of the mix for a lot of the seventies. Then he drops this stunner of an album. Influenced by old horror and sci-fi films, incredible imagery with titles like ‘Creature With The Atom Brain’ and ‘Bloody Hammer’ and ‘I Walked With A Zombie’, but most of all they’re astounding rock songs that are jammed with energy and screaming guitars and ferocious hooks and weirdly I remember when he died a year or two ago, wandering around outside with this album stuck in my head then coming back into wi-fi range to find out that he’d passed away. It was eerie. Appropriately spooky for this record in fact. RIP Roky, you bloody legend.
1982 brings us some Misfits, shout out Glenn Danzig and the fellas. Very similar areas to the Roky Erikson album with tunes full of horror imagery, only done even faster and more nasty. 25 minutes of fire and fury. 20 Eyes kicks things off in perfect fashion with a paranoid impression of a rabid insect and it carries on from there. Skulls. I Turned Into A Martian. Mommy, Can I Go Out & Kill Tonight. Astro Zombies. Gahhhhh!
The next two can be lumped together because they’ve got a lot in common. ZZ Top and Bruce Springsteen were both huge in the 70s, then made very conscious decisions to get even huger in the mid-80s with albums that embraced a synthier sound – call it selling out if you want but the songs are sooo goood. Nothing wrong with ambition if you can back it up. Eliminator in particular has really aged better than it had any right to... cheers to Sturgill Simpson for some of that work. Irrepressible is a word that applies nicely to both. Also: each has a fantastic album cover. From the Stephen King-esque demon hot rod of ZZ Top (always pronounced as Zed Zed Top thanks to Murray on Flight of the Conchords) to Bruce taking a piss on that American flag and then selling millions of records to dropkick patriot types.
Umm, what else we got... The Pogues are uniquely themselves. Nobody else has ever properly combined that celtic folk and punk thing quite like this and RS&TL is their masterpiece. Shane MacGowan is a genius and a poet. Also there’s a great doco on him came out last year which shows what a tragic figure he’s aged into. Sad but dude the songs that he’s written. And the way he sings them.
Keeping the punk hybrid thing going, we’ve got Bad Brains who combined punk with reggae (rare example of black guys in the punk scene too, another reason to love them). 1986 was, in all honesty, probably the weakest year of all them but that’s not to discredit an album that I really do love. Probably the album where the scattershot nature of their first two finally aligned into a cohesive album. Not that there’s anything wrong with the uncohesive ones. Bad Brains are so good, there’s just nothing else like them.
The Mats are untouchable. Pleased To Meet Me was their last great album – although the remixed reshuffled reissue of Don’t Tell A Soul is one of the best revisionist musical history releases I’ve ever heard. Totally recontextualised that album. But nah Pleased To Meet Me. Eleven perfect songs culminating in Can’t Hardly Wait which could be the finest song ever written by anybody ever. Enough said.
Following that we’ve got Nick Cave taking care of business. Gothic darkness, menacing overtones, Bad Seed magnificence. Narrowly edges Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man, for what it’s worth. Finally 1989 gives us the last and finest of the Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble records. Made after he got clean and sober and it’s full of gorgeous redemption and life-affirming joy as well as brain-melting blues shredding on the git-tar. He died in a helicopter crash not so long after. Devastating. Stevie Ray spawned a million imitators but none could touch the master himself. Some surprisingly deep Aotearoa connections from SRV too…