El Niche Cache
April 26, 2021
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 14
The Niche Cast - Overseas Pro (All-Format Blackcaps/Super League Debacle)
Reading Menu
Olympic Footy Draw Reaction & Squad Prediction Yarns (Football Ferns)
Olympic Footy Draw Reaction & Squad Prediction Yarns (OlyWhites)
2020/21 Plunket Shield All Stars (Cricket)
2021 Aotearoa Blackcaps Spin Landscape (Cricket)
Charlisse Leger-Walker Is Already Dominating College Basketball And She’s Only Just Getting Started (Basketball)
Monday Morning Dummy Half: Benji Marshall and Aotearoa Kiwis Halves (NRL)
27fm Weekly Playlist - April 26 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
Blues Dude…
Weird selection Sunday huh?
Auckland Blues move from starting Otere Black at first-five in most Super Rugby Aotearoa games this year, to starting Harry Plummer for a crucial away clash vs Crusaders.
NZ Warriors started Reece Walsh at fullback, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck playing where ever was best at the time.
Both come with nuance and context, just weird that both teams went pretty far outside the box for team selections. I’ll suss out all the NZ Warriors stuff tomorrow, but to be honest it’s pretty clear cut; going to Melbourne Storm with two debutants and missing most of a top-17 will usually result in a loss. Onwards.
The Blues have lost four of their last five games. In Canterbury they didn’t have the same quality of players on the field and I’m in the lovely position where I admire the Crusaders for their continued excellence. Hoskins Sotutu is probably the only Blues player I’d select over a Crusaders player.
Even pondering Caleb Clarke? George Bridge and Sevu Reece are pretty damn hearty, more effective as well. Richie Mounga is a better option than Black, Plummer and Stephen Perofeta combined. Will Jordan is more threatening than any Blues back.
The above doesn’t matter so much when there is immense chemistry, clarity and vigour. The selection piece is funky here as I’m not really sure what the Blues plans are (having followed them all season) and that’s evident in the selection tinkering. Remember the kicking yarns from recent emails?
With Black, Plummer and Perofeta in the same team (let’s just ignore the whole Tanielu Telea thing) - they combined for 7 kicks. Black had 5, 1 kick each for the other two and the Blues had 55 percent possession.
Mounga had 7 kicks, David Havili had 7 kicks. Reece had 2, Jordan had 1.
So what’s the point of having so many first-five type players? In theory, their distribution should help the likes of Clarke and Ioane. The issue is that Black, Plummer and Perofeta aren’t high level runners. Without a running threat, defences can slide and focus attention elsewhere. Three players with first-five skills and they don’t kick or run as much as Mounga.
Dalton Papalii had 4 turnovers won - most for the Blues. These were scratched by Rieko Ioane’s 4 turnovers conceded, Perofeta’s 3 and so on.
Sevu Reece had 5 turnovers won - most in the game.
Whether stripping the runner, or popping up after a tackle and ripping into a ruck - Reece finds ways to be effective in this space. That feels like a Crusaders thing.
This is easy to sum up as the Crusaders are the better team and had the better players. They have ‘Best in Aotearoa’ top-tier talent in Codie Taylor, Scott Barrett, Sam Whitelock, Richie Mounga and maybe their back three. They also have the younger wave that is among the best in Aotearoa; Ethan Blackadder, Cullen Grace, David Havili, Leicester Fainga’anuku.
Like Melbourne Storm, Crusaders know exactly who they are and what they do well. Selections are clear and crisp. Plans are executed with precision. Players have supreme confidence to take a chance, pounce on a minor opening. Maybe you’re too deep into your fandom to switch lens, yet I’d advise to focus on Crusaders and Storm to learn about the best ways to play footy in either code.
Kane Williamson/IPL/Will Young…
Two IPL games for Williamson and two not-out innings.
The first was a cheeky 16* off 19 balls after David Warner and Jonny Bairstow had done most of the damage. The second was this weekend was more notable with Williamson hitting 66* @ 129.41sr (51 balls) with Bairstow the only other score over 20 (38). Williamson is well down the run-scoring rankings with 82 runs while five batsmen have 200+ runs, but only one other batsman has scored runs with more not-out innings than Williamson - Ravi Jadeja has 3 x NO.
Williamson has played six years of IPL prior to 2021, averaging 40+ in three of them. Last year, Williamson averaged 45.28 and had 12 innings with 4 not-outs. Soooo a third of his innings last year were not-outs and this season Williamson’s started with 100 percent not-outs.
Strike-rate can be more important in T20 cricket and Williamson’s grooving @ 117.14sr. That’s well below last year’s 133.75sr and his IPL career strike-rate of 133.83. Williamson has faced 70 deliveries without hitting a six.
Kyle Jamieson had his first IPL game without a wicket: 3ov for 31 runs @ 10.33rpo.
Trent Boult: 18.2ov, 6w @ 24avg/7.85rpo/18.3sr.
Kyle Jamieson: 17ov, 6w @ 26.16avg/9.23rpo/17sr.
Low key, Jamieson’s doing alright with the bat. Jamieson’s 43 runs @ 143.33sr have him 47th in total runs and that batting strike-rate is 25th in the IPL. Jamieson’s doing a solid T20 all-rounder double with his bowling strike-rate ranked 20th and batting strike-rate 25th.
Will Young has scores of 24, 0, 1 and 21 in County Championship cricket.
First innings dismissal @ 18secs.
Second innings dismissal @ 2mins
Big hip-hop things…
First is the new Lord Apex album - he’s from London. Then there’s a new Alchemist track with Earl Sweatshirt and Navy Blue.
Wildcard’ Notebook
Chris Wood scored a hat-trick this morning. Actually he scored it last night, all three goals came in the first half before the clock ticked over midnight Aotearoa time. No surprises that he’s the first New Zealander to score a hatty in the Premier League – which makes our fine nation the 46th different country with a hat-trick hero in that competition. Which is awesome but even more awesome is that with those three goals he ticked over the double figure mark for the fourth straight season which puts him into some rare company across that span.
This was a glorious day for The Woodsman, who also set up their fourth goal in a 4-0 win (shout out to the 5785 Fantast battlers who had him as captain, 17 points he hauled in), but it had been coming. He’s been in top form since coming back from his most recent little injury and his partnership with Matej Vydra up front has allowed both of those two to thrive. He didn’t get any biscuits in his first game back in the starters, a 1-1 draw with Leicester, and last week he was blanked by Manchester United as well (albeit only just as he did put the ball in the net twice only to be ruled out for offside... the first one, inside the opening minute of the match, was a tight bloody toenail call too)… but the goals have been pouring down like silver for him otherwise.
Goals come when the environment for goals is right. Wood’s been getting plenty of shots off lately and eventually he was gonna have a game where they all flew in. It’s worth noting that he’s been doing heaps more than just scoring though. His movement is through the roof, enabled by a more mobile partner in Vydra, with his rate of defensive pressures through the roof in his last six games. Plus he’s been setting them up as well as scoring them. A complete centre-forward, you say? This rate of form suggests so...
Meanwhile Ben Waine just tied a Wellington Phoenix record by scoring in his fourth consecutive game. Jeremy Brockie did it in 2012. Roy Krishna did it in 2014. Ulises Davila did it early on last season. Now Ben Waine’s done it in 2021. Ben Waine who is the club’s youngest ever player going back to the FFA Cup game in 2018-19, Ben Waine who last season became the club’s youngest ever goal-scorer too.
And what’s so impressive about his recent run of form is that, same as with Woody, the goals are only a part of it. His hold-up play against a very good Adelaide team was the best it’s ever been: there were heaps of moments where he managed to maintain possession (or win a free kick, same diff) in a tricky situation. He’s finding ways to keep himself involved in all aspects of the game.
It’s supremely impressive... this is a club that hasn’t had very many kiwi strikers through the years. Actually it’s not a club that’s had a wide variety of goal-scorers in general. Get to 14 goals, which is two average seasons for a starting forward, and you’ve cracked the top ten all-time. Waine has seven and one more will have him tied for 20th. He’s putting in some proper work, folks. Imagine him and Chris Wood together at the Olympics... speak it into manifestation.
Huge win for the Phoenix in that game too. The last second penalty, Tomer Hemed showing the goods when he was needed despite having been pretty marginalised for most of the game. With the Nix playing largely on the break after a strong opening quarter of an hour or something, Hemed wasn’t the guy best suited to that. I was surprised that Jaushua Sotirio didn’t end up out there sooner and was surprised also that it was Ben Waine who came off when Sotirio finally did appear. Well, it all worked out in the end. A game which the Phoenix could have won or lost five times over with the chances that were popping up at both ends of the park during the frantic latter stages of that one but hey the lads were due a tinny win eventually. Lost plenty of games with better performances than that. That’s now 10 points from the last four games. Timing that run nicely... if they can keep it up.
Wildcard’s Album Per Annum Project – 2000s
2000: Outkast - Stankonia
2001: Lift To Experience – The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads
2002: Bright Eyes – Lifted...
2003: Songs: Ohia – The Magnolia Electric Co.
2004: Drive-By Truckers – The Dirty South
2005: My Morning Jacket - Z
2006: Cat Power – The Greatest
2007: Phosphorescent - Pride
2008: Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Flight
2009: Justin Townes Earle – Midnight At The Movies
Into the new millennium now folks with... well to be honest this was one of the weaker pools to choose from. This and the 80s. Still got 20 outstanding albums from that time but suffice to say the competition wasn’t so fierce. This is also the first era where I can actually remember things coming out, although the only one of these albums that I picked which I listened to contemporarily... and that’s the JTE one at the end. Even then I’m not sure, come to think of it. Might not have come around to that until after Harlem River Blues came out... eh, who cares.
Outkast. Stankonia. Enough said. The best of their albums? That’s debatable but it’s definitely the commercial peak and fair play man you cannot deny the quality of those hits. Or the all-time iconic cover too. A supreme work. One which has gotten plenty of accolades over the years, which doesn’t apply quite as much to the next album: The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads by Lift To Experience. A massively ambitious concept album about The Second Coming, the only thing the band ever released (although lead singer Josh T. Pearson has appeared sporadically in the two decades since with a couple fascinating solo efforts), which sounds sort of like My Bloody Valentine fronted by Jeff Buckley – an idea I lifted from Wikipedia but it works. It’s like nothing else.
Bright Eyes serve up the second in a trilogy of indie rock conceptual excellence. Lifted… is the best thing that Conor Oberst has ever done by a distance, it’s a stunning album that scrapes the dregs of suffering to find redemption in it all. Just funny enough to keep from being self-indulgent. Just groovy enough to keep the darkness at bay. Following which Songs: Ohia and the late great Jason Molina take that darkness even further. This was a deliberate attempt to make a kind of heartland rock album from Molina and it’s amazing. Though you can’t say he keeps the demons entirely at arm’s length it still somehow glimmers. Like both of the previous ones it’s a heavy listen... but that’s the point. Gotta wade through the darkness in order to find the light.
We can cheer up a little with the next couple. The Truckers were at the peak of their powers for Dirty South - with Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, and Jason Isbell forming one of the finest song-writing trios any band has ever had the luxury to call upon. Their thumping southern rock tunes, furious and indignant, go deep on the epidemic of violence and hypocrisy from those who claim to lead. Sympathetic to the folks of their native Alabama, scathing of them that would lead astray. Puttin’ People On The Moon remains a perfect representation of societies indifference to economic struggle.
My Morning Jacket aren’t quite a jam band but they’re a legendary live act. However Z is their tightest album, Jim James picking up the tempo after the more laconic, more acoustic style of their first few records. JJ’s got that natural reverb in his voice, it’s a beautiful instrument, and the band always play the hell out of everything. Closing track Dondante is arguably the pinnacle of their recorded output. An incredible and transcendent song.
Which are two words that apply to everything that Cat Power has ever done but The Greatest, a pivot from lo-fi indie stuff to a genuine Memphis Soul album, was the only one released in 2006 so it’s the one that gets this spot. The best version of her wonderful voice on record with songs that allow her to shine. This one glows. Whereas for Phosphorescent’s Pride... which includes the tune Wolves, proof enough in five spare minutes that this guy kicks Bon Iver’s arse... I would have to say that it flickers rather than glows. Sparse folky tunes with a wavering voice spilling the wisdom of the wilderness out there in buckets. His next three albums were even better too (To Willie, Here’s To Taking It Easy & Muchacho). Another fella whose greatness has never been fully recognised.
Leaving us with two more. Frightened Rabbit began as a host for Scotland’s finest twentieth century songwriter – RIP Scott Hutchison – and quickly developed into an excellent full-on band. Midnight Organ Flight was their breakthrough album (and a break-up album, too). Again it’s one that doesn’t shy away from it’s own sadness but the rollicking tunes and the genius of Hutchison’s song-writing allows them to achieve a level of grace that remains moving after dozens of listens. The spectre of Hutchison’s passing in 2018 means the album plays a little differently these days, putting the vulnerability of his work into stark focus. Ah well. We’ll always have the music. Same goes for Justin Townes Earle who is another one gone too soon (Jason Molina passed away a few years back as well, goddamn). JTE’s Harlem River Blues is my favourite of his but Midnight At The Movies isn’t far behind. The album plays as resonantly as the title suggests and I’m forever grateful to him that his Can’t Hardly Wait cover introduced me to the Replacements. Cheers for that one, JT.