El Niche Cache
December 11, 2020
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The Premmy Files – Men’s Premiership, Week 4 (Football)
Flying Kiwis – December 9 (Football)
The Premmy Files – Women’s Premiership, Week 6 (Football)
So, About This New National League Format... (Football)
Aotearoa vs West Indies: Who's Using What Bats? (Cricket)
2020/21 HBJ Shield: Second Round Wrap (Cricket)
Aotearoa vs West Indies: Basking In Blackcaps Good Vibes (Cricket)
2020/21 Ford Trophy: Ken McClure Only Deals In Hundies (Cricket)
27fm Weekly Niche Cache Playlist: December 7 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
While working through the summer of cricket and doing my darnest to stay away from pesky rugby league matters, there are a few younger lads from Aotearoa who keep popping up as players to note down now and prepare to see have a big NRL season in 2021. Both Jordan Riki (Brisbane Broncos) and Christian Tuipulotu (Sydney Roosters) made their debuts last season, both are the best/most decorated prospects from Aotearoa having earned all sorts of NZRL honours.
Riki is from Christchurch and played in the Maori All Stars this year, prior to making his NRL debut and grabbed most of his NRL minutes this season as an edge forward. The Broncos did a nice job of easing Riki into their rotation, just as they have done a great job of easing Riki into the Broncos as Riki stayed in Christchurch to finish his schooling and then had to spend a season in reserve grade.
The Broncos have a new coach in Kevin Walters and I suspect he loves everything about Riki, given how passionate Riki is when speaking about his rugby league and the Broncos. There is scope for Riki to play round one as the starting edge forward, otherwise he will come off the bench and soon enough he will seal that starting role.
Riki will play for Aotearoa Kiwis, maybe even sneak into next year’s World Cup squad.
Tuipulotu has joined Manly Sea Eagles from the Roosters, which is a bit weird considering how hard the Roosters went in recruiting Tuipulotu when he came off contract as a NZ Warriors junior. The Roosters had Tuipulotu and Asu Kepaoa in their junior ranks for a few years, both made numerous NZRL rep teams with Riki and then 2020 comes around and Tuipulotu departs for Manly, Kepaoa moves to Wests Tigers.
Tuipulotu made his debut on the wing, having joined the Roosters as an edge forward/centre and I wonder if this was a factor in his move. Manly have lost two edge forwards in Joel Thompson and Corey Wadell so there could be a chance for Tuipulotu to get edge forward minutes, otherwise it will be centre or wing for Tuipulotu.
As a Tongan, Tuipulotu is likely to juggle Tonga and Aotearoa eligibility funk. Either way, Tuipulotu has joined a new club where he will work with Des Hasler and there are a few openings in the positions that Tuipulotu covers.
One last undercover player is Northland’s Caleb Aekins, who left Penrith Panthers to join Canberra Raiders. Aekins has mainly played fullback in the NRL, stepping in when there is an injury/suspension and then he moves to the Raiders where Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad has emerged as a high quality fullback. Aekins can play centre as well though and my hunch is that Aekins hasn’t moved to Canberra to be stuck behind CNK.
The Raiders also have Matthew Timoko who made his debut this year at centre and is of a similar quality to Riki and Tuipulotu. Another name to jot down is Leo Thompson, who is the twin brother of Wellington rugby’s Tyrone and while Tyrone is a rugby union hooker, Leo played centre for the Raiders Under 20s and is training with their NRL squad.
Wildcard’s Notebook
It’s Neil Wagner’s 50th Test beginning today, fittingly he’ll spend a lot of it bowling into the wind at Wellington, charging through, dropping them short then attacking the stumps then dropping some more short, taking lots of wickets most likely. Though 49 Tests he’s taken 212 at an average of 26.31 which is just straight up superb. We all know that already... but some of the stats flying around are worth dipping into.
Neil Wagner has played against nine different Test opponents and has at least a 4-wicket haul against all of them
Under Kane Williamson’s captaincy, Neil Wagner has 132 wickets at 22.53
64 of his wickets have come in the fourth innings of matches, at a sizzling average of 24.60
Wagner has only opened the bowling in Tests on three occasions
He averages 20.62 in Test victories (of which he has 23 of them from 49 matches)
Wagner vs RHB: 147 wickets at 25.85 | Wagner vs LHB: 65 wickets at 33.04
His favourite ground? That’d be the Seddon Park with 39 wickets at 23.51... though he’s taken 37 of them (28.83 ave) at the Basin Reserve so give it a few days and see what’s up
174 of his 212 wickets (82%) have been out caught. 26 have been bowled, 11 LBWs & 1 hit wicket. Sunil Ambris was the hit wicket, that was back in 2017. The overall percentage of dismissals out caught is something around the 55-60% mark... so Wagnut is miles ahead of that rate
In his last 10 Tests, Wagner has taken 58 wickets at 18.50 ave (strike-rate of 40.6)
His most dismissed batsman? Old mate Mahmudullah of Bangladesh, he’s topped that fella six times in four matches
Cheeky note for Stuart Broad too, who he’s picked up four times in 9 matches but at an average of 0.25... in other words he’s got him out four times and conceded one run to him. One run total. Three times he picked him up for a duck
You might also enjoy a sneaky Steven Adams story from The Athletic. Sometimes people talk about rich folks with phrases like: the money really hasn’t changed them. Steven Adams is the archetype there. The shoes cost more but they’re just as useful on the farm. He’s also famous for wearing those oranges slides with a cartoon of his face on them... the chat goes that he got sent them for free from a fan. Ain’t arguing with free stuff – especially when they fit which can be a real problem for a man who wears size 18s.
What else is there to chat about here? Well there’s only three weeks left in the year so the lists are on the way. I’m slowly working through my top albums like I do annually, I’ve got seven deadsets for him top ten and then about thirty more competing for the last three spots. Usually I’ll include another fifteen or so as honourable mentions that don’t get a blurb but yeah I’m getting there.
One lesson: this has been the best year in living memory for kiwi tunes. This year we’ve had really fine albums from Troy Kingi, The Beths, Diggy Dupe, Nadia Reid, Na Noise, Benee, Reb Fountain, Church & AP amongst plenty others.
I see Spark Sport has picked up rights to a couple Women’s Super League football games per week from England. Which is nice... but all those games are already available for free, live and on demand as well as with highlights, on the FA Player app. All you’ve gotta do is register. Not the best app as far as the accessibility of the streams go but it’s free so can’t complain. I’m assuming that this Spark deal won’t affect that because once upon a time we used to be able to access the NFL Network for free because there was no broadcast deal here with those fellas (outside of a couple ESPN games each week) but then those Sommet Sports fellas got in the mix and we soon lost out NFL Network privileges. Most scandalous of all, ESPN stopped doing the Redzone coverage a couple years ago... but luckily the NFL is the single easiest sport to find, erm, ‘alternative’ streams for.
If you’re not an NFL fan then you won’t know what I’m talking about here but Redzone is the best. Shout out to Scott Hansen. And last week they celebrated their 200th ever episode. What the Redzone channel is, is a continuous broadcast during the chunk of overlapping games on Sunday evening USA time. Host guy Mr Hansen facilitates jumping from game to game to catch all the cool stuff and with the way that NFL games unfold it means you’re pretty much able to follow the whole lot of them. Prior to Redzone’s debut in 2009 there were still local blackouts and you were at the mercy of your broadcaster as to what game you could watch. The internet was already in full swing by then but Redzone was basically a revolution in how sports could be watched.
It’s funny because other sports have tried to capture this glory. Goal rush on the Premier League network is an example but that’s mostly just annoying... football isn’t a game that lends itself to that formula because the action is so non-stop. NFL is full of breaks between plays so it works. Redzone is now an endemic aspect of the NFL experience, specific to the NFL experience.