El Niche Cache
March, 15 2021
Podcast
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Reading Menu
The Premmy Files – Wellington Phoenix 2020-21 Season Review (Football)
Forecasting Forward To Aotearoa Blackcaps In World Test Championship Final (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Blues Dude…
Two Super Rugby games, two wins and two games with 30+ points scored by Auckland Blues. The Blues were too good for Otago Highlanders and perhaps this Super Rugby campaign shows that some funky stuff is happening in the stars as it kinda feels like there are two good teams and three meh teams in this year’s Super Rugby.
Chiefs and Hurricanes have played two games for two losses.
Highlanders have played three games, with their one win coming against Chiefs.
From the Blues Dude perspective, neither Hurricanes or Highlanders felt overly threatening. This sets up the Blues vs Crusaders contest nicely and I’m eager to see what the Crusaders do to get on top of the Blues loose forward trio. Hoskins Sotutu, Akira Ioane and Dalton Papali’i combined for 4 beaten defenders and 3 linebreaks, while the Highlanders loose forward trio combined for 0 of each.
Part of the threat posed by Ioane and Sotutu specifically are their hands.
Ioane had 3 passes vs Highlanders, after 6 passes vs Hurricanes.
Sotutu had 6 passes vs Highlanders, after 6 passes vs Hurricanes.
In both these games, there has been a key loose forward who does this shifting the footy role. For the Hurricanes it was Savea with his 8 passes while his loosie comrades combined for 4 passes and the Highlanders had Shannon Frizell who chucked 7 passes while his loosie comrades combined for 0.
The Blues though, have two lads doing this and both are also among the best ball-running forwards in the competition.
One thing to focus on with Caleb Clarke is his offloading. Clarke didn’t have any offloads vs Hurricanes, then had 2 vs Highlanders and for the most dynamic ball-runners who are always poking through a tackle; offloading is the next level.
Take Crusaders winger Sevu Reece for example, who is 7th in run metres and 1st in offloads. Reece is the best offloader by a hefty margin with his 9 offloads and another comparison is Rieko Ioane who is part of a big group who all have 3 offloads, while Ioane is also 3rd in run metres.
If Clarke can consistently offload, then he’ll add another wrinkle to his game that will only amplify his dynamic running.
Good NZ Warriors win…
I wrote about the Warriors yesterday, but didn’t include a bit about Gold Coast Titans not being very good - didn’t want to kill the buzz. The Titans were pretty average and the Warriors scored tries around the goal-posts for a reason; Titans forwards were stuck in the mud.
The Warriors also defended repeat sets on their try-line … as they did in the trial game against … the Titans! Tuck this win away as a good Warriors performance, but this definitely isn’t reason to get giddy about the Warriors. Just good signs, solid win.
This also raises a question about where clubs invest their salary cap. Titans expectation went through the roof in signing Tino Faasuamaleaui and David Fifita, two blockbuster young forwards. I’m curious as to whether signing a sizzling hot young forward helps a team win and from that first game, there is only so much these blokes can do.
Fifita’s only useful if you get the footy to him.
I loved Melbourne Storm Tino because he was an extra splash on top of Jesse Bromwich, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Dale Finucane etc. Now Tino is the main guy and he doesn’t have the best player ever at dummy half putting him on the front foot.
What’s the difference between signing Tino Faasumaleaui and Addin Fonua-Blake?
Fonua-Blake was consistently the Sea Eagles best ball-running forward for a couple seasons and there isn’t a whole lot of difference in his roles between Manly and Warriors.
Plunket Shield…
Ross Taylor’s recent string of domestic cricket scores…
Super Smash: 48*, 2, 0, 65, 0.
Ford Trophy: 0, 9, 68*, 2.
Plunket Shield: 4, 50.
If Taylor passes 10, he’ll pass 50. But he’s gotta pass 10 runs first.
All of that, plus wider Blackcaps stuff makes it feel like Taylor is on the brink of jacking up standard Taylor runs or falling into a yucky patch of form.
The best Plunket Shield spinner is - Ish Sodhi.
Sodhi has 12w @ 25.16avg/3po.
Last season was horrible for Sodhi: 3w @ 80avg/4.37rpo.
The 2018/19 season saw Sodhi finish 1st in wickets with 36w @ 24.97avg/2.85rpo.
The 2017/18 season had Sodhi down the rankings, but super efficient: 28w @ 13.92avg/2.42rpo.
Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls are taking the piss. Here’s their work since the end of the Test summer (Jan 3rd vs Pakistan)…
Latham: 63, 36, 30, 118*, 17* (FT), 32, 106 (PS).
Nicholls: 33, 113, 49, 127* (FT), 72, 33 (PS).
Wildcard’s Notebook
It’s March and March means March Madness in the United States of America. College basketball national tournament season... which was cancelled last year amidst the pandemic, meaning that technically speaking Jack Salt and Virginia are still reigning champs two years on. The first kiwi male to win an NCAA national title. 2020’s abandonment meant we missed out on a chance to see prime Yanni Wetzell (among others) in that arena but hey at least we’re getting plenty of him in the NBL for South East Melbourne Phoenix at the moment. Dropped 15 points on the Breakers on Sunday, in fact.
For you plebs out there (of which I have very recently been one... something about college sports just doesn’t interest me at all, however kiwis doing fine sporting things overseas does and that’s been my compromise), the tournament takes place as a bracketed knockout. Teams are seeded and it’s last crew standing from there. The men’s comp does add another four teams with a kind of play-in round that happens first but whatever. Half the teams qualify by virtue of winning their regional conferences, then the rest are chosen by a selection committee based on some fancy formula that they use.
That selection committee went to work recently and the men’s selections were announced just this very morning... though as far as I can tell only two kiwi blokes will be participating and neither on a Jack Salt level of expectation. Thomas Webley and the Hartford University Hawks got in for the first ever time by virtue of winning the America East conference, beating UMass Lowell 64-50 in the final. Webley played eight minutes off the bench with 2 rebounds. So that’s cool... but they were seeded bottom of their section of the draw which means facing #1 seed Baylor in the first round – Jared Butler is their star guy, likely to be a mid-first round pick in the next NBA Draft.
Then the other fella is Tobias Cameron of Abilene Christian University. They’re there after winning the Southland conference where they smashed Nicholls 79-45 in the final. Second ever tournament appearance for the school – first was last time in 2019. Cameron, the son of Tall Blacks coach/legend Pero, had 5 points, 2 rebounds & 1 block in that game (shooting 2/3 from the field, with one triple). Seeded #14, they will face #3 Texas in the first round. Kai Jones and Greg Brown both being touted as first round picks from that uni.
Not likely to see either team make it past that first hurdle, though maybe the women’s competition will offer more. Those selections haven’t been made yet, we’ll hear about that lot tomorrow... and the thing to watch out for is whether Washington State and the Leger-Walker sisters get in. They’re apparently right on the bubble so keep those fingers crossed there. Similar deal for Brigham Young University and their kiwi duo of Tegan Graham & Kaylee Smiler. Lost a heartbreaker to Gonzaga in regionals so gotta wait to find out their fate.
We do definitely know that Tera Reed’s VCU have qualified after they won the Atlantic 10 – Reed is a- regular starter there, averaging 11.5pts/5.0reb/2.4ast in her senior year... including 12p/5r/3a/4s in the 81-69 win over Massachusetts that punched their ticket to the big show. Hopefully all those and a couple others are able to showcase what they can do come tournament time. We shall see. (Plus there’s every chance that I’ve missed someone else... look, it was a tiring weekend okay?).
Hey look the Breakers are doing things...
There’s something about this Breakers regime and reacting with clumsy desperation to adversity. Not a lot of trusting the process going on... presumably because there isn’t one. Just heavily reactionary decisions led an owner who likes to mostly just complain about refs on twitter and a media team that try so hard to focus on mindless positives that they militantly ignore anything that could be perceived as negative. And their team social media accounts just exist to play with memes like Maggie Simpson in the ball pit. Meanwhile the three healthy/available/non-DP kiwis left on the roster are absolutely holding things together for them as the kiwi influence seems to shrink with every unrelated crisis. Did you know that assistant coach Chanel Pompallier has returned home to Aotearoa for the rest of the season? Nah neither. Not until I saw it mentioned as a brief aside in an article about the William McDowell-White and Jeremy Kendle signings. All good making a song and dance about how great the club is for hiring a female coach but not even a word of farewell as she opts to return to family during the unprecedented season that this is, coupled with how they treated Rob Loe for wanting to hang out with his wife and newborn it feels pretty telling of a wider attitude from club management.
Also how weird it is to sign an injury replacement for Corey Webster (out 3-4 weeks) who still has to fly in from the USA and do two weeks of quarantine... by the time he’s good to go so will Corey Webster be. At least Dan Shamir, typically reliable when it comes to bypassing the propaganda and speaking bluntly, later clarified all that by saying that WMW will remain with the team the rest of the campaign. If I find the time I’ll expand this into a full article and then keep an eye out to see if we get the stinky meme treatment. But in the meantime don’t tell them I said any of that or they might sue.
Men’s Premiership Team of the Week – Semi-Finals (And One)
GK – Danyon Drake (Eastern Suburbs) – The only two reasons why Eastern Suburbs were still in the game and able to make a late, if ultimately in vain, push for an equaliser were wastefulness from Auckland City and brilliant goalkeeping from Danyon Drake. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where the line between those two things is... but Drake knows exactly where his line is. As evidenced by a scrambling push onto the crossbar from a Kaltack header. There was also that great stop with his trailing foot to deny Manickum.
RB – Jack-Henry Sinclair (Team Wellington) – Not much you can do when JHS is in this kinda form. Missed half the season with injury but the last month or so he’s gotten back to the standard that had him in MVP consideration a season ago. Set up one goal in the semi, involved in a heap of other chances.
CB – Adam Mitchell (Auckland City) – Big players step up in big games and you’ll see plenty of big players in this line-up. Adam Mitchell is one of them. Not at his best earlier on in the season and overshadowed throughout by Brian Kaltack’s breakthrough campaign. But honestly you can’t defend much better than Mitchell did in that semi-final. You just can’t.
CB – Taylor Schrijvers (Team Wellington) – Up against Hamilton Wanderers, you have to match the aggression. That’s exactly what Taylor Schrijvers did. He also stepped up in the absence of Ben Mata against the direct aerial threat from set pieces that Wanderers offer. Not very often that Derek Tieku is as quiet as he was here.
LB – Kelvin Kalua (Eastern Suburbs) – Swapping his side to get JHS and KK both in here because we gotta. Kalua’s positioning at right back was essential to what Suburbs were trying to achieve, getting high up the park whilst also having to deal with the threat of Logan Rogerson in behind. The latter was a worry all arvo but Kalua’s crossing was always a major outlet for Subs... and don’t forget Kalua was superb in getting them to this point at all, scoring in the midweek win over HBU that booked their semi-final spot.
CM – Cam Howieson (Auckland City) – You expect to see a level of creative passing, flawless positioning, and general control from Cam Howieson in any game. All that was evident in a lovely performance against Suburbs (in which Mario Ilich was uncharacteristically off, so Howieson’s control was even more crucial) but what also stood out was how much work he did defensively in winning the ball back. All that dirty work. Magnifico.
CM – Ollie Whyte (Team Wellington) – This dude just does not lose possession. It’s crazy. He and Mario Barcia were both beyond fantastic as Team Welly won the midfield battle against Wanderers, both in possession and out of possession. In fact Whyte has been nothing short of fantastic ever since arriving back at the club in the new year (this is his third TOW from four starts!).
CM – Emiliano Tade (Auckland City) – Bringing Tade into your team for a semi-final is like punching in a cheat code. He didn’t break up the in-form top three at ACFC... instead he played as a deeper playmaker where his passing range was on full display. Always looking for that ball over the top of the Suburbs line to bypass the press, should have had a goal and about three assists but even without all that and even having gone four months without a start the Argentine maestro was still an absolute class above.
FW – Jorge Akers (Hawke’s Bay United) – A lone recognition from outside the top four. Akers scored a lovely little goal in defeat against Suburbs midweek, his sixth of the season all coming in his last seven matches. Back half of the season he was able to play more as a striker and basically he just got better and better the more than he did. Really great showing against Suburbs with his speed and directness and ability to pop up in the right areas at the right times.
FW – Hamish Watson (Team Wellington) – Not much left to say about the big fella, is there? A hat-trick in a semi-final. Laying down a hammering statement against Derek Tieku who last game drew level with him for a share of the Golden Boot. This season has been the best football that Watto has ever played. He’s not just dominant, he’s a straight up bully.
FW – Tommy Semmy (Hamilton Wanderers) – Fair play to Semmy because he’s had a tough season playing through injuries but he never quit against Team Welly, pushing hard until the end and very briefly looking to have given his team a way back into the match with a well-taken goal deep in the second half (his first since week five). Always looked HW’s most dangerous threat.