El Niche Cache
May 14, 2021
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 17
The Niche Cast: The BJ Watling Appreciation Hour
Reading Menu
A Tribute To BJ Watling, New Zealand’s Best Ever Test Wicket Keeper (Cricket)
Riding The Young Wave: Reasons For Otago Sparks Optimism (Cricket)
27fm Album Jukebox – April 2021 (Music)
Welly Nix: The Sudden Rise of Oli Sail, Starting Goalkeeper (Football)
Flying Kiwis – May 11 (Football)
Welly Nix: Assessing How Things Are Looking For Next Season (Football)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Figuring Things Out In The Middle (NRL)
Scotty’s Word
BJ Watling…
Two big things about BJ Watling this week. Plenty of stats in the Wildcard’s yarn which serves as a nice starting point for anyone pondering about Watling. We also had a chat about Watling in yesterday’s podcast and the thing that has stuck with me since Watling announced his retirement is his status as an avant-garde cricketer.
As a professional cricketer and then a consistent international cricketer, Watling didn’t bow to the trendy forces that have swept over cricket. Watling stayed true to himself and what he wanted.
This is extremely relevant to myself and my beliefs. Maybe you can absorb some of these vibes as well because I take joy in the fact that I don’t have to do what society (maybe it’s parents, friends, or a community) tells me I should do.
You don’t have to play T20 cricket if you don’t want to.
You don’t have to be on social media if you don’t want to.
You don’t have to care deeply about the All Blacks if you don’t want to.
You don’t have to watch Game of Thrones if you don’t want to.
You don’t have to wear a vintage tee if you don’t want to.
Who gives a fuck. Just do what you want to do.
BJ Watling lived in his power, as you can to.
NZ Cricket Contracts…
In covering kiwi cricket for a while, each year I move further and further away from caring about NZC contracts. For the public, these contracts have no relevance to us following the Blackcaps or kiwi cricket as every year players play for the Blackcaps without an NZC contract. Ajaz Patel got cut from the contract list for this upcoming period and he’s going to England with the Blackcaps, as is Jacob Duffy without a contract.
These only matter for the players. They get the money and training focus. For fans, who cares.
Samoa & Tonga Rugby League…
I’m going to do a yarn about Samoa and Tonga RL this weekend revolving around this idea: both groups of players are beefing with their governing bodies.
In a recent email I suggest that some of this stuff from Aussies is a bit racist - assuming they can help without understanding anything. I sat on that and getting deep into the mangroves to find that there is clear beef between players and officials in both nations, especially how some of these ‘differences’ are rooted in the respective cultures or allude to long-time ideals. As a pakeha, I’m weary of how easy it is for me to ‘help’ as this is the same attitude that pakeha used to have in many of their colonizing excursions.
Less help, more understanding and empathy.
Blues Dude…
Tbh, my Super Rugby interest is diminishing as the season flows on. One Blues thing…
I am intrigued by Zarn Sullivan and his involvement in the Blues moving forward. He’s the type of player who could step in to stop the three play-makers in the backline ploy. A strong runner, big boot and skills give Sullivan an advantage over the others. Plus I’m putting everything through the Roger Tuivasa-Sheck lens and how he will fit into the Blues.
Here’s a Zarn Sullivan thread from The Chase Rugby (who have a substack thingy)
Zarn Sullivan is not from Auckland - he was recruited by Kings College in Auckland from Napier Boys High School. By the looks of things, Kings College have Francis Manuleleua and Ali Leiataua in their 1st 15 squad - regular readers know that these two are in the NZ Warriors system. Leiataua played Auckland Under 20s in the NZRL National Under 20s competition and has gone back to playing 1st 15 which is a bit bonkers.
Roosters Camps In NZ…
I’ve recently shared a few Sydney Roosters recruitment updates. There was the camp in Auckland with Daniel Anderson and that has resulted in this…
Jordan Friend is another NRL agent operating from Aotearoa and he shared a similar post, meaning that the Roosters are working in Aotearoa with a variety of player agents…
This is what makes the Roosters one of the best NRL clubs and as always it’s a timely reminder that the Roosters salary cap/sombrero doesn’t exist. What does exist is a business that can fund these types of initiatives, as well as flying players in and out of Australia.
Black Sticks Hockey…
Australia will pop over for a series in roughly two weeks, playing men’s and women’s hockey against Aotearoa. Then Aotearoa will slide over to Australia for FIH Pro League hockey which will amount to four games for each team in Aotearoa, then the two Pro League games. All the FIH Pro League info is here.
Black Sticks squads have been named and I’ll take a closer geeze at those in previewing the series.
This will be the first dose of international hockey since the pandy started and with the men struggling to keep up with teams around the world, I’ll be tuning in to see how they stack up against Australia. For the women it’s all about them being good despite the dramas you’ve seen in the mainstream media:
Kurupt FM…
Kurupt FM popped on my radar a few years ago and now they’re swinging back around with fresh stuff. It started as a mockumentary and then expanded - for the mockumentary stuff search ‘People Just Do Nothing’ on Youtube or jump off from here…
They have recently dropped a new Craig David thing which stems from this old Craig David thing below (should be copied in at the right time - otherwise skip through to 43:40)
And can’t go wrong with some new freestyles…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Confidence is a wonderful thing. All the scouting and analytics in the world trying to assess players and performances and technical abilities and sometimes all it takes is a shot of the good vibes to take a player to the next level. Chris Wood is brimming with confidence right now, every time he shoots you feel like he thinks he’s gonna score. Earlier in the season that was not the case as the weight of a lack of goals and a few big chances missed dragged him down but since returning to the starting line-up after that injury he had in February he’s been incredible. We’re talking about the best footy he’s ever played.
Case and point, peep at a few stats splitting the first two thirds of the season (all comps) and his current run of insane unstoppable form (in which he has eight goals and three assists in eight matches – this span also including a goalless game vs Leicester in his first game back)...
Pre-March | Post-March | Total
Minutes: 1909 | 800 | 2702
Goals: 4 | 8 | 12
Assists: 1 | 3 | 4
npxG: 6.0 | 5.2 | 11.2
xA: 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1
min/shot: 52.8 | 25.8 | 40.3
SOT%: 52.78% | 58.02% | 55.22%
* npxG = non-penalty expected goals | xA = expected assists | SOT% = percentage of shots on target
There are a few other factors than just confidence. While he was out, Matej Vydra got a run of games and has been Wood’s primary strike-partner in those 800 minutes. That dynamic has been fantastic for them both. Vydra is a quick, mobile forward who can stretch the defensive line running deep and can get there in support of Wood when he’s holding the ball up.
That’s led to an increase in defensive pressures from the front (which is kinda how this streak got started with goals from the high press – see Wood’s goal vs Arsenal for example), it’s also led to a steady level of involvement. Wood’s had 30+ touches in all of these nine games. That’s not heaps by any means. Central defenders and midfielders are commonly in the triple figures for the top teams. But for someone like Wood, who is playing for a team that doesn’t play a lot of keep-ball and who is at his best when he’s working efficiently, that’s a tidy baseline.
He’s also playing closer to the goal. His shots are coming from a more dangerous range (as a rule, the closer you are to the goal the more likely you are to score), he’s getting far more touches in the penalty area. Here’s his goal chart for the season…
There’s a clear pattern there where the man’s best work is done from the penalty spot and closer. The key to the Woodsman’s success you could even say – of his 47 Premier League goals, 18 of them have been scored from inside the six-yard box. Only two have been scored from outside the penalty area and one of those was in his last game, that volley against Fulham. Only just outside but that’s enough.
Good yarns. I’ll write a longer version of all this at some stage, probably at the end of the season (which is only three more games starting with Leeds at home at 11.30pm on Saturday. Now for an opposite kinda tale...
The Last Couple Weeks in Steven Adams-ville...
vs Orlando – Exited game with left-ankle soreness
vs Spurs – Played 31 minutes in a loss
vs Clippers – Didn’t play with Right First MTP Sprain (a toe sprain)
vs Denver – Returned but could only last the first half before being ruled out
vs Thunder – Didn’t play due to the same toe injury
vs Timberwolves – Also didn’t play
vs Warriors – Still not available
vs Warriors – Back and raring to go but only lasts 23 minutes before hurting himself on a hustle play where he dove out of bounds to keep the ball in then got and up and went straight down to the locker room and would soon be ruled out for the remainder of the game with... a right first MTP sprain.
vs 76ers – DNP with that same right first MTP strain
vs Hornets – DNP with that same right first MTP strain again
vs Grizzlies – You know the drill, no deal with that right first MTP strain
vs Mavericks – Back to only being ‘doubtful’ at this stage but still sat this one out
Only one completed game in the last twelve. Eight games missed entirely. The Pelicans were eliminated from play-in contention with yesterday’s loss to the Mavs so with only two games remaining there might not be much point in him playing those two either. Making it pretty bloody hard to write the Kiwi Steve updates but so it goes.
And finally a bit of Flying Kiwis preview excerpt after Callum McCowatt scored a double for FC Helsingør the other day...
Hey, alright. Not sure what’s gotten into FCH over the last couple months but they keep on getting better and better and here they pumped HB Køge 5-0 on their own turf and to make matters even sweeter Callum McCowatt bagged a brace. It took him long enough to get that first goal for the club but now he seems to really be finding his feet. Here’s what the team website had to say about the two goals...
“After just over half an hour, the opportunity came. Callum McCowatt found Oliver Kjærgaard in the box with a good slanted ball, and Kjærgaard took a single touch, then played it back into the feet of the oncoming McCowatt on the left side of the box. HB Køge's offside line was broken and from a sharp angle McCowatt safely put the ball into the opposite side of the goal.”
“But HB Køge still did not come forward on the field, and in the 54th minute they paid the price. A poor clearance from HB Køge's central defence dumped down at the feet of Lucas Haren out on the right side of the field. Lucas took a quick look up, sending the ball coolly across the small box, with a flat, hard pass that caught Kruse out in the box. In the middle of the goal, Adamsen could not reach the ball, but at the back post, Callum McCowatt stood ready to put it in with a flat instep.”
The second and fourth goals there in a comprehensive win, FCH doing the damage with three goals in the back half of the first half. Elijah Just was on the bench for all that but he came on in the 62nd min with the major business having been taken care of... in face he replaced Callum McCowatt when he did. McCowatt now up to three goals for the season while Just has five.
And that’ll do for today, friends. Go hard with your weekend sport and we’ll be back with another one of these thingies on Monday. Here’s something to pass the time (and open your mind)…