El Niche Cache

May 8, 2020

May 08, 2020

Namaste to you all, raise your mana and smile.

We’re launching the Great Grassroots Bounce Back.

The Niche Cache is rooted in grassroots sport in Aotearoa and we want to rally kiwis to support their local grassroots club over the next few months. This is based around sport but not restricted to sport, regardless it’s about understanding the values of grassroots sport in Aotearoa (whanau, community, competition, hauora) and ensuring that these are the priority. Pro sports is cool, grassroots is better.

This will be a focus throughout all TNC matters and we want kiwis to send through photos or short videos for us to share and whip up some hype. If you’re reading this, then fire back with any thoughts or ideas, even better start the flow of photos and videos rallying around your local club.

Email - thenichecache@gmail.com.

Support via Patreon

Scotty’s Word

This weekend, UFC 249 will take place in Jacksonville after weeks of sussing things out. The card is headlined by Tony Ferguson vs Justin Gaethje, which was meant to be Ferguson vs Khabib Nurmagomedov prior to the pandemic and any of you who follow UFC matters know A) how fucked the Ferguson vs Khabib fight is and B) how tricky the process has been to get this card sorted with Ferguson vs Gaethje as the headline act.

I’ve got a feeling that the UFC is going to go hard with their upcoming events, starting with UFC 249 as there are plenty of funky fights locked in. Ferguson vs Gaethje is bonkers, while Henry Cejudo vs Dominick Cruz is also a fight I’m looking forward to as it’s another instance in which a fighter (Cruz) has a long lay off and then returns at the highest level. All of that’s pretty cool for fight fans, for kiwi sports fans though all of the above and news that UFC 251 in Perth has been postponed from its June 7th date, sets things in motion for #KiwiUFC business.

The UFC is going to have cards lined up for states within USA that can host events, yet those evens won’t involve the likes of Israel Adesanya, Dan Hooker, Brad Riddell, Kai Kara-France, Shane Young or Robert Whittaker. That’s because of how tricky the travel stuff is going to be, leaving the only legit possibility of a #KiwiUFC fight or five coming up in the next two months rather unlikely - unless the UFC sparks up its island to host fights.

Most of the #KiwiUFC fighters had fights lined up for 2020 - Hooker was eyeing up a fight against Dustin Poirier for example in San Diego on May 16th. Kara-France was also scheduled for that card, due to fight Alex Perez and my vibe was that the Auckland City Kickboxing roster was going to be split between the San Diego and Perth cards. Perth was to be headlined by Alex Volkanovski (Aussie who trains at AKCB) and I expected Brad Riddell to be fighting on that Perth card - Riddell’s legit been one of Volkanovski’s coaches in recent years.

Adesanya operates on a different level as he is a genuine superstar and his upcoming fight against Paulo Costa feels perfect for a bout on an island. I’m not sure how youz feel about Adesanya or how casual kiwi sports fans feel about Adesanya, my belief is that Adesanya’s one of … four-five hugely bankable UFC stars right now and as we have seen with various fighters, being a UFC star can have hefty crossover to the world of sports. A UFC event on an island would have to be headlined by Adesanya.

As of now, the only option for #KiwiUFC fighters to get fights would be on the island. What I’m pondering is whether all the bros get that chance, or if it’s just the champions (Adesanya and Volkanovski). If you enjoy fights or are desperate for sport, this weekend’s UFC 249 will tickle your tastebuds with plenty of great fights lined up.

If you’re only buzzing about the #KiwiUFC bros, stay in the pocket. I’m fascinated to see how the #KiwiUFC fights align with the UFC’s operations moving out of the pandemic and with that sitting on top of AKCB’s UFC roster full of interesting narratives, these are funky #KiwiUFC times.

Tim Southee had a chat with Doully…

Here are some audiobooks I’ve been listening to during the pando (peep the trend lol). The El Chapo book is the best, Narconomics is a general overview of cartel operations and the Escobar book is cool but is written by Pablo’s brother Roberto who doesn’t seem to be the slickest dude around these days (google/Youtube him and you’ll see)

Wildcard’s Notebook

Sports are slowly coming back. Aotearoa is closing in on Level 2 and grassroots sports aren’t too far from a return. The NRL is preparing for resumption. And over in Europe the extravagant football scene is trying to figure out how to get back to making heaps of money (and providing joy to the masses – the balance of those two perspectives depending on your personal bank balance).

What that means for Chris Wood in the Premier League is anybody’s guess. England is still being ravaged by the disease and the latest thing is the PL trying to figure out how to host Premier League Island... although that’s getting some backlash for the way it treats players like commodities rather than humans. Which, like... what’s new? That’s been the way of things for ages now, it’s just that those guys are usually lucratively recompensed whereas now they’re being asked to make huge sacrifices. It’s worth too much for the Premier League season not to be revived in some way so it’ll happen and no doubt there’ll be those who agree and those who passionately disagree with whatever shape it takes. That’s the way it goes.

Here’s an article about the way things have gone down in the Netherlands, where the season has been cancelled with no champions and no promotion or relegation, and how that’s had three distinctly contrasting outcomes for the three New Zealanders who took part in the Eredivisie this season. Other kiwis in Scandinavia, where seasons run yearly rather than cross-yearly, are hoping to get things underway in the coming months – the top two divisions in Sweden for example are targetting 14 June as their new week one (it would have started in April), that means Matt Garbett at Falkenbergs and Cam Hogg at Umeå FC are close to action... not sure about third tier clubs where Joel Stevens and Francis De Vries have been hanging out at Värnamo. The Norwegian season, with Joe Bell at Viking, seems like it’ll be cleared to begin in mid-June as well.

But leading the way in the rebuild is the German Bundesliga... which is about to resume next weekend. No kidding, both the first and second division have been cleared to get back into it with all the scheduled games to be completed, albeit with no fans in attendance and with strict health restrictions in place. Nine rounds of the Bundesliga remain. Nine games with only six points separating first from fourth. What happens in Germany is going to be pretty influential on how other leagues around Europe and the world choose to take their own next steps... but regardless there should be a nice chunky title race if things are able to progress unhindered.

So what does that mean for Sarpreet Singh? First thing’s first is that he mostly only plays for the reserves in the 3.Liga and that league has no set date to return – it hasn’t been abandoned but it might yet be because the cost of hosting games at that level with no fans and with all the technical hoops they’d have to jump through to comply with regulations is tricky.

Singh’s been training full time with the first team since December, presumably he still is in whatever format training has taken lately. Bayern’s league games are spread out over seven weeks with two midweek fixtures included. Dunno if the shorter turnaround helps his chances of adding to his lone league appearance so far... Bayern are first on the ladder so hopefully he can sneak in a few more off the bench at least and get himself a winner’s medal – though they do still have tough games against Dortmund, Bayern Leverkusen and Borussia M’gladbach. The other thing to consider is that the Champions League is hopeful of getting back into the swing of things in August with Bayern still to play their second leg against Chelsea.

It’s not quite the demonically congested fixture list it could have been which means decent time for the starters to rest and recover in between. Having said that, Coutinho is currently injured (same with Corentin Tolisso) which pushes Singh up the ranks for a short while – the Brazilian took advantage of the hiatus to have some minor ankle surgery though he might be ready to roll again by next weekend. However Coutinho has been all over the place in his time at Bayern and probably isn’t first XI anyway. And there’s so much depth at the club that the young fellas like Singh really do have to be patient. Unless Hansi Flick – now the full-time manager, and he’s also hired Miroslav Klose as an assistant – makes a determined effort to give Singh some minutes then he might have to settle for sneaking onto the bench now and then if he’s lucky. Not really sure there’s a consequence here that changes his immediate prospects, which is fine. Means he has to settle for continuing to be one of the very top young players coming through at the club and that’s no small consolation.

I’ve been listening to Leonard Cohen’s first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, over and over for the last week. It’s stuck in my head, irrepressibly, little melodies and slices of phrases dancing through my brain at all hours of the day. The poetry, the elegant simplicity, the gentle beauty. I watched Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs Miller recently and was struck unexpected when Cohen’s tunes rolled over the cold western landscapes of the film, that was probably the start of this earworm obsession although I’d also already been flicking through one of his poetry books for a while. Those songs were released a couple years before that movie but they were so perfect for those scenes, an incredible example of how a soundtrack can raise a film to even greater heights (The Wire’s end of season montages are another fave of mine in that regard). Altman admitted to having worn out copies of that same Cohen album and he reckoned that subconsciously they must have still been with him as he scoped out those scenes. Yeah, they have that effect.

Leonard Cohen is a pillar to the creative spirit.