El Niche Cache
February 5, 2020
Podcast
TNC Variety Show
The Niche Cast (NZ Warriors/NRL)
Reading Menu
Monday Morning Dummy Half: Aotearoa Kiwis Halves and Fullbacks (NRL)
The Premmy Files – Men’s Premiership Week 10 (Football)
Flying Kiwis – February 2 (Football)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #2: Board Meetings (NBA)
Giving Tom Latham His Due As A World Class Test Match Opener (Cricket)
27fm Weekly Niche Cache Playlist: February 2 (Music)
Support the Niche Cache by joining the Niche Cache Patreon whanau.
Scotty’s Word
Throughout the rugby league season, I’ll drop some #KiwiNRL deep cuts from the various team lists in Australia. The NSW and Queensland reserve grade competitions will get most of my attention, until then we have the start of the NSWRL junior representative competitions and there are some funky notes to digest in the Under 18 SG Ball and Under 16 Harold Mathews round one team lists.
Funky notes. This isn’t perfect and is more just notes for myself as I built out my #KiwiNRL landscape.
Let’s start with Sydney Roosters…
Roosters SG Ball
Asoleilei Fretton named on the bench. Fretton is a Waitemata/Kelston Boys junior in Auckland and after the Roosters churned through notable #KiwiNRL juniors Christian Tuipulotu and Asu Kepaoa, they have another wave coming through.
I’ll dive deeper into this for Monday Morning Dummy Half; Fretton is joined by and Waitemata/Kelston comrade Naufahu Whyte and the Graham-Taufa twins (Marist/MAGS) who are on the fringe of the Roosters NRL squad.
Roosters Harold Mathews
Roosters have two HM teams, one as their Sydney Roosters and one as the Central Coast Roosters. Cassius Tia is named to start at halfback for Syd Roosters and Benaiah Ioelu is named to start at hooker for CC Roosters.
Tia is a Marist Saints/MAGS product and Ioelu is a Mt Albert/Tangaroa College product - both played in the NZ Under 16 Residents team last year.
Canberra Raiders have been in heavy focus for me recently…
Raiders SG Ball
Jack Sandford starting at fullback - Christchurch Boys High School.
(Sandford got a haka send off from his homies - not sure if it appears as a video in this email)
Sione Moala starting at halfback - Manurewa Marlins/St Pauls (NZ Warriors SG Ball last year).
Taulauniuotagaloa Mariota on bench - Manurewa Marlins (older brother Ata is in Raiders wider NRL squad).
Raiders Harold Mathews
Siamani Leuluai starting centre - Manaia Makos/Northland RL. 2019 NZRL Under 15s tournament team which also featured Ioelu.
I’ll whip up a NZ Warriors diary entry this weekend touching on a few key aspects of Warriors business and that includes some junior Warriors business. First, here are a couple NZRL representative teams from recent years to help wrap things up…
2018 NZRL Under 17 Tournament Team
Aso Fretton, Naufahu Whyte, Moala Graham-Taufa (Roosters), Griffin Neame (Cowboys), Sione Moala (Raiders), Okustino Lui (Knights), TJ Devery, Jyris Glamuzina Warriors), Simisi Sikei (Sharks).
2019 NZ Under 16 Residents
Benaiah Ioeu, Cassius Tia, Francis Manuleluea (Warriors).
The NZRL Under 20s competition will start soon and Auckland has two squads, with the following players who I have seen in the NZ Warriors system…
Ali Leiataua, Caleb Laiman, Carlos Tarawhiti, Salesi Ataata, Stanley Iongi, Zyon Maiu’u, Kyson Kingi, Tony Tafa.
Some of those lads are from the Warriors SG Ball squad last year, some are from the Future Warriors (Under 16) group from 2019. That means that the Warriors will have lads who are 17-19 years old in the national under 20s competition, while those in the Warriors system who are a bit older and closer to NRL are in Australia. This is in stark contrast to the old Under 20s focus with the Warriors as their junior talent is moving towards playing up an age group or two - the young Warriors in the NRL group will play hearty Qld reserve grade.
Wildcard’s Notebook
There’s a Super Bowl on Monday. The Kansas City Chiefs versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and all the narratives are right there on the surface already. Tom Brady going to his tenth Super Bowl... it’s ridiculous but that’s Tom Brady for ya. Peers like Drew Brees and Philip Rivers have finally hung up the boots but Brady’s still making Super Bowls and he’s older than both of them. But on the other side is Patrick Mahomes. The best quarterback on the planet, who in what felt like a quiet year still went 14-1 as a starter this season throwing for 4740 yards on 66.3% completion with 38 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions. A passer rating of 108.2. In the playoffs he’s come up against very useful Browns and Bills defences and still completed at over 70% with 4 TDs and 0 INTs.
Tom Brady isn’t the quarterback he once was but he’s so smart, so assured, so experienced that it often doesn’t matter. He’s practically an assistant coach for Bruce Arians’ team, with Arians wise enough to let Brady tailor this team to his ideals... all the way down to having a speedy white guy receiver in Scotty Miller, reminiscent of Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, etc. Bill Belichick must be fuming... Brady leaving the Patriots coincided with Brady still making the Super Bowl whereas the Pats missed the playoffs entirely for the first time since 2008 and had a losing season for the first time since 2000.
But Patty Mahomes is The Guy. The Kansas City Chiefs are defending champs and will be favourites to do it all over again which would make them the first team to go back to back with the Vince Lombardi Trophy since a young Tom Brady did so with the Patriots in 2004. What you get with the Chiefs is pure box office. They have an offence built around some of the fastest wideouts in the game, led by Tyreek Hill. That gives them a downfield threat on almost any play when combined with Mahomes’ uncanny accuracy throwing over long distances. And Mahomes also has this trend of being able to hit these insane off-balance throws under pressure or rolling out. Throwing off the wrong foot, shovel passes, even no-look passes once or twice. Plus he’s always got an option over the top thanks to Travis Kelce who was the runner-up in total receiving yards (105 catches for 1416 yards and 11 TDs) as a tight end. That’s bonkers. That’s incredible. In fact it’s the most rec yds in a season by a tight end ever in the history of this sport. Then chuck in a couple more than handy running backs in Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Le’Veon Bell (neither of whom were on the last championship roster... this team has actually improved as champs) and how do you even stop them?
Well, there are some theories. First of all you need to hope Mahomes has a less than perfect day. Otherwise it’s all hypothetical. But assuming he does then Tampa Bay’s defence is gonna have to capitalise with a turnover or two. They did that the last time they played this team but unfortunately they were already 17-0 down when they nabbed a Mahomes fumble. That contest back in week 12 ended up a more respectable 27-24 but the closeness is misleading because the Chiefs are amazing in close games. Pass rush will be a factor. Shaq Barrett, Devin White, Ndamukong Suh & Jason Pierre-Paul all bring a threat on the rush but the middle linebackers will been on their game to keep Mahomes from just hitting Kelce on the bailout... Kelce had 118 yards with 2 scores last week against the Bills who tried to take away the deep threat and in turn just got boiled over the middle.
It actually might come down to the other side of the ball. Brady often throws up a couple wild ones each game, passes that could be picked off, yet he also works a methodical drive as well as anyone and if RB Ronald Jones delivers too then a few long scoring drives in that first half could really give TBB the jump. Of course then they’d have to survive the Patrick Mahomes comeback which is something that the San Francisco 49ers couldn’t avoid a year ago and you can absolutely guarantee that Andy Reid has kept a few tricks up his sleeve for this moment. Should hopefully be a cracker of a game. One way or the other... you’re either gonna get a fascinating upset threat or a chance to watch one of the all-time great offences do their thing at the peak.
Here’s a bit of a laugh... the xG reckoners had the Wellington Phoenix getting smoked against Central Coast yet it ended up in a 2-1 victory. The Welly Nix thriving through quality finishing? What a world, what a world.
Now a lovely sight for your eyes...
That there is Winston Reid coming on as a late sub just a few days after joining Brentford. Sneaky little debut in a 3-2 win over Bristol City. And this feels like an opportune time to explore some more why this deal is such a fascinating one for Winnie.
The late-window loan to Brentford made a lot of sense for Winston. As it did for Brentford. As it did for West Ham. Should be a good chance to get solid minutes for a team competing for Premier League promotion, whilst staying local in London and in close proximity to his old mates at West Ham. But the convenience goes a fair bit deeper than that. See, the owner of Brentford – a fella called Matthew Benham who made his cash apparently as a professional gambler and who once anonymously pumped £500k into the club back in 2012 when it was on the brink of financial ruin, eventually going on to become the majority stake owner (with that investment rising close to a hundy mill) – is also the owner of Danish Superliga side FC Midtjylland. The two clubs are therefore formal affiliates and if that name sounds familiar to you it’s because FCM is none other than the club that a young Winston Reid came up at before he moved to West Ham way back in the day.
The Danish connection goes a lot deeper than that. The manager of Brentford is a Dane: Thomas Frank. Frank served as assistant manager in December 2016 and was promoted to manager in October 2018 and is doing a bloody good job of it too based on their current league form. Along with him there are six different Danes who have gotten Championship minutes this season: Henrik Dalsgaard, Mathias Jensen, Christian Nørgaard, Emiliano Marcondes, Mads Bech Sørensen & Mads Rasmussen.
Most of those dudes are a fair bit younger than Winston Reid, the only one in the same age range is Dalsgaard but he came up at AaB and his only U20s cap came after Reid had already represented Aotearoa at a World Cup (Dalsgaard’s gone on to become a regular at right back for both Brentford and Denmark since). So no crossover players... but still a funky connection. Thomas Frank on the other hand, he spent about five years coaching various Danish youth sides around the time that Reid was in that system. Not to where he’d have coached him specifically but you’d imagine there’s gotta be some sort of pre-existing familiarity there.
If you’re wondering, yeah I did take a peek at a few of those teamsheets from Winston Reid’s Denmark youth career (4 caps for the U19s, 1 cap for the U20s & 10 caps for the U21s), and some of his more notable teammates include: Kasper Schmeichel (now of Leicester City), Simon Kjaer (AC Milan), Daniel Wass (Valencia)... and Michael Jakobsen who plays for Adelaide United in the A-League.
There are quite a few cool stories about Brentford and there’ll be a heap more if they go on to get promoted. The owner fella apparently hates the term but this is one of those clubs that do the Moneyball thing. Looking at football from an analytic approach, using similar skills to those that Matthew Benham honed in his gambling career (should also mention that Benham is a lifelong fan of the club, not just some rich fella using them as an experiment).
For example: a few years back Brentford dismantled their academy. All the best players they were producing were being snapped up in their mid-teens by much bigger clubs (before the age where Brentford would be due compensation) so they scrapped it and focused on scouting other clubs instead with a reserve team that targets players rejected elsewhere and foreigners looking to trial in England. It’s all very outside the box. This is a club that is not afraid to question the traditional/expected/complacent way of doing things.
That innovative approach has worked wonders in the transfer market. This season they’ve sold Ollie Watkins to Aston Villa (€31m) and Said Benrahma to West Ham (€23m), the Benrahma deal initially a loan but was made permanent in January to allow West Ham to bring Jesse Lingard in on loan... transfer yarns between the two clubs at about the same time as Winston Reid’s discussions would have been happening. About 10% of that cash injection was spent on striker Ivan Toney who is already being linked with a Premier League move for a large profit. The season before they sold Neal Maupay to Brighton (€22m) and Ezri Konsa to Aston Villa (€13m).
Now this club that specifically targets players who are being undervalued elsewhere have brought in Winston Reid at a time when injuries have halted the Premier League veteran’s career at West Ham, knowing that their Danish links and recent transfer business with the Hammers would make the process that much easier. Winston’s been Moneyballed!