El Niche Cache
April 23, 2021
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 14
The Niche Cast - Overseas Pro (All-Format Blackcaps/Super League Debacle)
Reading Menu
The Premmy Files – 2020-21 Men’s Premiership Team of the Season (Football)
Flying Kiwis – April 20 (Football)
Olympic Footy Draw Reaction & Squad Prediction Yarns (Football Ferns)
2021 Aotearoa Blackcaps Spin Landscape (Cricket)
2021 Lydia Ko Mixtape: 5 Key Things After LOTTE Championship Win (Golf)
Scotty’s Word
Blues Dude…
Big ol’ Crusaders vs Blues game on Sunday afternoon and the Blues team will probably be named after writing this, so I can’t touch on that. There’s plenty to set this game up though and stopping the Crusaders will be a niggly task for the Blues as the funkiest attacking Super Rugby Aotearoa team is from Canterbury.
The Crusaders are the only SRA team that has scored 200+ points. They are 1st in tries, clean breaks, defenders beaten and offloads. They also have the best tackles won percentage - Crusaders haven’t conceded the fewest points as that honour goes to the Blues. We tend to think of Crusaders as a less funky SRA team, yet they are extremely similar to Melbourne Storm in leading innovation and I’ve highlighted this via Codie Taylor’s work, Richie Mounga’s excellence in previous emails.
Crusaders average 2.5m/run and 19.28 kicks/game.
Blues average 3.6m/run and 15 kicks/game.
That’s fairly clear cut right? Despite their team and players leading most stat brackets, the Crusaders control the game via their kicking more so than the Blues. I got a vibe from the Blues loss to Highlanders that a greater intention to run rather than kick from the Blues could be an interesting factor moving forward. Even though Auckland has rolled out the Otere Black/Harry Plummer/Stephen Perofeta trio - all of whom are equipped to control territory - they do embrace running the footy.
How could this be a factor vs Crusaders?
Two Crusaders losses this season. First vs Highlanders (12-33) with 46 percent possession, then vs Chiefs (25-26) with 36 percent possession. Somehow Crusaders lost by only 1 point vs Chiefs with just 36 percent of the footy.
The Blues are the only team averaging over 3m/run and that points to their powerful ball-runners. The Crusaders only look vulnerable when they are giving up that possession advantage and the Blues lean into running the footy, so perhaps the Blues won’t be kicking the ball straight to Will Jordan, Sevu Reece or George Bridge as often as they otherwise would - or as other teams have.
The Crusaders are really good at rugby. I’m not sure that the Blues will win and one key thing to follow will be Dalton Papalii grabbing turnovers at the ruck, yet none of this is as intriguing as the key play-makers of the Blues. There has been a bit of Otere Black buzz this year and this game will tell us a lot about how he forecasts forward as a #10. I can see a contest where the Crusaders welcome Blues running the footy, setting traps and isolating runners. That means a balance must be struck by Black and Perofeta (assuming they play) as they’ll need to plug the ball deep into Crusaders territory without coughing up easy possession and territory.
Richie Mounga has owned these type of games at SRA and international level. Will the Blues play-makers step up and embrace that class?
Reece Walsh
I covered the departure of Hayze Perham in this Aotearoa Warriors Diary, as well as a bit about Reece Walsh.
Reece Walsh is really good. The key thing I saw in his appearance for Redcliffe Dolphins last weekend was his toughness; playing against men and he wouldn’t leave the field despite visibly unwell. Walsh has played two reserve grade games in Queensland - first with Norths Devils when he was a Bronco, then the Redcliffe appearance.
This dude is 18 years old and he’s scored 3 tries in a couple games. 9 tackle busts and 2 linebreaks, tackling @ 90 percent. He kicks goals and had 116 kicking metres (general play) as a fullback for Norths, then 178 kicking metres as a half for Redcliffe with his left boot. Bit of a wizard who can genuinely offer value as an NRL utility to start his career via his livewire, skillful style and if he does settle at fullback he will offer a Kalyn Ponga package - bit of Lachlan Coote 2015 Cowboys vibe for those who can remember.
James Fisher-Harris is a Kiwi-NRL alien…
Last night vs Knights
52mins, 19 runs - 192m @ 10.10m/run, 28 tackles @ 93.3%.
Fisher-Harris is only 25yrs and he has played all 7 games this season, on track for his fourth season playing 20+ games. Here’s a breakdown…
2016: 23 games, 71.14m/game.
2017: 15 games, 56m/game.
2018: 25 games, 93m/game.
2019: 24 games, 132m/game.
2020: 23 games, 179m/game.
This season Fisher-Harris is averaging 164m/game and he has more tackle busts (10) than missed tackles (8), with almost as many offloads (9) as missed tackles. Which is even more impressive considering Fisher-Harris has made 25+ tackles in every game this season. Penrith Panthers went to the Grand Final last year and while Fisher-Harris’ run metres have dipped slightly this season, he has started this season averaging more tackle busts and offloads per game than last season.
I’m eager to see Aotearoa Kiwis play footy and if these blokes add to their international caps, it’ll be plenty of fun…
James Fisher-Harris: 6 Tests.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona: 4 Tests.
Joseph Tapine: 6 Tests.
Briton Nikora: 5 Tests.
Isaac Liu: 7 Tests.
Brandon Smith: 8 Tests.
Braden Hamlin-Uele: 3 Tests.
Isaiah Papalii: 3 Tests.
Found this…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Look at this guy, man. Look at what he does...
A few months back when Ben Waine was first getting a run amongst the starters, I wrote a thing analysing one of his games pretty deeply and looking at what he was doing well, and what he needed improving. It’s funny how quickly the entire perspective on a player changes. All of that stuff is still true about Waineo, his link-up play is more than tidy, his work rate is lovely, however his movement needs work in order to keep him involved more often and some of his decision making remains raw.
But he’s scored five goals from 11 shots this season. An astounding strike-rate... even if you’d rather have him shooting more often (better a guy who scores 2 goals from 10 shots in a game rather than 1 goal from 1 shot – I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times: goal-scoring is about quantity not quality or efficiency). Goals are the ultimate currency and Waine is proving a guy who has a knack for popping up in the right place to score them. It’s a trend he had for the WeeNix. It’s a trend he had for the U20s. It’s a trend he’s now showing in the A-League and it’s a trend he’s playing himself into the chance to show at the Olympics in a few months.
As long as he keeps scoring goals, he’ll keep starting too. That’s the way that Uffie runs his shop: always stick with the form hands. Hence Oli Sail remains the starting goalkeeper for the Nix. Hence Tim Payne at CB. Hence Clayton Lewis continues to start in the middle. He’s a manager who doesn’t necessarily hand out a heap of opportunities – Sail didn’t play one minute last season – but when you do get one of those opportunities you know that if you perform you’ll be trusted to keep playing.
The frustrating thing from Waine’s performance last night against Western United is that after scoring in the seventh minute he didn’t have another shot all game and there were times he could have unleashed. It’s not that I think he’s aware of the strike-rate thing, more that he maybe doesn’t feel like he’s got licence to take control of attacks in the way that Uli Davila very obviously does (and should). Then again, that was a team-wide problem so it’d be wrong to focus on one guy. Clayton Lewis started lobbing these silly balls into the area for no reason, going away from the clever distribution that’s been making him so effective, while Louis Fenton had maybe his best game of the season, way more aggressive in getting forward down the right, but damn son put some sauce on those low crosses. Give a striker a chance.
It was a frustrating draw against a team who played for the entire second half with ten men. One more example of the Nix struggling to make in-game adjustments – and also lacking the variety that Reno Piscopo offers when up against a deep-sitting defensive line. I was excited to see if Charles Lokoli-Ngoy could mix it up when he came on but instead he hung out on the wing and lost the ball over and over. There was barely a pass completed between he and left-back sub James McGarry either which was just plain weird. Use the overlap, dudes. Ah well, they can do it all again on Sunday against Adelaide. Games coming thick and fast atm.
Here’s a twitter thread from the other day on Louis Fenton’s position. Happy to say he played like he’d been reading the tweets last night. More of that please. Also I’ve been live-tweeting Phoenix games for the last month or two so get involved in all that too. Help us scoop up towards 2k followers.
New kiwi NBL season tips off this weekend. The Showdown last year was awesome, now the Wellington Saints, Southland Sharks, and Hawke’s Bay Hawks are back in the pool as the league seeks to carry on the momentum they gained last time. In fact the opening game is the Showdown champs Otago Nuggets vs the previous proper season champs Wellington Saints, ha!
Still got that massive number of Aotearoa ballers playing in the Aussie comp at the moment so the a heap of them will drop back in once those duties are done - supposing they’re done in time. A few players might miss out since the playoffs are undecided in Oz, that draw has been an ongoing thing. Rule is that any player joining midseason has to play at least five games to be eligible for the playoffs so there you go. Should be good. Have a listen to the Limited Minutes podcast for a proper preview, those fellas do a fine job (and are both Friends of The Cache).
Wildcard’s Album Per Annum Project – 1990s
1990: Grateful Dead – Without A Net
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1992: Pavement – Slanted & Enchanted
1993: PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me
1994: Soundgarden - Superunknown
1995: Elastica - Elastica
1996: Willie Nelson - Spirit
1997: Sleater-Kinney – Dig Me Out
1998: Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
1999: Tom Waits – Mule Variations
Thomas Pynchon once wrote, I think it was Pynchon who wrote this anyway, that people are nostalgic for the decade of their birth. Fair play, this is the decade of my birth and it’s stacked with classics. Starting with a bit of a representational one, The Dead’s Without A Net is a collection of live tracks from the previous year designed to sound like a proper show. And it’s wonderful. Caught just as the band was getting back in true form, they mostly keep the silly material out of there while still laying down jams from the whole span of the band’s career. Properly produced so you get genuine fidelity which is a blessing to any Deadhead used to listening to audience tapes. Althea, Cassidy, Bird Song all in a row is enough to take you into the cosmic realms on an emotional level and a spiritual level both.
Damn, which 1991 album to pick? One of the great years of music but with all due respect to Pearl Jam, A Tribe Called Quest, Dinosaur Jr, Soundgarden, My Bloody Valentine, Temple of the Dog, Red Hot Chili Peppers... 1991 also saw Joni Mitchell’s Night Ride Home and Neil Young’s Weld which are mid-period belters from each... let’s not be silly here. Nirvana’s Nevermind is the pick. Stacked with influential hits and yet my favourite part is the back stretch of Drain You > Lounge Act > Stay Away > On A Plain. So good.
Moving on to Slanted & Enchanted, gotta have some Pavement in there. Indie rock groups are still trying to sound like these guys thirty years later. Probably have to say I prefer Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain overall but 1994’s spot was already taken. Not to knock S&E at all because it is also next to perfect. Imagine starting an album with Summer Babe (Winter Version) and somehow maintaining the pace from there. After which let’s chuck in some PJ Harvey because phwoar. The rawness and scathing energy of Rid Of Me is like nothing else you’ll ever hear. It’s violently vulnerable, dangerously sexual. It’s also stacked with undeniable tracks (including and all-timer Bob Dylan cover).
Soundgarden. Superunknown. I’ve had a couple Chris Cornell phases over the last six months or so (there’s a good biography of him come out recently) and in that time I have to admit that Badmotorfinger has made a genuine run at Superunknown for top SG record. But not quite. Superunknown was massive for a reason, it showcases the band at their bombastic, dynamic peak with Cornell just wailing over it all. Black Hole Sun is the one that everybody knows... but 4th of July is the ultimate Soundgarden track.
I don’t know why but I never hear much about that debut Elastica album. Maybe because I’ve otherwise not got much time for the whole Britpop scene... could just be me but I dunno if it gets the credit it deserves as one of the top ten rock albums of its decade. Waking Up is a song that gets stuck in my head (gratefully) at least three times a week. Waking up and getting up, indeed, has never been easy. Slacker glory right there.
1996 was the year that led me to start this whole list after a random argument I saw on twitter one day. Some rando claimed that Pearl Jam’s No Code was the best album of that year - I did some research through my own tunes and decided that nope the answer to that was either: Outkast (ATLiens), Sleater-Kinney (Call The Doctor), or Willie Nelson (Spirit). I’ve gone with Willie in the end. Spirit is a sleeper in his extremely long catalogue but I kinda think it might be the finest thing he’s ever done. For the most part it’s just him on guitar and sister Bobbie on piano. Really sparse, really letting some outstanding tunes (all written by Willie, no covers) shine. There’s a spanish/classical edge to Spirit – it’s definitely the peak of Willie’s recorded guitar wizardry. Shout out to Trigger. This one is an underrated masterpiece.
No need to say much about Sleater-Kinney’s Dig Me Out, it’s one ferocious punk-tinged jam on top of another adding up to rampant unconstrained magnificence. It’s a top ten album all-time for me. In as much as that’s even possible as a concept. After which... I was surprised while doing the list that hip hop albums were so under-represented (not that this is project is in any way about representation). I’ve ended up with rock, blues, jazz, country, folk albums all dominating a few years but there was this trend where most my favourite hip hop albums kept doing the New Zealand Olympic team thing and finishing achingly outside the medals. 1998 is the same. Legendary Lauryn Hill and Outkast albums and yet I’ve gotta play by the rules and take Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels as an album I listen to as much as anything else from this decade. Lake Charles breaks me up even after fifty-odd listens. Lucinda’s the best.
Finally Tom Waits was a game-day decision. Literally listening to Mule Variations right now as I write this, a final nudge of confirmation after the Drive-By Truckers’ Pizza Deliverance (a far more substantial album than the name suggests, served up by the greatest southern rock band in history, suck it Lynyrd Skynyrd... nah fair play to Skynyrd, whose first two albums don’t contain a single song less than excellent. But DBT’s still kick their arse). Waitsy is unique. Waitsy is a multi-faceted genius. Mule Variations stands up with all his classics (of which there are plenty, I don’t even think I’d have MV top three for TW so shows what we’re working with), adding a little more world-weary wisdom of love and redemption to the... can’t call it formula because Tom Waits is a tough nut to crack but you get the idea.
Which means that we’re almost done here. Just two more editions. I’m starting to think that I should have done this with movies instead of music as there’d be more interesting things to say (and I’d be able to go a lot further back... maybe. The movies are there but dunno how many I’ve seen) but hey maybe that’s the next project. You’ll have to give me some time to figure it all out. Don’t expect that any time soon. The idea’s simmering in the noggin though, don’t worry.