El Niche Cache
January 11th, 2020
Reading Menu
2020/21 Blackcaps Test Summer Notebook (Cricket)
Aotearoa vs Pakistan: Test Summer Over (Cricket)
Monday Morning Dummy Half: Storm Reinvigoration/Brewing Aotearoa Tigers (NRL)
The Wildcard’s Top 10 Albums of 2020 (Music)
The Premmy Files – 2020 Women’s Premiership Team of the Season (Football)
Scotty’s Word
New Orleans Pelicans are 4-5 and Steven Adams is averaging…
31.1 mins, 8.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.6 steals, 0.9 blocks, 2 turnovers, 10.3 points, .667 Field Goal %.
2.6 assists, 1.6 steals and .667 FG% are Adams’ career high in those categories.
Steve is doing his kiwi thing for the little bro Zion #steamroller…
Dan Hooker vs Michael Chandler is coming up, meaning I’ve got to get some 1-outs prep in…
Strikes Landed per Min/Accuracy
Hooker: 4.98 @ 48%.
Chandler: 4.08 @ 47%.
Takedowns per 15mins/Accuracy
Hooker: 0.74 @ 34%.
Chandler: 2.57 @ 41%.
Takedown Defence
Hooker: 79%.
Chandler: 80%.
Submission Average per 15mins
Hooker: 0.3
Chandler: 1.5
The framework around this fight is a bit weird as this will be Michael Chandler’s first UFC fight after moving across from Bellator. As you can see, Chandler’s got a pretty hefty grappling advantage and this is another insight into the City Kickboxing recipe as they combine world-class striking with solid takedown defence. Hooker has slightly better striking, Chandler’s far busier with takedowns and yet Hooker (like all CKB fighters) has good takedown defence.
The doosra is that this is Chandler’s first UFC fight, while Hooker low key fought Paul Felder and Dustin Poirier in 2020 - two of the division’s upper echelon. Chandler gets an automatic upper echelon fight in his first UFC fight due to his status with Bellator, although Chandler wasn’t exactly a crazy dominant force; Chandler has three losses to fighters who moved from Bellator to UFC and had a loss in 2019 before two wins before leaving.
Solid. Not quite worthy of automatic UFC monster status though. Hooker is coming off the loss to Poirier and that was a strange fight from Hooker as he quickly moved away from what was working and went into ‘hearty scrap mode’. Translation: Hooker is best when picking shots, being a sniper from distance where the CKB striking flow can control fights.
Hooker’s a monster because he loves that hearty scrap mode though. Hooker is taller than Chandler and has a 75” vs 71” reach advantage - again playing into the CKB recipe.
In the Big Bash League…
Colin Munro has three 50+ scores in a row and five 20+ scores in 8inns for Perth Scorchers. Munro is currently 11th in runs @ 130.93sr and Perth is 5th (4-3).
Adam Milne has bowled 6inns with 3w @ 7.43rpo for Sydney Thunder who are 2nd (6-3). Milne is doing a job for his team and is playing in a winning team so that’s good enough, although he isn’t taking wickets with 4inns of 0w. In his last two outings, Milne was good vs Hobart Hurricanes with 1w @ 6.25rpo and then against Munro’s Scorchers, Milne took 0w @ 9rpo.
Listening to this while writing - shout out Aotearoa dub/vibes.
Wildcard’s Notebook
You know what’s an underrated kiwi sports story at the moment? Basketballer Charlisse Leger-Walker. She is doing absolute wonders at Washington State University, delivering huge buckets as WSU look good to make the national tournament. Here she is chucking up the winner against Arizona (who are seventh seeded in the country by AP) in overtime for a huge victory...
CLW was 16 years old when she became the youngest ever Tall Fern. She’s now 19 and there are a few reasons why this is such a cool story. The highlights are only one of them – she’s averaging 18.8 points, 5.3 rebounds & 4.2 assists per game (and those assist totals have been spiking the last couple weeks) for a winning team that’s already sprung a couple upsets this season. She’s also playing alongside her older sister Krystal who would have already graduated from Northern Colorado except she transferred to WSU (following a couple ex-NC coaches) which meant she had to sit out a year. All of that is awesome. As is the fact that Charlisse is only a freshman doing all this... and long term that could be the biggest aspect of all because we’ve still only ever had one kiwi in the WNBA before (there are a couple Aussies who were born in NZ but they don’t count). Megan Compain played five times (19 combined mins) for the Utah Starzz back in 1997. It’s only a matter of time before numero dos makes it so it ain’t like there’s any extra pressure on Charlisse Leger-Walker... but no doubt about it she’s already one of the best prospects to come out of Aotearoa probably ever.
Here’s a bit from a pretty cool interview with Megan Compain on New Zealand Hoops talking about the experience of playing in the WNBA (she also raves about how good CLW is in that chat):
“Hard! Challenging! Exciting! I was the youngest player on my team, one of the youngest in the league in the inaugural season of the WNBA. I was 20 pounds lighter in muscle mass then other players my size and position, so I definitely got shoved around the court quite a bit. It was a huge step up from the college basketball I had been playing but a phenomenal experience to put yourself against the best of the best in women’s basketball from around the world. It was a privilege and a thrill to wear the WNBA badge on my number 22 jersey for the Utah Starzz, and to be the first New Zealander and still the only female to make a team and play in the league. I GENUINELY am hopeful that in the not too distant future I can finally say I’m not the only one.”
Keeping it on the topic of kiwi ladies doing sporting things... Claudia Bunge and Annalie Longo both got big minutes as Melbourne Victory absolutely savaged their crosstown rivals Melbourne City in the derby. A 6-0 win, blowing them out late. And who, pray tell, got them started?
Yeah, get in.
All three NZers at Perth made their W-League debuts in their season opener. Olivia Chance also got on late off the bench for Brisbane to make her first WL appearance. Paige Satchell has already played three times for Canberra thanks to the skewed fixture list. All seven of them in amongst it from the beginning... just hoping 18 year old Te Reremoana Walker can also sneak a debut in there for Newcastle Jets at some stage this campaign and then we’ll really be cooking with gas. Check out this save from Lily Alfeld for Perth...
That’s an insane denial right there.
And now because of course it’s a Monday with the NZ Premiership back from it’s mini-break, it’s time for the new favourite...
ISPS HANDA MEN’S PREMIERSHIP TEAM OF THE WEEK – WEEK 7
GK – Scott Basalaj (Team Wellington) – ‘Twas a battle of the keepers as TW drew with Wanderers and Basalaj had a couple more quality stops so he wins. There were several shape close-downs and this one tipped save in particular to deny Jordan Lamb and preserve the point for his team. That’s what the best goalkeepers will do.
RB – Finn Surman (Wellington Phoenix) – It was an overload of CBs this week (with a few unlucky absentees) so Surman’s gotta slide out to the right to make it work. He did kinda score an own goal against Canterbury... but other than that he was superb, coping as well as anyone could with Garbhan Coughlan and making a couple essential defensive interventions to make up for the oggie. Fella’s only 17 years old and he’s made two Teams of the Week from three starts.
CB – Fergus Neil (Hawke’s Bay United) – Big upset win for The Bay and Neil was immense at the back for them, playing as the left central man in the back three (having mostly been a wingback/fullback this season). Winning headers, muscling up, throwing himself around as HBU learned the lessons from a few blown results earlier in the season to hold on late for a valuable win.
CB – Tino Contratti (Hamilton Wanderers) – Contratti is one of those defenders who gets himself on the highlight reel with acrobatic clearances and surging tackles... but this was more of a clinical showing from the Argentine. Against the very formidable Hamish Watson and Sam Mason-Smith he was pretty much flawless. Watto hasn’t been as well contained as he was here all season.
LB – Kelvin Kalua (Eastern Suburbs) – The utility man for that Suburbs defence, Kalua can play anywhere across the backline and do a first-choice starter’s job. This week it was left back and he was the best on the park for Suburbs. On a better day, with a few more of their first string attackers, he’d have gotten a couple assists for his efforts but this wasn’t one of those days. Still gotta respect the work though.
CM – Cory Mitchell (Canterbury United) – Tough work from the Dragons against a speedy WeeNix front four but they did the job, muscling them aside for a 1-1 draw. Men against boys stuff, using their advantages at the back. But it was the midfield shield of Cory Mitchell which stood out most. Not the first time he’s served up a midfield sweeper masterclass either – only Tommy Semmy has made more TOWs this season.
CM – Cam Howieson (Auckland City) – And here we get into the most impressive part of week seven and that’s Auckland City’s attacking crew. Yousif Ali and Dylan Manickum are unlucky to miss out too. Howieson scored one goal and not only was he picking clever passes around the Waitakere box but he brought out the skills as well. Old mate must’ve got a new trickbox for Xmas.
CM – Karan Mandair (Hawke’s Bay United) – Usually more of a defensive midfielder but here ended up playing as a ten... and was just as great. Picking passes over the top. Getting on the ball in dangerous areas. Linking midfielders and strikers. Mandair won the free kick that led to the first goal and sparked the move for the second goal. With Jesse Randall already off to USA uni HBU needed others to step up in attack and Mandair certainly did that. As did another guy you’ll read about in a few seconds.
FW – Mohamed Awad (Auckland City) – See, this is what City were missing at the start of the season. They’ve got great players for holding possession and great players for getting into goal-scoring areas but they needed someone like Awad to link things up (shout out also to Yousif Ali Al-Kalisy who has had two strong games doing more of the same). Awad was borderline unplayable against Waitakere. He scored the first goal, struck the frame of the goal a couple more times, and basically just served up one of the best individual performances of the whole campaign.
FW – Gavin Hoy (Hawke’s Bay United) – Karan Mandair largely created the two goals, Gavin Hoy brilliantly put them both away. The free kick was magical but the second goal with all that build up and the rocket finish was arguably even better. Heroic stuff from the Canadian, whose quick movement kept him threatening all afternoon – and if he could dodge the offside flag better he might’ve had three or four.
FW – Logan Rogerson (Auckland City) – First half of that game and Rogerson’s ability to get in behind the defence through the channels was a feature of almost everything that City created. Not always as clinical as he could have been but when you’re that involved you don’t need to be. He set up the first goal (via a deflection) and scored the second. Had a penalty shout as well. A header that was tipped onto the crossbar. And to think City still have Emiliano Tade to fit back into this forward line... jeezus.
