El Niche Cache
May 10, 2021
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 16
The Niche Cast - Verbal Smokescreens (Kiwi NRL/Blackcaps)
Reading Menu
Riding The Young Wave: Reasons For Otago Sparks Optimism (Cricket)
Welly Nix: The Sudden Rise of Oli Sail, Starting Goalkeeper (Football)
Exploring Wellington Firebirds Recruitment and Player Development (Cricket)
27fm Album Jukebox – April 2021 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors Spine Balance
Losing 38-32 to Manly Sea Eagles wasn’t terrible for NZ Warriors and the long slog through an NRL season continues. Things did seem a bit chaotic with the play-makers though and in the post-game comments, coach Nathan Brown questioned his use of Reece Walsh coming off the bench.
When Walsh came on, he played as a left-edge half. While it may seem reasonably easy for this all to happen, flipping a bunch of key figures around against a good team is unlikely to be fruitful. Chanel Harris-Tavita moved from the left edge to the right with Kodi Nikorima moving into hooker.
Wayde Egan was going well at hooker - in 54mins he had a try assist and 3 dummy half runs which is nice for Egan.
Nikorima and CHT were going well as a halves combo. CHT’s first try saw him and Nikorima swap sides, ball goes out left to Nikorima who rolls back in-field and CHT is steaming into a gap…
CHT is also a unique half as he can impact a game defensively. With everyone in their normal roles, they defend better as they’ve got some combos and chemistry to work with - helping Nikorima on the right, understanding how/when CHT will rush up and put a shot on.
Nikorima hasn’t played hooker in a while either. Then with Walsh and CHT in the halves, the Warriors had two left-footed kickers in the halves. Having one is great and whether it’s been CHT in the past, or Walsh more recently (even Sean O’Sullivan’s got lefty vibes if I remember correctly) there has usually been a left-footed half on the left side of the ruck.
This gives either kicker and extra slither of time as kick pressure from the inside (ruck area) have to chase to the outside of the half. A left-footer kicking on the right means that kick pressure is always busy rushing the kicker - on the left these halves can cruise to their kick. With two lefties and Walsh on the left, CHT is A) not operating how he’s always played and B) under the pump.
Two righties is ok as it is more common. One lefty, one righty is perfect. Two lefties is niggly.
I can see the desire to get Walsh in the team, it’s just very chaotic to move all those pieces around mid-game. Egan’s played 80mins in six of his nine games this year and while he’s not a superstar, his basic skillset is all good for this Warriors team. CHT needs time to find his groove and fiddling with his role won’t help him. I’d also like to see Nikorima build a genuine combo with CHT; Warriors haven’t really had a multi-year halves combo to build with.
Mid-game, this was chaotic. Monday morning and it’s tricky to see how these pieces come together. Chalk it all up as depth for now.
Lydia Ko - The Gritty Kiwi
11th in Thailand for Lydia Ko and she did slip down the leaderboard on the final day, which was a bummer as she dipped out of the top-10. Factor in the Warriors stuff above and the good thing for Ko is that there is a baseline of solid performances; both Warriors and Ko were in the mix despite not being their best.
Another cross-code insight taps into my observations of Otago Sparks cricket and their concentration of young talent. Having so many young players doesn’t help Otago Sparks compete in Aotearoa women’s cricket, although it is a fun pocket of sports stuff to be aware of. In women’s golf, Thailand is the same type of fun pocket.
Three Thai golfers finished ahead of Ko and the winner was Ariya Jutanugarn who is 25-years-old and she made her debut way back in 2015. Atthaya Thitikul was 2nd and she’s 18yrs, while 21-year-old Patty Tavatanakit finished tied-3rd and she won the ANA Inspiration this year where Ko finished 2nd.
Since Ko emerged on the LPGA Tour, South Korea broke through as a dominant nation. Now it is Thailand that is churning out new LPGA Tour players and I’m always fascinated in how these developmental pockets unfold - all it takes is intention to build a really good system. Otago Sparks have a small army of young cricketers emerging, Thailand is doing the same in women’s golf - seek out these pockets and start learning.
With regards to Ko - those three Thai golfers were either the new Lydia Ko a few years back (Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn) or they are the new Lydia Ko right now. Tavatanakit has burst on to the LPGA Tour as a superstar this year for example…
Tavatanakit whacks her drives 281.31m - 3rd best.
Ko whacks her drives 260m - 63rd best.
I’ll save you from all the golf stat chat (they’ll feature in the next Lydia Ko Mixtape) and suggest that Ko plays golf like a kiwi. Same way Steven Adams does his NBA duties like a hearty kiwi and playing his role. Same way Chris Wood is scoring Premier League goals like a kiwi and so on. Around the world we have athletes performing at the highest level and doing so in a certain kiwi style.
While Ko lacks the booming drive craze sweeping across men’s and women’s golf, Ko is excellent at getting on to the green from anywhere and sinking putts. The basics.
Given the journey Ko has been on, for her to be competing at a high level right now is evidence of supreme grit. How Ko plays golf is in tune with gritty kiwi sporting excellence.
New Czarface & MF DOOM (praise jah)
Wildcard’s Notebook
First things first, if there’s an extended Steven Adams interview then it leads the way. This one’s a little silly as it was linked in to ESPN’s Marvel x NBA crossover promotion from the Pelicans vs Warriors game from the other day but Stevie does enjoy an opportunity to nerd out now and then so here you go…
On a similar bend, have a geeze at brand new first episode of Football Ferns captain Ali Riley’s new cooking show...
Right on. Good fun.
I’ve got a funky one for you now, watch this American Olympic qualifying race for the 100 metres and keep an eye on the big guy second from the top (so... lane two). That’s DK Metcalf. He’s a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, an incredibly fast person, a former high school track star, and he thought he’d test those things at the Olympic trials...
He came last in his heat. But to be fair to him, he ran a 10.36 which is still lightning quick. Nothing shameful about that whatsoever. The New Zealand record is 10.11 run by Gus Nketia in 1994 - whose son Eddie came close to matching that recently with a slightly wind-assisted 10.12 back in March and that’s still a way off the 10.05 mark which is the Olympic qualifying standard (which Eddie Osei-Nketia will need to hit to get to Tokyo, which is looking less than likely now – though he’s 19 years old so the 2022 Commonwealth Games feel like more of a target for now).
As Metcalf said an an interview afterwards, track speed is different to “football speed”. Just goes to show how quick these folks truly are. It’s one of those things where it’s fun to speculate about how different athletes might go in different sports, but it’s actually rare that a specific skill set is transferable.
We get the odd union/league convert in these parts but those sports have such a big crossover both physically and also culturally (All Blacks watch Warriors games, Warriors watch All Blacks games, all dating back to childhood – NRL teams sign first XV players, etc.) but that’s a rare exception. Plus there are always kids who excel in multiple sports before specialising which leads you to wonder about the path not taken. But elite sports success requires a level of focus and dedication that you just can’t chop and change between.
For example, one of the ones you often hear is that LeBron James could have been an amazing NFL tight end. I mean, sure, physically speaking. But there’s a lot more that goes into it than just the physical stuff. LeBron’s mind is hardwired to basketball, his NBA abilities go far beyond his physical gifts. Watch him pass the ball, the vision he has, and you know what’s up. He’s in the perfect sport for him.
So as much fun as it’d be to scoop up all the fastest Super Rugby players out there, there’s no way that any of them could compete with professional sprinters short of quitting rugby and dedicating themselves full-time to being a runner. So many sprint races are lost in the first second getting out of the blocks and it takes years to refine those starts perfectly. Every high performance athlete has had to put in so much specific work to get to where they are and you can’t just transition idly between them. Not in this day and age, at least (in fifty years’ time, do you reckon there’ll have been a single other Blackcap/All Black dual-international after Jeff Wilson?).
But shout out to DK Metcalf because he had a crack. He wanted to test himself and he saw exactly what’s up. That time is some serious heat too... it’s only 0.04 seconds slower than what EON ran in the Aussie nationals three weeks back. To do that during his NFL offseason given that he currently weighs somewhere around the 104kg mark is genuinely amazing.
Metcalf has to muscle up for the hits he takes in his day job whereas a pro sprinter is shedding some of that upper body strength to maximise their speed. Back at his Draft Combine, Metcalf ran the 40 yard dash in 4.33 seconds which was only fourth for his position that year but it was the fastest ever for someone of his weight or above. That’s what we’re talking about here. The definition of “fast” is a pretty contextual one, there’s track fast and there’s NFL fast and there’s all sorts of other fasts and track fast is a specific thing to that sport.
Now have a peek at Bill Tuiloma scoring a lovely free kick for Portland in the MLS. It was a stoppage time consolation but still a banger of a strike. He doesn’t score too often (he probably should score more, he’s a beast in the air from set pieces too) but when he does they’re often fantastic efforts.
Granted, that defensive wall’s got some blame to cop, which technically is the goalkeeper’s fault. Drag them across a metre or two and not sure that shot finds its way past them... but that’s not Billy’s problem.
This is the fourth straight season in which BT’s scored exactly one MLS goal. Pretty similar areas to Chris Wood scoring 10+ in four straight Premier League seasons... though Tui’s gotten his 2021 goal out of the way in just his third appearance (his team’s fourth game) so he’s got ages left to make this the year when he finally gets that sneaky second in a campaign. Happy to report that he played really well outside that goal too, and with an injury or two in the backline he’s hopefully gonna get a run of games over the next wee while… just in time for the American/Scandinavian contingent to pick up the Flying Kiwis baton as most European seasons come to a close.