El Niche Cache
October 12, 2020
The Niche Cast Podcast
Full kiwi sports wrap styles. Recording tomorrow, published Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.
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Reading Menu
2020/21 Plunket Shield: The Low Key Funky Prospects (Cricket)
The Wildcard’s NFL Picks - Week 5 (NFL)
White Ferns In Australia: ODI Series Debrief (+ Mandatory Kiwi Women's Cricket Info) (Cricket)
Joseph Parker vs Junior Fa: It’s Happening (Boxing)
What About The Plunket Shield? And Other Stuff From The NZC Summer Schedule (Cricket)
2020/21 Plunket Shield: Blackcaps Fringe Business (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Lydia Ko finished tied-18th at the Women’s PGA Championship.
There were only two tournaments for Ko in September, so I’ll save the full Lydia Ko Mixtape for a September/October double up. In September Ko had results of 6th and tied-42nd, then to start October off Ko had rounds of 68, 70, 74 and 71 over the weekend.
I’m keeping track of Ko’s notable stats for the Mixtapes and here’s how they are looking…
Average Driving Distance
2019: 245.47 (152)
2020 August: 254.33 (83rd)
2020 September: 255.94 (53rd)
2020 October: 256.79 (51)
Driving Accuracy
2019: 70.08% (102)
2020 August: 63.67% (160)
2020 September: 64.10% (134th)
2020 October: 64.12% (128)
Greens In Regulation
2019: 67.73% (96)
2020 August: 68.33% (65)
2020 September: 70.37% (30th)
2020 October: 70.43 (33)
Putts per GIR
2019: 1.78 (23)
2020 August: 1.75 (10)
2020 September: 1.77 (13th)
2020 October: 1.79 (17)
Putting Average
2019: 29.15 (7)
2020 August: 28.85 (9)
2020 September: 29.30 (14)
2020 October: 29.61 (19)
Scoring Average
2019: 70.98 (39)
2020 August: 70.60 (12)
2020 September: 70.48 (10)
2020 October: 70.52 (12)
Leigh Kasperek named in Women’s T20 Challenge.
India hosts a three-team women’s T20 thing to be played over the course of a week, smack bang at the same time as WBBL and while that’s rather silly, it presents an opportunity for Leigh Kasperek to play. Kasperek didn’t play vs Australia as she was apparently in Scotland and I reckon she would have helped the White Ferns, especially if she and leggy Anna Peterson were both available.
Kasperek is in the Velocity team and her ODI bowling average is 20.70, with a T20I average of 13.46 with her offies. Peterson averages 17.85 in ODI and 23.72 in T20I cricket, which when packaged alongside Amelia Kerr’s 23.68avg in ODI and 19.89 in T20I cricket gives the White Ferns a solid yet funky spin attack.
Surely Aotearoa and Australia could just kick a droppie to win that Test, right?
In commentary, I think it was Nisbo who said that the All Blacks don’t resort to drop goals and both teams had moments with the footy in perfect drop goal territory but didn’t even set up. I’m not overly fussed with this, but I do find it interesting how teams in either code set up to win a game of footy - a drop goal is a tool primarily used to win a game of footy. Teams either fall into automatic ‘let’s win this fuckin’ game’ mode and players know their roles, where to be and what to do for someone to kick the drop goal or teams fluff around as if they’ve never discussed the droppie.
All good. What smacked me in the face upon reflection was that this was the All Blacks first game together with a new group, new nuts and bolts. With regards to kicking the droppie, establishing the ‘drop goal procedure’ probably wasn’t high on the agenda during their training week and logistically that shouldn’t be surprising at all as there’s so much to do for a fresh group in their first week of training.
That applies to the result also. In no way should anyone be stressing about the All Blacks and how their forecasting forward under coach Ian Foster. They drew this Test against Australia while having 41 percent possession, meaning they scored the same number of points and tries (2) as their opponent despite Australia dominating the footy.
Prior to Rieko Ioane stepping on the touchline leading up to Jordie Barrett’s try, Australia had 11 phases, then the All Blacks get the footy and immediately attack.
Rieko Ioane’s no try came from a lineout mishap from Australia - immediately punished … if Ioane plonked the ball down properly.
Aaron Smith’s try came from an excellent set move, while Barrett’s try and Ioane’s no try came from absorbing pressure, then flipping the switch. The All Blacks made 183 tackles to Australia’s 127 tackles and yet the All Blacks had no issues making extra defensive efforts. With Aotearoa making more tackles, some how Australia missed twice (24) as many tackles as Aotearoa (11) and the true beauty of All Blacks footy is absorbing the phases and attacking without the footy as Aotearoa had 14 turnovers won to Australia’s 6.
If I’m coach Foster, I’ve watched my team play with far less footy and almost win based off their work without the footy. That’s a lovely baseline from which the combinations, clinical finishes to games and general funk can come from.
Sam Cane made 26 tackles with no missed tackles, a cheeky 2 turnovers won as well.
The All Blacks loose forwards (Cane, Ardie Savea and Shannon Frizell) had no missed tackles and 5 turnovers won. Australia’s loosies had 5 missed tackles and 2 turnovers won.
This is a Richie Mounga statline in a game with 41 percent possession and what must have been an Aussie tactic as Mounga was always under pressure, often hit late…
27 run metres, 10 runs, 2 beaten defenders, 16 passes 2 offloads, 2 turnovers conceded.
Jordie Barrett was the only All Black with more run metres and no All Black had more than Mounga’s 10 runs. I was surprised checking that because it felt like Mounga was a non-factor and that’s room to grow, but if that’s a Mounga baseline then I reckon we will see Mounga hit a few nek levels in the coming Tests.
The All Blacks are the best because they always add a fresh layer to their style of play and set trends for the rest of the rugby world. This type of play isn’t super fresh, but it’s straight from the NRL second man play and while we’ve seen this in various levels of rugby for a few years, this feels a bit wider than usual and has an intentional set up with Jack Goodhue tucked behind Damien McKenzie to disguise the play:
I’ll be keeping an eye on the ‘pods’ that we’ve come to see a lot of in rugby and the All Blacks led the way in setting up a couple three-man pods from a ruck. From there came the pods lined up flat, with a pass going behind them to the #10 etc. Are the All Blacks still building their attack on that pod system or do they have something new to offer?
Australia are a good benchmark because Aotearoa plays them so often and there’s always a new Aussie coach trying to stop the All Blacks dominance. Right now they will feel like they are right there with the All Blacks, although what I know about the All Blacks and what makes them different is their growth and development, always. Australia will feel right there, while Aotearoa will feel like there is a lot more to come.
Speaking of Ardie Savea…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Some shenanigans going on in the Premier League today, I see. Liverpool and Manchester United are leading a proposal to drastically reshuffle the competition, this in the aftermath of all the financial dramas that lower league clubs are going through and the pressure on the PL to pay for it. Under the proposal suggested there’d be enormous quantities of money heading down the pyramid... and there’d also be two fewer teams in the PL as well as the League Cup and Community Shield being abolished and the nine most ‘established’ clubs in the top flight would get to make all the calls about what goes on when consensus is required - at the moment all 20 clubs get to cast a vote with a 14-team majority determining that consensus.
Slightly surprisingly, the Premier League itself has come out and slammed the proposal. Surprising not because they disagree with a proposal – The Big Picture Proposal, they’re calling it – which is directly in contrast with their interests (fewer games which means smaller profits and that alone is gonna upset them). But surprising in that they didn’t hold back in their rapid statement. Pretty ruthless as far as business talk goes...
Which... fair enough. The proposal itself just feels kinda dumb to me. There’s no problem with the Premier League’s format, it’s just a matter of ensuring that more money finds its way down the pyramid. And while this club-led proposal does take care of that it feels like the sugar that makes the poison go down smooth. Limiting the power broker clubs and making it harder for teams to get stay in the top flight or even to get promoted in the first place wreaks of a consolidation of power for the current in-group. The kind of consolidation of power that offers a reliable bottom line for business purposes but takes away from the unpredictability of the sport itself. Nah, can’t go along with that.
Something does need to be done to protect the clubs in lower divisions and so far the Premier League itself has failed to do that... which is how we ended up here with the clubs stepping up. Same as how there is a case for getting rid of the second cup competition and the glorified friendly shield match... but are we getting rid of them because they’re obsolete or because not having them in the match calendar leaves more room for pesky international windows and lucrative pre-season overseas tours? I’m suspicious.
I can’t see this Project Big Picture thing actually happening. Smells like a high-octane bargaining ploy to me. But I guarantee we’ll hear a fair bit more of this before there’s any resolution because this is basically a process of reckoning, one which the Premier League are not alone in dealing with these days. All the old ways of doing things, they don’t really work in this shifting reality. Sports are no different to the rest of society where there’s just been this assumption for so long that there’s always more money to be made, that exponential growth can go on forever. The Premier League’s been getting more and more valuable since day one... suddenly a whole lot of cash has left the game and this is what it looks like when the rich and powerful are forced to readjust.
Still not as ugly as the drama the A-League’s been going through... but at least they’ve had a proper breakthrough now. Last week the player’s association agreed on the salary cap limit dropping from $3.2m to $2.1m (Aussie dollars) for next season. It had to happen – that drop of about a third is pretty consistent numbers with how much Fox Sports took out of the game with their renegotiated broadcast deal.
However the important thing for the PFA was that they got protections on existing contracts. Clubs can negotiate pay cuts with individual players but they cannot enforce them. Players only have to take pay cuts if they choose to in good faith. The minimum salary will not be lowered. Players were in a very vulnerable place for a while there and shout out to the PFA for doing what a union is there to do and protecting their interests. Now the path is cleared to start talking about when the season’s gonna actually happen... with a late-December start being bandied about at the moment.
Come to think of it, that’d mean the Phoenix players are away from home over Christmas, right? So... we gonna get all frantic and indignant about that? Or do we only reserve that response for the All Blacks? You know, as if pro sports aren’t supposed to come with acceptable sacrifices now and then, as if missing holidays isn’t something that sportsfolk all over the planet do. Mate, if you’re an NBA player then you might be playing on Christmas Day. Premier Leaguers play on Boxing Day. NFL on Thanksgiving. The Blackcaps have a Boxing Day Test match this year. Aussie cricketers do it every year. Not that big of a deal, to be honest.
Tell ya what is a big deal though... The Late Night Big Breakfast is back!
You and me both, Hilz. You and me both. That first episode had at least three moments of tears-in-the-eyes, jaw-sore-from-laughing hilarity. Just like Leigh and the team have been delivering ever since the Moon TV days. TVNZ On Demand will have the new series. Moonflix has you covered for the old stuff.