El Niche Cache
May 21, 2021
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 18
The Niche Cast: Wellington Phoenix Alert
Reading Menu
Flying Kiwis – May 18 (Football)
Welly Nix: Envisioning A Future Without Ulises Davila (Football)
Slow Cooking Blackcaps Test Contenders (Cricket)
Riding The Young Wave: Reasons For Otago Sparks Optimism (Cricket)
A Tribute To BJ Watling, New Zealand’s Best Ever Test Wicket Keeper (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Simi Sasagi Kiwi-NRL debut…
Last night Simi Sasagi made his NRL debut for Newcastle Knights at centre, making him the fourth Kiwi-NRL debutant this year after 13 Kiwi-NRL debuts last year. Sasagi played at centre with Auckland homie Starford To’a outside him in the Knights loss to North Queensland Cowboys and the Knights are one of many NRL teams to bump up their Kiwi-NRL recruitment in recent years.
The Knights strategy appears in tune with Sydney Roosters as they are signing players at a younger age and bringing them through their SG Ball pathways (usually Under 18). I’ve got some Roosters updates below and the Knights bumped up their Aotearoa recruitment with To’a who came through St Paul’s College in Auckland. Unfortunately for Jirah Momoisea he suffered a season-ending injury earlier this year after coming close to a Knights debut last year; Momoisea was also recruited from St Paul’s College.
When Momosiea is healthy, all signs point to him making an NRL debut and the Knights also have Glenfield Greyhounds junior Christian Ma’anaima in their roster. Ma’anaima has been named on a couple extended benches this season and like Momoisea is a next-up forward. The Knights also have Chris Veaila who is playing in reserve grade and is a Waiteamata Seagulls/MAGS junior.
And another one: Wellington’s Daniel Ticehurst is also on the Knights' NRL fringes and he was part of the 2019 U19 Junior Kiwis.
All my information points to Ticehurst moving from Wellington (Aotea College) to Brisbane (Ipswich State) and then joined the Knights. Ticehurst seems to have moved across the ditch on his own accord while To’a, Sasagi, Momoisea, Ma’anaima, Veaila were all recruited by the Knights from Auckland.
Sydney Roosters stay busy in Aotearoa…
As you’ve probably guessed all this information is coming from scouring the same agents/HS Top 200 that you can look through. None of this is secretive inside word stuff, I’m just doing the dirty mahi to stay on top of all of this and the Stan Martin/Dixon McIver player agent team has dropped two new Roosters signings from Aotearoa. All this info comes directly from their Facebook page and putting FB stuff in this emails gets a bit niggly so I’ll just spin yarns and you can swing back to their page if you want.
Roosters have signed Javahn Stevenson, who started at prop for Palmerston North Boys High School 1st 15 last weekend. Stevenson has also played rugby league for Central Vipers.
Sport Vision (Stan Martin and Dixon McIver) also posted that the Roosters have signed Demetrius Kilisimasi who is from Pakuranga Jaguars/Marist Saints in Auckland.
Roosters have Kani Manu (Joseph Manu’s younger brother) and Petelo Kepaoa (Asu Kepaoa’s younger brother). Roosters have Cassius Tia (Auckland halfback) and Benaiah Ioelu (Auckland hooker) in their juniors. As I’ve said many times before, Roosters also have the Moala-Graham twins, Aso Fretton and Naufahu Whyte on the fringes of NRL. Whyte is nearing an NRL debut.
All of which has me thinking about a Kiwi-NRL Power Rankings which will take into account the top-end performances and club-wide recruitment from Aotearoa. I drop bits and bobs in these emails and have been thinking about the best way to clearly lay this stuff out to spread this message. Right now I reckon the best option is re-jigging the Monday Morning Dummy Half to a Monday morning Kiwi-NRL Power Rankings and here’s a wee taste…
Sydney Roosters
Melbourne Storm
Parramatta Eels
New Zealand Warriors
Penrith Panthers
Manly Sea Eagles
Canberra Raiders
Newcastle Knights
Wests Tigers
Gold Coast Titans
North Queensland Cowboys
South Sydney Rabbitohs
Cronulla Sharks
Brisbane Broncos
Canterbury Bulldogs
St George Illawara Dragons
A lot of that requires explaining and context, so stay tuned for Monday’s first drop.
NZ Warriors extend Taniela Otukolo…
This is a pocket that should excite NZ Warriors fans as they have signed dynamic dummy half Taniela Otukolo for a few more years. I reckon the Warriors have stuck with Wayde Egan and let Karl Lawton go because they love Otukolo as well as Temple Kalepo who are both powerful dummy half runners. Both have been playing Under 21s for Redcliffe Dolphins and it appears as though Kalepo has been signed until end of 2022 - Otukolo’s deal is to end of 2024.
Funny freestyle and skillful freestyle…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Here’s one for ya...
That had been in the bag for a couple weeks based on the tea leaves but it’s lovely to know it’ll be confirmed within an hour or two of this email going out. Can’t take anything for granted in the A-League. That’ll cap a week full of signing news capitalising on the Wellywood homecoming (now sounding more and more like the crowd might crack the 20k mark and then some!) - with Clayton Lewis, Oli Sail, and Ben Waine also re-committing to the club for multiple seasons.
Waine’s case is the funky one. The other two were kinda sitters: Lewis is a Wellington lad while Sail is from Auckland but came up through the WP academy, both are enjoying (and taking full advantage of) their first seasons of consistent starting football as professionals. They’re playing great, they’re loving it. Those negotiations would not have taken very long.
Ben Waine on the other hand is also having a breakout season but at 19 years old he’s got bigger ambitions and it’s fascinating to see he turned down a legit offer from Coventry City in the English Championship to stay at the Nix. His logic there was he felt he’d be better served with at least another year of A-League startership as opposed to jumping into an academy team and having to work his way up in England or sitting on the bench or whatever. Rate that from him.
I was sorta on the fence about whether Callum McCowatt ought to have done that too but his situation was a little different. FC Helsingor is a lower level than the Championship, albeit that’s a team on an upwards trajectory, and he obviously had more assurances about his role there given a) he was joining a couple teammates he’s been playing with since he was a kid in Eli Just & Dalton Wilkins, and b) it was a club that had tired to recruit him before he’d ultimately joined the Nix.
Lewis and Sail signed two-year extensions. At a guess I reckon Talay might sign for two years too but we’ll find out at 2pm. Waine on the other hand signed for three years and there’s no doubt the club did that in the hope that they’ll be able to sell him for a transfer fee after 1-2 of those years, a la Sarpreet Singh & Libby Cacace. The Singh -> Bayern thing came out of the blue and it seems to have awakened the club to a whole new possibility for their academy. A pathway for kiwi players, sure. A source of first team depth, sure. But also for that rare supreme talent who comes through every wave or two there’s money making potential!
Waine’s already got that Coventry interest. Cacace and Singh’s careers are ambassadorial. Alex Paulsen and Ben Old, both of whom trained with the first team this week, look like fantastic prospects who might just be able to follow the trend if things break right. Reno Piscopo was signed for a transfer fee in the hope they could recoup that and more at a later date (better get moving on that one, he’s only got one more season left on his contract). A club like the Welly Nix can’t afford – literally – to leave stones unturned with these things and if they can help advance the careers of their best academy players in the process then that’s a win-win across the board.
One of the most underrated stories in kiwi sports at the moment: Kyle Glogoski.
Kyle Glogoski. Baseball pitcher hailing from Aotearoa. 22 years old, played for the Auckland Tuatara and is a Diamond Blacks international rep, currently over in the States playing minor league ball in the Philadelphia Phillies system where he’s rising swiftly through the ranks. He played some rookie ball for a Phillies affiliate in 2018 before coming back to the Tuatara in that offseason. 2019 it was A and A+ ball before another Tuatara stint. 2020 obviously got wrecked for everyone but this year has been golden for him. Having played a little bit of AA ball earlier in 2021 he was promoted to AAA at the start of the month. Triple-A is one step below Major League Baseball, man, that’s the real deal. And he’s quickly settling in there too.
His first game he was immediately given the start, pitching 2.1 innings but copping the loss after giving up three earned runs including a homer in what was a little bit of a strugglesome outing for him. However his second start he got through three innings in much better fashion. Glogoski took care of the side in order in the first. He then got himself into some trouble in the second with a couple walks before a line drive single coughed up the first run of the game... but he came back with consecutive strikeouts to get out of the innings without further damage. The Reading Fighting Phils (minor league baseball team names are wild, dude) bagged four runs in the top of the third to take the lead before Glogoski gave up two hits to allow a run to score with two outs via a double to right field (although there was a passed ball that allowed a runner to advance into scoring position before the double so it doesn’t count to his numbers), but a groundout to the shortstop next up meant that KG finished up with stats of: 3.0 innings, 1 earned run, 3 hits, 2 strikeouts, 2 walks. He threw 54 pitches with 31 of them strikes. Doesn’t get the win because he didn’t complete four innings but that’s not the point. They’re building him up as a starting pitcher at this level.
For the record, the closest thing to a kiwi in the MLB is Scott Richmond, a Canadian with a kiwi dad who played for the Toronto Blue Jays (and represented Canada internationally). Travis Wilson and Scott Campbell both got to the AAA level during long minor league careers but never cracked the majors. None of those three were pitchers either. There’s a decent handful of other minor league kiwis but Glogoski is the first guy in a long time to get this far advanced. Gotta learn the name now so that if/when he plays MLB you can tell your mates all about how he got there and sound like an expert.
The England squad for the two Tests against the Blackcaps has been announced. Not the strongest they could have named as England are huge on that rotation stuff and they have a few injuries. Gotta remember that while these two Test are the run in to the Test Championship final for the Blackcaps... it’s not that important for England. The ECB seem to have the strategy that they’ll just play as much cricket as possible and mix and match their squads to suit whereas NZ Cricket seem to be closer to the opposite of making the schedules fit the players (and, like, the finances most of all).
England’s men play a full five Test series against India at home after they play us. That’s after three T20s and three ODIs vs Sri Lanka and Pakistan each in between so poor bloody India gotta go to England for the final, go back home for a month, then return to England for five Tests starting in August. Of course there’s also an Ashes tour in Australia which begins in December which is the year’s priority for England. Along with the T20 World Cup in October. Man, it’s stacked. Even the Blackcaps are going to have a busy year.
Anyway, here’s that England squad...
Know that Ben Stokes is out injured with a broken finger, while Jofra Archer is booked in for elbow surgery. One of those is a big loss for England in this series. Meanwhile Moeen Ali, Jonathan Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran & Chris Woakes are caught up in the latest rotation crop. Bracey (a wicket keeper) and Robinson (seam bowler) are debutants in the 15-man squad... bit chunky for a two-Test series but whatever. Also it seems that Ollie is the new Mitchell of recurring cricket names. The Blackcaps won’t necessarily be at top strength either with Trent Boult joining the group late and the shadow of that Championship final likely to mean at least a little bit of rotation (eg: you reckon Ross Taylor will play three in a row? I’d give him the Lords match then rest him for number two – Will Young’s in good form so no dramas there).
Watched this film the other day. If you’re into David Lynch before David Lynch, French accents, subtitles, The Shining, and general confusion then Last Year At Marienbad is extremely ripe...