Embrace the Physicality
Warriors sustainability, Wellington Phoenix ideas, Charlisse Leger-Walker, Matthew Timoko, NBL Free Agency & more
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Reading Menu
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Winning Start For Kiwi-NRL Dolphins (Rugby League)
The Women’s National League’s Getting Another Revamp (Including A Wellington Phoenix Reserve Team!) (Football)
2022/23 Plunket Shield: Youngster Parade (Cricket)
2022/23 HBJ Shield: Maddy Green's Ascension, Amy Satterthwaite Bows Out and More (Cricket)
2023 T20 World Cup White Ferns Debrief (Cricket)
How Northern Brave Won Back To Back Super Smash Championships (Cricket)
How Canterbury Magicians Sent Amy Satterthwaite Out As A Champion (Cricket)
Basking In Some Stats & Records From The Blackcaps’ One-Run Win Over England (Cricket)
27fm Weekly Playlist: March 20 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors defeated Cowboys and are now sitting 4th on the NRL ladder. Warriors have conceded 44 points this season which is slightly less than the two undefeated teams with Broncos conceding 46 points and Dolphins conceding 52 points. Warriors have a 81% completion rate which is the 3rd highest.
In all three games this season, Warriors have embraced physicality and intensity. This comes in different forms such as Mitch Barnett always flying up to whack in defence, Te Maire Martin chasing plays across field, Marata Niukore's immense runs down a short side or outside backs skittling defenders.
Under new coach Andrew Webster this seems sustainable. Don't play with that intensity? Someone else will and they be selected. Prior to the season I pondered Webster’s influence in a few key areas and along with the effort, passing forwards is the thing to highlight. Dylan Walker spends time at dummy half, so his passing stats are not a great gauge even though he's a crucial passer.
Tohu Harris on the other hand, here are his passing tallies compared to the leading passer in the opposition forward pack...
Game tahi vs Knights: 11 passes (3 passes)
Game rua vs Roosters: 19 passes (3 passes)
Game toru vs Cowboys: 12 passes (6 passes)
Meanwhile, Harris is 1st for total tackles with 152 tackles @ 97.4%. The next five players with the most tackles are all hookers and they are all tackling below 96%.
Jazz Tevaga's return to footy...
NSW Cup vs Roosters: 32mins, 9 runs - 104m @ 11.55m/run, 2 offloads, 15 tackles @ 100%.
NRL vs Cowboys: 42mins, 13 runs - 140m @ 10.76m/run, 1 try, 1 offload, 32 tackles @ 91.43%.
Matthew Timoko enjoyed a breakout season last year with Raiders and the Otahuhu junior is backing it up nicely. Timoko averaged 109m/game last year and is sitting on 128m/game this year, also improving his 87.94% tackling efficiency to 97.67%. Against Sharks, Timoko had 15 runs - 154m @ 10.26m/run, 1 try, 2 linebreak assists, 3 tackle busts, 3 offloads and 22 tackles @ 95.65%.
After putting the Kiwi-NRL Spotlight on Hayze Perham (Pikiao) last week, he churned out another performance vs Tigers with 17 runs - 181m @ 10.64m/run, 1 try, 4 tackle busts. Perham also averages 49.5 post contact metres per game which is 3rd for Bulldogs this season.
Blackcaps ODI cricket is coming later this week. Here are how some intriguing lads have performed this summer...
Rachin Ravindra
Ford Trophy: 321 runs @ 35.66avg/96sr (2 x 100 )| 5w @ 48.6avg/5.52rpo
Plunket Shield: 522 runs @ 37.28avg (2 x 100) | 13w @ 44.53avg/3.5rpo
Super Smash: 142 runs @ 20.28avg/121sr | 7w @ 24.28avg/7.39rpo
Ben Lister
Ford Trophy: 6w @ 31.5avg/4.34rpo
Plunket Shield: 6w @ 21.16avg/2.64rpo
Super Smash: 8w @ 16.25avg/7.64rpo
Henry Shipley
Ford Trophy: 13w @ 13.92avg/4.41rpo
Plunket Shield: 19w @ 27.21avg/3.39rpo
Super Smash: 8w @ 16.25avg/8.38rpo
Chad Bowes
Ford Trophy: 373 runs @ 46.62avg/103sr (1 x 100)
Plunket Shield: 279 runs @ 34.87avg/103sr (2 x 100)
Super Smash: 359 runs @ 39.88avg/157sr
Ravindra is the only Wellington batter with a Ford Trophy century. Bowes has a Plunket Shield strike-rate of 103 and the only notable batter with a better strike-rate is Colin de Grandhomme. Shipley and Lister both average below 30 in First-Class and T20 cricket, above 30 in List-A.
I'm curious about the impact of player departures in the last round of Plunket Shield. Canterbury and Northern are the best teams so far, but Central have an extra game to play. Central and Canterbury will also play the Ford Trophy final next Tuesday. All three teams have talented troopers to lead their clutch mahi, although there will be opportunities for youngsters to step up in big games.
Best wahine cricketers yet to play for White Ferns...
Kate Anderson (Canterbury)
Gabby Sullivan (Canterbury)
Saachi Shahri (Auckland)
Amie Hucker (Auckland)
Xara Jetly (Wellington)
Nensi Patel (Northern)
Emma Black (Otago)
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
Sorry to say that we didn’t get the Charlisse Leger-Walker x Washington State Cougars magic we were hoping for at the National Tournament. A brilliant season regardless, with that legendary Pac-12 title in their pockets. But nothing went right for them at the March Madness stuff.
Given a 5-seed, WSU were drawn against Florida Gulf Coast University who actually had a considerably better season record than them. FGC were 33-3 while WSU were 23-11, granted doing so in a much tougher division. At first things were decent. Charlisse Leger-Walker missed a few shots as the team struggled on offence but they did hold things down at the other end and midway through the second quarter were leading by five... but that was trimmed back to a 32-31 scoreline at the half.
CLW wasn’t scoring and she also had a couple fouls to her name. As did centre Bella Murakatete who had to be benched early second, the two best performers at the Pac-12 tournament hampered by whistles. Leger-Walker did step back up and drain a three early 3Q but that third frame was when the Eagles found their three-point stroke and suddenly their scoring was too much to handle. FGC won the third quarter 30-16 to take a substantial lead. CLW checked back in to try and spark something. Then fouled out, pretty much ending all hope. 5 points (2/10 shooting) with 1 assist and 0 rebounds. It just never went her way.
Considering that the Cougars had lost every game that Leger-Walker missed this season... yeah that wasn’t gonna work. Especially with Murakatete only playing 19 minutes. Tara Wallack did give them something with an excellent 16 points and 12 rebounds. But it was nowhere near enough as Florida Gulf Coast won it 74-63. WSU have still never won a game at Nationals. This one sucked. But they do have one more year of CLW eligibility and they are now Pac-12 defending champs. Guess we’ll just have to deal with CLW getting the vastly underrated treatment once again.
Five Thoughts About The Wellington Phoenix
1) Last week was fantastic doing the double over Sydney FC... this week sucked with a pair of losses. All there is to say about the women is that it was the same old story. They’re looking better and better in how they play but there’s a big old brick wall in front of the goal. Just not enough good finishers in that team. Meanwhile they got got by another American import back the other way and lost 1-0. So frustrating because the chances were actually there this time too. Same with the men but in a different fashion. The main issue was awful finishing (except for a sneaky Alex Rufer penalty lol) but it played out completely different thanks to a couple of soft first half concessions and then too many counter attacking goals. 5-1 to Adelaide. Absolute write-off of a game and yet in a strange way they could’ve been 2-0 up instead of 2-0 down at the break in which case they might have easily gone on to win. The xG from the men’s game was 1.95 to 1.85 in the Nix’s favour and yet they lost. The xG in the women’s game was 1.5 to 0.3 in the Nix’s favour and yet they lost. Bloody hell.
2) Luckily for the women, Newcastle Jets blew a 2-0 lead against Adelaide to draw 2-2. There was a very late equaliser for ADL in there too. Phew. That means that while they blew a chance to rise off the foot of the ladder, they can still achieve that target by beating Newcastle away this upcoming weekend. As for the blokes they may have just spoiled their chance of a top two finish but at least Central Coast also lost. It means that the Phoenix are still only goal difference off getting a home final with five matches remaining. Not that their goal difference is exactly sparkling after this Adelaide defeat.
3) Not a fan of the David Ball x Kosta Barbarouses front pairing. Obviously the team missed Oskar Zawada big time but even aside from that, Ball and Barba are both tidy players with high workrates but below average finishing. They’re facilitators best of all and there was nobody to facilitate for because both of them were running around trying to get their touches leaving nobody up front. Keep in mind this is a team that’s been scoring the bulk of its goals from crosses.
4) Also got a concern or two brewing about Scott Wootton. The bro is coming back from injury, this was only his fourth start back after a month out... but then four starts should be enough to get the wheels in motion again and while the own goal was a lot more Oli Sail’s fault than anyone else’s it’s not exactly endearing how rusty Wootton has looked since getting back amongst the starters. There’s no problem when the Phoenix are defending well in structure, however we saw against that lighting Adelaide transition that Wootton kinda runs like he’s on a treadmill. The reason that’s an issue is that he’s under contract for two more seasons after this so while he may get his sea legs back this campaign these things tend to only move in one direction. Wootton is only 31 years old but he does have a lot of games in those legs and there is an ACL tear in his history as well. The wear and tear can catch up with you. Then again, maybe it’s just a slippery spell amidst a changing back four and he’ll be operating like an import defensive hero by the time of the finals. This isn’t a proclamation... merely something to consider.
5) There’s a Football Ferns squad to be named next week after April friendlies against Iceland and Nigeria were announced today. Good winnable games if they can get something resembling their best team out there. The games are in Turkey so it’s neutral ground and therefore less of a travel burden on the best players. Of which there have been a welcome return from injury since the last tour for Vic Esson while Anna Leat, CJ Bott, and Rebekah Stott are all close to the same. Already that’s a massive improvement... so spots will be tougher to find. On that Welly Nix theme though, it’d be nice if Milly Clegg made her way in there. There’s still time to integrate her later but there will be other Nix players in this group to help her along. However the uncapped player most deserving of a shout is Marisa van der Meer... it’s just debatable whether there’ll be room in her position (although her versatility sure helps). And actually the player that would move the attacking needle for them most: Michaela Robertson.
I’m working on a larger NBL Free Agency piece which will focus on the Breakers but encompass all the kiwis in the competition this past season. But that won’t be up until tomorrow so in the meantime here’s the bullet point version of where all the lads are at with their contracts.
NZ Breakers Under Contract:
Izayah Mauriohooho-Le’Afa, Tom Vodanovich, Cam Gliddon, and Dan Fotu. Plus Alex McNaught as a DP.
NZ Breakers Free Agents:
Barry Brown, Jarrell Brantley, Dererk Pardon, Will McDowell-White, Tom Abercrombie, Rob Loe, and Sam Timmins
(Rayan Rupert is contracted for next season as a technicality to ensure the club gets paid a buyout when he’s drafted but nobody is expecting him back)
NZers Contracted for NBL24:
Shea Ili (Melbourne United), Sam Waardenburg (Cairns Taipans), Tyrell Harrison (Brisbane Bullets), Reuben Te Rangi (SEM Phoenix), Anzac Rissetto (SEM Phoenix – DP), Corey Webster (Perth Wildcats)*, Tai Webster (Perth Wildcats)*
Free Agent NZers for NBL24:
Hyrum Harris (Adelaide 36ers), Tohi Smith-Milner (SEM Phoenix), Jack Andrew (Perth Wildcats – DP), Walter Brown (Tasmania JackJumpers - DP)
*The Webster Bros both have mutual options in their deals, so it’s up to them and the club to agree where things move forward. Perth might be in line for a wee rebuild after a disappointing season so you never know where that will go. Classing them as under contract for now but that could change for both or either of them, dunno quite yet.
Say look Max Mata’s been up to more shenanigans in Ireland. And on Saint Paddy’s day too, no less...
Mata is now the outright top scorer in the League of Ireland heading into the first international window with five goals. Every team has played six games. Sligo Rovers are fourth with nine points.
Here you go, have a tune…