Ending/Beginning
Ending/Beginning
Football Ferns beyond the World Cup, Tall Blacks squad trims, NRLW excellence, domestic cricket squads, and plenty more
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Reading Menu
Football Ferns at the 2023 FIFA World Cup: Valiant Elimination vs Switzerland (Football)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: What You Are Missing About The 2023 Season (Rugby League)
Recapping Tall Ferns Exploits at the 2023 Asia Cup (Basketball)
The Wellington Phoenix Blokes Appear To Have An Academy Player Resurgence On Their Hands (Football)
The 2023 Wellington Phoenix Offseason Preview – Part 2: The Men (Football)
Aotearoa at the 2023 Oceania U19s Women’s Championships (Football)
The 2023 Wellington Phoenix Offseason Preview – Part 1: The Women (Football)
Milly Clegg Is An Absolute Unicorn Of A Kiwi Centre Forward Prospect (Football)
2022 Women’s National League - Team Of The Season (Football)
Eight Signs Of Progress From The Wellington Phoenix Women In Year Two (Football)
27fm Weekly Playlist: July 31 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
The Football Ferns World Cup ride is over. We were graced with an amazing win over Norway, a low in losing to Philippines, and a plateau against Switzerland. As stink as the last two games felt, the Aotearoa women's football team finishes this World Cup with a win over Norway and a draw against Switzerland. Two results that would be fantastic when digested without that loss to Philippines.
The win over Norway was crazy because it was so different to most Ferns footy I'd seen previously. Ultimately though, the general theme of Aotearoa struggling to score goals hindered their World Cup campaign. No one is at fault here. Aotearoa simply doesn’t have enough depth in those roles. Hannah Wilkinson is a valiant striker and Aotearoa has energetic attacking players in the squad, yet there is a lack of razzle dazzle up front.
Like many casual football fans, I don't really care what else happens in this World Cup now. It feels like an ending/beginning moment for Football Ferns as their World Cup campaign was a celebration of football's rise in Aotearoa and a cluster of veterans who drove this team for over a decade will eventually depart the national team. The beginning of a new era will bring with it more attacking flair and flavour as waves of young talent emerges from Aotearoa.
All Whites footy had the same cycle. A gritty, hard-mahi team propelled Aotearoa forward. Now All Whites are producing creative players who can attack one vs one scenarios and pounce on opportunities. This is documented in Flying Kiwis every week, Ollie Whyte just scored a lovely goal for FC Haka and the attacking depth has grown immensely; Marco Rojas, Sarpreet Singh, Ryan Thomas, Matthew Garbett, Ben Waine, Max Mata and plenty more shine.
Aotearoa footy doesn't lack hearty defenders. We produce lots of powerful fullbacks and have a decent history developing classy midfielders. All Whites are a funky outfit now because of the attacking oomph in the young wave of players and Football Ferns are on the brink of this.
The Reading Menu includes lots of women's football yarns whipped up by my comrade. All of which feature attacking players on the rise and there is no need for concern as our big four (football, basketball, cricket, league) all feature Aotearoa's emerging flair ... and depth. Football Ferns conceded one goal at this World Cup - because that is Aotearoa's footballin' strength and that's a fabulous foundation to build upon.
I like Jitka Klimkova. I'd like her to take the Football Ferns forward, especially as there will be more players of a higher quality coming through. Klimkova and the entire Ferns whanau did the best they could with the resources available and they deserve to push forward as Aotearoa's sneaky footballin' excellence continues.
Some crazy notes from the weekend's NRLW action...
Alexis Tauaneai's (Wainuiomata) first 2 NRLW games:
vs Knights: 52mins, 3 tackle busts, 57 pcm, 31 tackles, 124m
vs Eels: 46mins, 1 linebreak, 2 tackle busts, 40 pcm, 1 offload, 30 tackles, 117m
18yrs, averaging 121m with 95% tackling.
Otara's Annessa Biddle vs Tigers:
17 runs - 260m @ 15.3m/run, 111 pcm @ 6.5pcm/run, 2 linebreaks, 6 tackle busts. Biddle averages 182m in her first season of NRLW.
Otara's Leianne Tufuga is 21yrs in her 3rd season of NRLW
This season: 2 games, 2 tries, 5 linebreaks, 10 tackle busts, 162m/game and some big hits.
Cortez Te Pou (Hawke’s Bay) scored 2 tries on NRLW debut for Dragons. Both came from Raecene McGregor kicks and while McGregor continues her 'best halfback in the world' mahi, Tyla Nathan-Wong is building nicely alongside McGregor as the Dragons halves pairing. They feature in the Team of the Week with fellow Dragon Tauaneai.
There is still a lack of edge forwards and an abundance of centres. Niall Williams-Guthrie had a strong outing last Thursday and Cheyelle Robins-Reti was part of an epic Raiders win, sealing centre roles in the TOTW. I'm still riding with Mackenzie Wiki at edge forward because of this and Tigers centre Tufuga follows Wiki into my edge forward slot.
NRLWahine Team of the Week
Fullback: Apii Nicholls (Raiders)
Wings: Annessa Biddle (Sharks), Cortez Te Pou (Dragons)
Centres: Cheyelle Robins-Reti (Raiders), Niall Williams-Guthrie (Titans)
Halves: Raecene McGregor (Dragons), Tyla Nathan-Wong (Dragons)
Middles: Annetta Nu'uausala (Broncos), Alexis Tauaneai (Dragons), Georgia Hale (Titans)
Edges: Mackenzie Wiki (Raiders), Leianne Tufuga (Tigers)
Hooker: Capri Paekau (Eels)
NZ Warriors are 3rd on the NRL ladder, behind Panthers and Broncos, ahead of Storm. Below are the Kiwi-NRL lads in those non-Warriors teams, along with a notable junior or two in their system. Absorb this with the Football Ferns stuff in mind as Kiwi-NRL abundance has grown to the point only one of the four juniors listed is from Auckland.
Panthers
James Fisher-Harris, Moses Leota, Scott Sorenson
Daeon Amituanai (Whiti Te Ra)
Broncos
Jordan Riki, Jesse Arthars, Deine Mariner, Xavier Willison
Caius Fa'atili (Hornby), Nathaniel Tangimataiti (Ellerslie)
Storm
Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Jahrome Hughes, Will Warbrick, Reimis Smith, Alec MacDonald
K-Ci Newton-Whare (Riccarton)
Full list of domestic cricket contracts...
Auckland: Adithya Ashok, Cole Briggs, Louis Delport, Danru Ferns, Cam Fletcher, Matt Gibson, Ryan Harrison, Harjot Johal, Simon Keene, Ben Lister, Robbie O’Donnell, Will O’Donnell, Sean Solia, Quinn Sunde, George Worker, Yahya Zeb
Northern Districts: Joe Carter, Katene Clarke, Kristian Clarke, Henry Cooper, Matthew Fisher, Zak Gibson, Brett Hampton, Scott Johnston, Scott Kuggeleijn, Bharat Popli, Tim Pringle, Jeet Raval, Tim Seifert, Fred Walker, Joe Walker
Central Districts: Jack Boyle, Doug Bracewell, Tom Bruce, Will Clark, Josh Clarkson, Dane Cleaver, Liam Dudding, Joey Field, Greg Hay, Curtis Heaphy, Jayden Lennox, Ajaz Patel, Brett Randell, Brad Schmulian, Ray Toole, Bayley Wiggins
Wellington: Muhammad Abbas, Nick Greenwood, James Hartshorn, Troy Johnson, Nick Kelly, Callum McLachlan, Iain McPeake, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Robinson, Gareth Severin, Ben Sears, Michael Snedden, Nathan Smith, Jesse Tashkoff, Peter Younghusband, Logan van Beek
Canterbury: Chad Bowes, Matt Boyle, Leo Carter, Sean Davey, Zak Foulkes, Mitch Hay, Rhys Mariu, Cole McConchie, Angus McKenzie, Edward Nuttall, Ken McClure, Will O’Rourke, Michael Rae, Michael Rippon, Fraser Sheat, Henry Shipley
Otago: Matt Bacon, Max Chu, Jacob Cumming, Jacob Duffy, Dean Foxcroft, Luke Georgeson, Jake Gibson, Andrew Hazeldine, Llew Johnson, Ben Lockrose, Jarrod McKay, Travis Muller, Thorn Parkes, Dale Phillips, Hamish Rutherford, Ollie White
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The World Cup quest is over for the Football Ferns but, as I wrote in my roundup, (and as my brother-in-arms coincidentally also said above), it feels like we’ve just entered a new era in Aotearoa football. I’d include the Bazeball era All Whites in that too. They’ve been teasing it a little longer but that last international window felt like a dawning as well, the one in which the next generation of stars really stepped into leadership roles (including, but not exclusively, around that whole racism yarn – haven’t heard a thing about that from FIFA since, aye? No doubt we never will).
All throughout this World Cup, including for a couple of weeks beforehand, there have been transfers going down. So many transfers. Not even including re-signings or youth deals this is an indication as to what this European (and beyond) transfer window has been serving up...
Chris Wood to Nottingham Forest for 15m pounds, loan to permanent (triggered deal)
Marko Stamenic to Red Star Belgrade on a free transfer
Matt Garbett to NAC Breda for undisclosed fee, loan to permanent (club option)
Henry Gray to Ipswich Town on two-year academy deal
George Stanger to Ayr United on a free transfer
Will Gillingham to Cove Rangers on a free transfer
Max Crocombe to Burton Albion on a free transfer
Callum McCowatt to Silkeborg for an undisclosed fee
Sarpreet Singh to Hansa Rostock for undisclosed fee
Nikko Boxall to Inter Turku on a free transfer
Jamie Searle to Forest Green for undisclosed fee
Tommy Smith to Milton Keynes Dons on a free transfer
Kyle Adams is traded to Louisville City from San Diego Loyal
It’s been enormous. Huge areas. Massive. And that’s simply the guys going to new clubs. Let alone Libby Cacace or Matt Dibley-Dias seemingly each moving into bigger roles at existing clubs.
But that list also only includes blokes. There has been Football Ferns transfer news across the same time span but it’s almost all re-signing stuff. Ali Riley signed a new deal at Angel City. Vic Esson at Rangers. CJ Bott at Leicester City. Liz Anton just today got announced back at Perth Glory for the fourth straight year. Milly Clegg has of course moved to Western Sydney Wanderers already but other than that all the female transfer stuff seems to have been on hold for the World Cup... fair enough.
That’s about to change and the fascinating and exciting thing will be to see just how much it changes. There are several A-League players who put forward great cases for themselves as professionals at a higher level. The English league is always on the looksee for ALW talent, as are the various Scandinavian comps. Americans are a bit more stingy and it’s later in their season anyway so Europe is more the destination - no dramas there, I’m a bit jaded about American soccer scouting abilities of late. You can’t convince me that neither Daisy Cleverley nor Jacqui Hand was good enough to be drafted by an NWSL club.
No dramas for Jacqui Hand as she wass already on a tear for her club team Aland United and scouts tend to notice those things... add an impressive World Cup to that and she’ll have options. Malia Steinmetz is one of those ALW players who could be ready for that next step up. Grace Jale is another after a strong campaign with Canberra United. Claudia Bunge was already there a year ago getting WSL rumours with her name in them but she chose to do one more year with Melbourne Victory. Not to mention Katie Bowen and Hannah Wilkinson at Melbourne City seeking game time ahead of the World Cup. Indi Riley did the same thing having already played a few years in Denmark. She was superb against Norway.
Wellington Phoenix have been more transparent than most clubs so we know that Betsy Hassett, Paige Satchell, Mickey Foster, and training players Kate Taylor and Grace Wisnewski are all currently free agents – although none have been released so they’ve supposedly got offers on the table from the club. But Milly Clegg chose to leave so we’ll see how that goes with the rest of them.
It’s onwards and upwards for these players from here. There’s so much transfer potential and that’s literally just from the current Ferns squad let alone everyone else. The road winds ever on.
Leading into the FIFA Women’s World Cup there was all sorts of doom merchantry about ticket sales. But in actual fact the crowd numbers have been brilliant throughout the whole group stage, with Aotearoa absolutely keeping pace with Australia on that count.
Overall, as of Monday morning, NZ has had 400,908 cumulative fans in the stands across 18 matches. Australia, with five-times the population and also bigger stadiums (and better public transport) has had 500,403 across 16 games. That’s an average of 31,275 per game compared to 22,273 in New Zealand but given those aforementioned handicap that’s pretty bloody magnificent on our side of the Tasman.
That’s also skewed by a few low attendances on NZ’s part stemming from the smaller markets of Hamilton and Dunedin with those two sharing the only three games that have failed to reach 10k attendance. But between games that kicked off during the afternoon on weekdays and games that clashed with NZ matches that’s pretty understandable. And Dunedin certainly boosted their averages with that 26k sellout for the NZ vs Switzerland match.
The two main centres have been immense though. Eden Park in Auckland has so far served up these hectic numbers...
42,137 – NZ vs Norway
41,107 – USA vs Vietnam
30,889 – Italy vs Argentina
20,983 – Spain vs Zambia
34,697 – Norway vs Philippines
While Sky Stadium in Wellington isn’t so far behind...
22,996 – Spain vs Costa Rica
18,317 – Sweden vs South Africa
32,357 – New Zealand vs Philippines
27,312 – USA vs Netherlands
29,143 – Sweden vs Italy
Most of the top attendances have included the host nations and either England or USA, although France vs Brazil drew 49k in Brisbane for a thrilling game over the weekend while Germany vs Colombia also got 40k in Melbourne. There’s going to be a massive one for Australia vs Canada tonight in Melbourne and with Japan vs Spain also going down in Wellington, as well as two other matches, we should tick over the million mark for the tournament. Crowds are only going to stay packed as the tournament goes deeper too. The buzz is real.
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The Tall Blacks have trimmed their training squad down to 14 players as they continue to build towards the upcoming World Cup. The initial extended squad had featured 21 players. That was then cut to 18 for a four-day camp that’s just finished. Now head coach Pero Cameron has sliced things even further ahead of some pre-WC tour action. First a two-game series in Japan. Then a cheeky mini-tournament in Germany where they’ll face Canada and then either Germany or China. Then another mini-tournament in China with games against the hosts and also Italy.
However there has been some drama with the squad. Both the Webster Brothers had popped up at NBL clubs late in the season, with Corey Webster leading the Canterbury Rams to the title, but both are now out of World Cup contention. Stuff had reported their doubtful statuses late last week with Tai Webster’s absence from camp referred to as “an undisclosed medical issue”. The NZF squad announcement lists them both as missing for personal reasons.
Their NBL stints were absolutely about game fitness leading into the World Cup so this is a sudden blow to the Tall Blacks team. Two starting calibre players unavailable, two of their very best scorers on top of that. Best wishes to the Webster whanau – hopefully everything’s okay there.
Ethan Rusbatch has also missed out through injury so with those three unavailable there were training-only call-ups for Isaac Davidson, Charlie Dalton, and Julius Halaifonua. Davidson is more or less the next man up after Rusbatch, the other two were about offering experience for exciting emerging fellas. Dalton won the Most Improved Player award in the 2023 NBL season as well as being nominating for Best Young Player. He was a regular starter for the Auckland Tuatara and averaged 9.6 points and 4.7 rebounds, not to mention his unmeasurable energy and bounce. Meanwhile Julius Halaifonua is even younger at 17 years of age and already stands at over seven feet tall. He’s been working with the NBA Global Academy in Australia – along with fellow kiwi prospects Kaia Berridge and Oscar Goodman.
Back to the World Cup squad though, Rob Loe and Tom Abercrombie announced their international retirements before the initial 21-man group was announced. Then Sam Waardenburg made himself unavailable around the time he was setting up for his NBA Summer League quest. Need I also mention the long-term knee injury that has prevented Steven Adams from ending his international hiatus? The Webster/Webster/Abercrombie/Waardenburg/Adams starting five with Loe and Rusbatch on the bench is one hell of an unavailable team.
But we work with what we’ve got, next man up and all that, so here’s how the squad breakdown has progressed...
Injured/Unavailable: Steven Adams, Corey Webster, Tai Webster, Rob Loe, Tom Abercrombie, Sam Waardenburg, Ethan Rusbatch
Training Only: Isaac Davidson, Charlie Dalton, Julius Halaifonua
First Cut: Jordan Hunt, Taine Murray & Kruz Perrot-Hunt
Second Cut: Sam Mennenga (plus Rusbatch and the Webster Bros)
14-man Tour Squad: Dan Fotu, Finn Delany, Flynn Cameron, Hyrum Harris, Isaac Fotu, Izayah Le’Afa, Jordan Ngatai, Reuben Te Rangi, Sam Timmins, Shea Ili, Taylor Britt, Tohi Smith-Milner, Walter Brown & Yanni Wetzell
Two more players will be cut for the final 12-man World Cup roster. Yanni Wetzell is the only uncapped Tall Black from this group - with Delany, I.Fotu, Ili, Ngatai, and Smith-Milner all remaining from the 2019 World Cup squad (which Te Rangi would also have been at but for injury). Big positive of all this is seeing a couple of those championship Rams lads getting a real shot at making the squad with Britt and Brown still hanging around.
Weekly Domestic Football Roundup...
Always love a good Chatham Cup weekend at any stage of the year but it gets really real when the quarter-finals swing around. Particularly this year with holders Auckland City already eliminated. It was Western Springs who dropped them 3-2 in the previous round but guess what? They’re gone now too. Beaten 1-0 by Melville United down the road in the mighty Waikato, with Jerson Lagos scoring the only goal after 50 minutes. It was a game with eight yellow cards and also featuring two of the better production lines going around. Plenty of homegrown talent on display, especially for Melville – whose top four chances in the league are shrinking but never fear because they’re into the top four of the cup.
Waterside Karori are one of the teams to be joining them after winning an all-Capital clash away to Roslyn-Wakari, the last team left from outside the top tier regional leagues. Great achievement from that lot... although they’ve topped out there after a 5-2 defeat. They did actually score first after 20 mins to give the home fans some genuine hope and it was still 1-1 at the break. Birhanu Taye put Waterside Karori into the lead on 55’ but when WK eventually added a third goal twenty minutes later it was immediately retaliated to. Ah but a couple more late ones sealed the deal for Karori – three of their goals were scored by substitutes (Jack Parker with two, Seth Ward with one).
Moving on and there was another Waikato fixture with Hamilton Wanderers hosting Christchurch United. This one wasn’t as scrappy or as close as the other one. Nope. Christchurch United will remain undefeated into August as they continue to storm towards the Southern League title and are now serious contenders for the Chatham Cup after a 3-0 win against Wanderers. Goals for Dan MacLennan (20’), Sam Philip (59’), and Jago Godden (73’). It’s not unfair to say that the Rams haven’t been fully tested by their South Island comrades to the extent that they will be in the National League later this year. But it’s clear they’re an improved team since 2022 and it’s going to be fascinating to see how they stack up against the best clubs in the land.
Can’t quite call them favourites for the cup just yet though. Not while Eastern Suburbs are still in the hat. Wellington Olympic vs Eastern Suburbs was the match-up of the quarter-finals by a long shot. It would have been a brilliant grand final. The leaders of the Central League against the current leaders in the North. Two funky teams with plenty of recognisable players as well as some great emerging fellas. Doesn’t get much better than that.
It was Suburbs who got things going with early goals for Ryan Verney (7’) and Francis De Vries (16’). Both from corner kicks, the second an Olympico from the All Whites fullback. But Olympic did what they often do and struck back with a pair of Ben Mata penalties to make it 2-2 at the half. That was the way it remained for a long time, deeper and deeper. Justin Gulley was sent off for Olympic in the 87th minute. We went into extra time. Still the score remained 2-2... right up until FDV scored a banger free kick in the last minute before penalties would’ve arrived. Penalties might’ve been a fitting way to decide a game full of set pieces... but we shan’t complain about a wicked direct free kick from a current NZ international, yeah no dramas. Eastern Suburbs march into the semi-finals.
There were no Kate Sheppard Cup games because they already did their quarter-finals, so that comp took this week off to align the calendars. Those semi-finals take place in two weeks with Eastern Suburbs vs Wellington United in one tie and Western Springs vs Coastal Spirit in the other. Shout out to the Lilywhites for getting both senior teams into the cup semis.
There was also an NRFL Women’s Prem game on the weekend. Just the one. It was Hamilton Wanderers vs Western Springs in the game that got postponed a wee while ago as Springs dealt with their off-field issues. Yeah so that all feels a long time ago now. Western Springs have been utterly dominant of late and their 8-1 win over HW might just have been the most commanding performance of the lot. Tiana Hill scored a hat-trick. Lily Taitimu also got a couple. WSAFC now join Auckland United and Eastern Suburbs as guaranteed National League qualifiers... with Ellerslie, West Coast Rangers, and Hamilton Wanderers challenging for the last spot with one point separating them and two rounds remaining. Western Springs still have another catch-up game to play against league leaders Auckland United... as well as the reverse fixture still to go. So while they’re four points behind them as it stands they can still win the league if they win out from here. Meanwhile Auckland United can pretty much clinch it if those results go their way. And if they split the points then Eastern Suburbs can surge on through and win it themselves. Funky days.