Enlightened Beings
Kiwis in the Diamond League, White Ferns in Sri Lanka, U19s Women's Footy, BazBall No Balls, Rob Loe MVP areas, and domestic footy wraps
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Reading Menu
The Quotable Steven Adams: 2022-23 Edition (Basketball)
The Legend Of Charlisse Leger-Walker Grows Ever Larger (Basketball)
An NBL Free Agency Primer For Breakers + NZers At Australian Teams (Basketball)
Forecasting The Blackcaps 2023 ODI World Cup Squad (Cricket)
10 Of The Best Emerging Wahine Cricketers In Aotearoa After The 2022/23 Season (Cricket)
All Whites vs Sweden: Living Through The Learning Curve (Football)
All Whites vs Qatar: Solidarity (And Some Overshadowed Football) (Football)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Rainy Roosters & Rabbitohs (Rugby League)
Scotty’s Word
Are no-balls a feature of Bazball? Like many, I've been a curious observer of Ashes cricket over the past few weeks and while there are five-days worth of reasons why a Test is won or lost, England's no-balls are having an impact.
The banger at the Basin earlier this year saw Blackcaps win by a run. In that Test, New Zealand offered 1 no-ball and England had 10.
The first Ashes Test saw Australia bowl 4 no-balls and England bowl 23.
The second Ashes Test had a closer margin but Australia won the no-ball battle. Australia had 11 no-balls and England had 18.
No-balls fall under the 'Extras' umbrella also featuring wides, leg-byes and byes. Some of which are unlucky, most of which are similar to no-balls as they are errors from the bowling team. England had 18 extras compared to 14 from the Blackcaps Test and while that is fairly even, the difference in no-balls was immense.
England had 44 extras in the first Test vs Australia, the Aussies had 19. This was followed by 74 extras from England in the second Test compared to Australia's 39 extras.
It's hard to win Tests when dishing up free runs to the opposition. Then again, England aren't here to win Tests because they prefer to entertain.
White Ferns had a bumper win in their second ODI against Sri Lanka, setting up the decider this evening (Monday 4:30pm NZT). Sophie Devine scored 108 runs @ 101.8sr and Amelia Kerr scored 137 runs @ 113sr to guide White Ferns to 329/7 before dismissing Sri Lanka for 213. Lea Tahuhu was the leading wicket-taker with 4w @ 3.8rpo and Eden Carson's 11 overs offered 2w @ 3.7rpo.
Sri Lanka won the first ODI by 9 wickets and White Ferns won the next game by 116 runs. Two very different games and perhaps the kiwis performed better with a splash of experience in these conditions. White Ferns power was also on display with Devine slugging hockey-shots and Tahuhu bullying batters, which seems like the best route to victory for White Ferns against teams like Sri Lanka.
Couple more wrinkles...
Bernadine Bzeuidenhout (25 runs) was the only other White Fern batter to score 20+ runs in the second game. The most concerning batters are Suzie Bates who has 29 runs in two innings and Brooke Halliday who has 3 runs in two innings. Bates tends to find a way eventually thanks to her class and Halliday hasn't scored 50+ since her first two ODI knocks back in 2021 when she had scores of 50 and 60.
Halliday doesn't have an ODI score over 30 in her last 17 games. Halliday averaged 14.2 in nine games last year and is now averaging 3 in 2023.
Kerr has 1w @ 80avg/5rpo in her 16 overs vs Sri Lanka. This follows an intriguing theme of Kerr's ODI bowling as she started her career averaging less than 22 in her first three years, then 29.8 in 2019 and four consecutive years averaging 30+. Make that 39+ in the last three years. Under Devine's captaincy, Kerr averages 37.64 which is a notable jump up from 22.51 under Bates.
Kerr is in her worst patch of ODI bowling while being a world-class batter and fielder. This also applies to Fran Jonas who has been selected ahead of Leigh Kasperek in both games vs Sri Lanka, with 1w @ 60avg/5.6rpo.
Jonas has 2w in her last five games for White Ferns which features a 1w @ 53avg/7.57rpo at the T20 World Cup earlier this year. Jonas has an ODI record of 46.22avg/4.7rpo. Along with lefty-batter Halliday, their selection seems more based on them being lefties rather than runs/wickets.
Of course, all this could change in the third ODI vs Sri Lanka.
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Most White Ferns ODI runs since Jan 1st 2022 of players in Sri Lanka...
Amelia Kerr: 824 runs @ 58.8avg/86sr
Suzie Bates: 691 runs @ 40.6avg/85sr
Sophie Devine: 680 runs @ 34avg/96sr
Maddy Green: 424 runs 35.3avg/71sr
Brooke Halliday: 117 runs @ 13avg/67sr
Georgia Plimmer: 50 runs @ 25avg/73sr
Most White Ferns ODI wickets since Jan 1st 2022 of players in Sri Lanka...
Amelia Kerr: 18w @ 41.5avg/4.4rpo
Hannah Rowe: 16w @ 29.5avg/4.9rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 16w @ 23.3avg/4.6rpo
Sophie Devine: 9w @ 34avg/4.7rpo
Fran Jonas: 9w @ 38.4avg/4.5rpo
Eden Carson: 5w @ 19.8avg/3.9rpo
Mitchell Santner in England's T20 Blast...
6 runs / 0 wickets
33 runs / 1 wicket
57 runs / 0 wicket
27 runs / 1 wicket
26 runs / 0 wicket
18 runs / 1 wicket
49 runs / 2 wickets
13 runs / 2 wickets
56 runs / 2 wickets
42 runs / 1 wicket
64 runs / 1 wicket
Santner has scored 391 runs @ 35.5avg/152sr with 11w @ 29.3avg/7.3rpo. His batting is the funkiest thing here as Santner will be massive for Blackcaps at the World Cup in the main all-rounder slot without Michael Bracewell. Santner is 20th for T20 Blast runs and his batting was crucial in back to back Super Smash championships for Northern.
Matt Henry keeps taking wickets as well with 4w and 2w in his last two T20 Blast games. Henry has 23w @ 14.82avg/8.3rpo and he now averages under 27 in every format except Test cricket, which is balanced by his best format being First-Class with 23.82avg.
NZ Warriors stat profile after round 18
Tries: 11th
Penalties Conceded: 8th
Missed Tackles: 15th
Offloads: 16th
Dummy Half Runs: 15th
Set Completion: 5th
Kick Return Metres: 5th
Kicking Metres: 6th
Linebreaks: 6th
Post Contact Metres: 10th
Run Metres: 9th
Tackle Breaks: 8th
Notable Kiwi-NRL youngsters who played this weekend...
Rocco Berry: Warriors - Greytown
William Warbrick: Storm - Kawerau
Alec MacDonald: Storm - Auckland
Matthew Timoko: Raiders - Otahuhu
Griffin Neame: Cowboys - Greymouth
Starford To'a: Tigers - Mt Wellington
Xavier Willison: Broncos - Waikato
Valynce Te Whare: Dolphins - Otara
Connelley Lemuelu: Dolphins - Otara
Hayze Perham: Bulldogs - Rotorua
Leo Thompson: Knights - Napier
Christian Tuipulotu: Sea Eagles - Otahuhu
Naufahu Whyte: Roosters - Bay Roskill
Siua Wong: Roosters - Auckland
Musical jam…
Wildcard's Notebook
The Tall Ferns capped out in the semis of the Asia Cup, beaten handily by Japan and then slightly less handily by Australia in the bronze medal game. Not a worry there – the target was top four, something they’d never before achieved, and they did that. Had to beat a much higher ranked South Korea team to do so and their match against the Philippines in the crossover playoff was all sorts of tricky yet they got the job done. Charlisse Leger-Walker had a performance for the ages in the Philippines game, by the way, scoring 34 points for the highest individual scoring game of the tournament.
Don’t worry about how they ended up, focus instead on a team that defied the rankings to earn themselves a shot at Olympic qualifying. Which will probably be equally as tough as the semis of the Asia Cup but that’s not the point. Also those games may clash with CLW’s college ball so they’ll need to wrangle a release there.
CLW finished as the second top scorer across the tournament while Penina Davidson was second for rebounds and also got named in the Asia Cup’s All Star Five (for the second tournament in a row). Would say that CLW was robbed not to also be there but there were some outstanding guards in those top three teams, to be fair. Medal or no medal this Asia Cup felt like the official unveiling of the Tall Ferns Charlisse Era.
You’ll have to zoom in, but here are some overall tournament stats from the Tall Ferns...
Shooting is clearly a weakness. Always has been… although note that some of the younger players seem to be bucking that trend with Esra McGoldrick and Grace Hunter shooting well from deep. Turnovers were also a big problem as they tried to play sturdy half-court offence but lacked the speed and precision to get enough separation, with opposition steals but also shot clock violations being a recurring worry against the best sides. But that’s to be expected. The won the ones that mattered.
We’ve had some fantastic results for kiwis at the latest Diamond League athletic meets. Over the weekend there were two events, one in Lausanne (Switzerland) and then another a few days later in Stockholm (Sweden). Normally there are a couple of NZers at best doing the DL thing and sometimes it’s only Tom Walsh but between these two meets we had all sorts of compatriots and what’s more is they all seemed to perform.
Tom Walsh bagged second place in the Men’s Shot Put. He peaked at 21.99 metres with his second attempt which led the chasing pack however old mate superstar Ryan Crouser was never in doubt. Crouser had five legit throws from six attempts and all of them were above 22m, with the best being a 22.29 to beat Walsh by 30 centimeters. Walsh was then a further 57cm ahead of third-placed Filip Mahaljevic.
Zoe Hobbs kept up her remarkable (and literal) pace as she ran an 11.20sec for fifth in the Women’s 100m. Tallying up some points towards hopefully qualifying for the finals down the line... although the major news there was that she hung around in Switzerland for some more action later that weekend and in her heat she laid down a new personal best of 10.96 seconds – breaking the Olympic qualifying mark to ensure we’ll have a female kiwi sprinter at the Olympic Games next year for the first time since Norma Marsh way back in 1928. Incredible. Hobbs then won the final with an 11.13sec effort. Not a Diamond League race but far more consequential.
We also had Sam Tanner hitting a season best in the Men’s 1500m. The phenom Jakob Ingerbritsen took it out with a meeting record of 3:28.72 but Tanner wasn’t too far behind for fifth place at 3:32.27. Ingerbritsen has won three out of three Diamond League meetings in this event in the 2023 season. Tanner’s seven best times have all come since May 2022 and he’s been getting some very decent finishes in there too.
And it was beautiful to see Eliza McCartney back after so many injuries, finishing in third for the Women’s Pole Vault with a 4.71m leading clearance. Nailed her first three heights at the first attempt but then topped out there, missing three in a row at 4.77 or else she’d have gotten second on countback. Even still, this was her first DL podium since 2018.
That was all in Lausanne, the rest of the action took place in Stockholm and there we witnessed another superb feat as Hamish Kerr won the Men’s High Jump clearing 2.24m to take the gold. Nobody else could match him at that height, which Kerr made at the second attempt. The last New Zealanders to win a Diamond League event were Tom Walsh and Valerie Adams both in 2021. With Walsh also having an additional second place earlier in the season that’s four podiums for NZers in 2023 to date.
There was almost a fifth, because George Beamish made a late decision to compete in the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase and then surprisingly managed to finish fourth with a personal best time of 8:17.63. Only about a second off third, which he was a bit annoyed by. Beamish has been running this event a lot this year and seems to be progressively getting better and better. Exciting times with the Paris Olympics less than 13 months away.
The U19s women’s footy team got back into action after their six day break and it seems that the rest did them good. If you thought the 11-0 group stage win over Papua New Guinea was emphatic, this time they put nineteen past the Solomon Islands. They have a combined 33-0 goal difference after three games.
This despite leaving several of the main destroyers from the PNG game out of the starting team. Helena Errington only got half a game. Alexis Cook scored four goals last time but only got half an hour off the bench here. And Manaia Elliott didn’t play at all. All goods, no panic.
It was a messy start from the kiwis as they made a few poor touches at the back and missed a pair of great chances. But then Danielle Canham slipped a ball into the area for Ella McCann to score in the ninth minute and there was no looking back. 0-0 after eight minutes became 5-0 after 20 minutes which became 12-0 at half-time. The Solomon Islanders were pretty poor, unable to move the ball clear of their defensive areas and regularly got punished for that. The standard of goalkeeping from all three of NZ’s opponents so far has been awful too. That always helps. But yeah this one was a walkover.
The first five goals were scored by five different players and then after that it was a race to see who’d get their hat-tricks first. Ella McCann got there in the 34th minute followed closely by Kiara Bercelli in the 35th (KB went on to score a fourth in the second half). Ruby Nathan made it to three in the 51st min (also later scoring a fourth, then a fifth). Zoe Benson got there on 62’ and might’ve gone further had she not played the last quarter of the game at right back, while Danielle Canham was stuck on two goals having to play centre-back in the second half so that Leon Birnie could rest his usual CBs (Marie Green & Ella McMillan).
As if the afternoon wasn’t long enough already for the Solomons, a red card to their keeper for taking out Lara Colpi just outside the area with eight minutes left meant an outfielder had to go in goal (having already used all their subs). Although, fair play, they only conceded twice more after that point. Could’ve been worse... granted a 19-0 defeat is already bad enough. Aotearoa will play the Cook Islands in the semi-finals with either Fiji or Samoa awaiting in the final. That semi is on Wednesday at 7pm NZT.
NZ 19-0 Solomon Islands
Starting XI (4-2-3-1): Charlotte Eagle | Zoe McMeeken, Marie Green, Ella McMillan, Suya Haering | Emma Pijnenburg, Danielle Canham | Zoe Benson, Ruby Nathan, Kiara Bercelli | Ella McCann
Subs Used: Charlotte Mortlock (Pijnenburg HT), Helena Errington (McMillan HT), Lara Colpi (McMeeken HT), Rebekah Trewhitt (Green HT), Alexis Cook (McCann 63’)
Goals: McCann (9’, 28’, 34’), Nathan (13’, 43’, 51’, 88, 90+1’), Benson (13’, 55’, 62’), Canham (16’, 39’), Bercelli (19’, 23’, 35’, 74’), Pijnenburg (45+1’), Lara Colpi (68’)
Rob Loe Game Logs for Auckland Tuatara
vs Giants: 19 PTS (7/14 FG) | 13 REB | 5 AST | 5 STL | 1 BLK
vs Airs: 17 PTS (7/13 FG) | 12 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 7 BLK
vs Saints: 20 PTS (7/14 FG) | 10 REB | 6 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK
vs Bulls: 16 PTS (8/21 FG) | 9 REB | 1 AST | 3 STL | 5 BLK
vs Nuggets: 14 PTS (5/9 FG) | 10 REB | 2 AST | 5 STL | 3 BLK
vs Hawks: 24 PTS (10/15 FG) | 4 REB | 7 AST | 3 STL | 2 BLK
vs Nuggets: 19 PTS (6/11 FG) | 16 REB | 2 AST | 2 STL | 2 BLK
vs Rams: 13 PTS (5/9 FG) | 9 REB | 10 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK
vs Jets: 25 PTS (9/12 FG) | 11 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK
vs Jets: 31 PTS (11/18 FG) | 11 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK
vs Bulls: 30 PTS (8/16 FG) | 15 REB | 6 AST | 1 STL | 3 BLK
vs Sharks: 32 PTS (14/18 FG) | 19 REB | 4 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK
vs Giants: 25 PTS (10/15 FG) | 11 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK
vs Airs: 23 PTS (10/15 FG) | 10 REB | 2 AST | 3 STL | 2 BLK
vs Rams: 23 PTS (8/12 FG) | 12 REB | 7 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK
Average that out per game and we’re talking about 22.1 points, 11.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.0 steals, and 2.3 blocks. He’s doing that in a shade under 32 minutes whilst shooting 59% from the field, 44.6% from three-point range, and 72.2% from the free throw line.
Loe has had just one game shooting less than 50%. Only one game in which he didn’t log a double-double. He has at least one block in every game and at least one steal in all but two. Plus the team he plays for have won ten in a row... one more over the last two rounds (or a loss each for Otago and Franklin) will confirm them in top spot at the end of the round robin phase.
This man right here has gotta be the MVP for 2023. Best player on the best team putting up the best numbers across the board.
Domestic Football Roundup
Tricky week for Manurewa. They had a midweek game against Auckland City and took a 7-0 dumping at the hands of the reigning quadruple winners (eat that, Manchester City). Rewa have done superbly so far to be hanging around that top four but their goal difference took a big hit with that loss... then another chunk got away as they hit the motorway to face Melville and were beaten 5-2. Couple of late goals made that look worse than it was but still. Melville, Western Springs, and Birkenhead are now all within three points of fourth-placed Manurewa. Funky times.
Ryan De Vries scored three times in that 7-0 midweek win. He then scored again in a 3-0 win over West Coast Rangers and with that he’s matched an Auckland City club record by scoring in ten consecutive fixtures. He’s not just doing this in ones either (a la Oskar Zawada for the Welly Nix). Nah bro RDV found some killer form at the Oceania Champions League where he was top scorer with 5 goals and since then has been on a ferocious tear. In those ten games he has 19 combined goals, with hat-tricks in three of them. Not so long ago Derek Tieku was miles out in front for the Golden Boot but now De Vries is only one behind him.
Elsewhere Eastern Suburbs won 6-1 against Hamilton Wanderers to keep pace with Auckland City at the top. Martin Bueno scored a hatty, seems like the Lilywhites have found their form in the attacking half now having been defensively dominant from day one. Auckland United remain clear in third after a 3-0 win over Manukau. Dre Vollenhoven scored the first goal, a former Auckland City youth standout popping up across town. Daniel Atkinson also featured off the bench for AUFC. He’s an Ole Academy midfielder who recently played a couple tiers down in the Netherlands.
All three of the relegation battler teams kicked off at 3pm on Saturday and all three of them lost 3-0. Just mentioned Manukau United. Western Springs also beat Takapuna by that scoreline while the same happened to Bay Olympic away to Birkenhead. So nothing’s changed at the bottom.
The Central League served up a couple of funky ones. Napier City Rovers winning 3-1 away to Western Suburbs was definitely one of those, NCR taking a firm hold of the last National League spot as things stand. A double for Deri Corfe did the trick there - Corfe is an English winger who went to university in America and has had a great impact for Rovers so far. This was just the second loss this year for Wests and the other was against Wellington Olympic... who remain in first after doing the expected thing away against Whanganui. 7-0 scoreline with Kailan Gould and Jack-Henry Sinclair getting braces.
But the Wellington Phoenix Reserves are still only one point behind them. They kept pace by winning 3-1 against National League hopefuls Petone. Matt Brazier scored yet again for Petone however Luke Supyk, Kaelin Nguyen, and an own goal sent them to defeat. This game did contain an unfortunate incident when WeeNix midfield maestro Fin Conchie used a homophobic slur in an argument with an opponent. He’s admitted to doing so, taking responsibility so that none of his teammates get dragged down in the speculation, and has been temporarily stood down from the club. Good to see the Nix taking that seriously. Good to see Conchie owning up to his mistake. Things get said in the heat of the moment but there is a line that needn’t be crossed, as we saw when the All Whites played Qatar. Hopefully it’s a learning opportunity and everybody can move forwards as slightly more enlightened beings.
Three late goals (plus a hatty for Jared Cunniff) gave Stop Out an excellent 4-2 win over Miramar Rangers. Getting harder to see the latter retaining their National League spot, although a double for Sam Mason-Smith did take him to 100 goals for the club which is a wonderful achievement. Waterside Karori beat North Wellington 5-1 in the other game.
It’s all getting rather predictable down south though. Christchurch United won 4-1 against Nomads despite conceding first, with Jago Godden and Dan MacLennan getting a pair each. The Rams remain undefeated with 31 points from a possible 33 to sit first. Cashmere Technical have played one additional game and are two points back after winning 7-0 against Green Island. Garbhan Coughlan scored four more times to further extend his incredible season of scoring.
Dunedin City Royals dropped points with a 3-3 draw against Nelson Suburbs (scoring in the 88th and 90th minutes just to get that much) and the two National League spots are now probably already sorted for the obvious candidates. Elsewhere Ferrymead Bays won 5-3 vs Selwyn and Coastal Spirit had a 2-0 win over FC Twenty11.
Top Scorers Across The Three Men’s Regional Leagues
Garbhan Coughlan (Cashmere Technical) - 22
Derek Tieku (Hamilton Wanderers) – 15
Sam Philip (Christchurch United) - 15
Ryan De Vries (Auckland City) – 14
Matthew Brazier (Petone) – 13
Hamish Watson (Wellington Olympic) - 11
Deri Corfe (Napier City) - 11
Martin Bueno (Eastern Suburbs) – 10
Monty Patterson (Manurewa) – 10
Jack-Henry Sinclair (Wellington Olympic) – 10
Ryan Feutz (Western Suburbs) – 10
Over in the Women’s NRFL Premier Division, Eastern Suburbs won 3-2 against Western Springs in a rematch of the 2022 National League grand final. Juliette Lucas scored a couple goals in the last fifteen for Subs to win. Both clubs have had a lot of player turnover since then but have kept solid cores in place and remain the two top teams going around.
Springs also announced the hiring of Maia Vink as their new Head of Women's Football – a positive outcome from that whole kerfuffle between the board and women’s first team. Vink formerly coached Capital Football and was on the Wellington Phoenix ALW performance staff last season. An excellent hire. Despite the issues that led to the fallout, it has to be said that all sides seem to have gone into that mediation in good faith with genuine progress being made since. That’s what you wanna see.
But yeah they did still lose to Eastern Suburbs. In other games, there was a 4-0 win for Auckland United against Northern Rovers. Shannon Henson with two goals, one of several players who moved from Rovers to United in the wake of coach Ben Bate traversing that path. United weren’t settling for that haul of players though, they’ve also picked up Chloe Knott and Marisa van der Meer during their A-League offseasons. Both started this game - in fact Knott scored the fourth goal. Hibiscus Coast also won 2-1 against Hamilton Wanderers while Ellerslie’s 1-0 win over West Coast Rangers (courtesy of a 69th minute Prue Catton goal) was massive as it sent them up to fourth ahead of WCR – fourth place being the last National League spot, of course. Always cool to see Catton’s name popping up as she’s also a contracted cricketer for the Auckland Hearts.