Epic Kiwi Mondays
Ken Maumalo + NZ Angles On International Football
Podcast
Busy day today so starting the podcast flow tomorrow…
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Reading Menu
Welly Nix: Reasons For Optimism (Despite Missing The Finals) (Football)
How Did The Breakers Fall So Far Short Of Expectations In NBL21? (Basketball)
Blackcaps Tour Of England: Are We Sure England Is A Superior Cricketing Nation? (Cricket)
Chris Wood’s 2020-21 Premier League Season In Review (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Catching up with rugby league…
Last night Israel Adesanya defended his UFC middleweight title against Marvin Vettori (no relation to Daniel Vettori), after Brad Riddell had put on another epic scrap resulting in a win. I’ve pondered Aotearoa’s cricket dominance for a few days as well and to follow up those UFC wins on Sunday evening with the Blackcaps sealing their win over England has resulted in the best rainy Monday possible.
I’ve done a yarn on both this morning and been so deep in that zone that trying to process the Ken Maumalo departure from NZ Warriors. The Warriors losing to Melbourne Storm is much easier to process as the Storm are always too good and in debriefing the Kiwi-UFC/Team City Kickboxing and Blackcaps stuff; they both have signs of a Storm-ish team culture.
NZ Warriors? They’re just a middle table team trying to crack finals footy.
Ken Maumalo? Hmm.
This is extremely interesting from a few different angles. Regular Kiwi-NRL readers will know that under Aotearoa Kiwis coach Michael Maguire, Wests Tigers have signed a lot of Kiwi-NRL players below the NRL level. They don’t have many Kiwi-NRL players in their NRL team on a weekly basis but in reserve grade and lower grades, they have quietly signed all their Kiwi-NRL talent from other clubs (as opposed to recruiting out of Aotearoa).
There was a yarn earlier this year about Maguire and Tigers folk meeting with Jamayne Isaako. Prior to signing Maumalo, Tigers were sniffing around Dallin Watene-Zelezniak. All three have been playing for Aotearoa Kiwis under coach Maguire and the Tigers are clearly exploiting this connection as they should.
The Warriors, though, are run by some of the smartest footy jokers in the game. Peter O’Sullivan seems like the key bloke here because he’s in charge of recruitment and he comes from a Storm system that does not over-pay wingers. The Storm roll through wingers had a high rate and have ushered the likes of Matt Duffie, Marika Koroibete and Suliasi Vunivalu in then out within a few years. All three went to rugby union after leaving the Storm for (educated guess) a more lucrative deal.
Wing is the easiest position to fill in the NRL. The Storm scout athletes to fill those positions with Duffie and Vunivalu scouted directly from 1st 15 rugby. As long as you have your scouting/recruitment and pipelines sorted, there should always be another winger coming up through your club to replace the winger who you will let go because their value has grown too much. The Tigers do not have these systems in place yet, so they have to go to the market and pay more.
The Bulldogs suck at signing players. Not only have they paid outside backs upwards of $600k per year (no one knows exact NRL salaries so we’re all making shit up), but something I’ve been tracking is how the Bulldogs signed outside backs on big-ish money while letting Morgan Harper join Manly mid-season last year and Reimis Smith join … Melbourne Storm!
Harper and Smith are both playing great footy this year and I’ve got either as starting at centre with Joseph Manu while the other fills out a squad spot for Aotearoa Kiwis. Bulldogs got rid of them and paid more money for players who aren’t as good.
The Warriors do have systems in place. Even if the Warriors sign Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, they will only do so by forcing the Bulldogs to pay a chunk of his salary. Exact figures are impossible to chuck up, but Maumalo was apparently in that over $600k bracket as is Watene-Zelezniak. If you can half that by forcing the Doggies to pay DWZ’s salary then you’ve swapped international wingers while significantly cutting your salary cap hit.
Without signing DWZ, the Warriors still have a plethora of cheaper wingers who can do a job; Adam Pompey, Marcelo Montoya lead that race. Viliami Vailea is playing centre in reserve grade and may forecast as a wing/centre in the NRL. Last year he was playing 1st 15 rugby for Aorere College, this year he has played 7 games of Queensland’s ISC with 6 tries, 30 tackle busts, 5 linebreaks and Redcliffe Dolphins have won every game Vailea has played.
Melbourne Storm signed Junior Ratuva from Kings College 1st 15 where he played lock. Warriors then picked up Ratuva after he returned to rugby union for a brief stint and a pectoral injury ruled Ravuta out for the season. See the thread there? Pure athlete signed by Storm and through O’Sullivan the Warriors picked him up.
I love Ken Maumalo - he’s a Papatoetoe Panthers junior. I can breeze through this because I also rock the Kiwi-NRL cap and that takeover rolls on. The Warriors though are clearing the decks in rather blatant fashion as Maumalo’s gone, Hayze Perham’s gone, Paul Turner will go to Gold Coast Titans next year and Peta Hiku is off to Cowboys. All of these lads are Warriors juniors.
Which makes this weird because I believe they are clearing way for the next wave of juniors. Keep in mind that any Warriors signing stuff stays quiet and the Maumalo news broke because other clubs would have been notified while the Aaron Pene signing came out of nowhere; the Warriors could be working on big signings behind the scenes. With Phil Gould involved, the Warriors are working towards a team consisting primarily of local juniors and the club is working through their salary cap to help get to that point.
What do the Warriors need the most moving forward? A veteran half hmmm.
Wildcard’s Notebook
International football tournaments are often a little bittersweet because they tend to be reminders of how little the New Zealand teams play. At least the Football Ferns are usually there for World Cups and Olympics, albeit thanks mostly due to geographic convenience. And as the days flow on for the next month with top quality European Championship games over breakfast and Copa America matches at lunchtime, we can console ourselves knowing that the Olympics are coming up too. Only another month and a bit to go and we should get squads from both Danny Hay and Tom Sermanni any time soon... I’m getting frisky waiting to write about them so: chop chop fellas.
It’s been confirmed by NZ Football that Tom Sermanni won’t be carrying on as Ferns coach after the Olympics. His presence has been a huge one for the team, steadying the ship as an experienced, generous, and genuine bloke after a time of turbulence for the national women’s team which threatened to derail it entirely. A turbulence that stemmed from terrible upper management in NZF and a shocking coaching appointment.
Sermanni then basically had one year to cram in a full World Cup window of preparation in. He had to do that with very limited options up front – all the main strikers were either not playing professionally at the time or they were injured/returning from injury. The Ferns battled well at that tournament. They still failed to meet expectations as they tumbled out of their group without a point. The Olympics were always a more realistic timeframe for success even if the smaller tournament meant the games would be much harder but then a bloody pandemic came along and the Ferns haven’t played since March 2020 and won’t have any games before they get to Tokyo meaning it ain’t getting any easier.
So... safe to say the Tom Sermanni regime has been a weird one. Plus we now know that the Olympics will be his last bow, the 66 year old Scotsman having extended his contract to stay on ‘til this point but he’s not particularly interested in going any further – even with a home World Cup in 2023 – and NZF want a longer term option instead so that’s how it goes. It is what it is, Sermanni was a transitional coach from the start. It’s like when Jose Mourinho leaves a club and that club replaces him with a player-friendly nice guy to spark up the confidence and morale again: Guus Hiddink, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, even Ryan Mason. Sermanni’s hire was like an extreme version of that pattern of appointment.
No idea who will replace him. I’m not too fussed about whether it’s a kiwi appointment or not, though it would be nice if his replacement were a woman (especially given how the previous NZF top brass treated the team). What you’d hope is that NZF have been considering Sermanni’s successor from the moment they appointed him, trying to shape a few options and all that, but somehow I doubt that’s something that’s been given a heap of attention. We shall see what happens.
I’m guessing a few of you would have joined me in watching an outstanding game this morning as the Netherlands beat Ukraine 3-2. A 7am viewing made possible by those ever-considerate Blackcaps getting that Test & Series win over England out of the way with in good time to ensure a decent-ish sleep. Almost too quick of a time... I’d have hung around to watch the England footy game at 1am had the England cricket team hung on a little longer.
But nah, no regrets, that Netherlands vs Ukraine game was a much better spectacle. The Dutch were surprisingly great, Ukraine knew what they were trying to achieve, somehow it was still 0-0 at the break, then Netherlands scored a couple, then Ukraine stunningly scored a couple in a row when it looked like they were cooked, then Denzel Dumfries scored a winner for NED. Phew.
Cool thing about Denzel Dumfries is that he’s a fella I’ve sort of followed for several years now. A really solid right back with top leadership qualities who offers plenty to the attack getting forward on the overlap... and a bloke who was a teammate of Marco Rojas at SC Heerenveen before joining Ryan Thomas at PSV Eindhoven. I dunno if any of you will actually care about this but I took a peek at all the Euros squads to see which players have current Flying Kiwis connections, just to help me boost my awareness with various teams, and since I already did the research I figured I might as well chuck it up here...
PSV Eindhoven (Ryan Thomas) – Denzel Dumfries, Cody Gakpo & Donyell Malen (Netherlands), Yann Mvogo (Switzerland)
Burnley FC (Chris Wood) – Matej Vydra (Czech Republic)
Bayern Munich (Sarpreet Singh) – David Alaba (Austria), Robert Lewandowski (Poland), Benjamin Pavard, Corentin Tolisso, Kingsley Coman & Lucas Hernandez (France), Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala, Niklas Süle, Leon Goretzka, Leroy Sane & Thomas Müller (Germany)
Minnesota United (Michael Boxall)– Robin Lod & Jukka Raitala (Finland), Ján Greguš (Slovakia)
Chicago Fire (Elliot Collier)- Przemysław Frankowski (Poland)
FC Copenhagen (Marko Stamenic) - Mathias Jørgensen, Jonas Wind & Nicolai Boilesen (Denmark), Karl-Johan Johnsson (Sweden)
And that was it. If it were a global tournament then there’d be a few more. Libby Cacace plays with a few fellow internationals but not Belgian ones. The MLS dudes would have one or two more. Norway didn’t qualify although doubtful they’d have had any of Joe Bell’s Viking teammates in there anyway. Veton Berisha does have five caps though, the most recent coming last November. Logan Rogerson hasn’t made a first team debut for HJK yet... s’pose you could still count their lone rep Daniel O'Shaughnessy (Finland) though.
There are also a few Brentford players in the Denmark squad to be fair: Christian Nørgaard & Mathias Jensen. Plus Marcus Forss in the Finland crew and Pontus Jansson with Sweden. But Winston Reid has returned to West Ham at the end of his loan deal so not sure if that counts, he may or may not return but hopefully he’ll hold off and play an Olympic campaign first. West Ham’s Euro dudes: Declan Rice for England, Andriy Yarmolenko for Ukraine, Tomáš Souček & Vladimír Coufal for Czech Republic, Łukasz Fabiański (Poland)
Bayern have the tied-second most players at the tournament for any club. 14 of them, same as Manchester City. Chelsea are top with 15. This is a funky time though as the transfer window opens in two weeks and things are bound to change there... David Alaba is leaving Bayern for example.
Speaking of the impending transfer window, here are some NZers to keep an eye on...
Winston Reid – Still two more years on his deal at West Ham but hasn’t played for them for more than two years... does he return to Brentford on loan (or even permanently, if they can compete with his current wages or strike some compromise in the dea), does he stay at West Ham as they fill out their squad with Europa League on the card, or does he scoop up some other opportunity?
Erin Nayler – Played one cup game all season for Reading in a disappointing season, the perils of getting caught as a backup keeper, and has since been released by the club. Clearly good enough to be playing at the top level in Europe but gotta find that right opportunity.
Olivia Chance – Of the seven kiwis in the last W-League, Liv Chance is the one most likely to leverage that into a big deal elsewhere. She had a great time of it with Brisbane Roar, she’s in the prime of her career, she’s had experience at the top level before with Everton and Bristol City in England... and she’s likely to be a starter at the Olympics for that extra shop window feature.
Hannah Wilkinson – Scored three goals in a half-season with MSV Duisburg, not enough to save them from relegation but she did star in their only win of the term. Another who can use the Olympics as a launching pad into the next move.
Andre De Jong, Myer Bevan & Dan Morgan – The latter two have already been released by their South African PSL clubs while ADJ has been rumoured to be released for six months... all three could be on the move.
Katie Rood – A few seasons doing quality things with Lewes in England (following stints with Juventus and Bristol City) but has left at the end of her current contract. Just quietly... you’d think she’d be one of the top targets for a Welly Nix women’s side should that get off the ground as expected.
Liberato Cacace – Doubt he goes anywhere this soon but there have been rumours about him moving onwards and upwards ever since he first arrived at STVV.
The SheNix are a curious one, because you want that team to be as strong as possible but you also want it to serve a certain purpose. It’s gotta be a bridge between the top kiwi players on a domestic scene and the professional ranks elsewhere. Especially while the W-League is only a half-season.
There’s no point bringing back Abby Erceg for example, players like her are far better off playing NWSL and we shouldn’t want to be bringing players out of that club tier to be playing for the Phoenix. We want to expand the professional ranks, not shrink them. I do kinda roll my eyes when any male player leaves their club and there’s a flurry of twitter talk saying ‘the Nix should sign them!’. There’s a whole world of opportunities out there and plenty of A-League calibre players outside the pro ranks just waiting for a chance – look at how well Clayton Lewis and Tim Payne have adjusted from playing Premiership stuff in Aotearoa. Not to mention academy lads like Ben Waine and Sam Sutton.
Case and point: Storm Roux and Max Crocombe have been released by Melbourne Victory at the end of their contracts. Should the Phoenix sign them? I mean, if the conditions are right... but Oli Sail is a quality goalie who’ll be starting next season so why would Max Crocombe wanna come and sit on the bench? As a kiwi footy fan I’d rather see him starting elsewhere, even if for a rival.
As for Storm Roux he’d probably be an upgrade at right back but also I think they can do better. Wouldn’t hate it if they did go after him though, not at all. Louis Fenton’s re-signing does give me mixed feelings as it’s nice continuity, he’s a good fella to have around, but they absolutely need to sign a more attacking prospect on the right, with Fenton as backup, and that doesn’t leave much room for Storm Roux as well.
James McGarry and Matthew Ridenton are the only two kiwis still coming off contract at the Phoenix. Also at the end of their current deal: Brisbane Roar striker and semi-legit rapper Joey Champness, who is currently completing the final stages of shifting his international allegiances to Aotearoa instead of Australia. Which suggests he might be in the vision for Danny Hay’s Olympic squad... but still we wait on that one.
I don’t really think Champness is any better than the attackers the All Whites already have, even the Olympic team, but sure okay whatever. We’ll take him. Here’s a music vid from the big fella…