Executing The Plan
Stink weekend of kiwi sports results (Warriors/Adesanya/All Blacks), Northern Kahu: Tauihi champs, a Football Ferns squad, NRLWahine Team of the Week & more
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Aotearoa A vs Australia A (The Re-Up): Game One Debrief (Cricket)
Aotearoa A vs Australia A (The Re-Up): Game Two Debrief (Cricket)
Blackcaps vs England ODI Notebook (Cricket)
The Quotable Steven Adams: 2022-23 Edition (Basketball)
Meet Michael Wilson, The Closest Thing To A Kiwi In The NFL Right Now (NFL)
Western Springs Are Kate Sheppard Cup Champions For 2023 (Football)
Further Impressions From The Wellington Phoenix Lads In The Aussie Cup (Football)
Here Are Six Future Football Ferns To Help Solve Our Goal Scoring Issues (Football)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: King Charnze (Nicoll-Klokstad) (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Kalani Going Debut For NZ Warriors (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Tohu Harris Celebration (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Finals Week One Preview (Rugby League)
Scotty’s Word
Tough weekend for Aotearoa sport. All Blacks loss followed by a NZ Warriors loss and then Israel Adesanya losing his UFC middleweight title on Sunday afternoon. They all share the same 'wtf was going on' element. Sometimes Papatuanuku and Ranginui aren't working in our favour.
The All Blacks loss to France was headlined by errors and penalties. All Blacks had 51% possession but just 39% territory. All Blacks conceded 12 penalties to France's four penalties. All Blacks are good at rugby because they are disciplined and skillful, offering a high baseline of performance that other teams can't hang with. Apart from flashes like Ardie Savea's midfield chip, not much of that was on display against France.
All Blacks folks will be stressed and everyone was already hating on coach Ian Foster, so they will double down on that. This performance was similar to the Warriors defeat to Panthers though and while there were some intriguing selections from coach Andrew Webster for this game, Warriors didn't come close to executing their plan. They didn't even give themselves a chance at the upset win. Craig Bellamy shared this sentiment about Storm’s disjointed performance against Broncos (wee bit comforting knowing that Warriors and Storm had similar vibes).
Errors and silly penalties featured heavily in the Warriors loss - two really bad crusher tackles for example. Warriors have done well to avoid those positions this season and for whatever reason, Tohu Harris of all players fell into a horrible crusher (pressure on the neck).
Speaking after half-time, Shaun Johnson relayed coach Websters feeling of being baffled at how the team went in the opposite direction to their game plan. Funnily enough, two core elements of Warriors footy were then highlighted by the commentators during the game as examples of what Warriors could do differently; offloads and competing for kicks.
As noted prior to the game, Warriors were 17th for offloads. An offload from Mitchell Barnett did lead to the Wayde Egan try and Warriors do average 7.1 offloads per game. The Warriors game plan offers the least offloads in the NRL though and Warriors weren't going to try something completely new in razzle dazzle offloads.
The commentators note about competing for kicks is legit and Panthers are excellent at small details like this. It was specifically mentioned after a chip kick from Panthers, which is designed to get the footy back though. When kicking from the middle (between 40m lines), Warriors love to bomb the ball high. Rocco Berry will always chase hard to wait and make the tackle rather than leap for the footy. The plan has always been to dominate that tackle, play patiently and repeat the cycle.
The commentators were glowing in their praise of Nathan Cleary and Adam Reynolds, but Shaun Johnson's the leading candidate to win the Dally M award. Johnson wasn't playing vs Panthers and take any Dally M calibre player out of a finals team, they won't be as good. All those kicks from Te Maire Martin and Dylan Walker would have been a lot sharper from Johnson, plus his leadership would have helped Warriors work through their patient plan.
Adesanya's loss was even weirder. Coach Eugene Bareman described a lack of connection between the coaches and Adesanya during his loss to Sean Strickland. Adesanya was slower, less clinical. Everything that has made him such an amazing fighter looked a bit messy against Strickland. That's never happened before in Adesanya's UFC career ... in the same way that NZ Warriors have rarely diverted so much from their style of footy this season.
Maybe there are bigger ideas at play here. Maybe Adesanya's heading downhill. Maybe NZ Warriors aren't that good. Maybe All Blacks are set for an underwhelming World Cup. All three share the same weird vibe though, like it simply wasn't their day to win.
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Avondale's Justin Tafa had a knockout win, joining City Kickboxing's Carlos Ulberg and Tyson Pedro as Samoans winning at UFC 293. Tafa is now based in Brisbane and Pedro is an Aussie who trains with CKB. Ulberg grabbed a submission win to showcase his all-round skillset and there is another funky wrinkle here as Ulberg, Tafa, Tai Tuivasa (lost) and Alexander Volkanovski (didn't fight at UFC 293) all played rugby league at a reasonably high level.
CKB's Frenchman Kevin Jousset had a submission win in his UFC debut, while Blood Diamond and Shane Young both lost. Here is how CKB fighters have gone in their last three fights…
Carlos Ulberg: 3-0
Tyson Pedro: 2-1
Alexander Volkanovski: 2-1
Dan Hooker 2-1
Israel Adesanya: 1-2
Kai Kara-France: 1-2
Kevin Jousset: 1-0
Blood Diamond: 0-3
Shane Young: 0-3
The Roosters win over Sharks in NRL Finals saw Joseph Manu suffer a tweak to his hamstring that was already niggly before this game. Waiheke Island's Brandon Smith has blown away the mid-season storyline about him struggling at hooker for Roosters with a classy performance in finals footy with 66mins, 9 runs - 92m @ 10.2m/run, 4 tb, 1 offload, 36 tackles @ 90%.
Smith has now played 60+ minutes in four consecutive wins for Roosters. He is their best hooker, he is the best hooker for Aotearoa and he returns to Melbourne to face Storm next Friday.
Fetalaiga Pauga (Glenora) and Siua Wong (Burnham/Manurewa) must be floating at the moment. Pauga had 18 runs - 186m @ 10.3/run on the wing for Roosters after struggling to crack the Tigers team in 2021 and 2022. Pauga won two of his first six games this season and has bounced back to start in consecutive wins over Rabbitohs and Sharks.
Wong played all levels except NRL last year, including World Cup footy for Fiji. The 20-year-old started at edge forward for Roosters but he plugged a hole at centre in the second half. Wong scored a try with 14 runs - 122m @ 8.7m/run, 9 tackle breaks, 3 offloads, 31 tackles @ 88% vs Sharks.
Wong made his debut in round 18 and like Pauga, he is now chiming in for a Roosters team that continues to push deeper into finals footy.
Greg Marzhew (Mangere East) was fantastic on the wing for Knights in their win over Raiders and Leo Thompson (Napier Marist) offered another typically hearty performance in the middle. Both were funky summer signings with Thompson making a late shift from Raiders to Knights prior to last season and Marzhew joined Knights from Titans just before the start of this season.
NZ Warriors had a big 49-6 win over Raiders in their NSW Cup finals game and Ali Leiataua has some freaky strength/skill. The funkiest lad in NSW U21s is Te Hurinui Twidle (Turangawaewae) who played fullback for Eels in their 20-6 win over Sharks. Twidle won NSW U19s as starting fullback for Eels earlier this year and came off the bench for Souths Logan as they won QLD U18s last year.
Same vibe for Henry Teutau (Marist) and Jeremiah Matautia (Otara) who are in the Cowboys system. Last year they made the QLD U18s grand final (lost to Twidle) and now they have made the QLD U21s final with Townsville. Both were starting props in Townsville's win over Tweed this weekend.
Keano Kini (Northcote) in 49mins of Burleigh's 57-8 win over Wynnum to book a grand final spot in Q Cup: 2 tries, 18 runs - 218m @ 12.1m/run, 9 tb, 4 tackles @ 100%.
Top- four teams Knights, Raiders and Broncos had wins in NRLW over weaker opposition. Knights blew away Roosters in an epic with solid mahi from Kiwi Ferns Shanice Parker, Abigail Roach and Laishon Albert-Jones. There were too many strong performers for them to feature in Team of the Week though. Mele Hufanga (Broncos) and Niall Williams-Guthrie (Titans) get the nod ahead of the Knights centres. Kerehitina Matua was excellent again on an edge for Raiders and Mackenzie Wiki is so good, so powerful at centre for Raiders that I've got her at edge forward.
NRLWahine Team of the Week
Fullback: Apii Nicholls
Wingers: Annessa Biddle, Madison Bartlett
Centres: Mele Hufanga, Niall Williams-Guthrie
Halves: Raecene McGregor, Tyla Nathan-Wong
Middles: Annetta Nu'uausala, Brianna Clark, Georgia Hale
Edges: Kerehitina Matua, Mackenzie Wiki
Hooker: Nita Maynard
Notables: Cheyelle Robins-Reti, Shanice Parker, Abigail Roache, Laishon Albert-Jones, Tafito Lafaele
NRLWahine stat leaders
Tries
Mele Hufanga: 2nd
Madison Bartlett: 4th
Linebreaks
Mele Hufanga: 2nd
Leianne Tufuga: 8th
Post Contact Metres
Annessa Biddle: 3rd
Tackle Breaks
Mele Hufanga: 4th
Kerehitina Matua: 8th
Cheyelle Robins-Reti: 9th
Try Assists
Raecene McGregor: 4th
Offloads
Alexis Tauaneai: 4th
Tackles
Georgia Hale: 1st (373 @ 99.2%)
Best Blackcaps in ODIs vs England…
Batters
Daryl Mitchell: 175 runs @ 175avg/122.3sr
Devon Conway: 125 runs @ 125avg/86.2sr
Will Young: 62 runs @ 31avg/86.1sr
Henry Nicholls: 26 runs @ 26avg/86.6sr
Bowlers
Tim Southee: 4w @ 34avg/8rpo
Trent Boult: 3w @ 12.3avg/5.2rpo
Rachin Ravindra: 3w @ 26.6avg/5.7rpo
Matt Henry: 1w @ 87avg/5.1rpo
Lots of funky details in the Blackcaps World Cup squad. I think it’s a good squad that can win the tournament, at least continue to the semi-final streak. From the squad I’ve been working with in recent months, Finn Allen and Kyle Jamieson are the notable omissions. Rachin Ravindra’s spin and Jimmy Neesham’s talent had them in my mix. I’m fine with Mark Chapman offering batting depth, especially if Allen is not in the equation. Also no back up wicket-keeper, just lads like Glenn Phillips - who may bowl spin and be wicket-keeper in the World Cup. I suspect we will dive deep into this for the Subscriber Pod tomorrow so join the Patreon whanau or jam a paid Substack subscription to access that and show your support. Here’s my Blackcaps 1st 11…
Devon Conway
Will Young
Kane Williamson
Daryl Mitchell
Tom Latham (wk)
Glenn Phillips
Mitchell Santner
Ish Sodhi
Matt Henry
Tim Southee
Trent Boult
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Northern Kahu are the Tauihi champions of 2023. They were beaten finalists last year but they took vicious revenge upon the Tokomanawa Queens this time around with a 98-72 victory in the grand final. American import Iimar’i Thomas was unstoppable with 31 points on 14/24 shooting and a sneaky 11 rebounds to boot. Tera Reed had 21 points and 11 rebounds making three triples. Penina Davidson supplied a mean 16 points and 8 boards. Aussie Tess Madgen had 19 points with 10 rebounds. If that sounds like a lot of rebounds then yeah it was: the Kahu had twice as many boards as the Queens. Don’t forget 9 points and 9 assists for Krystal Leger-Walker either.
Tegan Graham did score 17 for the Wellington-based side to give them something but the Kahu simply could not be contained. That squad was too deep, too strong. They had the best regular season record and they followed that with a 25-point win over the Whai in their semi-final and a 26-point win over the Queens in the grand final. That’s about as emphatic as it gets. But then what else did you expect from a team that boasted several Tall Ferns starters as well as a couple of top tier imports. This is a new league, only two seasons deep, and the Northern Kahu just raised the bar for the competition.
NZ Player Stat Leaders for Tauihi 2023
Points Per Game
Akiene-Tera Reed (Northern Kahu) – 18.3
Mckenna Dale (Mid-North Whai) - 17.7
Zoe Richards (Southern Hoiho) - 16.6
Stella Beck (Tokomanawa Queens) – 15.6
Penina Davidson (Northern Kahu) – 15.3
Rebounds Per Game
Penina Davidson (Northern Kahu) – 11.6
Zoe Richards (Southern Hoiho) – 9.3
Esra McGoldrick (Mainland Pouākai) – 8.2
Akiene-Tera Reed (Northern Kahu) – 7.8
Stella Beck (Tokomanawa Queens) – 6.8
Assists Per Game
Krystal Leger-Walker (Northern Kahu) – 6.5
Stella Beck (Tokomanawa Queens) – 4.0
Kendell Heremaia (Mainland Pouākai) - 3.5
Mckenna Dale (Mid-North Whai) – 3.4
Akiene-Tera Reed (Northern Kahu) – 3.1
Three-Point Percentage (min. 5 makes)
Esra McGoldrick (Mainland Pouākai) – 51.0%
Akiene-Tera Reed (Northern Kahu) – 47.9%
Stella Beck (Tokomanawa Queens) – 40.0%
Sharne Robati (Mainland Pouākai) - 38.7%
Lauryn Hippolite (Mainland Pouākai) – 38.6%
The Football Ferns have named a squad for their upcoming Chile games. It’s a bit of a pity that their first games post-World Cup are going to be away and it’s a complete pity that the second of them will be a closed-door match for some reason (requested by Chile). Probably spent the team’s budget on training camps so NZF don’t want to host anything right now. Dunno. It’s a curious squad though.
More will be written about this later in the week but for now know that it’s a 24-player group and there are a few changes from the World Cup. In come Kate Taylor and Grace Wisnewski who were only training players for that one. Also elevated are fullbacks Ally Green and Grace Neville. Brianna Edwards also gets the third goalie spot – not her first call-up but the first time that she’s been summoned from the initial announcement and not as a later injury replacement.
Those ladies are there because these ones aren’t: Ria Percival, Erin Nayler, Elizabeth Anton, and Daisy Cleverley. Percival hasn’t been playing much for Spurs in preseason so it’s possible she’s nursing an injury. Nayler just got a golden move to Bayern Munich and probably wants to settle in there, especially as she’s unlikely to play in Chile anyway. Anton has made way for those other fullbacks (both of whom are in-season in Europe and getting games). Cleverley is unlucky but her World Cup selection probably had a bit to do with the injury clouds over Liv Chance and Annalie Longo... which aren’t such a worry now.
They are perhaps light on midfielders now with Percy also missing but there are only two games and one of them might not even count as a real fixture so no dramas. Nobody here from outside the established wider group. Bit early for that kinda thing. There is an Olympic Games next year, remember, with qualifying taking place in early 2024.
One player who isn’t there is Meikayla Moore. She was the harshest cut ahead of the World Cup although her form had been teetering over a couple of years in which she wasn’t playing very much at club level. That’s why it’s such a lovely thing to be able to say that she’s been first choice for Glasgow City so far this season and not just on the domestic front either. Moore played both games over the weekend as GC won 2-0 against Shelbourne (Ireland) and then 3-0 against Gintra (Lithuania) to progress into the second and final round of Champions League qualifying.
Too soon for that form to have changed anything for the Ferns, although note that Kate Taylor has been elevated as a fellow central defender. But Moore has been very good for Glasgow, particularly with her distribution from the back, and she looks as fit as she has done for quite a while. And that may soon be rewarded with UCL footy. Maybe. Glasgow City do have some decent coefficent numbers in their favour but the draw for the second round won’t take place for a couple more days. Then it’ll be a two-legged tie, home and away, with a place in the group stage on the line.
Alas, she’s the only one of the kiwis who is still hanging on. Erin Nayler’s Bayern Munich are automatically into the group stage so shout out to them, not sure how much Nayler will play for them there though. However Betsy Hassett’s Stjarnan were outclassed 4-0 by Levante (who then lost to FC Twente in the next round) to be eliminated while HB Koge with both Claudia Bunge and Daisy Cleverley were beaten in a close one by KuPS – although they did win 3-1 in their classification game vs KI. Bunge started both games so she’s already settling in for the reigning champions of Denmark.
Most UEFA Champions League Women’s Apperances By NZers
Ali Riley (Rosengård, Chelsea & Bayern) – 35
Ria Percival (Frankfurt) – 6
Indiah-Paige Riley (Fortuna Hjørring) – 4
Katie Duncan (Zürich) – 2
Rosie White (Liverpool) – 2
Emma Kete (PK-35 Vantaa) – 1
CJ Bott (Vålerenga) – 1
One player who is there: Katie Bowen, who over the weekend announced a transfer to Inter Milan. A brilliant and deserved move for someone who has graduated into important veteran status in the squad, whilst still being in her career prime. That’s a rare balance.
Over the course of all three games you could make a very strong case that Katie Bowen was New Zealand’s best performer at the 2023 FIFA World Cup. For someone who only in the past few years began playing as a central defender there she was dishing up world class showings on all three occasions. This was after an impressive season at Melbourne City in the A-League where her distribution from defence ranked amongst the very top players in that competition (although she did finish the term in her preferred position of central midfield after a formation change).
Now she’s signed with Inter Milan. A huge move off the back of a strong World Cup, absolutely deserved and exactly what we want to see from one of our current Football Ferns icons. Bowen spent a long time playing in the NWSL in the USA prior to her Aussie stint but this will be her first time in Europe, which was clearly a motivating factor for this move. She’ll become the second New Zealander to play in the Serie A Femminile following on from Katie Rood at Juventus a few years back. Current U19s forward Kiara Bercelli is also on the youth team books of Sampdoria at the moment while of course Liberato Cacace is the only kiwi bloke to have played in the men’s Serie A.
The Italian league is a little behind the growth of the other major ones in Europe. We’re talking about England, Spain, Germany, and France here. That’s because their main men’s clubs were slower to get on board although the founding of a Juventus women’s team in 2017 soon set things on their inevitable way. Juve proceeded to win five titles in a row although Roma broke the streak last term. Internazionale’s team began in 2018 in the second division but were promoted at the first attempt and have since finished seventh, eighth, fifth, and then fifth again in the top tier. They were third when Serie A broke into the championship rounds last time but then faltered to drop a couple spots. They did have the division’s top scorer in Tabitha Chawinga though.
So yeah all those trophies she’s standing in front of in that video? They didn’t win those. At least not yet. Presumably those are titles earned by the fellas but they do make for a pretty backdrop and with Katie Bowen on board they’ll be hoping for a record finish in 2023-24. Bowen has signed a one-year contract with an option for a second season. Molto bene. Prendiamo questo pane.