Fantastic Grabs
Fantastic Grabs
Kiwis love cricket, Blackcaps bats, Super Smash stats, Amelia Kerr, Flying Kiwis transfer tracker, Kosta Barbarouses goals, Breakers still stumbling & heaps more
Podcast
Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Youtube
Reading Menu
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Three Staples Of Warriors Footy For 2024 (Rugby League)
Looking Back At New Zealand’s U17 World Cup Bronze Medallists, Five Years Later (Football)
The NZ Breakers Are Ready To Repeat The Dose in NBL24 (Basketball)
The NZ Breakers Have Plummeted Again... What’s Going On? (Basketball)
The Long, Confusing Timeline of Steven Adams’ Knee Injury (Basketball)
Flying Kiwis – January 10 (Football)
The Glorious Revival of Kosta Barbarouses at the Wellington Phoenix (Football)
27fm Weekly Playlist: January 12 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
The 'kiwis love cricket' theme was on display again this weekend. Big crowds for Blackcaps vs Pakistan T20Is as the Super Smash simmers towards finals. Another topic I've touched on recently is the emerging cultural diversity of cricket in Aotearoa. Amongst a funky schedule that includes regional cricket like Hawke Cup, the Women's Pacific Cup will be played in Auckland this week.
The Maori team features Eden Carson, Jess McFadyen, Sam Barriball, Skye Bowden, Georgia Atkinson, Nicole Baird, Ocean Bartlett, Marama Downes, Caitlin King and Holly Topp who are all Super Smash/HBJ Shield regulars. Carson and McFadyen have played for White Ferns. Bowden's the best young bowler in Super Smash and Downes is right there with her. The Maori spin also has Baird and Bartlett, suggesting that this team could trouble a few domestic groups.
Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Cook Islands and Samoa will also feature in this tournament. Other domestic cricketers are likely to be in those squads as well. This is a small dose of the growth on offer for cricket (and other sports) and while seeing Pakistan/Bangladesh brands advertised across New Zealand cricket, perhaps that is one of a few moves to fund the growth of cricket in Aotearoa and the region.
There were a bunch of excellent catches in recent days. You would have seen the Troy Johnson/Nick Kelly combo catch for Wellington Firebirds and Ish Sodhi's low one-hander in the first T20I. Fantastic grabs, but I prefer these catches...
Two more quirky tales...
Glenn Phillips now enters the arena to John Cena's music. Like me, you probably don't care about wrestling but you know the tune. I now look forward to this every game and hope it's a staple of the summer because Phillips' cricket ability/style deserves the hype.
Phillips, Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi are New Balance lads. Santner's bat looks different to that of Phillips and Sodhi though, even though they all have NB stickers. Santner's bat appears to have a small 'SS' mark on the edge which indicates he is using an SS blade with NB stickers.
This is a murky zone for most of us and I'm always open to learning more about the world of bat/gear sponsorship. I'll whip up the annual 'Who Is Using What Bats?' yarn for one of the Tests this summer and here's what I've got as a general guide for the T20I team...
SS: Finn Allen, Devon Conway
Kookaburra: Mark Chapman, Tim Seifert, Matt Henry (Josh Clarkson)
Gray Nicholls: Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell
Gunn & Moore: Will Young
New Balance: Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi
Stanford: Tim Southee
Keeley: Adam Milne
Blackcaps vs Pakistan T20I Stats
Batting
Finn Allen: 108 runs @ 54avg/192sr
Kane Williamson: 83 runs @ 83avg/145sr
Daryl Mitchell: 78 runs @ 39avg/210sr
Glenn Philips: 32 runs @ 16avg/160sr
Mark Chapman: 30 runs @ 15avg/150sr
Mitchell Santner: 25 runs @ 25avg/192sr
Devon Conway: 20 runs @ 10avg/125sr
Bowling
Tim Southee: 5w @ 9avg/7.4rpo
Adam Milne: 6w @ 13avg/10.3rpo
Ben Sears: 4w @ 17avg/8.7rpo
Ish Sodhi: 3w @ 22avg/9.4rpo
Matt Henry: 3ov @ 9.6rpo
Mitchell Santner: 4ov @ 11.7rpo
Finn Allen this summer...
Plunket Shield: 86 runs @ 28avg/70sr
Ford Trophy: 387 runs @ 77avg/126sr
Super Smash: 154 runs @ 77avg/177sr
T20I: 149 runs @ 29avg/156sr
Lots of 'Allen doesn't face enough deliveries' chat around this series and the concern about Williamson's strike-rate still loiters. I am not buzzing about either as they are related; Allen has a whack with the safety net of Williamson next in line. Allen's strike-rates are always high so he's doing his job and Williamson is the master craftsman who can switch tempo.
Both storylines ignore the most pressing concern which is Devon Conway's lack of runs. Conway has no scores over 50 in his last 10 games (12 innings) in all formats. After his 152* to start the World Cup, Conway had scores of 32, 45, 20, 0, 28, 2, 35, 45, 13. Those scores are good scores for Allen in T20Is with strike-rates over 150 but not ideal for Conway. They also fit into a general dip in form...
Conway averaged 63 for Tests in 2021, then he averaged 49 in 2022 and 32 last year. This is aligned with his T20I mahi...
2020: 58avg/151sr
2021: 47avg/135sr
2022: 47avg/122sr
2023: 13avg/109sr
2024: 10avg/125sr
Best Blackcaps In Super Smash
Batting
Henry Nicholls: 213 runs @ 53avg/147sr
Dane Cleaver: 192 runs @ 27avg/127sr
Dean Foxcroft: 189 runs @ 37avg/115sr
Dough Bracewell: 169 runs @ 42avg/219sr
Will Young: 166 runs @ 33avg/131sr
Bowling
Ben Lister: 10w @ 14avg/6.9rpo
Ajaz Patel: 7w @ 21avg/7.3rpo
Jacob Duffy: 7w @ 21avg/7.8rpo
Will O'Rourke: 6w @ 26avg/8.3rpo
Soctt Kuggeleijn: 6w @ 26avg/8.4rpo
Blair Tickner: 6w @ 36avg/10rpo
Along with Ben Lister, Auckland's best bowlers are Danru Ferns and Louis Delport. Delport is Auckland's best bowler though with 11w @ 13avg/6.rpo and the second best spinner behind Peter Younghusband (playing today). Delport is fascinating as a 35-year-old who is Auckland's best spinner across all formats, sneaking ahead of the more fancied youngster Adithya Ashok. Not only is Delport a funky bloke with moves and grooves, he and CD's Jayden Lennox are excellent Super Smash spinners who slide under the radar.
Here are T20 bowling stats for domestic spinners with Ajaz Patel, Michael Bracewell, Peter Younghusband and Michael Rippon joining the older lads. Ashok, Tim Pringle and Ben Lockrose are youngsters...
Jayden Lennox: 16.9avg/7.3rpo
Michael Bracewell: 17.2avg/7.2rpo
Louis Delport: 21.4avg/7.5rpo
Peter Younghusband: 22avg/6.9rpo
Adithya Ashok: 22avg/7rpo
Ajaz Patel: 24avg/7.6rpo
Tim Pringle: 27avg/6.7rpo
Michael Rippon: 28.2avg/7.6rpo
Ben Lockrose: 39.3avg/7.8rpo
Auckland also handed Jock McKenzie a debut and he took 3w @ 7.7rpo. McKenzie is a dual-code star having done a bit of that rugby union thing and which path he opts for will obviously be interesting. All Blacks have ample depth so this probably won't be an issue but I'm also curious about what happens with Tyrone Thompson this year if his move to join twin bro Leo at the Knights is sorted. Despite recent antics with Caelys Putoko and Tevita Naufahu, surely the wider All Blacks mixer won't include Tyrone if he is off to NRL.
Bree Illing is a name to note down along with PJ Watkins as female lefty seamers. Illing was fantastic for Auckland in their win over Otago on Sunday with 2w @ 5.7rpo and she has built a solid season so far...
HBJ Shield: 8w @ 25avg/5.2rpo
Super Smash: 5w @ 26avg/6rpo
Best White Ferns in Super Smash (after Wellington's win vs ND)...
Batting
Suzie Bates: 346 runs @ 69avg/111sr
Amelia Kerr: 354 runs @ 70avg/127sr
Maddy Green: 242 runs @ 60avg/118sr
Kate Anderson: 177 runs @ 25avg/111sr
Georgia Plimmer: 169 runs @ 56avg/102sr
Hannah Rowe: 146 runs @ 36avg/96sr
Bowling
Amelia Kerr: 18w @ 8avg/4.5rpo
Leigh Kasperek: 13w @ 13avg/5.4rpo
Eden Carson: 8w @ 21avg/6.1rpo
Fran Jonas: 7w @ 14avg/5.4rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 7w @ 18avg/6rpo
Rosemary Mair: 7w @ 20avg/6.4rpo
Amelia Kerr - Queen Of The Basin
Kerr has been a young but key figure in the Wellington Blaze dynasty and over the past year, she has established herself as the best player for White Ferns. Now Kerr is dominating Super Smash in every aspect. As well as the batting/bowling stuff, Kerr impacts games with her fielding and she is shining as skipper. Whether chasing the ball harder than anyone else or the way she growls when calling for runs; Kerr's presence on the field now matches her cricketing skill.
Here is how Kerr's Super Smash campaign has played out...
vs Otago: 7 runs @ 77sr | 2w @ 4.25rpo
vs Otago: 88 runs @ 154sr | 1w @ 6.25rpo
vs ND: 11 runs @ 137sr | 2w @ 5.25rpo
vs Auckland: 0w @ 5.5rpo | 12 runs @ 75sr
vs CD: 1w @ 4rpo | 60* @ 120sr
vs Canterbury: 77* @ 140sr | 5w @ 2.5rpo
vs CD: 26 runs @ 78sr | 5w @ 3.25rpo
vs ND : 2w @ 5.5rpo | 73* @ 148sr
Three not-out 50+ scores and 13w in her last four games? That's bonkers. The Queen of the Basin couldn't lead her team to victory over CD but her bowling and captaincy saw Wellington snatch an unlikely draw before an exceptional knock to defeat ND today. This is a small blip in form across a bigger arc of Kerr's greatness but it's been a pleasure to watch, especially as Kerr has done this without the leadership or cricketing output of Sophie Devine in the Blaze team.
Consider this a notice about Amelia Kerr's greatness. Like all these talented young kiwis, Kerr is a cool cat. Confident, calm, humble and generous. Tap in as Kerr tries to lead the Blaze to a Super Smash championship, an achievement that has usually featured Devine being an unstoppable force
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Stinker of a weekend for the NZ Breakers, aye? Two more games against teams above them on the ladder and they lost them both. Against a Shea Ili-less Melbourne United (Ili got a minor concussion last week so they’re being cautious with it, he should be back this week) they were at least close. Another game with 20+ from both Anthony Lamb and Parker Jackson-Cartwright and a pretty good defensive evening had them in position late on but clutch-time blunders then cost them. Turnovers, poor rebounding, bad shot selection... the usual.
With the scores at 81-all in the closing seconds, Matthew Dellavedova kinda conned himself a shooting foul (although MU still woulda had a shot for the win even if the foul was on the floor as it ought to have been). Delly then did something very smart by missing the second FT knowing that the Breakers couldn’t call a timeout from live play, thus would have about four seconds to throw up a hail mary shot for the win - rather than being able to advance the ball and run a set play, as would’ve been the case had he made the shot and a timeout been called. Alas, import Zylan Cheatham didn’t know the rules so he tried to call a timeout anyway and the clock ran down for a Melbourne Utd win.
So that was a blooper. But not as bad as their performance a few days later against Sydney Kings where the previously out-of-form Kings absolutely whalloped them 105-76. The lead was established early and emphatically and was never under threat, peaking at 38 points. Just a horrendous effort from the Breakers.
This seems to often be the case whenever they play on a short turnaround... they’re 0-6 in games on three or fewer days rest. Lamb and PJC had the worst plus-minuses of everyone. This was the ninth time in 20 games in which they’ve had a team defensive rating over 120 points per 100 possessions. What happened to the wicked defence of last season?
But that’s alright because, while the Breakers have now lost three in a row to undo the good of that four-game win streak and tumble them back out of the finals spots as things stand... kiwis elsewhere are doing lovely things.
Most notably in Perth where the Wildcats were excellent again on the way to another win – with Tai Webster scoring 20 points (behind another statement Bryce Cotton performance). Hyrum Harris had some foul trouble, what else is new, but brought all the energy while he was out there including setting a tone from the opening tip. Perth with the 100-79 win over South East Melbourne.
Perth Wildcats are 10-2 when Hyrum Harris plays at least 10 minutes
Perth Wildcats are 8-0 when Tai Webster plays at least 22 minutes
We also saw Corey Webster get a couple of minutes off the bench at the end to mark his return from injury, while kiwi development player Jack Andrew also closed things out in a rare appearance. Four kiwis in one game... for the Wildcats. All that was missing was Dontae Russo-Nance but that’s to be expected from a teenager on a multi-year DP gig. DRN has been announced as an Otago Nuggets signing for the next NZ NBL season though, along with Jack Andrew. The Wildcats and Nuggets have shared ownership which explains why that’s happened.
Also gotta make mention of Tyrell Harrison for Brisbane Bullets who had 18 points and 7 rebounds in a win against Illawarra Hawks (fourth in a row for Brizzy). Three blocks in there too. Harrison’s having a sneakily excellent season, on pace for a comfortable career high in scoring (although his rebounding has dipped, largely on the offensive side of things – which could be scheme or it could be the consequence of playing for a team with heaps of size and thus multiple rebounding threats). Lots to love about how he’s stringing things together.
The bro Kosta Barbarouses scored twice more on Sunday night, with an assist to boot. That’s eight goals and four assists this season... only Bruno Fornaroli has more goal contributions across the entire league (14). Remember that all eight of those goals have come in the last five matches following a 17-game goal drought.
That means Kosta’s got a chance to break the club record if he can score in a sixth game in a row – Tomer Hemed, Oskar Zawada, and now Kosta Barbarouses currently share that title while Roy Krishna (twice), Ben Waine, Ulises Davila, Bozhidar Kraev, and Zawada again have all had four-game scoring streaks in recent years. Seems like this club is pretty good at riding the hot hand.
The HeNix are also top of the table again thanks to that silly ‘most wins’ tiebreaker after Melbourne Victory only drew this week. The Phoenix conceded a few bangers against Perth but continually managed to respond which is a good sign of a confident team that won’t get rattled. Also helpful is that Nico Pennington and David Ball were amongst those who got assists... two fellas who probably need to offer a little more end product than they have so far, hence this was a solid development.
As for the ALW team, they were technically at home for Unite Round... but that’s a stitch-up. Playing a scheduled home game in Sydney against a New South Welsh club effectively means they have 10 home games and 12 away games this season. While that might not bother the HeNix right now, the SheNix unfortunately (counting the CCM loss as an away game) have a home/away disparity that looks like this...
WahiNix Games In NZ
6 GP | 4 W | 1 D | 1 L | 11 GF | 6 GA | +5 GD | 13 PTS
WahiNix Games In AUS
6 GP | 1 W | 0 D | 5 L | 6 GF | 8 GA | -2 GD | 3 PTS
Again they scored first.
Again they were shut out in the second half.
Again they lost by a single goal.
And yes I shall be writing a longer piece about this for the website this week. They have become the Henry Nicholls of the A-League... which is fine as long as they’re playing in Aotearoa and fearful when they’re not and still balances out to something pretty good but not as good as they seem like they should be.
I’ve got heaps of transfer yarns in a sec but since the A-League tends not to fall under that jurisdiction there are a couple of notes to throw out there. One is that Georgia Candy, last season’s scholarship keeper with the Wellington Phoenix (and once a member of that 2018 U17 World Cup third-place squad) has popped up out of the blue at Melbourne Victory as an injury replacement.
Aussie international Lydia Williams got hurt last week, an ankle knock that we’re not yet sure about the seriousness of. Courtney Newbon started in her place while Candy was summoned to the bench. It turns out Candy spent some time with Eltham Redbacks in the Victorian NPL since being released by the Nix after last season. I suspect this might be a 1-2 week gig for her but let’s see how it flows.
The other note is the curious case of Milly Clegg at Western Sydney Wanderers. She continues to be named in wider squads each week on that Ins & Outs thing the official website does. Yet she’s not actually been in a matchday squad since getting injured on debut... an injury which was apparently substantial even though the club has never bothered to announce any updates. As far as I know she’s still injured. In fact, a quick peek at the ‘gram shows a photo dump of Sydney images with a bunch of her WSW teammates in the comments all saying how much they miss her. So... seems like she’s probably not even in Sydney any more.
We know it’s a hamstring injury because that’s what the Football Ferns said when she was unavailable for the Colombia tour. Other than that it’d be cool if the Wanderers could clarify literally anything else. But yeah it seems this ALW season was a washout for Clegg who missed the first two games awaiting her birthday so she’d be eligible to represent a foreign club. Then she got injured on debut. And... that might just be it.
Also on the ‘gram is the inference that she’s now represented by AV Sports, a global agency which represents many of the best female players on the planet. So regardless of how this term’s gone, NZ’s best striker prospect for a generation shouldn’t have to worry about the next gig. Now for some more kiwi football transfer gossip.
Support The Niche Cache
Join the Patreon whanau or jam a paid Substack subscription for an extra podcast each week.
Make a sporadic donation through Buy Me A Coffee.
Tell a friend.
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
The main yarn over the weekend was Ria Percival jumping over to Crystal Palace on loan from Tottenham Hotspur. Another one of those out-of-the-blue moves that makes more sense the more you think about it.
Percy is not long back from a serious knee injury. She’s just turned 34 and is trying to extend her career. More than anything she needs regular games but hasn’t been able to get that with Spurs this season, only featuring sporadically and mostly in the cup stuff. When she has played you can see why that is, with Percival looking very reserved, sitting deep and showing overt caution with her passing. She’s still covering the turf in footprints but her tackle rate is way down which simply is not what we’ve come to expect from such a combative midfield force.
Ria Percival in the WSL season prior to the ACL tear:
64.4% passing accuracy
3.57 shot creating actions per ninety mins
2.50 tackles/90
48.4 touches/90
1.73 touches in opposition penalty area/90
Ria Percival in the season and a bit post-ACL tear:
73.3% passing accuracy
1.17 SCA/90
0.78 tackles/90
55.9 touches/90
1.17 touches in opp area/90
Bit of small sample size drama with the latter stuff but you can still see a pattern of more touches, more accurate passes... but less creative and defensive output at the same time. Admittedly there’s a new manager who has structured the team in a different way, with a specific attacking midfielder meaning Percival, when she’s played (and when she has, it’s often been as a late sub with a game situation to worry about), doesn’t have the same licence to press and charge forward.
Still, there’s rust that needs clearing. And half a season at promotion-challenging Crystal Palace in the second division ought to give her exactly that – linking up with manager Laura Kaminski who was actually an assistant at Spurs when they first signed Percival.
Not sure if you heard about the shambles at Reading FC – whose (men’s) game was abandoned on the weekend after mass fan protests against their awful ownership (16 points deducted since Nov 2021 for financial dramas). That’s likely to lead to a firesale for a bunch of their most valuable players (ie youngsters with big potential) and there’s a decent chance that includes Tyler Bindon. In fact an Athletic article on this exact situation name-checked Bindon amongst others so we’ll see how this one progresses...
The Athletic: “The January transfer window will likely see their greatest assets sold, such as England Under-20s defender Nelson Abbey and club captain Tom Holmes. Others, including Tyler Bindon and Charlie Savage, will be allowed to leave if valuations are met with upfront payments.”
It seems that Corban Piper has been registered back at Birkenhead United after his year in Ireland. Indications seem to be that he’s still keen to head back to Europe, probably Ireland again, so this is likely to keep him busy while things unfold – might be some paperwork to get through or something. I see Birko have also won the Sam Philip sweepstakes after he moved to Auckland (presumably for work reasons), leaving Christchurch United. Them and Western Springs are making serious swings at getting into the National League in 2024. But that’s a digression, back on topic now.
FC Haka have now played a preseason game and Ollie Whyte wasn’t part of it. He’d been training with the team despite not having a contract, but this new development doesn’t feel great. Logan Rogerson has already been released. Should also mention that Nikko Boxall, who played regularly for Inter Turku last year, has been released with the club thanking him for his efforts and that’s generally one of those no-coming-back-from-here acts. With Jacqui Hand also leaving the Finnish women’s league, the NZ-Finland connection might just have been completely severed for 2024.
The NWSL Draft took place over the weekend. A couple of full internationals were amongst the kiwi graduates but none of them even bothered registering for the draft and fair enough. 56 players were selected and all but seven of them were Americans. There were a couple of Canadians and a couple from the Carribbean. Most of them were born in the USA anyway, therefore don’t require foreign spots on the roster. Zero players picked from Europe or South America.
Basically, the NWSL Draft (which now also includes some high school players skipping college altogether, though there are limits on U18s players on NWSL rosters) is not currently a viable pathway into the American top women’s league for foreign players. Katie Bowen is the only NZer ever picked across the 12-year history of this thing. However there was one cool story late in the fourth and final round with Laveni Vaka picked up by expansion side Bay FC. Vaka was born and raised in Utah but is a Tongan international. She and her sister Daviana were part of the OFC Nations Cup squad in 2022. Shout out to the diaspora.
All of which means that the likes of Gabi Rennie, Maggie Jenkins, and Ava Collins still await the next steps in their careers. Given where the Football Ferns are with their goal-scoring, we very much need all three of those attacking players to find something decent and keep building out the depth and supplying competition. Rennie and Collins have already played a fair bit whilst still at university so there’s some national team selection trends that need vindicating as well.
Getting speculative, Jamie Searle must be going through an odd experience at the moment with Forest Green Rovers. FGR are already a funky club, a rare team in the EFL which makes an actual point of sustainability. Sometimes in an excessively showy way but so it goes. They also happen to be losing a lot of games and currently sit last in League Two. Troy Deeney, ex-Watford striker, is their new manager and he absolutely shredded his players in a post-game interview on the weekend (for which he later apologised). That’s all led to a few recent transfers to try and solve things.
One of those transfers was former Wellington Phoenix midfielder Alex Gorrin Rodriguez... who got sent off on debut. Another was Stoke reserves goalie Tommy Simkin who also debuted in the 2-0 loss to Harrogate on Sunday morning NZT. Luke Daniels had been their number one for most of the season with Jamie Searle, though when Daniels got injured they brought in an outside replacement on a rolling loan until LD was back. With Simkin there, Daniels was on the bench and Searle, who has only played in cup games, was nowhere to be seen. Makes you wonder if maybe there’s a loan gig for Searle on the cards.
Also, Simkin is an England youth international who impressed at National League side Solihull Moors until Stoke recalled him due to an injury crisis, leading to his Championship debut in December. Really good goalkeepign prospect by all accounts. Since then he’s mostly played U21s… and who, pray tell, might be in line to take those U21s minutes now that Simkins has left on loan? Well rumour has it that Aotearoa’s Scott Morris is on the brink of joining that very same squad so there ya go.
A tune to say adieu…