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Football Ferns and Tall Blacks squads, White Ferns in Sri Lanka, Melbourne Storm's kiwi crew, Xavier Willison at the Broncos & more
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Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Aotearoa Loves Rugby League (Rugby League)
2023 NRLWahine: Five Funkiest Players From Aotearoa (Rugby League)
2023 NRLWahine: Breaking Down All Aotearoa Wahine in NRLW (Rugby League)
Flying Kiwis – June 27 (Football)
The Quotable Steven Adams: 2022-23 Edition (Basketball)
10 NZNBL Players Who Deserve A Crack In The Aussie NBL (Basketball)
Previewing The Tall Ferns On Their 2023 Asia Cup Quest (Basketball)
2023 White Ferns Tour Of Sri Lanka: Series Preview (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
White Ferns lost the first ODI in Sri Lanka. Batting first, the kiwis scored 170/5 in 28 overs, led by Amelia Kerr's 40 runs @ 78sr and Maddy Green's 38* @ 126sr. I also enjoyed the slick contribution down the order from Georgia Plimmer (23 runs @ 92sr). But Sri Lanka chased that target down easily, cruising along at 6.37rpo and losing only 1 wicket.
Niggly start to the tour. The second ODI is being played Friday evening and a more positive result may get things back on track. Unfortunately White Ferns aren't very good at ODI cricket and their 12-22 record in ODIs since January 1st 2020 lays that out.
Green's batting mahi is still the best batting thing. After an excellent 2022 in ODIs with 381 runs @ 34.6avg/68sr. Green's strength of hitting with power straight down the ground is something all White Fern batters can learn from.
Seven bowlers were used:
Lea Tahuhu: 4ov @ 6.5rpo
Sophie Devine: 4ov, 1w @ 5rpo
Fran Jonas: 5ov @ 6.2rpo
Eden Carson: 6ov @ 4.5rpo
Amelia Kerr: 6ov @ 7.6rpo
Hannah Rowe: 1ov @ 9rpo
Suzie Bates: 1ov @ 11rpo
Apart from Eden Carson and Sophie Devine, not good. Leigh Kasperek deserves a crack and Carson continues to loiter round the best spinner in Aotearoa throne. Devine was run-out by the way and it kinda sums up White Ferns cricket prior to the second ODI.
Waikato's Xavier Willison is named at edge forward for Broncos this round, replacing Jordan Riki who will be out injured for a few months. Having tracked Nelson Asofa-Solomona's mahi at edge forward for Storm in recent newsletters, this is a similar move from Broncos coach Kevin Walters. Willison is a massive and mobile young forward.
The last time Willison played was in Napier against Warriors and along with Auckland's Deine Mariner, they were fantastic in the Broncos win. Mariner is only on the Broncos extended bench this week but now is a good time to check in with their Queensland Cup mahi...
Xavier Willison: 9 games, 1 try, 13 tackle busts, 5 offloads, 139m/game, 94.9% tackling.
Deine Mariner: 12 games, 8 tries, 2 try assists, 65 tackle busts, 10 linebreaks, 132m/game, 79% tackling.
Broncos recently shuffled their reserve grade teams around with Norths Devils moving under the Redcliffe Dolphins umbrella. Willison had played all his Q Cup footy for Norths and then shifted to Wynnum for last week's game, playing alongside Mariner who has always played for Wynnum at Q Cup level.
Wynnum have byes in reserve grade and U21s this weekend. Caius Fa'atili (Hornby) is in the Broncos/Wynnum pipeline and he's backed up his three games of Q Cup last year with eight games this season. Wynnum U21s have Nathaniel Tangimataiti (Ellerslie) starting at centre most games and he was joined by Sefa Roache-Faimalo (Marist) as the centre pair last weekend.
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I'm loving this patch of Storm footy. NAS is the leading reason. He fits into the all Kiwi-NRL Storm right edge alongside Jahrome Hughes, Reimis Smith and Will Warbrick. That's among the best clusters of Kiwi-NRL lads in the league. Two are from Wellington, Smith is from Sydney and Warbrick is from Kawerau. Lots of NZ Warriors buzz in the air right now but remember that rugby league is bigger than Warriors in Aotearoa.
An update on the NAS funk...
Storm lost the Bromwich brothers and Felise Kaufusi. I thought this would lead to more middle minutes for NAS to replace J-Brom. Losing two edge forwards in K-Brom and Kaufusi was followed by losing Eliesa Katoa and now NAS is playing more edge. That's how good the Storm's middle is - they don't need NAS in the middle.
21-year-old Alec MacDonald has returned to the Storm's middle rotation. MacDonald is from Auckland and has featured in previous newsletters because of his consistent role this season. MacDonald is more Simon Mannering than NAS, hence the funky fit at Storm. After playing 12 games last season, MacDonald commanded a round tahi spot and that is not easy to do given how Storm run their summer training.
Seven games in a row, then an injury. Returns last weekend with 34mins and not his best game (4 missed tackles, minimal running impact). Coach Craig Bellamy has named him again this week and MacDonald is brewing as the latest Storm development story.
Black Sticks finish their FIH Pro League campaign rooted to the bottom of the ladder in both competitions. The lads didn't grab a win in 16 games and they are currently 15 points behind Argentina who are one spot ahead of kiwis. The ladies had two wins in 16 games and are a spot ahead of USA, who have four more games to play. USA only need 3 points to draw level with BSW.
Now Black Sticks prepare for the Oceania Cup in August against Australia. A few months ago Australia came to Aotearoa as part of Pro League and won all four games, defeating BSW 1-2 and 1-2 while the Aussie men defeated BSM 0-3 and 2-4. Hard to see Black Sticks making a dent in these Oceania Cup games but stay tuned.
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Football Ferns have named their World Cup squad. 23 players to represent Aotearoa on home soil at the flagship women’s football event. There’ll be a deeper yarn about the team on the website soon enough but in the meantime here are some notes.
Annalie Longo makes the cut having presumably proven her fitness during training camp, less than ten months after suffering an ACL tear. Ria Percival has also returned from the same injury (albeit worse with an added meniscus tear as well) though she was already a lock having played four times for Spurs off the bench late last season.
All the other injury worries seem to have cleared up. Liv Chance, Betsy Hassett, Erin Nayler, etc. Nothing to stop any of them from being selected which is lovely. Let us also recognise that Rebekah Stott has overcome cancer since the last World Cup.
The big omission was Meikayla Moore. Inconsistent form, injury recovery, and a lack of regular club starts over the last two years has dropped her far enough down the aisles that she’s fallen off the back of the bus. Room was required to fit Longo and Percival back in so something had to give. Also no space for Kate Taylor or Mackenzie Barry. However Liz Anton did sneak in which is a jump up the queue having not made the initial squad for the previous tour.
I wrote my squad predictions about six weeks ago and had assumed that Daisy Cleverley would only make it if Longo didn’t... but nope she’s in there. I was right about them not picking another specialist fullback though. 21/23 if you’re wondering. I also thought Barry might sneak in ahead of Anton based on previous selections but Anton must have trained the house down in camp, good to see.
Indi Riley also felt at risk of missing out with Milly Clegg having surged into the mix. The question was whether Klimková would be brave enough to axe a defender in order to have more attacking options on the bench, which seems more valuable in tournament footy, and yep she certainly was.
Assuming a 4-4-2 formation, the front four will probably be Liv Chance and Grace Jale out wide with Jacqui Hand and Hannah Wilkinson up top. That’ll still give them Paige Satchell, Gabi Rennie, Indi Riley, and Milly Clegg as options off the bench – not to mention the possibility of sliding CJ Bott or Ali Riley further forward, while Betsy Hassett could also be hovering on the bench for those moments if Longo is able to start games.
Ali Riley, Ria Percival, and Annalie Longo will be embarking upon their fifth World Cups. Katie Bowen, Hannah Wilkinson, Betsy Hassett, and Erin Nayler are all preparing for their fourth. Ten players in this squad will be going to their first World Cup.
There are four centurions, four players with under ten caps, and four players within the 30-80 range of caps. Four players in this squad also earned their international debuts under Klimková.
14 out of 23 players have played in the A-League with 11 of those having featured in the most recent season. Only five of them have played for the Wellington Phoenix.
FOOTBALL FERNS DEPTH CHART
GK – Esson (Leat & Nayler)
RB – Bott
CB – Stott (Bunge)
CB – Bowen (Anton)
LB – A.Riley (Foster)
CM – Percival (Steinmetz)
CM – Hassett (Longo & Cleverley)
RW – Jale (Satchell)
LW – Chance (I.Riley)
FW – Hand (Rennie)
FW – Wilkinson (Clegg)
No backup right back there because what they’d do in that situation is slide Ali Riley across and start Michaela Foster on the left. Which could happen anyway in scenarios where Bott finds herself higher up the park at right mid. Katie Bowen has also played a lot of right back particularly while she was in the NWSL. Keep an eye on Hassett as a possible winger too, depending on how many minutes Longo has in her legs. Longo will be starting CM if the match fitness were there but that’s still up for grabs even after the miracle recovery.
The Ferns aren’t the only ones delivering important squads, the Tall Blacks have also named their long-list for the FIBA World Cup that’s on the horizon. 21 players to begin with, which will be cut to 18 players for a July training camp and their pre-World Cup preparation games in Japan, Germany and China. Then coach Pero Cameron will trim things some more to find his official 12-man World Cup roster.
The 21-man extended group looks as thus...
There’s a lot that goes into trying to make a World Cup squad. For these lads it’s basically a three month commitment (same with the Football Ferns who’ve been in camp for two months now the final squad’s got another month together to do the thing) and that commitment has proven too much for a few candidates. Tom Abercrombie and Rob Loe both retired citing that they didn’t want to be away from their families for that long at this stage of their careers. Two blokes who were highly likely to make the final roster of 12, thus opening up room for others.
Steven Adams was in conversation to possibly make a Tall Blacks debut at this World Cup. Alas, his knee injury for the Memphis Grizzlies had long since ruled him out of contention. He’s on a recovery plan that his NBA team have devised which is based upon him returning for the start of next season. That’s not going to accommodate any World Cup basketball. Maybe we’ll qualify for the Olympics and reassess things, who knows. But the fates having it this time.
Two other guys who aren’t here: Tom Vodanovich and Sam Waardenburg. For Vodanovich, he’s got that deal in the Philippines coming up which presumably clashes with... if not the World Cup itself then definitely much of the preparation. Tommy V was borderline to make the squad. No Adams and Loe opens things up but he’s not been at peak form for the Wellington Saints and didn’t get big minutes for the Breakers last season so yeah borderline.
Waardenburg probably would have been there. However he’s got that NBA Summer League gig coming up with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Then again, NBA Summer League will be long since over by the time the squad is trimmed to 18 let alone for the games themselves so this is quite a funky one. Officially he’s made himself unavailable to chase other opportunities. Has he perhaps been promised a longer run with the Wolves than just the Summer League? Is he backing himself by leaving that door open? We can at least hope that if he’s skipping the World Cup then legit things are happening for him. An excellent rookie NBL season will have done his reputation no harm.
Other than that it’s a strong squad with all the familiar blokes. Yanni Wetzell will be making a national team debut if he hangs in there long enough (as he should). Taine Murray is the only current college player in the group – Ben Gold would probably have been the next best shout from that age range.
14/21 are currently playing NBL in Aotearoa, a couple of them specifically in order to build up reps ahead of the World Cup. Tyrell Harrison and Sam Waardenburg are the only guys with current Australian NBL contracts (excluding development players) not to be included. Two pairs of brothers have made it this far too.
TALL BLACKS DEPTH CHART
PG – T.Webster | Ili | Le’Afa | Britt
SG – C.Webster | Cameron | Rusbatch | Perrott-Hunt | Murray
SF – Te Rangi | Ngatai
PF – Delany | Mennenga | Harris | D.Fotu | Hunt | Brown
C – I.Fotu | Wetzell | Smith-Milner | Timmins
Just looking at that... bit of a concern about the wing depth, particularly after Abercrombie’s retirement. A few of those power forward can slide down though none of the shooting guards are likely to hang at the three. Maybe we’ll see a few three-guard kinda line-ups. Or some double bigs. Plenty of versatility in there which helps.