Fly In, Fly Out
Kane Williamson & Blackcaps future, Flying Kiwis transfer tracker, Kiwi-NRL junior investment, NBL youngsters & more
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Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Back To The Gold Coast Whare (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: The Reuben Porter Slow Grind To NRL Footy With Tigers (Rugby League)
Flying Kiwis – June 18 (Football)
All Whites at the 2024 Oceania Nations Cup: Squad Yarns & Preview (Football)
The Flying Kiwis 2024 Mid-Year Transfer Window Preview (Football)
Previewing The Tall Blacks’ 2024 Olympic Qualifying Campaign (Basketball)
The Breakers Are No Longer Coached By Mody Maor (Basketball)
Anatomy Of New Zealand's 2024 T20 World Cup Shambles (Cricket)
White Ferns Tour Of England Preview (Cricket)
27fm Album Jukebox - May 2024 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
We managed to do deep into the Kane Williamson mangroves for the Subscriber Pod yesterday before losing power up north. Stemming from that chat, here is a nugget about Williamson's availability in recent years...
Games played since the start of 2020
Tests: 22 games - tied 5th - 4 played more than 25
ODIs: 16 games - 19th - 8 played more than 30
T20Is: 36 games - 12th - 8 played more than 50
Then we get into Williamson not being an automatic T20I 1st 11 lad right now. His T20 World Cup mahi wasn't flash and Williamson's diminishing T20 buzz is evident in his IPL mahi...
T20 World Cup: 28 runs @ 14avg/87sr
IPL Career: 35.4avg/125sr
2017: 7 games - 42avg/151sr
2018: 17 games - 52avg/142sr
2019: 9 games - 22avg/120sr
2020: 12 games - 45avg/133sr
2021: 10 games - 44avg/113sr
2023: 1 game (injured)
2024: 2 games - 13avg/100sr
Williamson has usually been a high average/low strike-rate T20 batter who played a role in T20 teams. His class enabled Williamson to craft T20 innings and I was pretty staunch in defending his role for Blackcaps in T20Is. Things are changing though. I'm curious A) how Williamson performs in SA 20 and B) how New Zealand brews more potent T20 batters.
For all the T20 analytics, Williamson has a strike-rate of 112.5 in T20 World Cup (27inns). In his 11 years of T20I batting, Williamson has gone over 130sr in three of them and he hasn't done that in his last three years. Williamson has a T20I strike-rate of 129.9 in NZ and this drops to 119.6 for 'away' games and 115 for 'neutral' games. All of which will still be good enough to dominate weaker T20 leagues, but Williamson may not stroll through leagues like SA20 - especially after his recent IPL mahi.
Regardless, Williamson probably just wants to chill and play Test cricket. As would I.
The stats stuff does suggest that Blackcaps can tinker with their T20 style. In all formats, Williamson's captaincy is more conservative than Brendon McCullum or Tim Southee and I've enjoyed a bit more funk from Southee in the last year or so. Keep an eye on that, but more importantly I'm eager to see how this crop of T20 batters listed below progress in Williamson's absence.
I've got everyone's T20 career stats starting with Williamson to offer context. Then players are listed by their Blackcaps roles which morphs into where they sit in batting lineups. Tim Robinson and Katene Clarke are hyper-aggressive openers, Dean Foxcroft is the closest thing to Williamson in the tier below of T20 batters. Josh Clarkson is a powerful hitter and Bevon Jacobs is someone to watch out for as he was blasting boundaries in the Super Smash last summer.
Then there are lots of bowlers who provide T20 batting including Doug Bracewell who cruised along at 202sr last summer. Ben Lockrose and Tim Pringle are both spinners who have flashed legit batting ability as well.
This is a generous list of kiwi cricketers who could be factors in the Blackcaps T20 batting role and they all offer something else in bowling, wicket-keeping or lovely fielding. This is where Blackcaps T20 batting will change in the next few years. Youngsters like Robinson, Jacobs and Hay who have grown up with T20 cricket make high-strike-rate-slugging look easy, so don't overlook the talents of this young wave.
Kane Williamson: 31.5avg/122.5sr
Glenn Phillips: 32.3avg/140.8sr - righty spin
Rachin Ravindra: 17.2avg/131sr - lefty spin
Tim Seifert: 26.2avg/129.8sr - wk
Tim Robinson: 25.5avg/144.4sr
Katene Clarke: 22.7avg/136.8sr
Dean Foxcroft: 40avg/126.4sr - righty spin
Josh Clarkson: 27.8avg/147.4sr - righty seam
Muhammad Abbas: 22.8avg/126.3sr - lefty seam
Mitch Hay: 19.25avg/148.7sr - wk
Bevon Jacobs: 33.5avg/188.7sr
Max Chu - 14.8avg/139.1sr - wk
Doug Bracewell: 27.9avg/154.3sr - righty seam
Brett Hampton: 15.3avg/123sr - righty seam
Zak Foulkes: 21avg/126.5sr - righty seam
Nathan Smith: 14.5avg/126.4sr - righty seam
Jake Gibson: 19.8avg/143.2sr - righty seam
Ben Lockrose: 21.1avg/168.1sr - lefty spin
Tim Pringle: 11.7avg/107sr - lefty spin
Speaking of Pringle, he took the most wickets for kiwi spinners at this T20 World Cup while playing for Netherlands. Assuming Pringle wants to play for Aotearoa, he may debut for Blackcaps having already played 10 T20 World Cup games with 25.3avg/6.7rpo.
Tim Pringle: 13ov, 5w @ 20.2avg/7.7rpo
Mitchell Santner: 13.4ov, 4w @ 19avg/5.5rpo
Rachin Ravindra: 2w @ 4avg/3rpo
Ish Sodhi: 3.4ov, 2w @ 14avg/7.9rpo
Glenn Phillips: 1ov @ 9rpo
Michael Bracewell: 3ov @ 9rpo
White Ferns start their tour of England with a game against England Development this evening.
Updated T20 Blast stats...
Cam Fletcher: 59 runs @ 29avg/128sr
Tom Bruce: 89 runs @ 14avg/107sr
Will Young: 56 runs @ 9avg/77sr
Ben Lister: 6w @ 31avg/8.1rpo
Nathan Smith: 103 runs @ 25avg/124sr | 6w @ 36avg/8.3rpo
This week I did a Kiwi-NRL Spotlight on Reuben Porter who recently made his debut for Tigers. Porter is slightly older than Preston Riki and it's cool that two mature lads have debuted this year, with Porter starting as a Te Atatu junior who went to Mt Albert Grammar. Roosters were flying Porter in/out for SG Ball games and this made me ponder how Roosters invest the most into Kiwi-NRL juniors with interesting results.
Porter got the FIFO treatment (fly to Sydney on Friday, back to school for Monday) which is similar to Joseph Manu and Adam Pompey. Maybe others got the FIFO treatment, but there are plenty of yarns online confirming the Porter, Manu, Pompey stuff. Flying Kiwi-NRL juniors to Sydney for a weekend is expensive, so is putting them into schools (Siua Wong, Kahu Capper) and for most Kiwi-NRL juniors, Roosters whisked them over to Sydney once they finished school.
All of which requires lots of money to make this happen. From paying scouts to housing players. There is a solid crew of Kiwi-NRL juniors who Roosters invested in and are still in the system:
Joseph Manu, Sitili Tupouniua, Naufahu Whyte, Siua Wong, Salesi Foketi, Benaiah Ioelu, Lafi Tuinauvai
Then there are lads who Roosters invested in, only for that to benefit other NRL teams. This is listed in order of when Roosters recruited these lads from NZ...
Reuben Porter: Raiders, Tigers (teams they’ve since joined)
Poasa Fa'amausili: NZ Warriors, Dragons, Dolphins, Bulldogs
Adam Pompey: NZ Warriors
Christian Tuipulotu: Sea Eagles, Dragons
Asu Kepaoa: Tigers, Panthers
Moala Graham-Taufa: NZ Warriors
Bayleigh Bentley-Hape: Rabbitohs
Cassius Tia: Bulldogs
Kahu Capper: NZ Warriors
Javahn Stevenson-Hala: Eels
This is interesting to me because I've always suggested that the Roosters 'salary sombrero' isn't their NRL salary cap management, but how they fund their junior system. Roosters gets juniors from Sydney but that's highly competitive and they were one of the earliest NRL teams to invest in recruiting heavily from New Zealand/around Australia. Roosters did this well because they have lots of money and they could kinda pick any Kiwi-NRL junior from Aotearoa to join their system.
Every NRL team is now rolling out similar investment in their junior pipeline, led by NZ Warriors, so this all changing for Roosters. All that Roosters funding has also produced players for other NRL teams and it doesn't quite seem as efficient as their system once did.
Bulldogs are an interesting example to highlight this week. Fa'amausili is the only Kiwi-NRL lad in their NRL team and Hayze Perham has been locked in at NSW Cup dungeon which is a bummer. There is movement in their Kiwi-NRL pipeline though with Alekolasimi Jones (Mt Albert) earning a promotion to NSW Cup last week and he will be joined by Callum Donaldson (West Coast).
Their Under 21s team has Cassius Tia (Marist) and Fahmy Toilalo (Otahuhu), plus Sosaia Alatini (Hornby) stepped up to Jersey Flegg recently. All the Bulldogs' Kiwi-NRL juice is in their junior teams and I've got Bulldogs as a system to pay attention as they build out a comprehensive Kiwi-NRL pipeline for men and women.
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
After that mess of a T20 World Cup quest, it’s probably a good thing that the Blackcaps will be out of sight and out of mind for a wee while. Not quite yet because we’re having to parse through this Kane Williamson news first (which low-key feels like way less of a drama than has been perceived – we talked about that on the subscriber podcast yesterday for those of you with access... right up until my line got cut off by a Northland-wide powercut lol).
With the Blackcaps on the backburner, we get to do the Olympics. All Whites. Tall Blacks and Tall Ferns. Heaps of rugby league. Even a White Ferns tour to England if the cricket itch is still there for you. All sorts of good sporting activities over the next few months… and then, once we’ve cleansed ourselves, the Blackcaps will be back in action with a jam-packed seven months of cricket.
This is what their schedule looks like over that span, though keep in mind that only the England Tests and the Champions Trophy are actually confirmed at this point.
Afghanistan (A) for 1 Test in September
Sri Lanka (A) for 2 Tests in September/October (WTC)
India (A) for 3 Tests in October/November (WTC)
Sri Lanka (A) for 3 ODI & 3 T20I in November
England (H) for 3 Tests in November/December (WTC)
Sri Lanka (H) for ODIs & T20Is in January
Pakistan (H) for 3 ODI & 3 T20I in February
ICC Champions Trophy (ODI) in Pakistan in February/March
Assuming that all goes ahead as hinted, and that’s no guarantee as there have been some warblings about maybe not doing the Afghanistan one (Australia keep cancelling tours there, though NZC have hinted that this one-off non-World Test Championship match will go ahead), then that means nine Test matches before the end of this calendar year. No second home Test series because of the encroachment of the resuscitated Champions Trophy – which itself could yet be in doubt due to India not wanting to play in Pakistan. This encroachment of overseas tours and tournaments seems to be affecting the Blackcaps annoyingly often these past few years, partly down to an ever-expanding IPL crowding out the calendar.
But they make up for that by cramming in all those away Tests earlier. Very important ones too. We’re currently third on the WTC table with a 3-3 record (1-1 vs Bangladesh, 2-0 vs South Africa, 0-2 vs Australia) and therefore absolutely need to win most if not all of those Sri Lanka and England games just to have a shot at the final, which probably also requires taking points off of India in the toughest away conditions that the NZ cricketers tend to face.
Counting the four Tests that were played earlier on in the year, if the Caps get through all nine of these upcoming games then it’ll be the most Tests they’ve played in a calendar year since 2008 – when a record 14 matches took place, the only time NZ has had such a busy Test schedule. That year involved two Tests against Bangladesh to begin, a three-Test visit from England (including Tim Southee’s debut), then three more away to England a couple months later followed by two away to Bangladesh. Then the next summer began with two games away to Australia and two at home vs West Indies. We won four, drew four, and lost six. Three of the wins were against Bangladesh.
Here’s one for ya... apparently the Breakers tried to sign Jeff Van Gundy as their next Head Coach. This according to Marc Stein, who is one of them NBA insider blokes. JVG was on the staff of the Boston Celtics as they won their first championship since 2008 (as a “special adviser in the basketball operations room”, whatever that means), though when the Breaks requested permission to speak with him they were told that he’d already lined up a gig as one of Tyronne Lue’s assistants with the LA Clippers for next season – which was announced a few days ago. So... that ought to tell you whereabouts they’re looking for Mody Maor’s replacement and it would seem that it’s not the Aotearoa NBL. Surprise is not the emotion that I’m feeling right now. Tall Blacks assistant coach Ross McMains is also on the Celtics staff as a player development coach but of course that would mean bringing a kiwi into the mix and that’s not normally what this franchise likes to do. Not when they could instead go after a big name target with no prior knowledge of the league or of NZ basketball.
In more encouraging basketball news, the NBL has a few more rounds left until the finals but most of the top teams are missing players with the Tall Blacks away trying to qualify for the Olympics. The Canterbury Rams are the exception as they nurse what is now a 12-game win streak so good luck catching them. Elsewhere Taranaki (Flynn Cameron), Nelson (Dan Fotu), Wellington (Izayah Le’Afa), Hawke’s Bay (Jordan Ngatai), and Franklin (Ethan Rusbatch) are all missing a key player for the next couple weeks while the second-placed Auckland Tuatara are without three of their starters. Reuben Te Rangi, Tom Vodanovich, and Corey Webster are all away.
So what happenned in the Tuatara vs Otago game on Wednesday night? Auckland won by 32 points with Rob Loe leading the way scoring 18 points on 7/8 shooting with 9 rebounds and 7 assists... but right there with him were a trio of younger dudes all showing up when the team needed them. Braydon Iuli was a midseason addition in between terms with Menlo College in California and the 20yo guard brought the goods with a series of tough drives and tricky finishes and strong defence on his way to 20 points (8/10 FG), 6 rebounds, 5 assists. Charlie Dalton has been building towards a big performance and he delivered with 19 points (7/11 FG) and 3 steals in almost 28 mins, easily the most he’s played this season. Dalton is 19yo and just finished his first year at Concordia University. Then also 22yo Tukaha Cooper turned up with a massive 35 minutes during which he scored 20 points on 8/17 shooting including 4/11 from three-pointers. Cooper’s previous best scoring night this season was 5 points.
Similar trends were on display last night as Wellington Saints won 117-91 against Hawke’s Bay Hawks. Kahu Treacher had a couple nice plays for HBH with 9 points including a couple threes, though it was Taane Samuel for Wellington who owned the show with 26 points (10/13 FG). He’s a little older at 25yo, having played some Aussie NBL before, so it’s not a breakthrough. But this was his third straight game scoring 20+ points. He had 22 from 9/12 FG against Taranaki, 21 on 10/16 FG against Franklin, and now 26 on 10/13 FG vs Hawke’s Bay. He had four assists against the Hawks too.
Malia Steinmetz’s FC Nordsjælland won the Danish Cup on Thursday morning, beating Brøndby 2-1 in the final. MS got ninety minutes in the midfield just like she always does. This was fresh after they drew with the same opponents four days earlier to claim the Kvindeliga title. League and Cup double. Best to update the running list of kiwi footballing trophy winners then, aye?
Flying Kiwis Trophy Winners (2023-24)
Malia Steinmetz (FC Nordsjælland) – Danish Kvindeliga & Danish Cup
Marko Stamenic (Red Star Belgrade) – Serbian SuperLiga & Serbian Cup
Victoria Esson (Rangers) – Scottish Cup & League Cup
Callum McCowatt (Silkeborg) – Danish Cup
Matt Dibley-Dias (Fulham U21s) – Premier League Cup
Maya Hahn & Suya Haering (Turbine Potsdam) – German Bundesliga 2
Alex Greive (Dundee United) – Scottish Championship
Ria Percival (Crystal Palace) – English Championship
Dalton Wilkins (Sønderjyske) – Danish Division 1
Oscar Obel-Hall (Esbjerg fB) - Danish Division 2
Andre De Jong (Stellenbosch) – South African Knockout Cup
Erin Nayler (Bayern Munich) – German Bundesliga
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
After the Libby Cacace rumours from last Friday, which were expanded upon slightly in Flying Kiwis on Tuesday, there’s been plenty more happening on that front. To recap, two Serie B sides were interested in his services, aware that LC’s down to the last year of his Empoli contract, though there are questions over whether they can afford what Empoli would ask. That’d be less of a drama for the pair of Bundesliga clubs who’ve thrown their cap into the ring: VfL Bochum and Union Berlin. The former survived a relegation playoff via a penalty shootout despite being 3-0 down during the first leg. The latter finished one place above in 15th. Union Berlin are expected to lose their current left-back Robin Gosens with several Italian clubs circling him. These are relegation-battling Bundesliga clubs though that’d still be better than second tier in Italy (and no different to what he’s got with Empoli).
That Gosens bloke is being courted by several Italian clubs and only one of them is going to win the bidding. Funnily enough, that’s led to Bologna looking for backup targets and Cacace’s name has been specifically linked there as well. Bologna finished fifth in Serie A and thus earned Champions League qualification (straight through to the league phase thanks to the new format, no qualifiers). That’d be a huge trade up from Empoli. Of course, these are the kinds of vast rumours that also tend to emerge when a bloke is trying to leverage a new contract so all options are on the table here. Meanwhile Cacace himself is chilling in Vanuatu with the All Whites.
Following on from the big twist in the Marko Stamenic saga that was covered in the latest Flying Kiwis article – namely the way that Nottingham Forest came swooping in to usurp Coventry City’s bid – we’re just waiting on official confirmation. He supposedly landed in Greece two days ago to do his medical with Olympiacos (shared ownership with Nottm Forest and the impending loan to the Greek club means this is the simplest way to do it). The last time we got caught waiting the move ended up being swamped so nothing’s done until the photos of him holding a club scarf emerge. But it could be confirmed as soon as tomorrow morning.
Grace Wisnewski has some teammates at Lexington SC. That sounds redundant but she didn’t actually have any when she signed earlier in the week – she was LSC’s first ever player announcement. Since then they’ve added three more women. To give you an idea of the standard of the new USL Super League, those players are: Marykate McGuire (a college grad who played for Duke and Ole Miss, formerly USA U18s), Elysia Laramie (another college grad, from Long Beach State, who got a few conference honours throughout her time), and Kimberley Mendez (four years at Div II California State, then some time as a pro in Serbia with ŽFK Mašinac). So we’re talking good college players but not the cream of the crop who obviously get the NWSL opportunities. Other teams do seem to be making more pedigreed signings.
This isn’t a kiwi transfer but word is that Bayern Munich are closing in on Fulham midfielder João Palhinha after narrowly missing out on him last year. The two clubs are supposedly haggling over prices for the 28yo Portuguese as we speak (haggling which may or may not be resolved). That’s all fine and dandy... because Fulham losing a midfielder could potentially lift Matt Dibley-Dias a spot higher in the pecking order. He’s already made the bench a couple of times so he’s close and getting closer. In the meantime, we’re expecting to see Dibs make his Aotearoa debut at the Olympics next month.
Sneaky news just this arvo with Michaela Foster joining Auckland United in the NRFL Women’s Premier Division. Nothing to freak out about here – if anything this makes it more likely that she returns to the Wellington Phoenix. Most of her old Northern Rovers side, including coach Ben Bate, are now with AU so this makes sense as a keep-busy destination... especially if she’s trying to crack the Football Ferns Olympic squad. Otherwise she’d have only played those two Ferns games since the end of the ALW campaign. Last year both Chloe Knott and Marisa van der Meer played for AU during their offseasons (Knott has been back there since leaving the Nix). Some players go play NPL during the winter, others stay with the Phoenix Reserves, some play NRFL. No dramas there. Ruby Nathan also recently rejoined Auckland United presumably for similar reasons. Oh, and, ah... Auckland United are away to West Coast Rangers in a top-of-the-table clash next Thursday which may have also arguably possibly potentially have been a factor.
Musical Jam…