Formerly Wonky
Domestic cricket contracts, White Ferns coaching pedigree, NBL semis + Carlin Davison, Flying Kiwis transfer tracker, NRLW & more
Podcast
Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Youtube
Reading Menu
Breaking Down The New NRLWahine Players For 2024 (Rugby League)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Competing For The NRL Finals Mix vs Raiders (Rugby League)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Taking Stock of a Frantic 2024 New Zealand Warriors Season (Rugby League)
Aotearoa at the 2024 Oceania U19 Men’s Championship (Football)
Catching Up On How The Wellington Phoenix Offseason’s Been Going (Football)
Flying Kiwis – July 16 (Football)
The Football Ferns Have Named Their Squad For The 2024 Olympics (Football)
The OlyWhites Have (Finally) Named Their Squad for the 2024 Olympics (Football)
Exploring Another New Low For The New Zealand Women's Cricket Team In ODI Series Sweep vs England (Cricket)
White Ferns Tour Of England Preview (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
White Ferns completed a 0-8 series sweep in England after a loss in the fifth T20. The horrible run of White Ferns mahi continues and yet there is still an admirable wave of positive propaganda around, propping up these woes. I will drop a T20 series review this weekend and this will be a challenge considering the tone of my England tour preview and the ODI series review.
Mikaela Greig didn't play during the entire tour of England and, along with the Lauren Down ODI situation, these pockets are easy examples of White Ferns shenanigans. Add them to heavy defeats, bad vibes, and the type of stats that I only type when reporting about White Ferns.
White Ferns T20 Series Stats vs England
Batting
Suzie Bates: 117 runs @ 23avg/112sr
Amelia Kerr: 85 runs @ 17avg/113sr
Sophie Devine: 84 runs @ 21avg/106sr
Brooke Halliday: 68 runs @ 13avg/94sr
Jess Kerr: 47 runs @ 11avg/134sr
Izzy Gaze: 40 runs @ 10avg/95sr
Maddy Green: 38 runs @ 12avg/90sr
Lea Tahuhu: 31 runs @ 31avg/115sr
Georgia Plimmer: 26 runs @ 26avg/76sr
Bowling
Fran Jonas: 6w @ 14avg/7rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 5w @ 19avg/9.8rpo
Eden Carson: 4w @ 18avg/9rpo
Amelia Kerr: 3w @ 45avg/8.2rpo
Hannah Rowe: 2w @ 11avg/7.6rpo
Leigh Kasperek: 1w @ 36avg/7.2rpo
Jess Kerr: 1w @ 89avg/8rpo
Sophie Devine: 10.2ov @ 9.3rpo
Brooke Halliday: 3ov @ 9rpo
Molly Penfold: 1ov @ 8rpo
White Ferns 2024 T20 Stats
Batting
Suzie Bates: 230 runs @ 23avg/109sr
Amelia Kerr: 199 runs @ 24.8avg/116sr
Sophie Devine: 161 runs @ 26.8avg/124sr
Brooke Halliday: 154 runs @ 19avg/95sr
Izzy Gaze: 108 runs @ 15avg/115sr
Maddy Green: 80 runs @ 10avg/77sr
Jess Kerr: 75 runs @ 15avg/129sr
Georgia Plimmer: 59 runs @ 9.8avg/87sr
Lea Tahuhu: 50 runs @ 50avg/128sr
Bowling
Fran Jonas: 9w @ 24avg/7rpo
Amelia Kerr: 9w @ 29avg/8.3rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 8w @ 24avg/9rpo
Rosemary Mair: 4w @ 37avg/7.5rpo
Eden Carson: 4w @ 18avg/9rpo
Sophie Devine: 4w @ 39avg/9.1rpo
Hannah Rowe: 3w @ 31avg/9.5rpo
Suzie Bates: 2w @ 9avg/6rpo
Leigh Kasperek: 1w @ 36avg/7.2rpo
Brooke Halliday: 3ov @ 9rpo
Molly Penfold: 1ov @ 8rpo
The upcoming T20 World Cup in October gives us a chance to zone in on the T20 silo. White Ferns will play three T20s against Australia in September (yikes) before heading to Bangladesh for the World Cup.
White Ferns in T20s
2024: 1-9
2023 onwards: 7-15
Since Commonwealth Games: 13-16
White Ferns peaked at the 2022 Commonwealth Games where they won a bronze medal, beating England with the same group of players. That was a great result because it bucked the trend of White Ferns cricket. There is little to suggest that White Ferns will be a top-four team at this World Cup. White Ferns haven't cracked the ODI World Cup semi-finals in the last two events (2017, 2022) nor the T20 World Cup semi-finals in the last three events (2018, 2020, 2023).
Domestic cricket contracts were announced yesterday, right as we were recording our Subscriber Pod. Please consider upgrading to a paid Substack subscription to support our work and thank you to everyone funding our mahi.
Here are four major movers from the first round of domestic cricket contracts...
Rob O'Donnell: Auckland → Northern Districts
O'Donnell may or may not end up as ND skipper, given that he departed Auckland where he was an all-format leader. Maybe O'Donnell just wants a change of scenery to refresh his career but he has consistently been Auckland's best batter in recent years and his T20 mahi will be a lovely boost to ND's Super Smash pedigree.
O'Donnell's T20 average of 36.04 is ranked 54th for all batters in the world with 20+ innings. Devon Conway (41.83avg - 12th) and Dean Foxcroft (40.06avg - 20th) are the only active kiwis ranked ahead of O'Donnell.
Leo Carter: Canterbury → Otago
Otago needed leadership and experience which Carter provides. Dean Foxcroft stepped down as skipper a few weeks ago so maybe Carter was tempted by captaincy opportunities. Canterbury have another stacked bowling unit with Matt Rowe entering their mix alongside Sean Davey, Zak Foulkes, Angus McKenzie, Ed Nuttall, Michael Rae, Fraser Sheat and Henry Shipley - which leaves less space for extra batters. Canterbury have a trio of young batters in Mitch Hay (46avg in FC), Rhys Mariu (49.2avg), Matt Boyle (26.7avg) so they should be all good without Carter - who could thrive as a key figure in Otago's lineup.
Liam Dudding: Central Districts → Wellington
Wellington have a proven record of player development and they’ve snapped up Dudding who has a FC bowling average of 24.17 after 11 games. Central are stacked with seamers which is evident in Adam Milne, then Dudding, departing while Central maintains a crew of Doug Bracewell, Joey Field, Brett Randell, Blair Tickner, Ray Toole, and all-rounders Josh Clarkson and Will Clark. Expect Dudding to gain more white-ball experience and consistently snare Plunket Shield wickets this summer.
Bevon Jacobs: Canterbury → Auckland
In his first Super Smash campaign, Jacobs smashed 134 runs @ 33.5avg/188.7sr for Canterbury. Now Jacobs returns to Auckland where he is more likely to play in all formats (can he show Plunket Shield grit?) and I'm fascinated by the combination of Jacob and Jock McKenzie teaming up in the middle/lower order.
Tucked away in the Northern Districts announcement was a note about Tim Seifert and Scott Kuggeleijn taking casual contracts. I haven't seen this before in domestic cricket but it follows the trend of NZC being flexible with their contracting system (players like Trent Boult and Jimmy Neesham being available for Blackcaps selection without contracts, plus Kane Williamson's casual contract).
In this instance, Seifert and Kuggeleijn are veterans who skew towards T20 cricket. Ultimately though, these contracts don't matter that much to fans as Seifert and Kuggeleijn may still play every Plunket Shield game this summer. This flows into Adam Milne and Lockie Ferguson who opted out of Blackcaps contracts but could both be in the Champions Trophy squad next year.
Always keep in mind that players will play lots of Blackcaps and domestic cricket without any contract. Among the storm of cricket anxiety over how this summer will only feature one Test series, it's worth keeping in mind that three Tests vs England is only one Test fewer than previous summers (two two-Test series has been the status quo).
There is no shortage of Blackcaps Test cricket coming up, which is something different for the next six months. One Test vs Afghanistan (hopefully) somewhere in the world, two Tests in Sri Lanka and three Tests in India. That's a ruthless Test schedule for kiwi cricketers. The quantity of Tests and challenges leading into the home series vs England is tantalizing.
Two NRLWahine things…
The Tauaneai sisters from Wainuiomata are awesome. Alexis made her NRLW debut last year and was the best player for Dragons as an 18-year-old, but injury late last season ruled her out of Kiwi Ferns footy. Trinity and Paige played for the Under 17 Bulldogs team who won NSW Lisa Fiaola Cup earlier this year, then Trinity was named in the Australian Schoolgirls squad last week.
Trinity has a development contract with Dragons for NRLW and is starting at lock for Illawara in the NSW Women's Premiership this week. Older sister Brooke Tauaneai is playing for St George in NSWWP and the youngest sister Paige seems destined for an NRLW gig soon.
Also in the Australian Schoolgirls squad is Seriah Palepale from Mangere East via the same Bass High School as Trinity Tauaneai. The Australian Schoolboys squad had Hokianga's Mason Barber who played for Tweed Seagulls in Queensland Under 19s earlier this year is apparently in the Cowboys system.
Kiwi Ferns stocks are also being boosted by Black Fern calibre talent moving to rugby league. The last Tests played for Aotearoa were both wins over Australia, so growth is preeeeetty exciting.
Rosie Kelly (Eels) is the latest Black Fern to switch after she made her debut last year. Pia Tapsell has joined Sharks after playing for Black Ferns. Tafito Lafaele previously represented Black Ferns before moving to Broncos and she could also represent Samoa.
Black Ferns Sevens is also a high performance outfit and Tyla King added value in the halves for Kiwi Ferns after joining Dragons last season. Gayle Broughton shifted to NRLW a couple years ago but she is yet to play for Kiwi Ferns and is on the comeback from injury with Broncos, where Stacey Waaka will make her NRLW debut after switching from Sevens. Niall Williams-Guthrie shifted from Sevens to NRLW with Titans and she represented Samoa last year.
Alexis Tauaneai, Mele Hufanga, Annessa Biddle, Amelia Pasikala, Abigail Roache, Tiana Davison and Mackenzie Wiki were all dominant in their first NRLW seasons. Add in more Black Ferns/Sevens/Super Rugby Aupiki wahine and the next wave of youngsters, then NRLW expansion; Aotearoa women's rugby league will take over.
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
Following on from something we talked about on the podcast this week, White Ferns head coach Ben Sawyer does not have an intimidating record of wins across recent years, even aside from the slump his NZ team has found themselves in. When he was hired it was all about latching onto one of the clever instigators of the all-conquering Australian team – Sawyer was an assistant coach specialising in seam bowling – as well as someone with strong franchise T20 experience. Here’s how NZ Cricket announced it…
Do the maths on that two-year contract, by the way. Contract announced on 5 June 2022. His first games in charge were at the Commonwealth Games which was late-July 2022. Seems like we’re right about at the end of that contract, right? Haven’t yet heard a peep about that anywhere but this could be the catalyst for a bit of overdue reflection from NZC about how they run their women’s high performance stuff. Maybe. There’s a T20 World Cup in October that complicates this matter.
To be fair to Sawyer, his head coaching career did begin with some glorious years at the Sydney Sixers as Elysse Perry led them to a couple of championships. It has also continued since he got the White Ferns job, with Sawyer still helming the Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred and having a year with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first Women’s IPL post-NZ appointment. He did leave the Sydney Sixers gig though. Anyway, the point of this retrospective is to show the trembling lack of success that Sawyer has had as a coach in recent years. Those first four seasons with the Sixers were amazing. Then came some mid stuff. And over the past few calendars it’s mostly just been losing...
Meanwhile, he has a 16-18 (1 tie) record with the White Ferns in T20Is and an 8-10 (1 tie) record in ODIs. That’s despite only having played two T20s (both losses) against Australia during these past two years. We have, however, played a whole lot against England both at home and away. The WFs are 2-10 in T20Is and 1-5 in ODIs against England under Sawyer’s guidance. Which does give them a remaining winning record against everyone else... but that used to be par for the course. A home T20 series defeat against Pakistan last year shows that is no longer the case. They’ve also lost ODI series against South Africa and Sri Lanka (both away) in this time.
You know what else? The year after the Sydney Sixers finished last with Sawyer, losing their final six games in a row, they replaced him with Charlotte Edwards as coach and went 11-2, losing to Adelaide Strikers in the final with Suzie Bates in the squad (they narrowly missed the finals with a 7-7 record in 2024 with Jess Kerr and Suzie Bates). The year after RCB finished only net run-rate above last with Sawyer, they replaced him Luke Williams and finished third (4-4) before winning an elimination final and then the grand final to become champions. Immediate success after he left in both examples. Not for the Birmingham Phoenix, sadly. They’ve still got Sawyer on board for the 2024 season which begins next week. Lucky he’s already in England, aye? Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates are both in that squad.
The Taranaki Airs progressed safely into the semis of the NBL, winning 87-74 against Nelson Giants. The Giants had started nicely, shooting out to a 14-3 lead in the first five mins... but they were losing by the end of the first quarter as Taranaki surged onwards with a 28-10 run sparked by import Elijah Minnie making nine of his first ten field goals. Minnie ended with 30 points. Carlin Davison also chipped in with a tidy 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Not sure what happened with Carlin Davison but he’s surely one of the most improved players in the league this year. He was already exciting last time with his rangy athleticism but in 2024 he’s added top-notch consistency to his game, improving his formerly wonky jump shot after a year with Mody Maor’s Breakers and also figuring ways to get to the hoop time and time again. Big rebounder too. Good for a few assists each game. Even throughout the course of this year, you can see his development.
Carlin Davison First 10 Games:
13.7 PTS | 48.1 FG% | 6.0 REB (1.1 OFF) | 2.3 AST | 1.0 STL | 1.8 TO | 2.0 PF
Carlin Davison Last 10 Games:
20.1 PTS | 54.9 FG% | 9.4 REB (3.4 OFF) | 4.3 AST | 1.6 STL | 2.1 TO | 3.0 PF
Maybe the new Breakers coach will actually let him play this season.
By the way, strange news this morning that the NBL and Tauihi will both have a team from India next year. They’ve been flirting with overseas teams for Tauihi for months with no further announcements so obviously that was proving troublesome. Now they’ve found a solution. Frankly, it’s a bit annoying how gimmicky and commercial they’ve tried to make NZ’s top basketball league since the Sky Sports alignment (Drafts! Rapid League! WNBA alignment! Tik Tok streams!). The exposure has been great. The constant tinkering less so. The constant ‘reminding us how brilliant and innovative these ideas are’ least of all.
Needless to say: “The outside-the-square idea was hatched by Justin Nelson, who heads up Sky’s NZ Basketball League Management team.”
There’s no doubt that this move is based around money and trying to access the massive population of India. Hopefully it’s a success and the NBL can continue to develop and showcase top kiwi players, which is already does brilliantly (and which is its purpose for existing). The Indian teams will be based in Aotearoa, run by the Indian NBL, with the ability to sign NZers and imports along with India’s best domestic players. We’ll see how it goes. I do still prefer this idea to the Tauihi regulation that all teams “must sign (5) non-NZ players, who are classed as imports, and at least (2) of these players must be Australian for the upcoming '24 season”... meaning you’ve basically got to be a Tall Fern just to make a starting line-up in the NZ domestic league now.
The Men’s Olympic Football team lost 3-1 to Uzbekistan in a warm-up game this morning. Jesse Randall scored the goal for NZ, an 85th minute equaliser that was followed by two late concessions. The Uzbeks have actually been extremely good at age grade level for a few years now, making the semis of each of the last four U23 Asian Cups including winning it in 2018. They won the 2023 U20 Asian Cup, as well as getting to the quarters of the 2023 U17 World Cup. Those achievements go well beyond one talented generation of players. They’ve clearly got a system going. Anyway, we lost to them but we also didn’t have our full squad available.
Michael Boxall and Joe Bell will be late arrivals due to club commitments, that’s two of the three overage lads out of commission. Ben Old has withdrawn injured according to French media but NZF don’t want to admit that yet. Not sure on line-ups here but a few images are floating around and this one shows the team preparing for the second half with an eleven that includes Surman and Bindon at CB, Lukas Kelly-Heald at LB, and Sam Sutton in midfield.
Also, the numbers are all strewn up because #7 is supposed to be Matt Garbett yet Jay Herdman was in that kit while Garbs wore #15. Sutton’s wearing #19 instead of #3. LKH is in #3 instead of #13. There was a #13 out there and it looked like Lachlan Bayliss. Kees Sims was in goal when Uzbek scored the winner, at least he had his correct number on (as did the two CBs). This is potentially Ol’ Baze playing a tricky one on any opposition scouts who might be watching.
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
Oh yeah we’re back. It’s been a quiet week or two on this front as international duties slow the transfer wheels, though we woke up to a banger this morning with news that Des Buckingham is trying to bring Sarpreet Singh to Oxford United – a Phoenix and NZ U20s reunion if it happens. Oxford United were a playoff team in League One last season and should be aiming for promotion this time around. Could be a good level for Singh to get some consistent footy with a manager who understands him. That report also claims that QPR are interested, they’re a division up in the Championship having finished 18/24 last time. Plus apparently there are clubs in Germany and the USA circling. We knew that Singh would have options and so it proves to be.
There are five NZers currently on the books of English Premier League clubs, although Marko Stamenic has already been sent out on loan and there’s a good chance that Alex Paulsen, Matt Dibley-Dias, and Henry Gray all do the same. For MDD it’s almost certain because he ages out of the U21s this year, just a matter of where and when and what division. Mentioned a few times about the goalkeeping situation for Paulsen at Bournemouth, no updates on that situation yet but Paulsen himself has admitted that a loan is likely.
As for Gray, the goalkeeping ranks at Ipswich Town are rather curious. Christian Walton got them promoted from League One as the main goalie but then got injured and lost his place to Vaclav Hladky who played every game as Town were promoted from the Champo last term. Yet Hladky failed to agree terms on a new deal so IT recently signed Burnley goalie Arijanet Muric to replace him – a Kosovo international who came from the Man City system. Third-choice GK Cieran Slicker is on record saying he wants first-team footy and the talk is that he could go on loan to Scotland. It was an injury to Slicker that led to Gray being recalled to Town back in April – with the club’s policy being to always have three first-team keepers around on matchday. Gray is not about to go scooting any higher than that this soon but there is a possibility that he could hang around as Mr Toru. Or he could look at a League One or Two loan out himself. Seems notable that Gray hasn’t been pictured with the Olympic squad yet – probably squeezing in some extra preseason with Ipswich currently training in Austria. Gray is an alternate for the Olympics.
Port Vale have been busy adding players since their relegation, though no contract as of yet for Deklan Wynne who has remained with the club on a trial basis. They haven’t had a friendly game for over ten days so hopefully he’s still there for the next. Coincidentally, it turns out there was another kiwi bloke trialling there too: Matthew Warbrick, a forward who was once a teammate of Joe Bell’s at Virginia University (when they made it to the national championship final). Warbrick had been at Upper Hutt City.
Finally, you may have heard this already but Brianna Edwards has signed with Sydney FC after leaving the Wellington Phoenix. Great move for her. A two-year contract with the defending champs... with the expectation being that she’ll get to be the number one with incumbent Jada Whyman expected to move overseas. BE wasn’t getting that chance at the Nix after they signed Carolina Vilão (granted, we don’t know the order of these events). Also, while Edwards did say that she hopes this move can propel her back into the Football Ferns mix... we’ve gotta respect that she was born and raised in Sydney so this is a homecoming for her too. She’s been playing for Illawarra Stingrays in the NPL lately.
Musical Jam offering...