Gametime
Blackcaps at T20 World Cup, Wellington Phoenix & Auckland FC, NRL preseason, Football Ferns experience, domestic cricket, and more
Scotty’s Word
Blackcaps got their T20 World Cup started with a win vs Afghanistan on Sunday night. Matt Henry (1w @ 6.7rpo) and Mitchell Santner (5.7rpo) were the only kiwis below 10rpo, while Lockie Ferguson took a couple of wickets (2w @ 10rpo). This kept a lid on Afghanistan’s total. Only two of their seven batters had strike-rates over 160, which looked a whole lot better after four Blackcaps in the middle order went over 160sr.
Every Blackcaps batter who faced more than two deliveries scored 20+ runs or finished not-out and had a strike-rate over 150. Aotearoa’s best T20 batter right now is Tim Seifert and he top-scored with 65 runs @ 155sr. Glenn Phillips was next best on 42 runs @ 168sr, Mark Chapman chimed in with 28 runs @ 165sr, and Daryl Mitchell (25* @ 178sr) and Mitchell Santner (17* @ 212sr) were not-out in the winning run chase.
There was a Finn Allen/Rachin Ravindra glitch. No dramas there because the other lads did the mahi and among many funky pockets, I’m curious about the Mitchell/Santner combo down the order. Mitchell can adapt to any scenario and his combo of grit with the ability to smash from the first ball is just as useful slightly lower down the order.
Mitchell scored quickly while only hitting one four and one six vs Afghanistan. 10 of his 25 runs came from boundaries, so the Dazzler was getting busy between the wickets doing kiwi cricket fundamentals.
Santner’s batting has popped up plenty in our Blackcaps coverage. After this knock he’s got 235 runs @ 47avg/185sr in T20Is since October 1st and, for context, Jimmy Neesham’s on 55 runs @ 13.7avg/119sr and Michael Bracewell’s on 52 runs @ 8.6avg/104sr. Santner is one of the best Blackcaps batters in T20Is and the skipper flexed when it mattered most as the only batter in this game scoring over 200sr.
Santner was the most economical bowler in this game and the quickest scorer.
Most dot balls vs Afghanistan
Matt Henry: 11
Jacob Duffy: 8
Lockie Ferguson, Mitchell Santner: 6
Henry took a wicket in all three of T20Is vs India and has wickets in eight consecutive innings, as well as 10 of last 11 innings. His T20I career record is excellent with 23avg/8.5rpo. Henry is cruising along at 20.5avg/8.9rpo under skipper Santner.
The only selection quirk was Neesham being the fourth seamer in this 1st 11. It wasn’t his best bowling performance (3ov @ 11rpo) and I’d rather not have Neesham play such a heavy role, but his strike-rates suggest he will take wickets. Blackcaps also don’t need extra spin with Santner, Phillips and Ravindra all bowling vs Afghanistan. In theory Neesham’s a good batter to have way down the order but that hasn’t been the case for Aotearoa recently.
The next game is against UAE on Tuesday night. I’ve got some more Blackcaps stats for paid subscribers, as well as Ford Trophy notes about Tom Latham, Nathan Smith, Jayden Lennox and three undercover seamers. There are also some HBJ Shield things for every team after the weekend’s action - big thanks to the paid subscribers and Patreon whanau for funding our mahi.
2026 T20 World Cup: New Zealand Preview
2025/26 Ford Trophy: Round Six Basics
2025/26 Ford Trophy: Round Seven Basics
Best tap in with Kaikohe’s Mason Barber who played fullback for Cowboys in their NRL pre-season game vs Bulldogs. Barber had a couple of highlights with a nifty grubber/defence combo and a fabulous try late in the game, both of which seem to sum up the youngster’s potential.
Barber left Aotearoa to go to Keebra Park State High School on the Gold Coast and soon made the Australian Schoolboys squad in 2024. He entered the Cowboys system after finishing school and didn’t play any footy in 2025 due to injury, now he’s started 2026 in the wider NRL mix for Cowboys.
There is plenty of fullback/outside back depth at Cowboys so I’m not sure Barber will crack NRL footy this year but he has dominated all levels in Australia so anything’s possible. Barber also seems to be aligned with Aotearoa Kiwis and something to watch out for is the wave of elite spine players on the rise towards Kiwis footy.
2025/26 Kiwi-NRL Train & Trial Breakdown
Regional Breakdown For 2026 New Zealand Warriors Harold Matthews Cup & SG Ball Cup Squads
A Casual’s Guide To New Zealand Warriors Optimism For The 2026 NRL Season
10 Funky Kiwi-NRL Juniors In Australia For 2026
NZ Warriors lost both U17 and U19 games vs Sea Eagles. They seemed prepared with the excuses with a note in the U19 report from their website saying how they’d had no trials and Sea Eagles ‘benefited from three preseason hit outs’. That makes it tricky to assess matters in a grade that is already tricky to assess. My only note is that the rugged dummy half and small forward roles flow deep through the system. More on that for paid subscribers.
The Bulldogs U19 women’s team scored 12 tries in their 60-4 win vs Sea Eagles with four of the five try-scorers coming from Aotearoa...
Shafenior Lui: 1 try - Mangere East
Violet Hiku: 1 try - Manurewa High School
Giovanna Suani: 3 tries - Mangere East
Josinah Filisi Tauiliili: 2 tries - Mangere East
Musical jam…
Nick’s Notebook
Wins for Melbourne City (ALW) and Newcastle Jets (ALM) meant it didn’t last... but for about 24 hours there, there was a kiwi club atop both of the A-League tables. Wellington Phoenix Women spent two nights there after winning 1-0 against Perth Glory. Auckland FC Men got back there for one night after a win that we’ll talk about in a jiffy. The WahiNix have a game in hand on Melbourne City so they can return to the top with a victory in that one. They’re now six goals clear for the best defence and despite having played the fewest games, they’ve scored the most goals.
They had to grind it out against a gritty travelling Perth side, Makala Woods with the only goal getting busy on the high press with Lucia Leon. But a fifth clean sheet of the season saw them through unscathed despite their inability to find a second. Woods had the key moment... she also scuffed a couple other big chances. MW seems to be a contradictory player, often taking too many touches or making the wrong pass, but her athleticism and irrepressible enthusiasm and energy get her into great positions. She has a goal contribution in all five appearances and that’s what this team needs from her in place of Samba. If it wasn’t for the goal, I’d have said she was awful in that game. But she scored the goal so there ya go.
Four wins on the trot, that’s a new club record.
Five clean sheets in a season, that ties a club record.
24 points equals what they got in all of last season.
Four matches undefeated also ties a club record.
They’ve scored more goals than they did in all but one of their first four seasons (and in fewer games even than the early shorter campaigns).
Bev Priestman has clearly settled on her rotations now. The back three have started every game and Vic Esson only missed one match due to injury so that’s been set since day one. Grace Jale and Emma Pijnenburg have started all four of these wins. Brooke Nunn has found her spot at right wing-back, allowing Lucia Leon to start as an attacking midfielder alongside Pia Vlok who has made her case undeniable. Lara Wall and Manaia Elliott alternate at LWB, with Wall usually playing the first half and then Elliott subbing on at HT or a little later. Emma Main could nudge Leon back to the bench given that she was doing alright pre-injury. But Makala Woods is the starting striker either way.
That leaves a bench with Aimee Danieli as the backup keeper along with Elliott/Wall and Main/Leon. Since the A-League Women’s only allows six players on the bench, that leaves three spots open. Those belong to Zoe Benson (named on the bench in every matchday squad since she signed), Daisy Brazendale (in every matchday squad this season, with one start and 11 sub apps) and Mackenzie Anthony (the new import injury replacement). That’s what we saw on Friday night and it’s the squad that you’d imagine Priestman will pick every week from now on, if possible...
(As usual, the formation is wrong there. Wellington Phoenix tradition. Pretty sure that’s because the broadcasters feel obliged to use the shape set out by the club on the official team sheets but the club always lies on those things. It’s been a back three in every single game and the graphic is supposed to be there for the benefit of the viewer... but whatever, Niche Cache readers don’t get fooled by such trivialities).
That doesn’t leave much room for anyone else. Tiana Jaber made her return from a broken foot two weeks ago then wasn’t even in the squad on Waitangi Day. Scholarship/fringe players Ella McMillan, Olivia Ingham, Ela Jerez, and Ella McCann (if/when she’s fit again post-ACL) seemingly aren’t in the picture at all. Even Macey Fraser won’t have an easy path into the squad when she’s ready. She should (just put her in Leon’s spot) but Priestman’s pretty specific about who she trusts and even an international calibre player could have trouble with that.
Priestman’s here to win and generally speaking that won’t include a lot of youth team players. Case and point: Auckland FC. Even with their bigger bench they usually need injuries to fit in guys like Jonty Bidois or Oli Middleton (who unfortunately has done an ACL) or Ryan Mackay. When Oli Sail gets injured, they sign a replacement from Aussie. The Nix Blokes are the opposite, willing to chuck Joe Chalabi on the bench behind Eamonn McCarron rather than going outside. Lots of academy grads in their team every week. If Luka Vicelich or Finn McKenlay played for the Nix, they’d be in every matchday squad yet for AFC they’ve combined for one unused sub spot this season.
It comes with the territory of having championship aspirations. Those youngsters are expected to glean those winning habits through training in that pressurised environment… and who’s to say that doesn’t make them better players five years down the line compared to the player who was given free licence in the starting team at a younger age? Everybody’s story is different. Ideally there’d be room for both but it is what it is (and Coach Bev’s not gonna be here forever).
And if you wanna read about how Sarpreet Singh fits into the Wellington Phoenix, you’re going to want to make sure you’ve got a Paid Subscription (or a Patreon sub) because that’s where that yarn is
Exploring The Wellington Phoenix’s ALW Rise Under Bev Priestman
Ranking The All Whites Goalkeeper Stocks in 2026
Football Ferns in World Cup Qualifying, Phase One: Squad Yarns & Preview
Auckland FC returned to winning ways on Saturday night, beating Sydney FC 1-0 at home thanks to a typical Sam Cosgrove goal (tap-in from close range after some sloppy defending). Seventh of the season for the big man... not always pretty but he’s proving to be relatively effective.
I was thinking during that game about how he was brought in to be an upgraded version of Max Mata - which in many ways he is seeing as he’s actually scoring goals and he’s bigger and more dominant in the air and whatnot and he’s yet to miss a game through injury (though Mata brought more mobility, making runs in behind whereas Cosgrove is basically a statue to aim for). Yet one of the consequences of that has been the capitulation of Guillermo May’s form. It was Mata playing as the striker which allowed May to sit deeper and brought out the best of him last season. In signing an upgraded player in the same style... they’ve somehow tipped the scales too far and spoiled the main reason why they played so well with a target man last season. Weird how that’s happened.
An injury to Lachlan Brook (seems like AFC are getting a lot of injuries this season) meant that May got almost fifty minutes despite being dropped back to the bench. In that time he managed to miss two or three big chances to score (hitting the woodwork twice) which you’d have bet the family farm on him converting last season. An improved defensive shift combined with one of Michael Woud’s best games of the season (timely statement display from him when it was most needed) meant that AFC got out of there with a 1-0 win but to be honest there wasn’t much difference between this game and the previous few. They were every bit as wasteful in front of goal, maybe even worse, it’s just that they avoided those late concessions.
This was only their second win in the last seven matches. They’ve scored in all seven of those games (they’ve scored in every game this season except for the 0-0 draw away to Melbourne Victory in the opening week) but only in 2 of 7 have they added a second goal and therein lies the issue.
What was Auckland FC know for last season? Late goals. They absolutely bossed the latter parts of both halves and turned so many close games in their favour during those phases. They were fitter and stronger than their opponents. This season they’re being outscored in those moments. This graphic was originally from the paid section on Thursday so shout out to you hearty TNC supporters who’ve already seen it...
It’s kinda astonishing how the biggest strength of last season has turned into a weakness. From +14 goal difference between minutes 31’ to Half Time, down to -1 this time. From +8 goal difference in minute 76’ to Full Time, down to -2 this time.
At least some of that can be put down to the lack of Tommy Smith coming on as The Closer to sure things up. They’ve continued to try that strategy of dropping into a back three with someone like Jake Girdwood-Reich used instead, or Callan Elliot with Hiroki Sakai moving infield (the latter has worked better) but they’re missing that Smithy personality to make it work. But that doesn’t explain their lack of goals late in either half.
One thing that might is the absence of super sub Neyder Moreno. That guy scored five of his goals off the bench. Add in a couple each for Jake Brimmer and Jesse Randall along with a scattering of others and this is what you’ve got...
AFC Goals From Substitutes 2024-25: 11 goals in 28 games
AFC Goals From Substitutes 2025-26: 1 goal in 16 games
They’ve got three good, reliable goal-scorers in Cosgrove, Randall, and Brook... and they’re all starters. Nobody else is contributing. Not getting goals from the defence. Not getting them from the bench. Usually at least one of that trio has been subbed by the end of the match. Logan Rogerson hasn’t scored at all. Guillermo May isn’t putting his chances away, although he did score that lone sub goal (against the Phoenix in Derby #2). Marlee Francois was elevated to start on the weekend and put in a couple nice crosses without doing much else but he was part of a winning team so should probably get another chance next week. Nothing about his past shooting efforts suggests he’ll help the scoring but he is a lively winger and might emerge as a bench spark if he can get some rhythm going. They also need more Jake Brimmer out there.
Jake Brimmer Starts: DWWWLWWW (19 points from 8 games)
Jake Brimmer Doesn’t: DLDWLDLW (9 points from 8 games)
Felipe Gallegos Starts: DLDLDLW (6 points from 7 games)
Felipe Gallegos Doesn’t: DWWWLWWWW (22 points from 9 games)
How many future All Whites coaches can you spot in this video?
Walsall signed kiwi midfielder Jago Godden last week, promptly loaning him out to Drogheda United in the League of Ireland (there’s shared ownership between the clubs), and that led to a little dive into past Walsall connections.
As it happens, there was a time in the early-2000s when that club was home to a New Zealand defender named Danny Hay, who’d been signed from Premier League club Leeds United (Walsall were in the second tier at the time). One of his teammates was a fullback named Darren Bazeley. Another was a defender/midfielder named Neil Emblen. Also in that squad was an Australian midfielder by the name of Steve Corica. Hay, Bazeley, and Emblen later played together at the New Zealand Knights. Emblen coached the All Whites as an interim for two matches in 2014 after Ricki Herbert left. Hay and Bazeley have both been permanent AWs coaches. Steve Corica is now the gaffer at Auckland FC.
Musical Jam...
