Go On Reece Walsh...
Chad Townsend Returns & Olympic Football Squads
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 22
The Niche Cast: Life Is Beautiful (Blackcaps Are World Test Champions)
Reading Menu
Monday Morning Dummy Half: Mid-Season Aotearoa Kiwis Team (NRL)
Flying Kiwis – June 22 (Football)
How Will Steven Adams Be Affected By Stan Van Gundy’s New Orleans Pelicans Departure? (Basketball)
How Did The Breakers Fall So Far Short Of Expectations In NBL21? (Basketball)
History, Legacy & Redemption For The World Test Champion Blackcaps (Cricket)
Welly Nix: Compiling A Transfer Wishlist For Next Season (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Reece Walsh & Chad Townsend - NZ Warriors business…
What to make of the Reece Walsh selection for Queensland? I don’t really see how anyone with their NZ Warriors goggles on can view this negatively, nor do I believe in the issues around selecting a youngster like Walsh. There is no duty of care from Queensland, their job is not to develop talent for further use in later years and while a worst-case scenario could have a negative impact on Walsh with Warriors; there’s a whole lot of negative vibes there.
With my Warriors goggles on, I’d be fizzing to get Walsh back with the Warriors after spending time in Origin camp. Even better is that this is a bye round in the NRL and Walsh will be looked after by the Warriors upon his return. As a sports club, you want your players to experience these nek levels as the athlete should come back better equipped after seeing how the best in sport prepare for such a high profile game.
These are also extraordinary circumstances. Queensland don’t have many fullback options right now and I’ve had a slight desire to update my Kalyn Ponga files in this context as all accounts suggest that Ponga was never going to play game one and wanted to stay in Newcastle to rehab his shoulder. Ponga was apparently brought into Queensland camp and then gapped it, which brings in the Paul Green coaching wrinkle as Ponga gapped North Queensland Cowboys as soon as possible with Green as the Cowboys coach.
We know Andre Ponga is heavily involved in Kalyn’s footy and business. Any niggle between Ponga and Green would have extended to Andre, which along with all Kalyn Ponga stuff is an interesting wrinkle to keep tabs on. Having pondered this Walsh stuff a fair bit and seeing Queensland play that game one, I’m more curious about Green’s ability as an Origin coach.
Green was completely out-coached by Brad Fittler. That came after Green dragged the Cowboys down to rock bottom, resulting in his departure as coach and key factor in that Green’s style being out-dated as the NRL got quicker and quicker. Walsh is playing fullback because Green’s Cowboys homies Valentine Holmes and Kyle Feldt are on the wings. If you’ve got any Walsh/Origin thoughts, take these into a ‘are we sure Paul Green is a good coach?’ realm.
Chad Townsend has joined NZ Warriors for the remainder of this season and this is nothing more than making the most of the situation. I titled my last Aotearoa Warriors Diary as ‘Dour Hope’ with the hope being slick youngsters and the dour bit being a reality check of what could be possible this season. Part of that was the lack of a half after Chanel Harris-Tavita suffered another injury and the hope was pretty dour in pondering a Kodi Nikorima/Sean O’Sullivan halves combo.
Townsend was stuck behind Matt Moylan and Shaun Johnson, playing in reserve grade before heading up to the Cowboys next season. Warriors needed a veteran half to make the most of this season and Townsend would rather play NRL than reserve grade. Easy money move. Nothing more, nothing les.
As I teased in a recent email, the Warriors could definitely use a veteran half moving forward. I believe Nikorima is inconsistent like the Warriors and no surprises that when Nikorima’s on, the Warriors are likely to win - yet the Warriors don’t win very often. Nikorima won’t be at the Warriors long-term, while all Warriors signs suggest that Harris-Tavita will be there long-term. The Warriors do not have a quality halves prospect coming up the ranks and that’s the only major hole in their pipeline right now.
Peter O’Sullivan will have some tricks up his sleeve to secure a young prospect. Townsend fills the void in the short-term and that is low key a fantastic sign that the Warriors want to keep pushing forward and make something of this season - even though I’ve got the dour-dose.
Lydia Ko Tough Patch…
Logan van Beek is having an epic June combining Netherlands wins with T20 Blast wickets. Lydia Ko is having a crappy June: 11th, 35T, 9T, 61T. We now have the Women’s PGA Championship where Ko is 31T at the time of writing after an even first round. Second round is today and Ko has managed to set up shop among the best on tour this year, so a few more good results could be enough to keep her there even though it doesn’t feel like Ko’s been a dominant force. Ko is 3rd in Total Prize-Money, 2nd in CME Globe Season and 6th in scoring average.
Big Weekend of T20 Blast coming up…
The return flight from England for a few Blackcaps would be fantastic - like a day at school when half the school is away on a trip or something. Most of the Blackcaps are moving into T20 Blast cricket and that means that the flight home with the trophy and plenty of good vibes will be for a selected few - notably the avant-garde Test superstars.
Daryl Mitchell played overnight for Middlesex with 29 @ 120.83, dismissed by Jimmy Neesham and 3w @ 8rpo. A few more from the Test squad will pop up as well this weekend and they will join a Kiwi County Tour crew that had Glenn Phillips go bonkers overnight with 94* @ 229.26sr. Here’s the wrap…
Glenn Phillips: 6th for runs - 266 runs @ 66.50avg/176.15sr.
Finn Allen: 16th - 197 runs @ 39.40avg/142.75sr.
Jimmy Neesham: 33rd - 152 runs @ 25.33avg/152sr.
Logan van Beek: tied-1st - 13w @ 20.61avg/9.29rpo.
Lockie Ferguson: tied-9th - 10w @ 16.10avg/7.15rpo.
Ish Sodhi is not on the bowling leaderboard as he’s only got 2w @ 60avg/9.20rpo.
Shout out Martin Guptill who has 69 runs @ 11.50avg/104.54sr in the Pakistan Super League.
Anyone else find it weird how England is playing their T20I series vs Sri Lanka at the same time as their T20 Blast competition? This is the same as NZC playing T20I and Super Smash at the same time, which takes all the best T20 players out of the Super Smash and thus dampens the quality. I prefer to poke and prod at England though and their summer of cramming as much cricket in as possible continues.
2020 and 2021 for these two…
Kane Williamson
2020: 6inns, 498 runs @ 83avg.
2021: 5inns, 353 runs @ 88.25avg.
Virat Kohli
2020: 6inns, 116 runs @ 19.33avg.
2021: 8inns, 229 runs @ 28.62avg.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Olympic Footy Squads, People
You’ve been waiting. I’ve been waiting. We’ve all been speculating. Now the Olympic football squads of Aotearoa (for the 2021 Tokyo 2020 Olympics) have finally been unveiled...
I’ll write about this in further details later today but for starters here are a few immediate reactions:
Winston Reid is only pencilled in at this point, he’s obviously in a sneaky situation with his club career having finished his Brentford loan and gone back to West Ham but it’s unknown what he’ll do next so that kinda has to come first. If Reid can’t go then Tim Payne will replace him.
Two overage CBs which is sweet. Michael Boxall will have to miss some MLS time for this event. Chris Wood meanwhile is at the highest point of his Premier League career so he can call his own shots in his offseason. With a strong midfield in place already and Ryan Thomas injured that’s the best use of overagers we could have come up with.
No Sarpreet Singh. Gotta assume that’s down to his club career too. He’s coming into the third year of his three year contract at Bayern and just had a season where he didn’t really progress (on the surface). Huge season coming up for him and he’s gotta impress in preseason – whether at Bayern or out on loan. Stink not to have him in Tokyo but it makes sense.
We can probably assume that it’ll be a Danny Hay 4-3-3 formation. Most of the starting XI takes care of itself although right back is a weakness. If Tim Payne does join, he could possibly play RB with Pijanker starting. That’s an option. No Noah Billingsley here who I’d have pegged to start but maybe he’s focussing on his club career too (currently on loan at Phoenix Rising, a level below his MLS team of Minnesota United).
The four reserves from each squad travel with the team but can only be used as injury replacements if someone else is ruled out of the tournament from here on out.
Joey Champness making the squad probably should have been guessed at when a big deal was made of his swapping allegiances. Bit of a weird one as he was on course to possibly make the Aussie squad before his hip hop sabbatical now he’s ended up with the OlyWhites. I’ll be honest and say I’ve not seen a heap from him to get overly excited about (Ben Waine’s A-League strike-rate is way better) but okay. Dane Ingham is another one I’m not crazy about but there’s just not much depth at RB to be fair.
A few of the OlyWhites selection complications are because that’s an U24 squad. That ain’t the case with the Footy Ferns and it’s a pleasantly ambitious team that’s rocking up to take on the USA, Australia, and Sweden in their group stage games. Including a bunch of players who’ve been to plenty of these things before.
Some players who aren’t there: Rosie White had been hospitalised with a “chronic illness” recently, she’d not featured for OL Reign very much this season, mostly sitting on the bench, but last week she was out of the squad entirely. So this is a fairly recent thing but you’d have to assume that’s why she’s not there. Katie Rood ruled herself out of selection the other day. Jana Radosavljevic is injured. Of course Rebekah Stott is undergoing her cancer treatment so she’s not there. Nicole Stratford wasn’t likely to make the main squad but a dislocated ankle last week took out her chances of making the travelling reserve quartet.
Can’t argue with the goalies, even if Nayler hardly played at all last season. All the big names (minus Stotty) are there in the defence – Erceg and Riley getting time off from their NWSL clubs. Anna Green is the only one there who wasn’t a complete lock, Tom Sermanni could’ve gone with Liz Anton as an up and comer, but Green’s versatility and experience get the nod, fair enough.
Likewise that midfield is stacked. Percival had a superb season in England with Spurs. Bowen is starting every game for Kansas City in the States. Chance had a brilliant W-League campaign. Hassett is in goal-scoring form in Iceland. Longo (along with Bunge) was a W-League champ a few months back. Daisy Cleverley doesn’t have a story like that yet but is a regular in Ferns squads.
It’s up front where things are sketchy. They were already sketchy at the last World Cup and since then Sarah Gregorius and Emma Kete have retired. Katie Rood and Jana Radosavljevic have cracked the squads since to replace them but both were unavailable here, now Rosie White is also missing. That’s a lot of weight for Hannah Wilkinson to carry.
Paige Satchell is coming off a useful W-League effort with Canberra though. Definitely saw big strides in her game there (literally and figuratively). Emma Rolston is an interesting one as she hasn’t been picked since before the World Cup but if you want a forward with international experience, she’s got that.
And then the funkiest selection of all: Gabi Rennie. Playing college ball in the USA at the moment, coming off an outstanding championship campaign with Canterbury Pride, a member of the U17 WC squad of a couple years back. Rennie is quick and strong, a great finisher, and a player with good energy. She’s the only bolter in either of these squads (unless you count Jamie Searle, but he’s an active pro in the Swansea system so dunno about that) but she’s the real deal. Love this selection and what an opportunity for her.
Welly Nix Re-Sign Josh Laws
In other news, big fan of the Welly Nix re-signing Josh Laws for two more years right here in yours truly. Laws was in and out of the Nix side last season but he was dependable, he’s got a sharp left foot, he can play in multiple positions, and seems like a player who fits in nicely with the squad. I’d like to see him used a little more as midfield cover next season if Cam Devlin leaves, as anticipated. That’s his preferred position.
That contract brings the club up to 14 players under contract for next season, which is fantastic. That leaves 6-9 open spots remaining with two import spots available. Gotta sign another keeper as well as one more U21 player from Aussie/NZ. Slowly taking shape now. I wrote a bit last week about some transfer needs/preferences for the Phoenix so have a read of that if you’re curious – link in the bulletin up top.
But not only does that mean 14 players for next season but with the two-year deal it also means eight players already signed for the season after that. Alex Rufer, Ben Waine, David Ball, Oli Sail, Sam Sutton, Clayton Lewis, Josh Laws, and Gary Hooper. Great group already there to build around. Love it.
Now I’ll leave ya with another nudge towards our Podcast. The latest one was all about the Blackcaps’ WTC triumph. Good yarns. Other links up the top. Have a lovely weekend.