Google Detectives
NZ rugby league prevalence, NRL finals action, Will O'Rourke wickets, NZ Football streams & heaps of National League notes
Podcast
Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Youtube
Reading Menu
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Floating On A Mt Smart Vibe (Rugby League)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Finals Preview vs Broncos (Rugby League)
2023 Women’s National League Season Preview (Football)
2023 Men’s National League Season Preview (Football)
Flying Kiwis – September 20 (Football)
The NZ Breakers Are Ready To Repeat The Dose in NBL24 (Basketball)
Three Key Blackcaps ODI Storylines Prior to Bangladesh Series (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
To reinforce the State of Rugby League rant from our podcast on Tuesday, here are a few more notes about the spread and quality or Kiwi-NRL/NRLWahine talent...
Otara's Annessa Biddle won the 'Player's Player' and 'Rookie of the Year' awards for Sharks. Wainuiomata's Alexis Tauaneai won the 'Coach's Award' for Dragons. Both came through local footy in Aotearoa and while they didn't crack finals footy, these young kiwi youngsters were the best players for their NRLW team in their debut seasons.
NRLW finals feature Knights vs Broncos and Roosters vs Titans. Here are the ladies from Aotearoa who are playing NRLW finals in their first seasons: Abigail Roache, Laishon Albert-Jones, Mele Hufanga, Tafito Lafaele, Amelia Pasikala and Niall Williams-Guthrie.
Pasikala is 19-years-old from Wairoa and shifted from rugby union with Hawke's Bay to league. Roosters have tinkered with their forward pack by promoting Teuila Fotu-Moala to starting prop ahead of Mya Hill-Moana and Pasikala is named on the bench as another powerful runner. Hopefully it stays this way to give Pasikala a taste of finals footy.
All these players are either already Kiwi Ferns or they are capable of elevating to Kiwi Ferns status. That's extremely funky given the talent in the youngsters and then there are wahine like Niall Williams-Guthrie who add class to any team they play in. Williams-Guthrie has played every game at centre for Titans and she has at least five tackle busts in four consecutive games heading into finals.
Georgia Hale is the other NRLWahine Titan and she is still the best tackler in NRLW by a considerable margin...
Georgia Hale: 402 tackles @ 99.3%
Simaima Taufa: 337 tackles @ 95.2%
Emma Manzelmann: 280 tackles @ 94.3%
Najvada George: 268 tackles @ 93.4%
Mariah Denman: 260 tackles @ 83.1%
After leaving Black Ferns to give NRLW a crack, Tafito Lafaele is now named starting prop for Broncos. This came at the expense of Kiwi Ferns veteran Annetta Nu'uausala who is out suspended. Nu'uausala, Lafaele, Biddle and Leianne Tufuga (Tigers) are all from Otara.
Gayle Broughton's from Hawera and she is starting in the halves for Broncos. Aotearoa's rugby league depth is evident in the abundance of play-makers eligible for Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns. Shaun Johnson, Jahrome Hughes, Kieran Foran and Dylan Brown lead the halves depth for men and there are plenty of youngsters rising through NRL systems. Broughton is yet to play for Kiwi Ferns and she could partner veteran halfback Raecene McGregor or Tyla Nathan-Wong.
I have battled the abundance of NRLWahine centres and how to fit them into the same team all season. Shanice Parker, Abigail Roache, Mele Hufanga and Williams-Guthrie are all named at centre for finals footy. Biddle and Tufuga were centres this season, while Raiders had Cheyelle Robins-Reti and Mackenzie Wiki.
All these wahine deserve Kiwi Ferns selection but I've got Hufanga and Parker as the best NRLWahine centres. These two are likely to line up against each other in Knights vs Broncos with Roache on the other edge for Knights. Albert-Jones will probably be playing right edge for Knights helping Parker keep a lid on Hufanga' speed and power.
Here are the Kiwi-NRL lads named for Panthers, Storm and Broncos with their grassroots information...
Moses Leota: Mt Roskill - Auckland
James Fisher-Harris: Kohukohu - Northland
Scott Sorension: Sydney
Will Warbrick: Ngongotaha - Kawerau
Reimis Smith: Sydney
Jahrome Hughes: Harbour City - Wellington
Nelson Asofa-Solomona: Upper Hutt - Wellington
Jesse Arthars: East Coast Bays - Auckland
Jordan Riki: Hornby - Christchurch
Nine players named. Two are from Auckland although both Leota and Arthars left Aotearoa as youngsters without being recruited by an NRL team. Two are from Sydney with Sorenson mana leading Scott to represent Aotearoa and Reimis aiming to join father Tyran as an Aotearoa Kiwi. Five are from around Aoteaora stretching from the Hokianga region to Christchurch.
Support The Niche Cache
Join the Patreon whanau or jam a paid Substack subscription for an extra podcast each week.
Make a sporadic donation through Buy Me A Coffee.
Tell a friend.
There isn't much Kiwi-NRL juice in the NSW Cup final between Rabbitohs and Bears. Here are the Kiwi-NRL juniors named for U21 Jersey Flegg final...
Bulldogs: Karl Oloapu (Randwick), Fahmy Toilalo (Otahuhu), Sione Moala (Manurewa)
Roosters: Tavita Henare-Schuster (Kia Toa), Cassius Tia (Marist), Salesi Foketi (Manurewa), Lafi Tuinauvai (Waitemata), Benaiah Ioelu (Tangaroa College)
Moala, Tuinauvai and Ioelu are named in extended squads outside the top-17 so they probably won't play. As an example of the growing play-maker depth, Oloapu and Tia are both named in the halves. While most of these lads are from Auckland, Oloapu is from Wellington and Henare-Schuster is from Palmerston North.
Here are some notable NZ Warriors deep dives to help you spin yarns ahead of Saturday night's banger...
What to expect from Andrew Webster
How the forward pack may operate in 2023
How the spine may operate in 2023
What you’re missing about the 2023 season
The first ODI between Bangladesh and Aotearoa was washed away with Blackcaps on 136/5 after 33.4 overs. Will Young scored 58 runs and Henry Nicholls hit 44 runs. Here are some stats for Young with his one-day career record, then his yearly mahi in ODIs...
ODIs: 44avg/86.9sr
List-A: 41.9avg/89.6sr
2021: 12avg/92.3sr
2022: 45.6avg/92.3sr
2023: 46.1avg/84.6sr
(Young has 50+ scores in NZ, Bangladesh and Pakistan)
I'm preparing for a big yarn about Canterbury seamer Will O'Rourke. Below are stats for last summer and his career...
Plunket Shield: 238.1ov, 23w @ 32.6avg/3.1rpo
(Only Cantab with 200+ overs)
Ford Trophy: 55.1ov, 13w @ 20.7avg/4.8rpo
(2nd to Ed Nuttall for overs bowled as only Cantabs with 45+ overs)
Super Smash: 34.3ov, 12w @ 23.1avg/8rpo
(2nd to Todd Astle for overs bowled as only Cantabs with 30+ overs)
First-Class: 41w @ 30.1avg/3.2rpo
List-A: 24w @ 20.2avg/4.7rpo
T20: 12w @ 27.5avg/7.9rpo
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
The 2023 National League begins this weekend. Previews for the Men’s and Women’s competitions are live on the website and it all kicks off at midday on Saturday as Central host Western Springs in the WNL. I’m gonna breeze through the fixtures in a bit, as well as updating a few squad notes, but first it has to be said that NZ Football this morning announced a new “long-term partnership” with FIFA’s in-house broadcasting service ‘FIFA+’. So yeah we’ve got Disney+, TVNZ+, and now FIFA+. Perhaps they all share a market researcher.
Here are the specifics...
The partnership sees all Ford Football Ferns and All Whites international friendlies, the men’s and women’s National League Championship, the men’s and women’s Ford Futsal SuperLeague, and the later stages of both the Kate Sheppard Cup and Chatham Cup, now available live and free on FIFA+. Also available will be select New Zealand content from previous FIFA tournaments, including World Cup highlights, with more set to be added to the archive over time.
Coverage will start this weekend with live broadcasts of the upcoming Ford Football Ferns international friendly against Chile (7pm on Saturday 23 September [local] / 11am on Sunday 24 September [NZT]) at Estadio Bicentenario de La Florida in Santiago, as well as the full first round of the National League Championship. Games will be available to watch live, on demand as full match replays and as highlights. Domestic competitions will be available to watch worldwide, with international friendlies available in Aotearoa New Zealand and select international markets.
FIFA+ is free and it seems you don’t even need to register, though you will occasionally have to watch some ads. Ferns and AWs friendlies were usually on Sky Sports and very occasionally live streamed on YouTube (though that was down to foreign broadcasters). The domestic stuff was being streamed on YouTube through partnership with Sky Sports Next. In other words, we’re not getting anything new. ‘Latter stages’ of the KS & C Cups presumably just means semis and final which were all on YouTube this year.
Curious what that’ll mean from a production standpoint but to be honest the Sky Next streams were often pretty budget, particularly for women’s games (spelling mistakes in teamlist graphics were always a laugh – though that did improve a lot in 2022). But yeah to reiterate: the only difference here is in where these games will be hosted. Everything else is exactly the same as we were already getting elsewhere (except maybe with fewer games commentated on by Glen Larmer).
The link with FIFA+ should do good things for legitimising the league and future-proofing its accessibility for fans. Just don’t expect any major commercial benefits because FIFA will be doing this with literally hundreds of other competitions around the world – when FIFA+ was launched last year they talked about plans to broadcast 40,000 games in its first year alone. It does appear like some of this stuff might be geo-blocked in other areas, fyi. Specifically the internationals which will likely have broadcast deals already in other territories.
This is the link you want for all the Aotearoa footy. Alas, this is a huge pain in the arse for myself as it probably means I won’t be able to share videos and gifs from the Nats on the TNC website and socials. Screenshots only, dammit (hopefully NZF will tweet a few bangers to shrink the divide). This was announced barely 24 hours before the games begin too... they don’t make it easy, I tell ya.
Who wants to see a Wellington Phoenix Women’s Reserves squad?
Currently with U16s for Oceania Champs: Alyssha Eglinton (CM), Emily Humphrey (CB), Angela Pivac (CF)
There are a few others in that U16s squad from the Nix, who could presumably feature at some stage but are mostly still in the U17 frame for now (Mackenzie Bryant, Brooke Neary & Holly Robins). That’s got as much to do with the depth already in their positions as anything else. For example, Neary has been the main goalie for the sixteens but Aimee Danieli and Charlotte Eagle are older therefore better right now. Robins and Bryant are defenders and that’s also a position of strength in that reserves squad.
2022 U17 World Cup Squad: Aimee Danieli (GK), Charlotte Eagle (GK), Marie Green (CB), Ella McCann (FW), Ella McMillan (CB), Rebekah Trewhitt (RB/RW), Lara Smith (CB)
Plus also Manaia Elliott and Olivia Ingham who are now on senior scholarship deals with the Welly Nix and could potentially feature pretty regularly for the reserves over the next ten weeks. Most of those U17 World Cuppers were also in the U19s that won the Oceania Champs a few months ago.
Should also add that at the time of the U17 World Cup, only McMillan and Ingham were already with the Nix Academy. The rest have joined since. McMillan is from the Waikato region, Ingham is from Wellington. McMillan, Eagle, and Elliott all used to play for Melville. Danieli went to St Peter’s Cambridge. There are also three players here from last year’s Central team: Furnell, Smith & Trewhitt.
Southern United confirmed their squad on Thursday and it goes about as expected. There’s a strong selection of Dunedin City Royals in there, including key players like Rose Morton, Hannah Mackay-Wright, Margi Dias, and Toni Power. Samantha Woolley, Amy Simmers, and Abby Rankin are all ex-Central players who are playing club footy for the University. They were all there last season.
No Kelsey Kennard or Chelsea Whittaker this time, two of their most experienced (and best) players from recent seasons. Also don’t see Jasmine Prince or Kennedy Bryant who were their joint-top scorers in 2022. Bryant was a Wellingtonian import so she’ll be playing for Waterside Karori instead. As for the others, Whittaker has a knee injury while Kennard and Prince are taking time away.
That’s a good chunk of their old starting XI that won’t be back. However they have had a big boost with Amy Hislop, former top scorer, returning from her USA college. A genuine proven number nine goes a long way in this competition. Another notable addition is Kendrah Smith who was a defender for Canterbury Utd last season and whom the Pride probably would’ve liked back considering they don’t have Rebecca Lake or Mikaela Hunt in their squad this time (was wondering if Hunt may have moved back to Southern but nope, she’s not here). Smith’s an Aucklander who plays for West Coast Rangers. Not only is she on board but she’s brought WCR teammates Shania McIntosh and Marissa Porteous along for the ride too. West Coast Rangers were fifth in the NRFL Premier Division – missing out on WNL qualification by one point behind Ellerslie.
According to the Otago Daily Times (shout out to one of the few regional newspapers that still does good grassroots sport coverage), Jemma Wilson, Hayley Julian, and Georgia Kennedy have all been picked for an U20 national team training camp next week. Mark them down as players to watch for a pretty young looking Southern United squad.
Western Springs confirmed their squad last night and there were two very funky names included: Arisa Takeda and Rina Hirano. Their two star Japanese imports from the last few years. They’d gone back overseas, spending much of the year in Canada according to some sneaky google detective mahi, but unless someone made a mistake with the copy and paste it appears that the lure of another kiwi summer was too much to resist. In other words, Western Springs will have the squad that won the Kate Sheppard Cup... plus two of the best import players in the country.
Eastern Suburbs have been busy too. On top of their two existing squads – which were runners-up in both the respective Northern Leagues – they’ve supplemented their stocks with a few specific National League signings. The blokes have brought back club old boy Kingsley Sinclair after some time in the German lower leagues as well as adding 18yo Birkenhead midfielder Finn McKenlay. The women have re-signed last year’s championship winning goalie Brooke Bennett whilst also adding in Emily Lyon, Emily Gillion, Shion Hwang... and Charlotte Lancaster.
Lyon is a youngster from West Coast Rangers. Gillion comes over from Fencibles and is the sister of Liam (Auckland City) and Fergus (Wellington Phoenix). Hwang is a teenager from Melville with some age grade recognition. And of course Lancaster is an ex-Phoenix player originally from the Central region with a propensity for scoring outrageous long-rangers. She’s spent her recent months across the ditch playing NPL.
MNL Round One Fixtures
Wellington Phoenix vs Auckland City, 4pm Saturday
Get the toughest game out of the way with first for the WeeNix. Any upset hopes probably depend on which fringe first-teamers can be spared from A-League preseason. City went undefeated in the league and will have the same intentions for the Nats. Joe Lee and Liam Gillion will get to go up against a few of the bros from the recent U23s stuff.
Manurewa vs Wellington Olympic, 1pm Sunday
Welcome back to the top, Rewa... now here’s the most free-scoring team going around. Could be a feisty contest. Fascinated to see how Manurewa approach this game. Olympic surely have too much firepower to be contained so this could be a rough one for South Auckland’s main men... but I do have a suspicion they’ll be a lot better than people expect.
Napier City Rovers vs Petone, 2pm Sunday
Third vs fourth from Central League. Familiar foes. Petone’s Matt Brazier was recently awarded CL MVP and everybody who’s been paying attention is excited to see him at this level. NCR have a few very tidy imports who will also catch the eye. These two will be underdogs against most others so this is a rare opportunity to play with winning expectations.
Eastern Suburbs vs Christchurch United, 3pm Sunday
A rematch of the Chatham Cup semi-final in which the Rams won 2-1 to deal Suburbs their only defeat of the entire year. All sorts of players with national age grade experience on display here. Sam Philip seems poised for a big campaign for CU. These two and Wellington Olympic shape as Auckland City’s main rivals so these are massive points on offer – every game is huge in a nine-game season.
Cashmere Technical vs Auckland United, 3pm Sunday
Garbhan Coughlan was the Southern League MVP and is arguably the best striker in the country. But the focus here will probably be on two of the best defences going around with heaps of MNL experience. AUFC’s biggest issue last time was a lack of goals so let’s see whether some of their 2023 additions can solve that.
WNL Round One Fixtures
Central vs Western Springs, 12pm Saturday
Another typically youthful squad from Central does at least get a home game to start... but it’s against a team that beat them 9-1 on aggregate last season. Should be a big win for the KSC champs, to be honest. Central always have a few tidy prospects emerging each year though. Let’s see what the Class of 2023 has to offer.
Ellerslie vs Wellington Phoenix, 2.45pm Saturday
First game for either club at this level, and neither side has too many players who are used to this stage (let alone winning on this stage). Exciting times. The Nix will still be without those couple of U16s though that shouldn’t matter too much. Will be funky to see if any first teamers are available during their preseason – the Footy Ferns are away right now so the ALW team are already a bit short of training numbers. Shout out to Marie Green who is an ex-Ellerslie player now with the SheNix. Britney Cunningham-Lee is the one to watch for the Ponies.
Waterside Karori vs Wellington United, 4pm Saturday
Rematch of the Central League championship decider which WK drew 1-1 in the final round to retain their title. It’s a debut for Capital-based clubs in the Nats but these teams are extremely familiar with each other’s game. Plenty of ex-Capital teammates from last year on both sides. Karori have the firepower. United have the defensive resistance.
Auckland United vs Canterbury United Pride, 2pm Sunday
Very early test for what’ll be a new-look Cantabs defence. The Pride struggled early last season as a fed team against clubs and now they’ve been dealt the NRFL champs away in week one. As tough as it gets. Granted, AUFC have lost a few players from the winter (Chloe Knott, Marisa van der Meer & Ruby Nathan) whereas Springs and Suburbs have strengthened. United can’t afford to be dropping early points if they’re going to break up last year’s grand final duo.
Southern United vs Eastern Suburbs, 2pm Sunday
They didn’t win their league but I still kinda think the Lilywhites are the team to beat as defending WNL champs. Especially after a few of those additions. Interested to see if anyone can carry Deven Jackson’s creative workload for them. Southern will probably struggle for goals but will be pretty solid defensively as usual... though Subs are quite possibly the most dangerous attacking team in the country (scoring 10 goals more than anyone else in the NRFL) so yeah good luck.
New Mermaidens tune, love this band heaps...