Grinding Away With A Smile
Lydia Ko triumph, Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker, Super Smash Finals, Addin Fonua-Blake & Nick Willis
Podcast
TNC Variety Show 48 (Eden Carson/Tom Latham, Gary Hooper, Lydia Ko, Kiwi-NRL)
The Niche Cast - Corporeal Form (Super Smash Finals Preview)
Reading Menu
The Many Layers Of Wellington Wahine Excellence (2021/22 Super Smash Champions) (Cricket)
Northern Blokes Are 2021/22 Super Smash Champions (via Blackcaps, Hamilton and Team-First Geezers) (Cricket)
All Whites vs Jordan: 10 Lessons From A 3-1 Defeat (Football)
Exploring The Possible White Ferns World Cup Squad (Cricket)
Jess and Amelia Kerr Are Aotearoa Cricket's Best Double-Whammy (Cricket)
10 Funky Kiwi-NRL Second Year Lads For 2022 (No NZ Warriors) (Rugby League)
How Gold Coast Titans Are Building A Kiwi-NRL Powerhouse (Rugby League)
Scotty’s Word
Lydia Ko…
The best sign of a strong 2022 for Lydia Ko is in the form of her closest LPGA homie Danielle Kang. Kang won the first event of 2022 while Ko finished tied-10th and this morning we had the fun battle between Ko and Kang to win the Gainsbridge LPGA in Florida. Ko finished 1st and Kang finished 2nd, giving them a combined four top-10 finishes across the first two tournaments of 2022.
Ko won her 17th LPGA Tour event and now has nine top-10 finishes in her last 11 events played. This includes her bronze in Tokyo where she became the only golfer to win two Olympic medals and Ko has strung together five consecutive top-10 finishes, three of which are top-five.
The best thing about Ko is what came before this lovely patch. Ko endured a slump and kiwi media loved hyping up her slump, meanwhile Ko kept grinding away with a smile and positive vibes. No matter who you are or what you’re doing, draw some inspiration from Ko as you only need to persist through a slump to get out the other side. Stay patient, stay positive, learn, grow and watch things fall in your favour.
Super Smash finishes…
I quite like the Super Smash. It makes for a hectic holiday period and embracing the Super Smash grind flips the schedule around in typical sport-covering fashion (weekends aren’t weekends). Super Smash is where domestic cricketers are their most visible and watching Super Smash cricket is all about getting more familiar with domestic cricketers, with the twist of T20 cricket amping up the pressure.
Northern blokes and Wellington wahine were the best teams throughout their respective competitions. Northern defeated Canterbury in all three of their games (two regular season, one final) and Wellington defeated Otago in all three of their games on the women’s side; the best teams defeated the second-best teams in all six games.
The battle of mindfulness is trying to let go of the stuff that niggles at you. Sure, we can pick at niggly details of the summer schedule and various other kiwi cricketing matters. I’ve already seen a big yarn complaining about Spark Sports cricket coverage and sure, some things poke at me when consuming so much cricket via Spark. Step into mindfulness, let it all go and enjoy it for what it is.
I’ve never had any issues streaming via Spark Sport. Their coverage of Blackcaps and Super Smash is quirky, with less old white guys than Sky Sport. There is an intriguing dynamic of current coaches and players commentating on their rivals games which could be reason to grizzle, yet they offer relevant insights to the contest. Obviously none of the Spark Sport commentators consume KFC … ah, that’s all good though.
As far as learning about Aotearoa cricket goes, consuming Super Smash is the best route. Even without Spark Sport, there are plenty of games on regular telly that provide these insights (if you want to grizzle - regular telly don’t care about Aotearoa sport and it’s all honkidory to whinge about no sport on free telly but those companies would rather roll out corny reality TV or foreign programming. Aotearoa’s free-to-air broadcasters do not care about live Aotearoa sport).
Now what for kiwi cricket? The grind continues…
Both sides go into one-day mode. Central host Auckland in a Ford Trophy game tomorrow, then Auckland host Northern in a Plunket Shield game on Friday. The PS game is just a catch up, with two FT games also on Friday and the women’s one-day competition HBJ Shield swinging back around on the weekend.
All HBJ Shield cricket goes down on weekends - still a lot of mahi left before any equality is reached.
There will be a White Ferns squad to face India announced soon, plus World Cup squads are already being dropped (India’s squad is their WC squad). All of WF coverage is based on what should happen in terms of selecting the best players and I’m sure this won’t be the case. Apply mindfulness here and I’ll balance the ‘alright, squad named, let’s go win this fucking World Cup’ vibe with ‘who are the best wahine cricketers?’
For example: Kate Ebrahim is currently 1st in HBJ Shield runs. Last season Ebrahim was 1st in HBJ Shield runs. In 2019/20 Ebrahim had a baby. In 2018/19 Ebrahim was 2nd in HBJ Shield runs. Ebrahim is highly unlikely to be graced with White Ferns selection.
I’ll definitely highlight this instances because they fall in line with wider NZC women’s trends. I’ll do my best to balance this by zoning in one what the WF are doing with the players they select.
Blackcaps now have a low key epic Test series vs South Africa on the horizon. This is part of the World Test Championship and Aotearoa are 1-2-1 after four Tests so far in this WTC cycle. South Africa are decent with a great bowling attack … also steadily embroiled in dramas over the past two-three years.
Addin Fonua-Blake extends with NZ Warriors…
The basic premise of an NZ Warriors team with AFB, Tohu Harris, Matt Lodge, Shaun Johnson and Reece Walsh is fabulous. This also provides a quick introduction into the most important NRL stat to learn ahead of the season; metres/run.
In round tahi of last season, AFB ran for 202m off 19 runs @ 10.63m/run.
I do that math myself when checking NRL stats - quick division isn’t hard and is a great way to develop your mathematics. 100m off 10 runs is 10m/run. 140m off 14 runs is 10m/run. Whether it’s this or any other little numbers game in sport, get the kids learning math from sport.
200m looks great, but if it’s off 30 runs then it’s not very efficient. Commentators will celebrate the 100m mark, but if it’s off 15 runs then meh. Run for 150m off 14 runs and that’s super efficient, also powerful. Get a bench forward running for 80m off 7 runs and boom, fantastic.
AFB averaged 15.1 runs per game and 160.6m per game last season. That’s well over 10m/run and if he’s above that mark while playing 20+ games (only 15 last season), then NZ Warriors have reliable go forward.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
Only a couple more days left in the transfer window now. Tomorrow morning is when all the frantic activity takes place, with the deadline passing at midday NZT for English clubs and it’s a similar case for most continental teams give or take a few hours for the time differences or whatever. That schedule ain’t ideal for this email in that context as we’re sorta coming at this in the calm before the storm (hopefully… though there’s already been so much business we might have had it all taken care of alread). But we did get a couple of new signings over the weekend.
Miramar Rangers keeper and former WeeNix gloveman Zac Jones is heading off to Wales for at least the next few months. His contract with Welsh Premier League club Haverfordwest County AFC is until the end of the current season – Haverfordwest County having three more games to play in the first phase of the competition (they’ve played 19) before the league splits into promotion and relegation rounds for the remainder (32 games in total).
HC are second to last and thus currently in serious danger of relegation... but they’re only two points off safety with a fair way yet to go. Jonesy will see them right, fingers crossed. To date they’ve split the goalkeeping duties between Welsh veteran Lee Idzi and American/Polish GK Wojciech Gajda. We’ll see how it goes. This is the same division that Greg Draper dominated for so many years with The New Saints (who are currently cruising towards another title with a 16-point lead already).
Also Myer Bevan is leaving Auckland City and moving to Cavalry FC in the Canadian Premier League. Beaten semi-finalists in 2021 (after finishing second on the ladder), where as the other kiwi in the comp – ol’ mate Moses Dyer of Valour FC – saw his team fall just short of the playoffs.
Interesting move from Bevan for sure. He always scored in bundles for Aotearoa youth teams and has two goals in six games for the All Whites as well as winning a Premiership golden boot with Auckland City... but his professional career has yet to take off. Didn’t crack it with the Vancouver Whitecaps, didn’t crack it with TS Galaxy in South Africa.
Now he’s back in Canada, Alberta this time, to play in the CPL. Bevan is a dual Canadian/NZ national so no dramas there – takes up a domestic roster spot and everything. With Moses Dyer having been converted to a striker with Valour to great goal scoring success the best case scenario here is a Flying Kiwis shootout for the golden boot. Bring it on.
Plus here’s a good spot from Stuff’s Phil Rollo. Seems that kiwi keeper Vic Esson has been hanging out with SC Sand in Germany. Esson played in a winter break friendly against Young Boys which SC Sand won 6-0. There’s photographic evidence in case you’re doubtful.
That game was two weeks ago though and it’s unclear whether she was part of their 1-0 win over Frankfurt or the 3-3 draw with Freiberg that have happened since – Sarah-Lisa Dübel appears to have started those two, a German national who was signed out of university in the USA at the start of the season. Not sure about their most recent friendly against Hoffenheim. Austrian international Jasmine Pal has played all 12 Liga games so far but she suffered a season ending ACL injury at the beginning of the month.
Esson was always impressive for Avaldsnes in the Swedish top flight over her couple years there but after only just avoiding relegation last year she might be ready for a change of scenery. Then again, with only 2 points from 12 games it’s another relegation battle she’d be getting into here. SC Sand are only off last-place on goal difference and are 9 points off safety.
If Esson does end up with SC Sand it’ll be one more example of a healthy Flying Kiwis link. There are a couple of Frauen Bundesliga clubs who have made a habit of signing New Zealanders over the years and this is definitely one of them. Paige Satchell played for them a two seasons back, her first taste of professional footy, while Rebekah Stott and Betsy Hassett have also featured for the club in the past.
As for the rest of them, we await Deadline Day with anticipation.
Where There’s A Willis...
You wanna see an incredible kiwi sporting feat, have a peek at this:
With a 3:59.71 run for ninth place (out of 14 runners) at the Millrose Games in New York City this weekend, Nick Willis made it twenty consecutive years with a sub-four minute mile. Twenty years, man. Dude is 38 years out and still churning them out. Incredible longevity.
Flying Kiwis Goal Zone
