Grounding Elements
White Ferns in West Indies, U17 Women's WC footy squad, Steven Adams media day, another Welly Nix Wahine signing & more
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Reading Menu
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Dylan Brown Celebration (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Panthers Leadership With James Fisher-Harris (Rugby League)
2022 Penrith Panthers Kiwi-NRL Breakdown (Rugby League)
All Whites vs Australia: Defeat In Auckland, Things To Ponder (Football)
Joseph Parker Got Knocked All The Way Out By Joe Joyce… Where Does He Go From Here? (Boxing)
Flying Kiwis – September 28 (Football)
2022 Men’s National League - Season Preview (Football)
The Quotable Steven Adams: 2021-22 Edition (Basketball)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #14: The Way of the Warrior (Basketball)
2022 T20 World Cup: Blackcaps Preview (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
The NRL Grand Final contains all sorts of Aotearoa funk, leading with the James Fisher-Harris/Dylan Brown Northland thread. This has framed all Kiwi-NRL yarns this week and it goes beyond two of the best pieces of Kiwi-NRL recruitment since Sonny Bill Williams (Bulldogs) and Benji Marshall (Tigers).
Panthers have Preston Riki in their NSW Cup team and Kyson Kingi played SG Ball, both of whom joined Panthers ahead of this season. Eels also have Wiremu Greig hunting NRL minutes next season and after coming up through the Cowboys system, Greig joined Eels early last year. Greig and Brown are from Whangarei, Fisher-Harris and Riki are from Hokianga while Kingi is from Kerikeri.
Riki and Kingi also spent time in the Warriors system, along with William Fakatoumafi and Daeon Amituanai who played Panthers Jersey Flegg this season. This opens up the lazy anti-Warriors idea but regular readers know that Warriors had their development system cut in half during the pandemic and this is a blatant example of limited spots leading to surplus which was signed by other NRL teams.
Riki, Kingi and Greig joined their current teams from Warriors and Cowboys. This is what makes recruiting Fisher-Harris and Brown so impressive as both were scouted by Panthers/Eels, then brewed in those systems. Neither Fisher-Harris or Brown were in NZRL representative teams as youngsters despite playing for Northern Swords in NZRL competitions.
This points to high quality scouting and recruitment. Most NRL teams have scouts recruiting talent from Aotearoa age group teams or fixtures such as the 2020 NZRL U18 Schools vs Clubs game. Scouting a player from an NZRL tournament who didn't make an Aotearoa team requires greater skill and a vision for what that player could become, while looking for an opening that other NRL scouts ignore.
Fisher-Harris and Brown are fantastic examples of this. Neither were dominant NZRL juniors but impressed someone and then pounced on their opportunity in Sydney. Fisher-Harris only sits behind Isaah Yeo as the most long-standing Panthers players in this GF, while Brown won NSW junior competitions as soon as he joined Eels and made his NRL debut at 18-years-old.
Sonny Bill Williams made a few representative teams in Aotearoa as a key difference with Fisher-Harris. Williams wasn't a superstar in Aotearoa though and Bulldogs recruited him, investing in his development to become an elite NRL player in similar fashion to Panthers and Fisher-Harris.
Benji Marshall didn't really play league until settling with Keebra Park High School on the Gold Coast. Marshall impressed the right people at the right time and shifted to Keebra Park which was aligned with Tigers, quickly establishing himself as an elite youngster in Australia. Brown played in the same Northern Swords U15 team as Paul Turner and Turner was the elite prospect, yet Eels signed Brown and he's had a similar impact for Eels as Marshall did with Tigers.
Marshall barely played league in Aotearoa, Brown wasn't a blip on the NZRL rep radar. Marshall and Brown both played for Australian Schoolboys within a couple years of moving to Australia.
Another NRL GF wrinkle is Panthers assistant coach Andrew Webster, who will become coach of NZ Warriors next season. Ponder the difference in buzz between Cameron Ciraldo joining Bulldogs and Webster joining Warriors; both are Panthers assistant coaches but Ciraldo's Bulldogs are certain winners!
The difference stems from Ciraldo being embedded in the Panthers system longer than Webster with Ciraldo coaching many current Panthers players in junior teams. Webster worked a bunch of roles before becoming the Panthers attack coach ahead of the 2021 season - taking Trent Barrett's job as he became Bulldogs head coach.
Barrett was viewed as a fabulous assistant coach handling Panthers attack and since that switch to Webster, very little has changed for Panthers. Throughout this period Ciraldo has handled Panthers defence and both have worked under Ivan Cleary, who is the best coach NZ Warriors have ever had.
This furthers a low key battle between Warriors and Bulldogs. Both organisations are rebuilding, Phil Gould worked with Warriors until the Bulldogs opportunity came up (covid's always the excuse) and now two Panthers assistant coaches will work for Warriors and Bulldogs. Bulldogs have been worse than Warriors for five years, but that's conveniently overlooked.
Cleary's an interesting geezer in all of this as I believe his time with Warriors led to Panthers success. Cleary lived in the polynesian capital of the world and coached a Warriors roster full of local polynesian lads to a successful period. Now Cleary is living in a polynesian hub of Australia where polynesian culture is impacting Aussie society and this Panthers team features local polynesians.
Cleary has been successful at two organisations with strong polynesian roots. Webster has worked with Warriors before and he's now absorbed all of Cleary's wisdom, while leading Panthers attacking systems. Webster isn't as trendy as Ciraldo but he seems like a decent option.
Warriors also signed Jackson Ford and every year Warriors sign an Aussie role-player or two. Don't buzz about this signing, but as all these folks used 'moving to Aotearoa' as their reason to depart Warriors, there is a decent group of Aussies who Warriors have signed to move to Aotearoa; Jackson Ford, Mitchell Barnett, Luke Metcalf and Dylan Walker.
Josh Curran, Wayde Egan and Addin Fonua-Blake are in a core group of Warriors and they're all from Australia. Ronald Volkman is a young half from Roosters who had no issues moving to Aotearoa. There doesn't appear to be an Aotearoa stink here, nor is there a Warriors stink.
And big ups Gayle Broughton!
Broughton starts at fullback for Eels wahine and her running mahi could be a key factor for Eels. Broughton is ninth for total run metres which is boosted by finals footy, while her 131.2m/game average is 13th for all NRLW players. Broughton is also seventh for tackle busts and her 5.2 tackle busts/game average is ranked ninth.
Broughton has taken her Sevens running mahi straight into NRLW and there is easy growth ahead as Broughton develops her intuition. In the GF against Knights, zone in on Broughton and how she impacts the game as a runner. Knights will know all about Broughton's threat and this will influence their kicking game as well as their kick-chase. Knights won't have any footage of Broughton play-making though and if Broughton can find one or two passing plays, Eels could upset Knights wahine.
Some of the same White Ferns ideas keep popping up. White Ferns lost the first T20I against West Indies and ahead of the second game tomorrow morning, batting role-players and spin bowling are the most important pockets.
White Ferns enjoyed strong mahi from Lauren Down and Maddy Green in the ODIs, while Brooke Halliday flashed her ability. The first T20I saw Aotearoa crumble to 69/7 and when the best batters don't score runs, there is a fragility to the White Ferns middle order that was a major issue and continues to be an issue.
This is framed as an issue for Sophie Devine, Suzie Bates and Amelia Kerr though. These three are fantastic cricketers and they should score most of the runs, yet they will fail - that's cricket. Other teams have years of footage, notes and ample tactics to keep a lid on Aotearoa's best players. These plans don't always work, but White Ferns rely too much on these players.
None of this is new. White Ferns were thriving around 2017 and then started sliding. This slide featured less runs from Devine, Bates and Amy Satterthwaite as other teams improved rapidly. Losses became more frequent for White Ferns because no one else could score runs and this continued through to the World Cup earlier this year, now signs are still evident in the Caribbean.
Devine, Bates and Kerr are legends. White Ferns will only win consistently if other batters score runs, or at least grind out an innings when facing adversity. Some of these batting role-players haven't done that job in the past five years and are now repeating the cycle.
Spin bowling is immense in the Caribbean and Aotearoa keeps fumbling spin bowlers. Blackcaps have no idea about their spin plans outside of T20I cricket and have steadily failed to manage their spinners. White Ferns have Kerr, Fran Jonas and Eden Carson as a funky spin-trio that can be deployed in all conditions, let alone favourable conditions.
Instead, Bates is getting overs and seamers are struggling. The best seamer in the ODIs was Jess Kerr and she didn't get selected for the first T20I while Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu and Molly Penfold only played one game each in the ODI series. Rowe bowled 1 over @ 9rpo in the first T20I and Tahuhu bowled 2ov @ 11.50rpo as the only Ferns bowlers conceding over 7rpo.
I reckon the A-Kerr/Jonas/Carson trio should play most games. Devine, Hayley Jensen and one more seamer can be selected in a funky bowling attack. Given what we know about Aotearoa cricket though, seamers need to play and spinners get yanked all over the place.
Aotearoa 'A' were swept in one-dayers against their Indian counterparts. Michael Rippon, Joe Carter, Dane Cleaver and Rachin Ravindra all had one 50+ score each, while only one kiwi bowler averaged below 30 with Rippon taking 3w @ 29.66avg.
Apart from Carter scoring runs in both formats on top of a strong domestic cricket record, the lack of runs from Tom Bruce and Rob O'Donnell stands out...
Tom Bruce
One-dayers: 3inns 20 runs @ 6.66avg/44sr.
Four-dayers: 2inns 32 runs @ 16avg/64sr.
Rob O'Donnell
One-dayers: 3inns 28 runs @ 9.33avg/44sr.
Four-dayers: 3inns 48 runs @ 16avg/50sr.
Avantdale Bowling Club tells us about Trees….
“When everyone’s depressed, this shit sells itself”
Wildcard’s Notebook
The much-awaited Aotearoa squad for the Women’s U17 World Cup next month has been announced…
Coached by Leon Birnie, who took the previous U17 World Cup team all the way to bronze medals (the wave in between was cancelled due to the pandemic), those are the 21 women who’ll be off to India in October seeking to do something similar. And it’s a stacked looking line-up, many of whom you’ll be familiar with if you’ve been watching the Women’s National League (or reading our recaps).
A whopping 13 of that 21 have featured in the first two rounds of the NL. Alexis Cook and Suya Haering for Northern Rovers. Aimee Feinberg-Danieli, Manaia Elliott, Milly Clegg, and Ruby Nathan for Auckland United. Charlotte Mortlock and Ella McCann for Canterbury United. Olivia Page and Zoe Benson for Eastern Suburbs. Rebekah Trewhitt and Lara Smith for Central. Lara Colpi for Western Springs. And that doesn’t include Maddie Iro who is a backup goalie for Canterbury United and did get some minutes last year. Or Olivia Ingham and Helena Errington who’ve both been influential members of the Capital team in the past. Kiara Bercelli and Megan Simpson also played for the Cantabs in 2021. This is what you get when you tune into the Women’s National League.
Milly Clegg and Ruby Nathan will be key players given that they were also at the U20 World Cup earlier in the year. Clegg is just straight up one of the most exciting striker prospects this country has developed in years. Nathan is a really tidy attacking midfielder.
In fact this could be a rare occasion when the attacking balance in a kiwi rep team outweighs the defensive balance. Olivia Ingham is a really skilled forward. Charlotte Mortlock’s been impressive for Canterbury recently as she auditions to be the next Alyssa Whinham. Ella McCann’s another one in a similar vein. Kiara Bercelli knows her way to the goal. Lara Colpi has a goal and two assists for Springs already, showing great pace and movement and even better finishing.
I thought Helena Errington was one of the absolute best players in the competition last year, an Ole Academy product (who I’m sure I saw has spent some time recently with the Welly Nix academy too) whose technical midfield ability and passing rhythm is already fantastic.
Genuinely, Errington and Clegg are the two players I’ve seen at NL level over the last couple years who instantly felt like they had something special about them. Was disappointed not to see Errington in Capital’s NL squad for 2022 but given that all these players are about to miss significant time (at least a couple games, hopefully more) that may have something to do with that. Also a few players in that Capital region seem to be opting for other pathways. The Phoenix Academy being the major alternative.
Also a big fan of Suya Haering and Manaia Elliott at fullback. Haering is classy as it gets, serious Ali Riley vibes about her game on the left. Elliott is a Hamilton girl so she makes up for limited size with maximum combativeness. Both really fun players. And Aimee Feinberg-Danieli was one of the best players on the park in the Kate Sheppard Cup final in goal for eventual champs Auckland United. A 17yo goalie owning a scene like that is no small feat. Heaps of talent in this squad. Fizzed to see how they go.
The NZers are in Group B where they’ll face Chile, Nigeria, and Germany. Good mix of opponents in that group with four different federations represented. The opening game against Chile feels like the best chance of a result but it’s best not to judge youth teams based on the senior exploits of those nations. All of this is unpredictable.
Check it out, the Welly Nix Wahine have signed an actual Wellingtonian with Michaela Roberston announced as the fifteenth squad member for year two. One of the funky things about the team’s inaugural season was that they signed kiwi players from Christchurch, from Hamilton, several from Auckland, a couple from the Central region, a couple based in Australia... but nobody from Wellington. They also didn’t play any games in Wellington due to the pando so the first part of their name was only really there for branding due to reasons last year. For reasons beyond their control tbf.
This season they’re not only gonna get actual home games with actual home fans in attendance but they’ve also of course got that link going with the NZ Institute of Sport and their flash-as new facilities. And to celebrate that grounding element, bare feet on the green grass of home, they’ve signed a local.
Mickey Robertson was part of the extended Football Ferns squad that went to the Olympics. She was also the very first female player to join the Welly Nix academy, training mostly alongside the boys. Robertson hasn’t been capped internationally but she has been one of the better players at National League level for several years (although not playing the last two years, including this one).
Given all that it was a surprise when she wasn’t picked up in the initial Phoenix squad but it sounds like she may have simply taken a wee break from the sport. Now she’s refreshed and ready to make a push for the World Cup squad next year with her first professional gig.
A few things to know about Mickey Robertson:
She’s a speedy, direct winger with an eye for goal which is always nice to have in a squad. Can play on either side or even through the middle. Could even do a job as a fullback in a pinch, say late in a game when you’re searching for a goal.
She’s 26 years old which actually makes her the fourth oldest player in the team so far behind Betsy Hassett (32), Lily Alfeld (27), and Chloe Knott (26) – which is good to see as the squad did need a bit more experience. She has been in past Future Ferns Development Programmes so will have familiar combinations with a few of her new teammates from there.
Also she’s tiny. We’re talking 1.47m in stature. Really short but deceptive with her speed and low centre of gravity.
And best of all is that she’s got an Australian mum. Which means that she qualifies as a dual-national and can take up one of the five restricted Aussie spots in the group – with Isabel Gomez and Brianna Edwards (also a dual national – who was with the NZ U20s at the last World Cup) already signed up. That’s huge.
The SheNix can still sign one more kiwi player plus a few scholarship additions and a couple more Aussies. Charlotte Lancaster and Kelli Brown are playing National League which suggests that they won’t be returning. Lancaster was on a scholarship deal so it was always gonna be tough to move up. Brown was unfortunately injured for most of last season which has set her back. Te Reremoana Walker is the other kiwi who was around last season but she’s been living in Australia for several years so wouldn’t be shocked if she signed with a New South Wales team instead of moving to Wellywood. She’d be a worthy addition if she does return though.
Welly Nix Wahine squad for 2022-23 as it stands (total career A-League games in brackets):
Mackenzie Barry (12), Alyssa Whinham (14), Paige Satchell (25), Lily Alfeld (25), Betsy Hassett (0), Kate Taylor (13), Brianna Edwards (2), Chloe Knott (14), Isabel Gomez (19), Grace Wisnewski (11), Zoe McMeeken (13), Marisa Van Der Meer (10), Ava Pritchard (14), Saskia Vosper (13), Michaela Roberston (0)
The Memphis Grizzlies had their annual Media Day this week and Steven Adams was in top form. I had been wanting to write a reaction piece to all that but haven’t had the time this week, so it goes. Might still do something next week incorporating his quotes into more of a season preview kinda thing.
For the first time in three years, Steve-o is starting a season on the same team as he finished the previous season with. As such he didn’t really have anything drastic to say, but there is some growing momentum that perhaps he may start adding three-pointers to his game. Adams was coy about it himself, joking about his off-season highlight clips, but his coach pretty much confirmed that it’s something they’ve considered.
There’s also clearly a heap of in-house confidence that this Grizzlies team is moving in the right direction and that their playoff experience last time out will serve them beautifully moving into what they hope will be a championship contention window. Adams is proving to be a significant part of that both on and off the court… so it’ll be curious to see if they sign him to an extension before the season begins. He’s a free agent after 2022-23 as it stands.
Here’s what Steve-o had to say in his press conference interview (from 1:42:58)...
And here’s a more informal chat with Grind City Media (from 20:35)...
Also here’s Vic Esson doing cool things in the Champions League...
This was a second round qualifying second leg against Benfica. Her team Rangers had lost 3-2 in the first leg at home with the winning goal being a Vic Esson own goal after she’d juggled the ball on her goal-line. A rare mistake from her but a costly one... even if it was a bit controversial as to whether the ball actually crossed the line or not.
Rangers put up a massive defensive effort in Portugal for leg two with Esson making a couple of very impressive saves along the way. Then with five minutes to go the Benfica keeper spilled a corner that was then tapped home and we were off to extra time. Always better when it’s the opposing goalie with the crucial mistake.
Unfortunately by then the Rangers players were exhausted and Benfica retook the lead early in extras with a speedy run in behind and a sharp finish (Esson gambling on the shot across and getting beaten at the near post – though it was probably gonna be a goal either way). Then they clinched it late with another speedy run in behind and another sharp finish. 2-1 to Benfica on the day. 5-3 to Benfica on aggregate. Rangers miss out on the UCL group stage.
Annoyingly, on the same day HB Køge also lost 2-0 away to Juventus (after a 1-1 draw in the home leg) which means that they’re also out of the UCL. Daisy Cleverley missed both legs through injury, the same injury that also kept her out of the current and previous Footy Ferns squads. Frustrating timing. Hence there’ll be no kiwi presence in the women’s Champions League this year, same as there wasn’t last year. Indi Riley did at least feature the year prior albeit that was when she was aligned to Australia (though always eligible for NZ).
Thankfully we do have Marko Stamenic in the men’s comp. FC Copenhagen sacked their coach during the international window so fingers crossed that isn’t a set back for his first team chances... because they play Manchester City next week. Kevin De Bruyne ain’t gonna know what hit him.