Hunting Nods
Hunting Nods
Blackcaps vs Pakistan, Joseph Parker's next gig, more NRL Wahine signings, Marco Rojas, Wellington Phoenix, Black Sticks & more
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Reading Menu
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Returning To The Mt Smart Fortress (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Matthew Timoko Keeps Getting Better (Rugby League)
Flying Kiwis – April 25 (Football)
Flying Kiwis – Title Challengers, Relegation Battlers & All That (Football)
2023 Blackcaps ODI Tracker: Another Series In Pakistan (Cricket)
2022/23 FIH Pro League: Previewing A Curious Anzac Weekend Of Black Sticks Hockey (Hockey)
The Breakers Struck The Ideal NBL Next Star Balance With Rayan Rupert (Basketball)
Hail To The Chief, Giancarlo Italiano Will Be The Next Wellington Phoenix Blokes Manager (Football)
What’s Going Wrong With the Wellington Phoenix Blokes Lately And How Can They Fix It? (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Blackcaps lost the first ODI in Pakistan and kiwi expectations should be low for this series given how this is a second-tier Blackcaps outfit. Will Young scored 86 runs opening and Daryl Mitchell grabbed a century, while Adam Milne led the bowlers with 2w @ 6.66rpo. Matt Henry and Ish Sodhi were among the best bowlers as well...
Henry and Sodhi are the most economical Blackcaps ODI bowlers since start of 2022 - only lads under 5rpo in the current squad.
Milne's bouncing back...
2012-17: 38.56avg
2022-23: 30.66avg
Young's 86 runs @ 110sr takes him to 50.28avg after 10 ODIs.
Mitchell hit his 2nd ODI century, averaging 52 under Tom Latham's captaincy.
There is lots of Mark Chapman buzz right now and fair enough. Chapman needs ODI runs to build a World Cup selection case though. Young didn't put up a score of 20+ runs in the T20I series while Chapman dominated. Young starts the ODI series with 86 and Chapman starts with the lowest score of his Pakistan tour thus far (15 runs).
Opening with Young and having Mitchell bat third might forecast some World Cup planning. We'll have to wait and see how this looks throughout the series though. Milne and Sodhi are the main bowlers hunting World Cup nods, so this is a solid start for their respective cases.
Meanwhile, Devon Conway now has the 5th highest T20 batting average in the world. Conway averages 43.92 and is a spot ahead of Otago's Dean Foxcroft who averages 43.77. To further amplify the low key impressive drawn T20I series, Pakistan's Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan are 3rd and 4th on the T20 batting average rankings. They are the highest T20 batting averages of current players.
Black Sticks hockey continues this weekend with another dose of FIH Pro League in Christchurch. The men are in action Friday night against Great Britain, then the women face GB on Saturday afternoon. Sunday has both Aotearoa teams playing against Australia.
Don't let the fluff fool you as both Black Sticks teams do have youngsters being developed, however neither team won a Commonwealth Games medal last year with far stronger squads. That is the first time in seven Com Games that Black Sticks missed out on a medal and this tells the story of kiwi hockey.
Improvements would be lovely for the kiwis. Australia and GB will be eager to improve as well though, offering an intriguing gauge of how both Black Sticks teams develop under coaches Phil Burrows (women) and Greg Nicol (men). In the men's Pro League, GB are 3rd and Australia are 5th while Aotearoa is last (9th). The the women's competition, Australia are 2nd and GB are 7th while Aotearoa is 8th.
More NRLWahine signings came through this week. Manurewa's Kerehitina Matua and Kiwi Ferns veteran Apii Nicholls signed with Canberra Raiders. Matua is named alongside twin Terehia and Kiwi Fern Laishon Albert-Jones in the Mounties team for their NSW Women's Premiership Grand Final this weekend vs Bulldogs.
Gayle Broughton is Bulldogs captain alongside Alexis Tauaneai and Cortez Te Pou, as well as Shannon Muru. Funnily enough, like her three Bulldogs homies and many of these NRLWahine, Muru has a background in union.
NRLWahine signings tracker...
Broncos: Annetta Nu'uausala, Gayle Broughton, Mele Hufanga, Brianna Clark
Titans: Niall Williams, Hailee-Jay Ormond-Maunsell
Raiders: Madison Bartlett, Mackenzie Wiki, Apii Nicholls, Kerehitina Matua
Dragons: Raecene McGregor, Page McGregor, Cortez Te Pou, Alexis Tauaneai, Roxy Murdoch-Masila
Roosters: Otesa Pule, Amber Hall
Sharks: Kiana Takairangi
For those who missed it, Redcliffe won Queensland's Under 18 competition with John Fineanganofo (Auckland Grammar) and Elijah Rasmussen (Westlake Boys) starting. Patrick Kailahi (Hamilton Boys) also featured throughout the season. What happened to former Warriors hooker Taniela Otukolo? He is starting for Redcliffe U21s, who also have former Warriors junior Sebastyan Jack (Marist) starting at fullback.
Otukolo and Jack both played for Redcliffe via NZ Warriors during the pandemic.
The NSW SG Ball U19 final is this weekend between Knights and Eels. Knights won't have Jarome Falemoe which is a bummer as he played all season at centre, but his Southern Cross homie Elijah Leaumoana is named at edge forward. This is a funky pocket for Southern Cross Campus as they also have Selumiela (Leka) Halasima in the Warriors mix; two lads in one of the best SG Ball squads and perhaps the best NRL junior in Australia/NZ right now.
Knights also have Rotorua Boys High School lads in Tamakaimoana Whareaorere and Bailey Carmichael. Whareaorere is named on the bench alongside Northland's Jayden Harris while Carmichael has spent most of the season at 18th man. Looks like all these lads played 1st 15 as well.
Eels have Turangawaewae junior Te Hurinui Twidle at fullback. Twidle played in the Queensland U18 competition last year and won the final with Souths Logan coming off the bench, then he moved to Eels where he has been a steady presence at fullback.
As noted in the Niche Cast, here are some notable Kiwi-NRL juniors who have quickly moved up from SG Ball to Jersey Flegg (U19 to U21s)...
Bulldogs: Maraki Aumua (Manawatu/PNBHS/RBHS), Alekolasimi Jones (Mt Albert)
Storm: K-Ci Newton-Whare (Riccarton)
Dragons: Te Umuariki Heremia-Tukere (Turangawaewae)
Roosters: Benaiah Ioelu (Tangaroa College)
Roosters also had Tavita Henare-Schuster at centre last week after signing him earlier this year. Another product of Palmerston North Boys High School and rugby union having moved through the Hurricanes system after leaving school.
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
There’s been some very funky developments on the kiwi boxing scene lately. Joseph Parker has split with his latest promoter BOXXER after only a year and two fights with them. This despite the announcement last June claiming a “new long-term deal” that would see his fights broadcast on Sky Sports UK. Admittedly the two fights he took under that banner were the loss to Joe Joyce and the buzz-less win over Jack Massey. Parker was far better against Massey than he gets credit for, people seriously gotta stop judging boxers on knockouts/not and focus on wins/losses, but promoters care more about buzz than steady technique to be fair.
That doesn’t seem like a great sign. Nor did the fact that Joe Joyce went on to get munted by Zhilei Zhang. We can complete the rule of thirds next by repeating reports that Parker’s next bout is going to be... in Australia against an Australian. Three underwhelming developments in a row for JP.
Specifically, he’s going to do battle with Faiga Opelu in Melbourne on 24 May. Opelu is the bloke who beat Hemi Ahio last October on the Haney-Kambosos II undercard, for an extra curious twist. Dude’s got a strong record of 15-3-2 with his only two losses coming to established Australian names Lucas Browne and Justis Huni so he’s in for a tough test against Joe Parker who is clearly still in that upper echelon as a ranked heavyweight fighter even if he’s dropped out of the contenders category. This will be Parker’s first bout in Australia and he’ll be doing so as a free agent without full-time promotion.
But he won’t be doing so alone because David Nyika is also part of this event. Nyika will fight on the undercard as he seeks to move to 6-0 as a professional. Which he should do considering that his opponent will be Louis Marsters... whom he stopped in the second round when they met two fights ago. Very odd choice there. The whole thing seems to have been pretty hastily scrapped together given they’re announcing it less than a month before the thing is due to happen.
Interesting yarns out of Chile this week with reports that Marco Rojas has requested an early release from his Colo-Colo contract. If granted, it’d mean he becomes a free agent in the middle of the year as opposed to the end of the year... making him available for A-League pre-season (just sayin’).
There was a bit about his situation in Flying Kiwis on Tuesday. Rojas has only logged 99 minutes of league action this season, appearing in only 3/11 games. Two more cup apps in there but it’s still not much. Last season he was in and out too but that was in a 4-2-3-1 formation where he could play anywhere across that three. This season a poor start caused the coach to shift to a 3-4-1-2 shape in which Rojas can only really play as the attacking midfielder (the ‘1’ spot). But plenty of other attackers are also challenging for that role. He’s competing for fewer opportunities against more teammates. You can see how the maths don’t quite math there.
Although that’s apparently not his reason for requesting out. That’s more to do with not adapting to the wider culture off the pitch. It may be the ancestral home but he’s left his friends and family to move there. It would appear that both of those things have been affected negatively by his not really adapting to the physicality of Chilean footy. His manager was asked last month about Rojas’ lack of minutes and his answer wasn’t particularly encouraging...
“[Marco] needs to make more impact and be more consistent for the full ninety minutes. He is a versatile player who can play inside or outside. He has made positive differences when he has entered games in the second half. Yet when he’s started, he often ended up asking for change or getting tired. He’s yet to show that he can play ninety minutes at full intensity.”
This scoop was broken by TNT Sports, fair play to them, although that quote is translated from a piece on La Tercera which also details how Rojas missed a couple of training sessions prior to the All Whites vs China games due to a minor injury... then ended up travelling anyway and playing in the second game which apparently didn’t impress his club coaches. Frankly, considering they weren’t really playing him anyway and that the All Whites and Football Ferns always seem to have to deal with these stroppy club coaches getting greedy with their players, it’s hard to feel sympathetic for Colo-Colo over Marco Rojas in that situation. But it is good context for what’s going on.
New Zealanders in the A-League Women’s Records
Most Appearances
Rebekah Stott – 100
Ally Green – 48
Claudia Bunge – 45
Liz Anton – 42
Paige Satchell – 40
Malia Steinmetz – 39
Emma Kete – 39
Annalie Longo – 37
Chloe Knott – 32
Ava Pritchard – 32
Most Finals Appearances
Rebekah Stott – 12
Ally Green – 8
Claudia Bunge – 7
Annalie Longo, Emma Kete – 5
Most Goals
Hannah Wilkinson – 20
Emme Kete – 11
Grace Jale - 9
Annalie Longo – 6
Rebekah Stott – 6
Championships
Rebekah Stott – 4
Annalie Longo, Emma Kete, Claudia Bunge – 2
Ally Green, Katie Duncan - 1
Two things that those numbers highlight: even at the professional gateway that is the A-League, kiwi players don’t score a lot of goals. Also that while there has been a solid history of NZers in that competition going back more than a decade there actually haven’t been that many who’ve stuck around for several seasons. Rebekah Stott is a rarity there with more than twice as many games as the next on that list (Ally Green, who was still Australian when she played most of those matches). Then six of the next eight are all current players – which is another example of why it’ll take a few more years before the full benefit of having the Wellington Phoenix in this competition really flourishes.
Speaking of the Wellington Phoenix, the blokes have a simple proposition ahead of them tomorrow: don’t lose to the bottom team on the ladder. They’re away to Macarthur who are battling to avoid the wooden spoon. That’s tougher than it could be but they’re also last for a reason and if the Nix can’t get the job done then frankly they can’t complain if they miss the finals. Although they could still lose and make them. That’s very much a possibility given their three-point buffer over Perth, Newcastle, and Western – a buffer made stronger by having the best goal difference (somehow) of that quartet.
Macarthur were the team that the Phoenix beat for their first win of the season after starting with four winless results. It was a 4-1 win that day in Wellington with goals for Ben Old, Clayton Lewis, Ben Waine, and Bozhidar Kraev. One of the best performances of their entire season... although they did also lose to Macarthur 2-1 when they met away. Kraev scored after four minutes and the Nix threw that advantage away with goals either side of half-time. Again, a draw is enough. And Macarthur will be a lot more forgiving of mistakes than Western Sydney, Adelaide, or Melbourne City have been in recent weeks. But there kind of isn’t anything else to say on that match. They’ve just gotta go out there and get it done. 7pm Saturday night is kickoff time. Season on the line for the Nixers.