In Ya Baggy
Blackcaps T20/Test things, Women's NL footy squads, and some kiwi basketball
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 39
The Niche Cast: Get The Win
Reading Menu
Peter O'Sullivan Leaves NZ Warriors and That Cycle Ends (NRL)
The Sky Blue Connection: Cronulla Sharks Love Otahuhu Leopards (Semisi Sikei/Salesi Ataata) (NRL)
Get To Know The Wellington Phoenix Women’s Inaugural Kiwi Contingent (Football)
Flying Kiwis – November 2 (Football)
All Whites vs The Gambia: Squad Yarns (Football)
Transfer Troubles Mean The Welly Nix Academy Is Ready For Its Close-Up (Football)
2021/22 Hallyburton Johnston Shield: Bright Start For Bright Future Otago Sparks (Cricket)
2021 T20 World Cup: Lockie Ferguson's Injured, Jimmy Neesham the Star and More... (Cricket)
2021 T20 World Cup: Not Surprised By Daryl Mitchell's Ascension (Cricket)
2021/22 Plunket Shield: Greg Hay Eats Runs and Steady Hamish Rutherford (Cricket)
2021/22 Plunket Shield: Canterbury Are Still Really Good (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Righto, let’s start with some laughs…
A weekend of kiwi cricket…
Blackcaps beat Scotland, play Namibia tonight. Who has been the best Blackcaps bowler?
Trent Boult: 11.4ov, 6w @ 13avg/6.68rpo/11.6sr.
Ish Sodhi: 12ov, 6w @ 14.50avg/7.25rpo/12sr.
Tim Southee: 12ov, 3w @ 25avg/6.25rpo/24sr.
Mitchell Santner: 12ov, 1w @ 71avg/5.91rpo/72sr.
Adam Milne: 8ov, 1w @ 66avg/8.25rpo/48sr.
The difference between Sodhi and Boult there is minimal. I love this because it highlights the undercover idea of Boult/Southee being super important at this World Cup. They both move the ball both ways (as do Sodhi/Santner) and are crafty operators who will quickly adapt to conditions. As noted in the podcasts up top - I believe that Guptill/Mitchell/Williamson/Conway scoring 100+ runs is a key marker for success. That might come from Guppy going nuts in one game, a more collective effort in another game. The bowling equivalent is Boult/Sodhi being lethal wicket-takers and as long as Aotearoa has two bowlers catching the wicket-taking vibe, the foundations are set.
Southee’s … well he’s steady old Southee. Santner’s hasn’t had that wicket-taking vibe, he’s economical though. Milne isn’t Lockie Ferguson, it’s handy to have that 145km/h option to blow through weaker scorers. Chuck in the best fielding unit and this might be a really good T20 outfit.
The funkiest thing from the Blackcaps Test squad is spin bowling. Will Somerville and Ajaz Patel lace up again, adding a fun wrinkle to the Test team entering the new Test Championship window as they casually add two well performed spinners to adapt. I reckon Sodhi is slept on as red ball spinner so that’s always a factor for me personally, while Patel and Somerville have had different routes to this juncture.
Patel’s been on wave. 4w in a Test vs England over the winter, then getting into his T20 baggy with 10w @ 7.30avg/3.65rpo in Bangladesh. Somerville hasn’t even been Auckland’s best spinner over the last two summers - he has been good enough though.
2019/20 Plunket Shield
Louis Delport: 155.4ov, 17w @ 24.11avg/2.63rpo.
Will Somerville: 23ov, 2w @ 29.50avg/2.56rpo.
2020/21 Plunket Shield
Louis Delport: 103.4ov, 14w @ 23.85avg/3.19rpo.
Will Somerville: 230ov, 16w @ 37.43avg/2.60rpo.
Not a massive difference, but it’s a thing that most wouldn’t be aware of.
Plunket Shield swings back around on Sunday. Central Districts host Otago in Nelson and Wellington host Canterbury - a repeat of last round. This will be Wellington’s third home game (Basin Reserve), beating Otago first then losing to Canterbury and another loss to Canterbury would mean Cantab ownership of the capital. Wellington have a young batting unit but with Tom Blundell, Finn Allen and Rachin Ravindra they have scored below 200 in all four innings this season … at home.
They scored 195 and 193/4 vs Otago (161 and 154 vs Canterbury) so again this isn’t a massive thing, just a thing that’s happened.
Hallyburton Johnston Shield returns and after the Otago vs Central Districts double header last weekend, this weekend we have Canterbury vs Wellington. Plenty of White Ferns should be playing and that’s fun for kiwi wahine cricket, I’m going to continue to track the youngsters though. Otago cruised to wins over CD with nice contributions from their youngsters, while CD had the young White Ferns in Hannah Rowe and Claudia Green.
Given the White Ferns woes and their weird talent ID vibes, tracking notable youngsters in the 50-over competition takes on greater funk with the World Cup played early next year. The fact that numerous White Ferns will play for Canterbury and Wellington will raise the bar, thus making any nice contributions from young players more notable.
Women’s Big Bash League
Sophie Devine: 3rd - 236 runs @ 39.33avg/139.64sr.
Rachel Priest: 8th - 202 runs @ 25.25avg/109.78sr.
It’s a Perth vs Hobart double header this weekend to that means Devine vs Priest back to back.
Wildcard’s Notebook
National League Football!?!?
It all starts this weekend. Late notice because of how often NZF had to kick the can down the road with covid delays and the Auckland/Waikato teams unable to play. Ultimately they decided to abandon the actual competition as it didn’t make sense to have it without those teams but the other two conferences will still get to play some games in a less official but still official capacity. The South Central Series they’re calling it. Six men’s clubs playing each other once, four women’s clubs having a double-round robin. Finals at the end. The whole thing will be done by mid-December.
The men’s comp has been left in a very weird shape because of this. It was already gonna be weird as it transitioned to a club-based format but now they’re doing so without Auckland City or any of their Northern League cohorts (Auckland United, Eastern Suburbs & Birkenhead). My feeling throughout this has been that the club based system is going to tip the scales towards the bigger areas and I suspect that Auckland and Wellington clubs are going to dominate it for the next several years... but there are no Auckland clubs this time which leaves the comp feeling half-empty.
Yet that’s the way it had to be, at least they’re doing something. Still looking forward to it… particularly the chance to see what else the Wellington Phoenix and Ole Academy have in their stocks as the next wave of prospects come through after huge successes with last year’s wave moving on to pro/uni opportunities.
All the squads for the men will be pretty much the same as they were through the winter so no surprises on the cards. There are limits on transfers anyway. But the women’s comp had only gone club-based for the Northern Region so while it’s guts to Eastern Suburbs, Northern Rovers, Western Springs, and Hamilton Wanderers who thus miss out... we do still get to see some games between Canterbury, Southern, Capital & Central. And being regional squads they get to try pick the best players available from around various clubs. Here are those squads, ahead of the first round of fixtures...
Southern United had a fun team last season, a good mix of battlers with a couple flair players, of youth and experience. Unfortunately quite a few of them are gone now (huge turnover in all four squads to be fair). Macey Fraser was their best player, she’s pursuing pro deals overseas right now from what I’ve heard (best of luck to her, hell of a player she is). Also losing the likes of Kate Guildford and Sammy Murrell is a blow. Last year was quite a fortuitous one for the league which was stronger than ever before with a number of American-based uni students home due to covid, Guildford and Murrell were among them (Guildford’s back now but has signed with the Cantavs). This year that’s not the case.
But Southern have still got a strong core of a team with Renee Bacon, Amy Hislop, Hannah Mackay-Wright, Emily Morison, Toni Power and a few others hanging around. Both goalies are gone but they’ve replaced them with Amy Simmers from Central who’s in town for uni, same deal with Margi Dias swapping the red of Canterbury for the blue of Southern as she studies in town. If Dias can offer a bit of funk in attack and the midfield can hang in there without Fraser then I reckon the defence will be fine.
Central were the cellar dwellars of the comp a year ago only taking one point from six matches. It was a very young team which knew what they were getting into… though gotta tell ya that things probably won’t be any better for them this time. This squad has lost... well, to put it bluntly they’ve lost almost all of their best players from 2020.
Obviously Aniela Jensen isn’t back – she’s returned to uni in the States and just got called up for the last Footy Ferns squad. Charlotte Lancaster won’t be back because she’s got a scholarship contract with the Wellington Phoenix. No Jana Niedermayr in there, she’s a part of the FFDP so assuming she’s in Auckland. Mikaela Boxall isn’t on that list. Georgie Furnell, Natalie Olson, Samantha Woolley, Gorgi can Lienen, Flo MacIntyre, Kaityln Watts... they were all regular starters last season and none are in this squad. Jeepers.
Meaning there are a lot of players there whom I don’t know much about. So that’ll be fun. Learn a few more names. To be fair, while the overall team struggled in 2020, they did have some bloody good individual players in there and national team/Phoenix/FFDP call ups since only prove that. We’ll see what else the region has in the tank.
Thanks to a couple grinding 1-0 wins and an overturned defeat against Auckland, Capital made it all the way to the final last season. They did so with very stable team selection too and happy to say that quite a few of them are back for 2021.
Not all, mind. Last season’s MVP Georgia Candy isn’t there. She’s an FFDP rep, although so is Charlotte Wilford-Carroll (also a standout) and she’s back in yellow. Mickey Robertson isn’t there. Having surprisingly not ended up signing for the Wellington Phoenix despite have been a part of the club’s academy in recent times, gonna hope that’s because she’s got something lined up overseas. Or maybe just an injury. Who knows, not I. Also missing are players such as Hope Gilchrist, Tui Dugan, and Katie Barrott.
But Anna Green is there. Heaps of Footy Ferns caps in the bag with her. Top scorer Kaley Ward was named. Olivia Ingham featured a fair bit last time and this could also be an opportunity for the likes of Helena Errington, Nina Kondo, and Jemma Robertson to break through. Reckon this is still a decent Capital side. Second only to the defending champs.
Ah yes, the Canterbury United Pride. They named their squad in dribs and drabs but here’s the kicker: nine players started all seven games for the Pride in 2020 and two more started at least five. Five of those eleven regulars are no longer with the club. Kate Taylor and Alyssa Whinham have joined the Phoenix. Gabi Renni, Tahlia Herman-Watt, and Amelia Abbott (all part of the last Ferns squad) are back in America for uni.
Now, they do still have the bulk of their defence in tact. Una Foyle in goal, defenders Rebecca Lake, Mikaela Hunt, and Lara Wall. Whitney Hepburn in the midfield. Britney Cunningham-Lee up front. There’s an intimidating spine still there. Plus Annalie Longo only played sporadically due to injury and she’s raring to go. Longo always dominates this level, this’ll be no different.
The Pride have picked up Kate Guildford from Southern and Kate Loye from Central. Lose one Kate (Taylor) to a pro deal and sign two more to replace her, fair enough. But with Canterbury it’s the players that they always seem to gave coming through that you wanna watch out for. This is a kiwi sporting dynasty because they’ve always got so many talented girls ready to step up as soon as a spot becomes available. Three names to watch for this year: Samantha Senior, Ella Firth, and Freya Lodge.
Hyrum Harris & Tai Webster…
Yes boy. Big Niche Cache favourite, that fella.
Hyrum Harris is joining his third Aussie NBL club in three years – he was a development player for the Illawarra Harks in the LaMelo Ball season, he was an injury replacement for the Cairns Taipans last time, now he’s a DP for the Adelaide 36ers. The only kiwi on that roster (unless you count eligible Mojave King – who’s made it clear he wants to play for Aussie) although they are coached by honorary kiwi CJ Bruton.
Harris’ signing brings the overall number of NZers in the NBL to 19, one short of the amount who played last season but ahead of where we were at this stage then considering there are still a few open DP spots and injury replacements will surely be required (travel bubble dependent, naturally).
Meanwhile one guy who effectively opted out of an NBL contract was Tai Webster. Mentioned him a couple times in these Substack mailers, including when there was that rumour that he’d gotten himself vaxxed to play in Israel despite his unvaccinated status being what cost him his Breakers gig. Well, that scoop was off target (can’t say I’m shocked). But that’s because it’s worked out even better for Tai: he’s signed with Lithuianian EuroLeague team Zalgiris Kaunas...
Funny line in that article: “Contrary to what was recently discussed in Lithuanian media, the guard from New Zealand has been vaccinated, and therefore does not face any additional issues to represent Zalgiris”
Sounds like the Lithuanian media picked up on the Breakers situation, lol. But they also confirm that he has been vaccinated now and damn why wouldn’t he be with the chance to play EuroLeague – effectively the Champions League of European basketball and probably the second best comp on the planet behind the NBA. He had played the second tier EuroCup before when he played in Turkey but this next level.
Which has led to folks suggesting that perhaps he finessed his way out of the Breakers deal for this gig... I’m not buying that. Seems way more likely that after his unvaccinated status became a big talking point, he would have been exposed to a lot of new conversations, then when that became a hurdle to this superb opportunity he probably just adjusted his mindset. People do that all the time, you know? We’re not fixed to our current beliefs and nor should we be. Shout out to Tai Webster for that, good lad. Can’t wait to see how he goes in Lithuania.
Note that he replaced former Jazz/Nuggets guard Emmanuel Mudiay on the roster too. Mudiay played five games for the team but he struggled with an injury as Zalgiris started the EuroLeague 0-7. Mudiay had been playing crap even before the injury though. Shooting poorly especially. That likely would have improved as he played more but I guess they didn’t like what they saw.
Also if you’re looking for a primer on the kiwis involved in college basketball in the USA this upcoming season, this is a pretty outstanding effort here...
Kiwis at NCAA Division I schools:
WOMEN
Aimee Book – Fresno State
Kaitlin Burgess - Boise State
McKenna Dale – Virginia
Tayla Dalton – St Mary’s
Rochelle Fourie – UC Northridge
Tegan Graham – Brigham Young
Kendall Heremaia – Fordham
Grace Hunter – Florida International
Victoria Ikenasio – St Peter’s
Kobe King-Hawea – UT Austin
Jade Kirisome – St Mary’s
Charlisse Leger-Walker – Washington State
Krystal Leger-Walker – Washington State
Arielle Mackey-Williams – Brigham Young
Tara Manumaleuga – Texas Christian
Helen Matthews – Wofford
Lauryn Mapusua – Houston Baptist
Jess Moors – Colorado State
Tsubasa Nisbet – Georgia Southern
Pareunora Pene – Tennessee Chattanooga
Akienne-Tera Reed – Southern California
Emme Shearer – Portland
Kaylee Smiler – Brigham Young
Emilee Tahata – La Salle
Jayzelee Waihi – Wichita State
Amy West – St Mary’s
Charlotte Whittaker – Colorado
Olivia Williams – UC Irvine
MEN
Flynn Cameron – UC Riverside
Tobias Cameron – Abilene Christian
Quinn Clinton – St Mary’s
Dan Fotu – St Mary’s
Akiva McBirney-Griffin – UC Irvine
Callum McRae – UC Riverside
Angus McWilliam – UC Riverside
Sam Mennenga – Davidson
James Moors – Colorado State
Taine Murray – Virginia
Kruz Perrott-Hunt – South Dakota
Sam Waardenburg – Miami
Tom Webley – Hartford
Mason Whittaker – American
Paora Winitana – Brigham Young
Harrison Young – Texas Christian
And here’s a write-up focussing on Charlisse Leger-Walker but also wrapping up how the various kiwis at Div 1 schools fared in the National Tournament earlier this year, those that qualified anyway. Get amongst. Enjoy ya weekend.