Inherent Magic
Blackcaps & White Ferns in India, Kiwis & Kiwi Ferns vs Tonga, NZ Breakers sitch, WNL Team of the Week & more
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2024 Pacific Championships: New Zealand Kiwis & Kiwi Ferns Notebook vs Australia (Rugby League)
All Whites vs Tahiti/Malaysia: Reflecting On A Victorious Week (Football)
2024 Men’s National League – Week 4 (Football)
2024 Women’s National League – Week 4 (Football)
Flying Kiwis – October 23 (Football)
New Zealand vs India First Test Debrief (Cricket)
2024/25 Ford Trophy: Will O'Donnell, Angus McKenzie & Otago's Sizzling Start (Cricket)
White Ferns 2024 T20 World Cup Debrief (Cricket)
The Steven Adams NBA Comeback Tour With The Houston Rockets Has Commenced (Basketball)
27fm Weekly Playlist: October 25 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
Wee bit of a return to reality for Aotearoa cricket. Blackcaps were dismissed for 259 on the first day of their second Test vs India and White Ferns lost the first ODI of their series in India. Here are some bits and bobs...
Tom Latham is now averaging 23.13 in 2024. This is his only year of Test batting (debuted in 2014) where he averages below 30.
Rachin Ravindra scored 65 runs in the first innings vs India and is now averaging 46.94 in Test batting.
Daryl Mitchell played one Test in 2019 and two Tests in 2020. Since then he has played at least three Tests in each of the next four years...
2021: 58.66avg/74.2sr
2022: 68.3avg/49.6sr
2023: 42.63avg/61.2sr
2024: 24.63avg/44.7sr
Similar stuff for Tom Blundell who has now played at least four Tests in five consecutive years...
2020: 27.77avg/41sr
2021: 12.16avg/24.9sr
2022: 58.54avg/52.4sr
2023: 36avg/56.2sr
2024: 17.33avg/66.4sr
Devon Conway's scores in Sri Lanka and India: 17, 4, 9, 61, 91, 17, 76
White Ferns vs India…
India: 227
Amelia Kerr: 4w @ 4.6rpo
Jess Kerr: 3w @ 5.7rpo
Eden Carson: 2w @ 4.2rpo
Suzie Bates: 1w @ 9rpo
NZ: 168
Brooke Halliday: 39 runs @ 72sr
Maddy Green: 31 runs @ 97sr
Lauren Down: 26 runs @ 46sr
Amelia Kerr: 25* @ 109sr
Georgia Plimmer: 25 runs @ 100sr
White Ferns Under Ben Sawyer
ODIs: 8-11
T20Is: 21-22
White Ferns Women's Championship Stats
Batting
Amelia Kerr: 54avg/80sr
Maddy Green: 42.9avg/75sr
Suzie Bates: 39.3avg/74sr
Sophie Devine: 36.7avg/102sr
Brooke Halliday: 32avg/69sr
Lauren Down: 29avg/60sr
Hannah Rowe: 21.1avg/74sr
Izzy Gaze: 15.3avg/63sr
Lea Tahuhu: 14.7avg/92sr
Georgia Plimmer: 12.4avg/62sr
Jess Kerr: 10.3avg/90sr
Bowling
Jess Kerr: 18.5avg/4.3rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 23.9avg/4.8rpo
Sophie Devine: 26.2avg/4.6rpo
Hannah Rowe: 30avg/4.8rpo
Fran Jonas: 33.5avg/4rpo
Suzie Bates: 34.7avg/5.5rpo
Amelia Kerr: 37.6avg/4.2rpo
Eden Carson: 38.6avg/4.9rpo
Molly Penfold: 75avg/5rpo
Brooke Halliday: 80avg/5.7rpo
Women's Championship ladder is below. NZ has a three game series vs Australia after this tour of India. Top six teams roll into the World Cup, including hosts India. Bottom four teams go into a qualification tournament. Pakistan don't appear to have any more games and West Indies should have a few more, but NZ can lose all these ODIs vs India and Australia to stay in sixth spot.
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Canterbury are 2-0 in Ford Trophy. Wellington, Auckland, Northern Districts and Otago are 1-1. Central Districts are 0-2. Here are the stat leaders with Canterbury's best players in bold...
Batting
Chad Bowes: 253 runs @ 253avg/159sr
Brad Schmulian: 133 runs @ 66avg/124sr
Will O'Donnell: 130 runs @ 65avg/73sr
Tom Bruce: 120 runs @ 60avg/139sr
Henry Cooper: 118 runs @ 59avg/97sr
Jack Boyle: 115 runs @ 57avg/96sr
Tim Seifert: 108 runs @ 54avg/112sr
Dale Phillips: 93 runs @ 46avg/83sr
Mike Sclanders: 75 runs @ 37avg/74sr
Luke Georgeson: 74 runs @ 37avg/99sr
Bowling
Matt Bacon: 8w @ 8.7avg/4.3rpo
Blair Tickner: 7w @ 17.8avg/6.5rpo
Angus McKenzie: 5w @ 6avg/2.4rpo
Zak Foulkes: 5w @ 7.4avg/3rpo
Andrew Hazeldine: 5w @ 20.8avg/5.2rpo
Scott Kuggeleijn: 5w @ 22.6avg/5.9rpo
Michael Rippon: 4w @ 5.7avg/3.9rpo
Jimmy Neesham: 4w @ 10avg/3.3rpo
Sean Davey: 3w @ 14.6avg/2.7rpo
Canterbury's next best players not in the lists above...
Batting
Zak Foulkes: 49 runs @ 106sr
Matt Boyle: 48 runs @ 48ag/107sr
Cole McConchie: 27 runs @ 13.5avg/57sr
Henry Nicholls: 19 runs @ 9.5avg/54sr
Rhys Mariu: 14 runs @ 7avg/36sr
Angus McKenzie: 13 runs @ 13avg/50sr
Bowling
Sean Davey: 3w @ 14.6avg/2.7rpo
Cole McConchie: 1w @ 34avg/4.8rpo
Michael Rae: 1w @ 59avg/4.9rpo
False alarm on the Kyle Jamieson and Henry Shipley stuff as neither has played yet for Canterbury. As per our bonus podcast conversation yesterday, here is a funky team of young kiwi cricketers that are in the Test team/ODI squad to tour Sri Lanka/mentioned by NZC as out injured...
Rachin Ravindra: Test team
Tim Robinson: ODI squad
Dean Foxcroft: ODI squad
Mitch Hay (wk): ODI squad
Josh Clarkson: ODI squad
Zak Foulkes: ODI squad
Nathan Smith: ODI squad
Adithya Ashok: Injured (but playing Ford Trophy)
Ben Lister: Injured
Ben Sears: Injured
Will O'Rourke: Test team
I was lucky enough to go to Auckland FC's first A-League game last weekend. Rugby union crowds aren't in the same realm as a losing NZ Warriors team or Auckland FC's start to the A-League.
Biggest crowds at Mt Smart this year
NZ Warriors vs Storm: 24,495
Auckland FC vs Brisbane: 24,492
NZ Warriors vs Bulldogs: 24,295
NZ Warriors vs Knights: 24,112
NZ Warriors vs Sharks: 24,076
NZ Warriors vs Eels: 23,812
The first Wellington Phoenix game of the season had a crowd of 7,535. That's a crazy difference between the two kiwi football teams but Phoenix will fill up the Cake Tin for their derby game in a few weeks and let's not forget that their finals game in Wellington earlier this year had a crowd of 33,297. These are crowd numbers that rugby union would love to have.
All of which will be amplified in Christchurch this weekend for Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns. Kiwi Ferns have a slight advantage and should start as favourites, although Kiwis are underdogs and will need the South Island mana to help them beat Australia. Here are recent results for both teams in Aotearoa and the lack of games outside Auckland sets up how epic this will be in Christchurch…
Kiwis
2018 in Auckland: 26-24 win vs Australia
2019 in Auckland: 34-14 win vs Tonga
2019 in Auckland: 12-8 win vs Great Britain
2019 in Christchurch: 23-8 win vs Great Britain
2022 in Auckland: 26-6 win vs Tonga
2023 in Auckland: 50-0 win vs Samoa
2023 in Hamilton: 30-0 win vs Australia
Kiwi Ferns
2018 in Auckland: 24-26 loss vs Australia
2019 in Auckland: 46-8 win vs Samoa
2020 in Auckland: 28-8 win vs Samoa
2022 in Auckland: 50-12 win vs Tonga
2023 in Auckland: 28-10 win vs Tonga
The last time NZ Kiwis played in Christchurch there was a crowd of 8,875 (vs GB). That was only a few years ago and since then NZ Warriors have played two trials and an NRL game in Christchurch, all of which have had crowds over 11,000. This Sunday those marks will be blown away and I've covered the rise of rugby league around Aotearoa closely, so you should already know by now that rugby league is booming in Christchurch.
This led me to build a Kiwi-NRL Young Canterbury Team. I stretched out the guidelines a wee bit to include guest lads from West Coast and I'd want to bring in Kairus Booth from Balcluta as a development lad after he played for NZ Warriors Under 17s this year. None of these youngsters have played NRL and while most are in the U19-NSW Cup bracket, I have plugged a few holes with players from the back to back NZRL Schoolboy champion St Thomas of Canterbury team.
Youngsters from STOC are in bold. I had to get a bit funky in the outside backs where Jackson Stewart is usually a centre and Bishop Neal (U16) is usually an edge forward.
(I'm not a talent scout so this is all based off where these lads played this season and heaps of vibes)
Fullback: Meihana Pauling (Halswell/NZW)
Wingers: Cheldon Hayward (Linwood/Bulldogs), Jackson Stewart (Hornby/NZW)
Centres: Dakota Kakoi (Linwood/Eels), Bishop Neal (Hornby/NZW)
Halves: Bronson Reuben (Kaiapoi/Bulldogs), Oliver Lawry (Halswell/West Coast/Sea Eagles)
Middles: Caius Fa'atili (Hornby/Storm), Felix Fa'atili (Hornby/Sharks), Tanner Stowers-Smith (Halswell/NZW)
Edges: Sosaia Alatini (Hornby/Bulldogs), Te Kaio Cranwell (Linwood/Knights)
Hooker: Makaia Tafua (Linwood/NZW)
Bench: Noah Harmer-Campbell (Hornby/NZW), K-Ci Newton-Whare (Riccarton/Storm), Callum Donaldson (West Coast/Bulldogs), Richie Tupuailei (Hornby/Sharks)
18th-Man: Josiah Ekkehard-Neli (Hornby/Storm)
Squad: Lennox Tuiloma (Linwood/NZW), Jason Salalilo (Papanui/NZW), Isaiah Savea (Hornby/NZW), Zeke Faga-Ieti (Hornby/NZW)
Development: Christiano Elia (Riccarton/NZW), Kairus Booth (Balclutha/NZW)
Also shout out to NZW youngster Jesse Soric who was selected in Serbia’s national squad. Soric is a Byron Bay junior who played U19 and U21s for NZW this year, usually as a half.
I won’t clutter this with any more Youtube videos but below are some fun yarns that I’ve enjoyed in recent days…
Phoenix Crossland podcast appearance
Luke Metcalf podcast appearance
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Breakers played last night, getting thoroughly thrashed in Christchurch against a South East Melbourne team with an interim coach. 88-62 was the final score, pretty horrendous offensive night in which Parker Jackson-Cartwright scored 19 points on 8/15 shooting with 6 assists but nobody else really did anything. They were burdened by injuries to Mojave King, Mitch McCarron, and Max Darling… although SEM were without import Derrick Walton Jr themselves. This was nasty stuff. 36% from the field. 29% from threes. 58% free throws. They were outrebounded 44 to 29.
Even as they won their first two games, the Breakers weren’t looking like a high-functioning offensive team. Those wins were against Brisbane and SEM. Brisbane they caught on a bad day and they’ve lost to them since. SEM sacked their coach after an 0-5 start and just beat the Breakers in the Christchurch rematch. The Breakers also beat Perth last week at home in a game where Perth’s best player, Bryce Cotton, fractured his ribcage in the first quarter. They’re 3-2 but the underlying hints aren’t encouraging. Nor are the stats...
9th in scoring (79.2 points per game)
7th in field goal percentage (42.8%)
10th in free throw percentage (67.6%)
10th in total rebounds (37.2 rebs per game)
2nd in fouls (19.8 fouls per game)
10th in pace (75.4 possessions per 48 mins)
8th in offensive rating (106.0)
They had a beautiful start but things would appear to be levelling out, bringing them back in line with preseason predictions. With so many unproven/project players and a rookie head coach, it was never going to be easy... and club management keep making things less easy. We’ve just got done with a needless American trip and now there’s the ongoing Tacko Fall distraction (at least they cancelled the “Meet and Greet”... blaming it on travel delays but surely the negative public reaction had something to do with it). All five of their games so far have been against teams in the current bottom four, with four of those being home games. But guess what? That’s about to change…
Breakers Upcoming Schedule
Away to Sydney Kings on Sunday 27 October
Home vs Adelaide 36ers on Saturday 2 November
Away to Melbourne United on Monday 4 November
Away to Tasmania JackJumpers on Saturday 9 November
Away to Cairns Taipans on Saturday 16 November
Away to Illawarra Hawks on Thursday 28 November
Away to Perth Wildcats on Sunday 1 December
Have mercy, that is horrendous. Six of their next seven games are away from home including five in a row culminating in a trip to Perth. They’ve already got half their squad battling injuries, which seems to happen every single year with the Breakers so I’m finding it hard to view this as bad luck. Bad management, more like. They could simply have not gone to the USA, had fewer double-gameweeks as a result, and kept the travel and workload lower. But they did… now everyone’s battling and we’re only a month into the campaign.
One cool thing about these Breakers games though: Coach Petteri Koponen really dips deep into his roster. Whether this is an early season thing that’ll change as a hierarchy emerges based on performances or if this is just how he coaches... we shall see. So far it’s common to see him use as many as ten players within the first quarter, making constant substitutions.
He’s also been good with the kiwis. Max Darling has been starting games – leading to his breakout performance against Perth where he scored 15 points with 4/6 from deep. Sam Mennenga is third in the team for minutes behind imports PJC and Matt Mooney. And due to the injuries last night, we saw 9-10 mins for both Alex McNaught and Kaia Isaac and also got a Carlin Davison cameo towards the end...
Last year McNaught played three total minutes. The season before he got 57. Last year Max Darling got 1 minute, and that was three years after playing 67 mins for Illawarra as a DP. Mennenga is only in his second NBL campaign. Kaia Isaac and Carlin Davison both made their NBL debuts in the Phoenix game, Isaac being a new DP but Davison having been contracted last year only to never get on the court. Lots to love about Mody Maor but he didn’t like using the end of his roster – and it’s not like he didn’t have plenty of blowout defeats like this where he could have.
In happier news, Flynn Cameron got a start for Melbourne United in the other game last night and responded with a career-best 18 points, scoring at multiple levels, defending well, and also bagging four assists in a 92-87 win against Illawarra. Shea Ili missed the game with a calf strain and his fellow kiwi picked up the slack (Cameron spoke afterwards about how Shili messaged him before the game with a whole bunch of matchup notes and encouragement). Rob Loe had 7pts and 5reb as well.
Also, after Tyrell Harrison chased his preseason MVP award with a disappointing performance in the round one defeat against the Breakers, he’s thoroughly bounced back since...
Tyrell Harrison Game Log
NZB (L) – 9 PTS (3/4 FG) | 5 REB | 0 AST | 1 BLK | 5 TO
ILL (L) – 16 PTS (8/12 FG) | 10 REB | 3 AST | 1 BLK | 2 TO
SYD (L) – 10 PTS (4/6 FG) | 4 REB | 5 AST | 3 BLK | 5 TO
SEM (W) – 21 PTS (10/20 FG) | 17 REB | 0 AST | 0 BLK | 3 TO
NZB (W) – 13 PTS (6/9 FG) | 7 REB | 3 AST | 0 BLK | 2 TO
Following up on the Flying Kiwis yarn from a couple days ago, AS Saint-Etienne have confirmed that Ben Old has undergone surgery for a torn lateral ligament and meniscus damage in his knee, which will keep him out for 4-6 months. He’ll miss at least one, maybe two, All Whites WCQ windows as a result but don’t stress about that. We’ve got plenty of depth in those positions (Callum McCowatt made his return for Silkeborg last week). Mostly this is just a relief it’s not an ACL tear. At least this way there’s a chance that Old returns before the end of the French season... which could be crucial with ASSE likely to be in a relegation battle.
Meanwhile, Finn Surman got some minutes towards the end of Portland Timbers’ play-in game yesterday. His second appearance and it was a postseason one... unfortunately the Timbers were already 5-0 down against Vancouver Whitecaps having absolutely bottled it despite being given home field advantage after the higher-placed Whitecaps were unable to secure their home stadium due to an event (apparently there are just no other football stadiums in Canada? It’s a bit like Auckland Aces playing home games at Bay Oval in Mt Maunganui at the moment because there’s a Travis Scott concert coming up at Eden Park which for some reason is hogging the outer oval facilities across multiple weeks). Less than ideal, but this could be an impetus for Surman to challenge for starter’s status next year.
On top of Surman’s debut, there were professional league debuts for a trio of this year’s U20 Women’s World Cup squad last week. All three were covered in Flying Kiwis. All three bear repeating because of the pattern...
Suya Haering (Turbine Potsdam)
Olivia Page (Sheffield United)
Lara Colpi (FC Thun)
There had already been a few cup appearances for Liv Page, but this was her first game in the English Championship (second tier). She’s at the same club as Jacqui Hand. Both Page and Haering had been getting regular bench spots this year so these debuts were imminent. Colpi, meanwhile, was playing U20s at Young Boys in Switzerland then randomly popped up with FC Thun’s first team last week. Couldn’t find any announcements but it’s a season-long loan. Also, Milly Clegg has one more game left to try and debut for Racing Louisville this year, though their slim playoff hopes probably mean that won’t happen. Kiara Bercelli is another from that U20 group and she’s also in that situation where she’s making matchday squads but hasn’t been summoned for a debut just yet. Could be any week now.
Here’s a graphic that they showed during the Blackcaps coverage yesterday...
Ravindra doesn’t have it all wrapped up quite yet, there’s another Test in India after this and then three more at home against England before 2024 is done and Kane Williamson should be available at least for the ENG stuff. Ravindra is at 837 runs. Williamson is at 618. Third top run-scorer this year is Tom Latham with 347 runs so it’s a big drop. Ravindra’s averaging 59.78 this year, Williamson is at 56.18... and from everyone else only Will Young and Neil Wagner are above 30.
Kane Williamson (1172 @ 90.15 in 2015) and Brendon McCullum (1164 @ 72.75 in 2014) are the only New Zealanders to score over 1000 runs in a calendar year. It doesn’t happen very often, in fact Ravindra’s 2024 is already ranked fifth all-time for NZ. Also, the graphic did Henry Nicholls dirty there because he scored the exact same number of runs as Tom Latham did in 2018 and with a better average.
Fact: Tim Southee took his 385th Test wicket when he skittled Rohit Sharma last night. Tim Southee ranks 19 in the history of Test cricket, having overtaken Ian Botham (383) in the last match. He needs another 46 wickets to catch up to Sir Richard Hadlee’s NZ record, which is absolutely possible if he sticks around for a couple more years... although this one-wicket-per-innings trend will need to go if that’s the case. With 767 international wickets across the three formats combined, Southee ranks tenth in history (granted, combining the formats is kinda dumb and pointless).
Goalless Draws in the NZ National League
2024 MNL – 1 out of 20 games
2024 WNL – 1 out of 19 games
2023 MNL – 1 out of 46 games
2023 WNL – 0 out of 46 games
2022 MNL – 0 out of 46 games
2022 WNL – 2 out of 46 games
2021 MNL – 0 out of 16 games
2021 WNL – 0 out of 12 games
2020-21 MNL – 0 out of 59 games
2020-21 WNL – 0 out of 22 games
Add that all together and that’s 5 goalless draws from the past 393 NZ National League games... and one of those draws (in the 2022 WNL) was an abandoned game when the Canterbury United side had a covid outbreak in the last week so they cancelled the game and scored it officially as a 0-0 draw. Should really be 4/392, in that case.
This is funny because I’ve heard this idea a few times from English Premier League people. There were only 11/380 games last season that ended in 0-0 draws, the lowest mark in the Premier League era and by some distance – the most was 51 in the 1994-95 season, although that was a longer season so the highest percentage was in 1998-99 when 49/380 games were scoreless for a proportion of 12.9%. So far in 2024-25 there have been four nil-alls from 80 games so it’s trending back up slightly.
A few theories as to why this is happening include the fact that overall scoring rates are up, the longer stoppage times, VAR penalties, the increase to five substitutes, more accurate analytic systems, a natural tactical trend towards more attacking footy... but all that’s just to say that the Premier League lacks inherent magic. The NZ National League, on the other hand, now that’s the good stuff. No VAR and only limited scouting yet only minuscule goalless draws.
WNL Team of the Week #4
GK – Molly Simons (Wellington United) – She faced a barrage in the first half, dealt with all of that, saved a penalty in the second half... and kept her team close enough that they were able to grab a late equaliser away from home against a tough team.
RB - Megan Simpson (Canterbury United) – Started the season as a fullback but lately has been filling in through the middle and at 18yo she led the way in a superb defensive resistance in the South Island derby.
CB – Caelin Patterson (Wellington United) – Simons was great but she also needed her defenders to turn up and Patterson was immense, especially second half where she was cleaning everything up as WCR kept trying to pierce the Diamonds backline and kept not being able to.
CB – Mackenzie Longmuir (West Coast Rangers) – The late equaliser they conceded was a bummer but Longmuir was superb, she’s been superb all season. Reads the play so well. One of the best young defenders in the country.
LB – Saskia Vosper (Auckland United) – She’d have been going close to this team anyway but then she scored a 90+4th minute winner with a remarkable curling shot from out wide on the left and there was no debate. Cool to see her 14yo sister Ariana make a debut for West Coast Rangers this week too.
CM – Yume Harashima (Auckland United) – Whatever I wrote last week, the same stuff applies this week as it applies every week. Defensive midfielders don’t come any better at this level.
CM – Emma Starr (Waterside Karori) – The American midfielder is prooobably too good for the NZ National League, and she served up a midfield masterclass against Central drifting into pockets to collect the ball and then weaving it around the place. Got an assist with a perfect through ball. So good.
CM – Anna McPhie (Canterbury United) – Not the tallest player out there but she’s one of the heartiest, scrapping away for everything with a tireless engine and she scored a spectacular header against Southern too. Coincidentally, these are the same three midfielders as the Week 2 TOW.
FW – Nicola Dominikovich (Canterbury United) – Captaining the Pride these days after a superb year spent playing in Australia, Dominikovic has carried that scoring form into the NZ stuff. Leads by example with her workrate and just keeps popping up with important goals.
FW – Kendall Pollock (Waterside Karori) – The only thing missing from the Wharfies performance against Central was the finishing. Fortunately they had Pollock to carry them with three goals, a hat-trick to take her up to six for the season already. The variety of her goals was the best part: one from a header, one from a square cross, one from a run in behind.
FW – Britney Cunningham-Lee (Eastern Suburbs) – Pollock wasn’t the only hat-trick hero this week. BCL put three away in the second half of a 5-0 win against the WeeNix, finally getting some reward for her tenacious forward play after the Lilywhites had been held scoreless in three previous games.
Musical Jam...