[Insert Sponsor Here]
Blackcaps sponsors, Footy Ferns new recruit, South Central Series Week 3 reaction & more
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 41
The Niche Cast - Folding Circulars (Plunket Shield, All Whites, Wellington Phoenix)
Reading Menu
Kiwi-NRL Takeover Continues With Seven Young Hookers From Auckland Signed To NRL Clubs (NRL)
The Breakers’ Latest Prospect Seems Strangely Familiar... (Basketball)
2021/22 Plunket Shield: Same Old Joe Carter, Same Old Canterbury (Cricket)
2021/22 Plunket Shield: CD Stags Defeat Wellington Firebirds (Cricket)
2021/22 Hallyburton Johnstone Shield: Who Is Abby Gerken? (Cricket)
Football Ferns vs Korea Republic: The Squad (Football)
Scotty’s Word
All Blacks…
Having meditated on rugby perfection from the All Blacks this year, I’m intrigued by this end of year Euro tour. All Blacks losses are always great because it’s funny to watch NZ media lose their minds, even though they create their own unrealistic expectations of what Aotearoa’s rugby team should do. Take this as a very general nugget: All Blacks have scored 50+ points in six of 14 games this year and lost two in a row.
I view that as reason not to have any grand All Blacks opinions. Give them space, let them rack up more games and let the flow of international rugby swing back around.
Blackcaps sponsors…
Speaking of All Blacks! Remember the kerfuffle caused by adding a jersey sponsor to the middle of the All Blacks jersey? That was also kinda funny because who really gives a fuck?
Obviously folks don’t view the Blackcaps in the same light. For this T20I series in India, the Blackcaps had three Indian brands on their jerseys: Kent Mineral Ro, Great White and Royal Green. ANZ still had their spot on the jersey but fresh off the T20 World Cup, the Blackcaps quickly had a re-jig of their shirt sponsors and this is the trend for NZC.
When India tour NZ, we’ve had ‘Byju’s’ signs posted around kiwi grounds. When Pakistan tour NZ the whole tour was sponsored by Carient Motor Oil which is a Pakistan State Oil brand. NZC has opened up sponsorship opportunities to touring nations and there is only one reason why they would do that: $$$$$$. These brands would be paying more than what an NZ brand can pay and large viewing audiences back in India/Pakistan etc makes it beneficial for those brands.
Note: does any sponsorship make you purchase that product?
NZC have now added three Indian brands to their jersey for this series. Kent is a water purifying system, Great White is an electrical brand and Royal Green is a whiskey brand. NZC has gone from regular NZ brands, to selling sponsorship space to brands from touring nations and now they are selling jersey sponsorship to brands from the host nation.
I’m not mad at this and it’s a clear move to greater profits. This yarn from 2019 states that NZC lost $9.3mil in 2017, $3.5mil in 2018 and $2.3mil in 2019 after hoping for a $1mil profit in 2019. There was niggle between NZC and the major associations because NZC wanted to pass on their woes to the domestic landscape, although Players Association boss Heath Mills stated that NZC was in a great financial position. The whole thing was a bit confusing, but there are two clear things present here: NZC selling sponsorship to foreign brands after apparently being in a financial hole.
That seems like good business. Good business can often be desperate and NZC also seem to be desperate to explore different angles, which is also evident in the abundance of T20 cricket over kiwi summers these days. As the White Ferns/women’s cricket does not generate enough profits to make the whole women’s set up self-sustainable, these business moves are helping to fund greater women’s contracts and resources. Next step there is for Aoteaora women’s cricket to generate enough revenue to be re-invested and all women’s sports teams in Aotearoa should be aiming for self-sustainability. That’s what women’s cricket in Australia has done; WBBL is a stand alone tournament, players are superstars with wide range of brand deals etc.
When framed as being crucial to growth of women’s cricket in NZ, all these business moves can be viewed as creative and nifty. Still super weird having more Indian brands on a Blackcaps jersey than Aotearoa brands and Blackcaps had more Indian brands on their jerseys than All Blacks brands on their jerseys.
Lydia Ko consistency…
Wildcard’s Notebook
G.Neville, Right Back
The Football Ferns squad for the two-game tour of South Korea was named on Friday and I’m just finishing up writing about it simultaneous to doing this email. Couple funky aspects to that selection with a clear theme of Jitka Klimková casting the net a little wider, testing the depth she has available to here at a time when a few of her key regulars are unavailable. The funkiest of all them aspects was the addition of Grace Neville as a train-on player. Unable to partake in match activities coz she’s not yet switched her eligibility from England. This is what I wrote about Neville in the deeper Ferns squad article...
Which brings us to Grace Neville. 21 year old right back for London City Lionesses in the English Championship (second tier – same as Moore’s Liverpool). No relation to that other English right back named G.Neville, by the way... although she does list David Beckham as her favourite player on her team profile. Neville is eligible for New Zealand but needs to formally change her allegiance before she can play (s’pose it’s not exactly a guarantee that she will, either – this might still be part of the recruitment process).
That’s because she’s been an England age-grade international going back to her time in the Arsenal academy. Most recent seems to be her selection for the 2019 UEFA Women’s U19 Finals – alongside the likes of Lauren James, Ebony Salmon, Laren Hemp, Esme Morgan and a few other names you may recognise.
Here’s a quote from Grace Neville from January this year talking about how much she loves England...
FAWSL Full Time: “Being in the England setup from such a young age has given me all of the tools both as a player and as a person to really kick on. There’s nothing better than pulling on an England shirt. My ambition is to always be playing for England and I have got the support at London City Lionesses. My goals and ambitions personally are to be in the England setup and hopefully in the years to come I’ll be there.”
Bit awkward now that she’s training with New Zealand... but we’d be glad to have her. That same article lists Rehane Skinner (former England U19s coach) as being a major influence in Neville’s career. Coincidence: Skinner is now managing Tottenham where Ria Percival is one of her key players. Wonder if there’s something in that.
One other thing about Neville is that she’s been at London City Lionesses a few years now and re-signed with them earlier in the year after a breakthrough season last time. Started 17 out of 20 league games in 2020-21 and was a part of some very good defensive performances. However this season her games have been limited to one substitute appearance in the WSL Cup – which was a couple days ago in a 1-0 win over Brighton. After missing the first month and a half of the season she has at least been in the matchday squad the last six games in all comps (she was on the bench when they lost to West Ham earlier in the group stage, the game in which Anna Leat made her WHU debut). The scout report is of a very good 1v1 defender who maintains a high level of fitness (her side hustle is as a personal trainer) though maybe has more work to do when it comes to the attacking aspects of her game.
Tai Webster, EuroLeague Baller
The way that Tai Webster ended up in the EuroLeague was weird to say the least. Cut by the Breakers who didn’t fancy the uncertainty of having him on the roster with his vaccine hesitancy given how some of the Aussie states were enforcing things, he then ended up with an offer too good to refuse in Lithuania where he’d be playing in the top competition in the world outside of the NBA. So he got his jab, did all that good stuff. Now TW’s a EuroLeague player.
I was trying to find stats on how many previous kiwis have played in the EuroLeague but it wasn’t easy so I gave up. Suffice to say that this is effectively the Champions League of basketball. It’s the big time.
The team Tai’s playing for, Žalgiris, are the champs of Lithuania. However they started the EL season 0-9 (Webster debuted in the ninth of those defeats). A few injuries and some bad form meant they needed a shakeup… amongst that shakeup Tai Webster replaced Emmanuel Mudiay on the roster. That’s Mudiay the former Denver Nuggets lottery pick if you recall. He was injured although it sounds like they weren’t too keen on his attitude either, based on the fan reaction. Former Steven Adams teammate Joffrey Lauvergne also plays for Žalgiris but is out long term with an injury. Zoran Dragic was another of their midseason additions.
Tai Webster made his Žalgiris debut a week ago against Real Madrid. Straight in at the deep end there... but in 15 minutes he was able to add 8 points (2/4 3P), 2 rebounds & 1 assist off the bench despite his team losing 95-82. He then got 8 minutes with 2 points & 1 assist against Panathanaikos as Žalgiris finally logged that first win at the tenth attempt. Then he popped up with 11 points in 11 minutes (4/7 FG) and a steal in a win over Fenerbahce. Two wins on the trot. Bringing back the good vibes. Let’s go.
Man, that crowd looks wild. To think he coulda been playing NBL Blitz this week instead, where Matt Walsh gets an entire section of the stand all to himself, playing without a proper home crowd for at least the first half of the NBL season. I can tell you where I’d rather be.
South Central Series Week Three
1) The Jorge Akers injury. Akers broke his leg late in the first half of Miramar Rangers’ game against Wellington Olympic (an absolute classic of a contest btw). Got his leg caught under the keeper and it was immediately clear that he was in a lot of pain. The first half ended up finishing early as they had to stabilise the dude and get him to hospital.
That took longer than it should have. An ambulance was called for but never arrived, with the word from the ground being that anti-vax protesters had blocked the route somehow. In the end, Akers had to travel to hospital in a courier van with no anaesthetic so big ups to that man for being a tough bugger. However the protester angle was denied by the ambo authorities, with no disruptions having been logged in their system other than the usual Saturday afternoon backlog of 111 calls. The protester claim was apparently made to Rangers strength & conditioning fella James Mac Aodhagain (trustworthy dude) by whoever was on the line at dispatch. A since-deleted tweet by commentator Andrew Dewhurst went a lil viral repeating that idea.
Maybe that was a mistake on the part of the 111 call-centre. Maybe it was something gone awry on the part of the Wellington Free Ambulance service. Whatever the hell happened, I write about the football stuff so that’s the angle I see things from and people who were there at the scene back up the point that no ambulance ever arrived. There are photos of Akers getting helped into the courier van.
Thus 38 minutes after the call was first made, with the game still waiting to continue (the overall delay would be close to an hour), those on the scene had to take matters into their own hands and get him to the medics themselves. The claim from WFA in a Dominion Post piece today is that since the injury wasn’t life-threatening it was low down on the priority list. Most important thing here is that Jorge Akers had successful surgery and will hopefully be back kicking a ball sometime during the next winter season.
2) Canterbury Pride are back. All it really took was a change in formation, going to a 4-3-3 in stead of their usual back three with wing-backs. That allowed them an extra option in midfield plus with a solid CDM in Whitney Hepburn they could still push the wide defenders forward when the opportunity arose. Hell, they were pushing the central defenders forward when the opportunity arose too. Meikayla Hunt looking to carry the ball through the lines if Central sat too deep which led directly to one of the goals.
The result was a 5-0 win for the Pride and it coulda been more but for some legendary Brooke Bennett saves and some inexperienced finishing from the young Pride forwards. That’ll happen sometimes. What matters is that we saw a Pride team that was able to boss possession in a positive way with players making things happen all over the pitch. As much as they left more than a few tasty chances uneaten on the table, the front three of Charlotte Mortlock, Kiara Bercelli, and Kate Guildford gave them more of a presence than they’ve had up tops in either of those opening two defeats. And Kate Loye was absolutely superb in the midfield. Also...
3) Annalie Longo is still the best domestic footballer in Aotearoa.
4) One of the best things about the new club-based format (and I do have several issues with it overall) is getting to have Western Suburbs/Ole Academy representing themselves and not effectively loaning their players out to other clubs/franchises. Last season they sent some dudes to the WeeNix, some to Eastern Suburbs, while Ihaia Delaney played for Canterbury. This season they’re all playing for Wests – which means seeing dudes alongside the same mates they’ve played with for years, within the same system they’ve been trained within for years.
When they were reduced to ten men against Selwyn, nothing changed. Bit less effective having had to reshuffle positions due to the disadvantage but they still tried to play football in the same possession-orientated way. And you know what? They scored once with eleven men and twice with ten in a 3-1 win (Selwyn’s goal coming right at the end). What’s more is that when Robi Sabo had to go off injured (cramp by the look of it) after they’d already emptied the bench of outfielders... there was no hesitation in chucking backup goalie Oscar Boyce onto the right wing. Love the way they do things, love the players that they’re producing. Standouts of this current wave include Alex Clayton (RB), Oliver van Rijssel (LB/CM), Kees Sims (GK), Otto Ingham (FW)... and of course the main man Wan Gatkek (CM).
5) Total goals per game in matches involving Cashmere Technical: 1.0 (3 in 3)
Total goals per game in matches not involving Cashmere Technical: 5.2 (31 in 6)
6) ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?
