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Football Ferns/Tall Ferns in Olympic qualifiers, cricketing depth in Aotearoa, Warriors SG Ball/Kiwi-NRL Juniors, Kane Williamson stats & more
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Football Ferns at the Oceania Olympic Qualifiers: Squad Yarns & Preview (Football)
Flying Kiwis – February 8 (Football)
Previewing The Tall Ferns Quest For 2024 Olympic Qualification (Basketball)
Answering The Big Questions About Steven Adams Getting Traded To The Houston Rockets (Basketball)
2023/24 HBJ Shield: White Ferns Wrinkles (Cricket)
27fm Weekly Playlist: February 9 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
Let's start with a couple cricket team building exercises, stemming from the South Africa Test squad situation. This men's team has no players with Blackcaps experience and is designed to compete across all three formats. While the batting skews towards solid domestic pros, it's a development group that can elevate to Blackcaps to either plug a hole or enter the long-term pipeline...
Sean Solia - Auckland
Nick Kelly - Wellington
Joe Carter - ND
Rob O'Donnell - Auckland
Mitch Hay (wk) - Canterbury
Zak Foulkes - Canterbury
Brett Hampton - ND
Nathan Smith - Wellington
Kristian Clarke - ND
Tim Pringle - ND
Ray Toole - CD
Hay is still the lad to note down as the best emerging wicket-keeper. Hampton's second only to Finn Allen for Ford Trophy runs (see below) and his slugging is right there with Allen. We're lacking an opener and Kelly's a capable all-format player so he gets the nod, especially as Kelly's swift hitting offers balance to the craft of the other batters. Pringle is a lefty spinner worth brewing and the batting ability stretches all the way to Pringle at 10.
The women's team has a similar balance and this highlights a general theme of New Zealand cricket where the best batters tend to be older (except for Catton) and the best bowlers are young emerging folks…
Saachi Shahri - Auckland
Rebecca Burns - Wellington
Prue Catton - Auckland
Mikaela Greig - CD
Caitlin Blakely - Otago
Polly Inglis (wk) - Otago
Skye Bowden - Auckland
Marama Downes - ND
Xara Jetly - Wellington
Emma Black - Otago
Bree Illing - Auckland
Both team have a lefty seamer (Toole and Illing). Rebecca Burns has played for White Ferns but she has power at the top of the order and this is a skillset I want. I was tempted to select Holly Topp as wicket-keeper but Inglis is good enough with the gloves and has far more runs than Topp. Topp's the best young wicket-keeper in Aotearoa though. Shahri, Greig and Blakely have improved in punchy attacking shots, scoring quickly without losing their class. I've got Bowden as the best young all-rounder in NZ and there's nice variety in the bowling unit with Jetly as the main spinner.
Ford Trophy Stat Leaders
Batting
Finn Allen: 387 runs @ 77avg/126sr
Brett Hampton: 321 runs @ 107avg/120sr
Joe Carter: 286 runs @ 47avg/88sr
Rob O'Donnell: 283 runs@ 56avg/73sr
Troy Johnson: 225 runs @ 45avg/74sr
Mitch Hay: 222 runs @ 37avg/79sr
Thorn Parkes: 221 runs @ 55avg/71sr
Nick Kelly: 210 runs @ 35avg/92sr
Henry Cooper: 203 runs @ 33avg/73sr
Chad Bowes: 199 runs @ 33avg/94sr
Bowling
Kristian Clarke: 16w @ 16avg/4.9rpo
Ray Toole: 14w @ 17avg/4.8rpo
Will O'Rourke: 13w @ 17avg/4.4rpo
Adam Milne: 10w @ 13avg/3.4rpo
Blair Tickner: 9w @ 23avg/3.9rpo
Zak Foulkes: 9w @ 27avg/5.2rpo
Matt Fisher: 9w @ 30avg/5.1rpo
Danru Ferns: 9w @ 43avg/6.6rpo
Ben Lockrose: 8w @ 27avg/5rpo
Tim Pringle: 8w @ 30avg/4.3rpo
(HBJ Shield stats are still the same as Monday's dispatch)
Kiwi-NRL juniors named in Queensland's Under 19 Mal Meninga Cup…
Wynnum: Kylem Vunipola (Dannevirke)
Tweed: Mason Barber (Hokianga), Ryder Williams (Marist)
Burleigh: Tama Te Ahorangi Darlington (Waikato), Austin Marsters (Otahuhu), Kanititeiti Sikahele (St Paul's College)
Redcliffe: Tevita Naufahu (St Kents College), Elijah Rasmussen (WBHS), Patrick Kailahi (Takahiwai)
Darlington played for Waikato U18s last year and apparently played basketball before moving to Queensland. With Williams named in the halves for Tweed, two Kiwi-NRL juniors are named in the halves this round. Train and Trial players in Williams (Titans), Vunipola (Broncos), Naufahu and Rasmussen (Dolphins) start the season in U19s after spending time with their respective NRL squads.
NZ Warriors have the same SG Ball group with a few additions to the extended bench...
Te Paeroa Wineera: Hamilton - Manurewa
Kalani Peyroux-Donaldson: De La Salle College
Tom Summer: Tweed Heads
Augustino Filipo: Mangere East
NZ Warriors SG Ball tries vs Eels can be viewed here.
Sosaia Alatini's try for Sharks SG Ball can be viewed here.
My vibe is that these lads will play more U21 Jersey Flegg as they seem too good for this, but it's a good development bump to dabble in U19s. Summer is a young Aussie who joins Jesse Soric and Luke Hanson as young Aussies recruited by NZW. Wineera is a funky lad as he is from Waikato but played for Manurewa, offering size and power along with the Peyroux-Donaldson and Filipo.
Some NRL trial teams have been named as well with plenty of Kiwi-NRL funk...
Broncos: Josiah Karapani (East Tamaki), Deine Mariner (Marist), Xavier Willison (Waicoa Bay), Rory Ferguson (John McGlashan College), Kalolo Saitaua (Ellerslie)
Dolphins: Valynce Te Whare (East Tamaki), Aublix Tawha (Turangawaewae)
Rabbitohs: Nicholas Halalilo (Mangere East), Bayleigh Bentley-Hape (Kawakawa)
Sea Eagles: Jaxson Paulo (Northcote), Raymond Tuaimalo-Vaega (Marist)
That confirms Karapani's move from Rabbitohs to Broncos. Also intriguing for Broncos is Ferguson being named as he was initially recruited by Broncos from Otago before settling as a consistent Queensland Cup player for Souths Logan. Ferguson probably didn't elevate to NRL because he lacks size/power but he may thrive in the current NRL where his hard mahi and fitness can offer value through the middle. Ferguson may never kick on either and that's all good.
Tawha is also a notable lad with Dolphins. I spotted him in the Redcliffe Q Cup team a few times last season after a long windy journey (long like Ferguson's but Ferguson has stayed with Logan) since leaving Waikato. While he's unlikely to debut this year, Tawha must be impressing folks at the Dolphins and he is doing enough to get more opportunities as an outside back.
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Football Ferns’ quest for Olympic qualification got underway on Wednesday with a very underwhelming 3-0 win over Tonga. They were 3-0 up after 16 minutes then failed to score again the entire rest of the way, with the game really drifting off into nothing in the second half until the last ten or so minutes when Betsy Hassett and Indi Riley gave the team a slight boost off the bench. Not exactly how anyone expected that to go. Defs don’t want to be overreacting to the first game of an Oceania campaign since this was still the Ferns’ biggest win since... the 2018 Nations Cup. But why was this game so much closer than anticipated?
1) Tonga Were Pretty Decent, TBF
It shouldn’t have been enough to limit the NZ team for 74 minutes but Tonga did play some tidy defensive footy. Like a few of these OFC teams, they’ve tapped into the diaspora lately with a few American college based players now involved in their system. The best of those isn’t actually here, after Laveni Vaka was drafted by NWSL expansion side Bay FC the other week (that means there are now as many Tongans to have been drafted into the American league as New Zealanders... with Katie Bowen being the only one). After some initial sloppiness, Tonga sat deep and compact with numbers behind the ball and, crucially, avoided the pesky mistakes that tend to spoil the good intentions of many of the island teams.
2) Conditions Were Brutal
Every time there was an injury break, not just for the scheduled cooling breaks, there were players grabbing drinks and putting iced towels on their necks. It was 31 degrees in Apia with humidity around 80% which is bad enough on its own but consider how that must have felt for the likes of Daisy Cleverley, Claudia Bunge, and Ally Green who play in Denmark where their recent club games would snowy. Out of the freezer and into the frying pan. The second half showed a notable lack of energy from many of the Ferns. The team has had a few training sessions but not all of these players would have been there in time for that acclimatisation (hence #3).
3) This Was Not A Top XI
Some of those players didn’t get there in time to start, others not in time at all. There were six players who weren’t named in the matchday squad: Vic Esson, Grace Neville, Annalie Longo, Katie Kitching, Jacqui Hand, and Hannah Wilkinson. Four of them played for their clubs in the United Kingdom over the weekend while the other two (Longo & Wilkie) had started in the A-League on Sunday and are both amongst the veterans in the group. Ironically one of the debutants, Macey Fraser, was by far the most impressive performer. But yeah expect lots of rotation throughout the tournament and expect a much more potent attack when more potent attacking players are involved.
Which is not to say that the game wasn’t frustrating. Several players weren’t able to grasp the opportunity handed to them, and much of the finishing left heaps to be desired. This team has struggled to break down low blocks in the past and here, in a relatively weaker scenario, they once again failed to muster the required answers – with offsides and stray crosses and an annoying tendency to chop back infield rather than attacking the byline halting their progress far too often. By the second half they seemed to be treating it like a training game.
But it pays not to freak out over Oceania footy, which we know from years of experience can be a very weird beast. Let’s be honest, we’ll probably have forgotten all about this game in a few days.
Within all that, there was one overwhelming positive: Macey Fraser. She set up both of Grace Jale’s goals, one with a shot off the crossbar and one with a threaded through ball. The Fraser Shuffle was as effective as ever (she was the only one who seemed capable of skipping past tackles) and best of all was her approach. She was sharp and energetic, able to go through the gears and create things. A few of her passes did go astray but that often felt more like her teammates weren’t at her level rather than the other way around. Playing alongside a much more experienced midfielder in Daisy Cleverley, it was Fraser who was roaming around demanding the ball and looking to instigate things. Huge areas for a player on debut, regardless of the level of opposition. You get the feeling that she’s going to become an instant regular for the Ferns.
Also, NZF announced this morning that Annalie Longo has withdrawn from the squad “as a precaution to avoid aggravating a calf strain”. Ruby Nathan will continue with the team instead. That seems like a good holistic outcome as Longo can rest up for the next week and hopefully be fit to play for the Wellington Phoenix on the 18th so as they don’t lose their entire starting midfield, while Nathan will miss two games for Canberra United but she usually only plays ten minutes off the bench there and will benefit more from spending that fortnight embedding herself with the national team.
The Tall Ferns also began their Olympic Qualifying campaign this week, in the early hours of this morning, and they did so by getting absolutely munted by China. No real surprises with the 94-47 defeat. China are superb. The Ferns were able to match them physically to begin with, drawing several offensive fouls, but it didn’t matter because China just kept hitting threes through their SIX FOOT NINE centre Xu Han. I talked about the focus on size in this Tall Ferns team, with three players around that 6’3/6’4 range... but Xu Han towers over even them. When she’s also hitting jump shots there’s nothing you can do. XH scored 21 points on 9/9 shooting in less than 18 minutes on the floor.
At no stage did the NZers look comfortable on offence. China had them for speed down low and athleticism around the perimeter, plus the kiwis just didn’t have enough finesse at the rim which meant points going begging. Maybe if they’d hit some threes they could have opened things up but they missed their first 12 attempts and ended up an awful 2/21 overall. Luckily China left some points uneaten on their plate too (after Xu Han’s initial three-point burst, they only shot 6/23 from deep themselves). China blew things open with a 16-0 run in the second quarter, built off their defence leading to fast breaks. There was a 13-0 run in the third quarter too.
Some further notes...
Lauren Whittaker was one of three players to make their debuts in this game, yet the 18yo’s performance was up there with any of her teammates. Really loved the skillset that she showed from the five position. She’s got good sturdy size for her age, a very capable screener and decent rebounder, though she also teased a sneaky jump shot and some passing too. 4 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists on debut is pretty slick.
What do ya know, Pahlyss Hokianga did indeed take the court, which makes her the youngest ever Tall Fern... beating the record of Charlisse Leger-Walker whom she replaced in the squad. Hokianga’s first involvement was to dribble the ball forward from an inbounds and she got swarmed for a turnover by the suffocating Chinese defence, however she did show some very tidy handles at other times, as well some passing vision. Hints of CLW herself in those aspects.
The other debutant was Sharne Robati, who didn’t get to do a whole lot in her five minutes. Good to get out there though – her physicality could be very helpful against Puerto Rico. Curiously, there was no McKenna Dale. Despite being one of the players with a WNBL involvement, she logged a DNP thus missing out on adding a fourth senior debutant to the crew (at least for now). I’d assumed she’d be the most prominent of the uncapped players... granted that was before I became familiar with Lauren Whittaker’s game. Dale was in trackpants and a polo shirt for the anthems so potentially an injury – with this team’s luck you wouldn’t doubt it.
The three key players are Esra McGoldrick, Tera Reed, and Stella Beck. They’re going to need to lead the way for a win against Puerto Rico. McGoldrick looked great here, battling well at both ends and looking take responsibility as one of the more experienced players in a very inexperienced group. She’s improved heaps even since the Asia Cup last year. Only issue was that she missed all five three-point attempts. Other than that she was great. Reed shot 1/5 from deep so at least she got one. Some smooth touches from her as well as those slashes to the basket. Struggled to impose herself as much as she wanted to though that’s down to how China defended as much as anything. Similarly, Beck is the glue player for this side, by far the most capped player in attendance, and was even asked to do a lot of the point guard duties. But she was also stuck in foul trouble most of the way. They’ll have more room to breathe against PR.
Puerto Rico lost 88-40 to France in the other game in the mini-tournament. France are probably a bit worse than China so that stacks up alright for the New Zealanders – basically their next game (midnight on Saturday/Sunday) is going to be a shootout for the last qualifying spot. Winner goes to the Olympics.
Starting five was: Beck – Dalton – Reed – McGoldrick – Whittaker. No clear point guard in that unit, the depth having been tested by the lack of Leger-Walkers. This team likes to keep things fluid with their positional roles anyway so there was always going to be some hybrid actions, and lots of ball-movement, but they clearly did miss having someone like CLW who can change tempos and create for herself and others from a standing start. They were having to work so hard even just for contested shots. Then again, CLW shot 2/10 against China at the Asia Cup last year in a 80-46 defeat so maybe not.
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It’d be rude not to throw out some more Test cricket stats after the week we just had, so here we go...
Most Test Wins For The Blackcaps
Ross Taylor – 44
Tim Southee – 43
Kane Williamson – 42
Tom Latham – 39
Trent Boult – 38
What an era it is we’re living through. Spare a thought for Bert Sutcliffe who played 42 Tests between 1947-65 and never won a single match. Ross Taylor scored 10 of his hundreds in victories averaging 55.45. Tom Latham has 8 tons at 45.90 in wins. Those are great numbers but they pale in comparison to the great man Kane who has scored 4818 runs with 20 hundreds at an average of 80.30 in his Ws. Of players with at least 20 innings, this is what that looks like across the entire history of Test cricket...
Highest Average In Test Wins (Min. 20 Inns)
Donald Bradman – 4813 runs at 130.08 ave (23 100s)
Kane Williamson – 4818 runs at 80.30 ave (20 100s)
Inzamam-ul-Haq – 4690 runs at 78.16 ave (17 100s)
Garfield Sobers – 3097 runs at 77.42 ave (12 100s)
Younis Khan – 4910 runs at 74.39 ave (19 100s)
With 8490 Test runs overall, Kane Williamson ranks 29th all-time. Every single player ahead has played more matches than him. As it stands, Williamson is on track to play his 100th Test against Australia at Hagley Oval in the last match of the Blackcaps home summer (the White Ferns do have a visit from England to follow that).
With 31 Test centuries, Kane Williamson ranks 13th all-time. Again, every player ahead of him has played more matches... in fact Steve Smith (32 tons) is the only one who is even close (having played 10 Tests more). Of the 13 players with 31 hundreds, Sachin Tendulkar got there fastest in 165 innings. Smith and Williamson are next at 170 each. Ricky Ponting did it in 174. Younis Khan was fifth at 184.
This wasn’t affected by the most recent match but know also that with 4 fourth-innings hundreds, Williamson is tied for the second-most ever. Only Younis Khan has scored five centuries in the fourth innings of matches.
These are all the grounds at which Kane Williamson has scored hundreds...
Basin Reserve, Wellington NZ x5
Seddon Park, Hamilton NZ x5
Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui NZ x3
Eden Park, Auckland NZ x2
Hagley Oval, Christchurch NZ x2
Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane AU
Kensington Oval, Barbados WI
Lords, London ENG
Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad IND
National Stadium, Karachi PAK
P Sara Oval, Colombo SL
Queen’s Sports Club, Bulawayo ZIM
Sabina Park, Jamaica WI
Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah UAE
Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Sylhet BAN
University Oval, Dunedin NZ
WACA Ground, Perth AU
Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram BAN
Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi UAE
That’s 19 different Test venues with a hundred. Not a record because Tendulkar scored hundreds at 31 (!) different grounds (Sachin’s numbers are worth another peek to bask in his astonishing consistency all around the world – he averaged 40+ in every country including 50+ in both Australia and England). Tell you one thing though, Sachin Tendulkar never scored a hundred in Zimbabwe, despite seven attempts. The only country that Williamson hasn’t tonned in is South Africa, largely because we haven’t toured there since 2016.
There are 14 players who’ve scored Test hundreds against nine different nations. Williamson is one of them and if he ever gets to play against Zimbabwe again then another hundred there would make it multiple hundreds against nine different nations (i.e. he has at least two against everyone else).
Admittedly, this wasn’t possible for most of Test history as there weren’t enough teams, so it’s a recent-players-only kinda club. Nowadays you can get to ten and beyond with the inclusion of Ireland and Afghanistan, though nobody has yet done so. Will be funky to see who’ll be the first. The Blackcaps have yet to meet Ireland or Afhganistan in a Test match.
The players with hundreds against nine different nations are:
Atapattu, Dravid, Gilchrist, Jayawardene, Kallis, Kirsten, Lara, Mathews, Ponting, Sangakkara, Tendulkar, Waugh, Williamson & Younis Khan.
All retired except for Williamson and Angelo Mathews. The top dudes of this current era seem to be hampered by the fact that they mostly just play against each other over and over again. Plus India and Pakistan don’t play at all. Anyway, here’s how the Big Five compare (I’ve put Babar in there too, though in hindsight his Test numbers don’t quite compare to the others)…
And now some new Kacey Musgraves to take you into the weekend…