Jibber-Jabber
Warriors vs Panthers preview, A-League offseason primers, Blackcaps vs Ireland, White Ferns on tour, Charlisse Leger-Walker in the WNBA, and more
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors have three games vs Panthers on Sunday. Here’s how the teams match up...
NRL
Warriors: 2nd | 9-2
Panthers: 1st | 10-1
NSW Cup
Warriors: 8th | 6-5
Panthers: 1st | 8-1-1
Jersey Flegg Cup
Warriors: 7th | 5-5
Panthers: 2nd | 8-1
Panthers have plenty of Aotearoa flavour throughout their system and the deepest cut is how they usually had at least four wahine in their U19 team earlier this season despite not having an NRLW team. The NSW Women’s Premiership starts in a couple weeks and I’m curious how many NRLWahine will pop up for Panthers in that competition.
Kalani Going is the only Kiwi-NRL player who moved from NZW to Panthers who has played NRL this season. Tom Ale and Toby Crosby have stayed at the same level as they were with NZW, while Patrick Moimoi has moved up a notch to be a regular at centre this season for Panthers.
None of these departures were major losses for NZW who have a tremendous group of forwards who have plugged those holes. NZW have 17-year-old Jeremiah Lemana playing centre in NSW Cup along with Jye Linnane (20yrs), while Caelys Putoko (20yrs) spent the first few months at centre before dropping down to U21s. Moimoi was getting more game time at edge forward last season for NZW and that’s another role in which NZW are flush with fabulous talent.
Add those together and Moimoi has made a great move for him. Panthers also have Haami Loza in the halves for NSW Cup and his move from Knights to Panthers has been good for him. Loza is the best emerging Kiwi-NRL half on the rise in Australia as he’s played the most reserve grade and the Mangere East/Otara junior will play his sixth game of NSW Cup while still eligible for U21s.
Panthers Kiwi-NRL list
Isaiah Papali’i: Te Atatu
Moses Leota: Mt Albert
Scott Sorenson: Sydney
Casey McLean: Sydney
Kalani Going: Mid-Northern
Patrick Moimoi: Mangere East
Haami Loza: Mangere East
Tom Ale: Mt Albert
Toby Crosby: Greytown
One funky development has been Compton Purcell returning to Aotearoa. Purcell made a mid-season switch from NZW to Panthers last year and played a bunch of U21 games while still U19 eligible. I didn’t spot him this season and then saw him named on the wing for Pt Chevalier in Fox Memorial last weekend.
NZ Warriors halves combos vs Panthers with Luke Hanson floating between NRL/NSW Cup...
NRL: Te Maire Martin, Chanel Harris-Tavita
NSW Cup: Jett Cleary, Luke Metcalf
Jersey Flegg Cup: Jack Thompson, Harry Inch
Actions over words. I’m not fussed about what folks say as it’s all about what they do. There is a combination of both in how NZW released two statements about Luke Metcalf. That’s all jibber-jabber but those statements were super short with no fluff. Releasing two abrupt statements were actions, as are team selections, and all NZW actions suggest a fair amount of niggle aimed in the direction of Metcalf.
Not only has Hanson been selected ahead of Metcalf in the NRL team list vs Panthers for the second week in a row, Cleary is selected at halfback ahead of Metcalf in NSW Cup. I am prepared for NZW to select Hanson ahead of Metcalf if the number six spot opens up for the NRL team and while it’s unlikely, I’m even preparing for Cleary to get a crack at halfback ahead of Metcalf in NRL.
Metcalf sucked at five-eighth in his two losses this season whereas Hanson did his job in a win. Hanson also seems the most likely of the younger half lads to depart this summer but he’s getting the main development opportunities so I’m curious how that bigger situation unfolds. Metcalf will probably be selected at halfback if Te Maire Martin stumbles or gets injured but none of the NZW actions suggest they are chuffed with Metcalf’s behaviour. This differs greatly from the general perception that Metcalf cruises back into the NRL team.
Here’s the halves rankings based on selections this week with Tanah Boyd out injured...
Chanel Harris-Tavita
Te Maire Martin
Luke Hanson
Jett Cleary
Luke Metcalf
Jack Thompson
Harry Inch
Maui Winitana-Patelesio
One deep cut for NZW is how 18-year-old Tyson Hansen made his NSW Cup debut in the win vs Dragons last weekend. The Ngongotaha junior played 15 minutes off the bench which seemed to overlap with Linnane playing 65mins and Hansen appeared to slot into a halves role alongside Cleary.
Hansen has been an elite junior for NZW having won back to back U17 championships, then playing three games of U19s this year and nine games of U21s. Hansen will probably develop into a small forward like Erin Clark but his ability to play in the forwards and halves is super useful to have on the bench in NSW Cup.
Hansen is the latest player to move from U19s to NSW Cup this season. Lemana’s still only 17yrs and he didn’t even play U19s this year. Bishop Neal and Connor Bowden have played U19/U21/NSW Cup already this season and they are named as the edge forwards in NSW Cup this week.
Lemana and Bowden are from Auckland, Neal is from Christchurch and Hansen’s from Rotorua. All four played 1st 15 rugby union as well. Lemana played for Kelston Boys High School, Bowden played for Botany Downs Secondary College, Neal played for St Thomas of Canterbury College and Hansen played for Rotorua Boys High School.
For paid subscribers
NZ Warriors stat pockets
NZ Warriors youngsters are ready
Sneaky Kiwi-NRL juniors
Blackcaps batters/bowlers recent Test averages
Emerging batter comparisons
Blackcaps vs Ireland Test notes...
Rachin Ravindra is averaging 118 since the start of 2025 with scores of 2, 165*, 3, 176, 5, 72*, 46*, 121.
His strike-rate of 87.2 in this period is the highest for Blackcaps with 50+ runs and he’s the only kiwi over 70sr. Ravindra has hit 13 sixes since the start of 2025 and he is the only Blackcap with more than three sixes.
Last three years of Test batting
2024: 42.7avg/60sr, 2 x 100, 4 x 50
2025: 117.2avg/98sr, 2 x 100, 1 x 50
2026: 121avg/62sr, 1 x 100
Geography
Home: 47.2avg/62sr
Away: 53.5avg/67sr
Tom Blundell’s recent scores: 45, 51, 41, 49*, 21, 28, 6, 98*, 96, 35, 25, 62, 142*.
He has a 50+ score in four consecutive games, three of which are 90+ and averaged 40+ in Plunket Shield, Ford Trophy and Super Smash last summer.
Dean Foxcroft’s recent scores for Blackcaps: 59, 15, 75, 3, 15*, 38*.
I went deep into White Ferns T20I matters here after they lost the third T20I vs England. It didn’t seem like White Ferns really wanted to win that game based on team selections and I’m pretty confused about the Brooke Halliday/Suzie Bates/Rosemary Mair trio heading into the T20 World Cup.
Bates and Mair shouldn’t be in the 1st 11. Halliday will be in the 1st 11 despite doing nothing to warrant such selection and the two players who could shake things up in Flora Devonshire and Polly Inglis didn’t get a game vs England. This is my T20I 1st 11...
Izzy Gaze (wk), Georgia Plimmer, Melie Kerr, Sophie Devine, Maddy Green, Izzy Sharp, Jess Kerr, Nensi Patel, Flora Devonshire Lea Tahuhu, Bree Illing
Inglis can play as a lower order batter who can score in quirky areas but I prefer Devonshire as an aggressive lefty batter who also bowls lefty spin. This would require a reshuffle just before the tournament though and that’s a tricky spot for Devonshire to be in, so I’m expecting White Ferns to continue selecting their worst T20I players.
Musical jam...
Nick’s Notebook
A-League Offseason Primer...
Auckland FC ALM Squad For 2026-27
Contracted: Logan Rogerson, Jake Brimmer, Nando Pijnaker, Hiroki Sakai, Callan Elliot, Michael Woud, Luka Vicelich
Off Contract: Oli Sail, Francis de Vries, Guillermo May, Louis Verstraete, Felipe Gallegos, Cam Howieson, Jesse Randall, Marlee Francois, Dan Hall, Lachlan Brook, Jake Girdwood-Reich, Sam Cosgrove, James Hilton, Liam Gillion
All the other scholarship dudes are off contract too... though they’re also all eligible to re-sign on the same terms and none of Jonty Bidois, Joe Knowles, Oli Middleton, Adama Coulibaly, or Finn McKenlay have done enough to be turning heads from other clubs so those moves are there to be made if they want them. Van Fitzharris will surely be moved up to a scholarship deal too with Liam Gillion vacating his.
The rumour around Gillion is that AFC want to keep him but that Western Sydney Wanderers are also putting up a chase. That’ll mean that if he does stay, it’ll need to be on improved full contract terms. There’s also talk of Dan Hall leaving for either a rival A-League club or the increasingly likely option of a bigger paycheque in Asia. Girdwood-Reich was only on loan and has another year on his St Louis City contract Stateside which complicates his situation. We already know Jesse Randall is leaving to join Dundee United in Scotland. But there is some chat about Auckland going hard to recruit Lachlan Bayliss to join the cause, with his brother James already in AFC’s Pro League team.
Keep in mind that AFC aren’t as transparent with their contracts as other clubs have been so some of those off contract names could be wrong if there were unpublicised club options or unannounced extensions. But they mostly gave out two-year deals to begin with and this is the end of the second year so there will be departures one way or another. The league-wide move to a hard salary cap doesn’t help either.
Wellington Phoenix ALM Squad For 2026-27
Contracted: Kazuki Nagasawa, Tim Payne, Bill Tuiloma, Corban Piper, Isaac Hughes, Matt Sheridan, Alby Kelly-Heald, Lukas Kelly-Heald, Xuan Loke, Nathan Walker, Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues, Jayden Smith, Luke Brooke-Smith, Anaru Cassidy, Eamonn McCarron
Off Contract: Paolo Retre, Nikola Mileusnic, Manjrekar James, Sander Kartum, Alex Rufer, Dan Edwards, Sarpreet Singh, Ifeanyi Eze, Carlo Armiento, Ramy Najjarine, Josh Oluwayemi, Fin Roa Conchie, Luke Supyk
Great news with Nagasawa re-signing. Genuinely think he’s the most underrated player in this squad and has been for his entire two years. Would be surprised if any of their other imports return though – it’s already been hinted that they’ll go local at goalkeeper and we know that Eze’s going to be too expensive to retain. James lost his spot when Greenacre went to a back four. Kartum never held down a spot long enough to lose it. That’ll give Greenie a fresh slate with which to rebuild this team, with a strong back four in place and basically everything else up in the air.
Alex Rufer’s speculated move to Newcastle is a spanner in the works if that comes to be. Sarpreet Singh’s Serbian club got relegated the other day which should make it a little easier to retain him if he’s keen on the move (it might have been a strict pre-World Cup thing in his eyes though, hard to tell). Roa Conchie is on the fence but Supyk is surely gone.
Other than that it’s a bunch of Aussies who’d probably all prefer an equal offer from across the ditch should it be there for them. Maybe it will be, maybe it won’t. Cases can certainly be made to retain Retre, Armiento & Najjarine… but Mileusnic is already out the door. The good thing is that they do have a good core of academy grads on board... the complicating factors there is that most of them are moving up to full roster status this season (unless things get rearranged) yet barely any of them featured during Greenacre’s interim spell.
On that note, Eamonn McCarron was given a three-year deal today except they didn’t say if it was scholarship or full contract… which usually means full contract and that’d be wild with Alby Kelly-Heald already on one of those. Greenacre played Oluwayemi on an expiring deal ahead of both of them now suddenly there’s a hint they could be happy with those two moving into next season. Unless they just got sloppy and it is only a scholarship deal for McCarron.
Wellington Phoenix ALW Squad For 2026-27
Contracted: Brooke Nunn, CJ Bott, Sabitra Bhandari, Grace Jale, Ellie Walker, Emma Main, Tiana Jaber, Mackenzie Barry, Marisa van der Meer, Macey Fraser, Makala Woods, Pia Vlok
Off Contract: Vic Esson, Tessel Middag, Mackenzie Anthony, Lucia Leon, Lara Wall, Alyssa Whinham, Aimee Danieli, Manaia Elliott, Daisy Brazendale, Emma Pijnenburg
Again, lots of youth contracts and scholarship deals expiring... however they’ll be able to re-sign all the players they want to from that lot. Zoe Benson is the biggest name. Ela Jerez and Ella McMillan might be asked to ponder a move elsewhere having not been in the picture in year one under Bev Priestman. Grace Bartlett has already left, joining Olivia Ingham at Auckland United as of a couple days ago. Ella McCann, Brooke Neary, Lily Brazendale, Harriet Muller, and Mikaela Bangalan are the others in that category – would be surprised if any of them follow Bartlett’s footsteps but you never know. L.Brazendale and McCann are the two who’d be closest to that stage of their career.
Other than that, the WahiNix have already done most of their re-signings with Jale, Nunn, Walker, Barry, and Woods all penning one-year extensions (aligning with the one year left on Priestman’s deal). Of the leftovers it would be Esson, Elliott, Pijnenburg, and Wall who are highest on the wishlist (in that order). Just depends on if Coach Bev reckons she can upgrade in any of those spots. Whinham’s ACL injury could complicate her situation depending on how quickly she’s able to return. Samba did hers later but she at least had time to prove herself in the Priestman system first.
Kiwi Scoring Leader For Each NZ NBL Team
(Min. 5 games)
Southland – Sam Timmins (20.2 ppg)
Canterbury – Walter Brown (23.1 ppg)
Auckland – Zach Riley (18.4 ppg)
Wellington – Carlin Davison (13.0 ppg)
Otago – Ethan Rusbatch (16.0 ppg)
Franklin – Kael Robinson (12.6 ppg)
Taranaki – Taane Samuel (11.6 ppg)
Manawatu – Kazlo Evans (11.0 ppg)
Nelson – Kruz Perrott-Hunt (21.4 ppg)
Tauranga – Taine Murray (21.8 ppg)
Hawke’s Bay – Keanu Rasmussen (20.6 ppg)
Some Charlisse Leger-Walker press conference insights...
CLW on adjusting to the WNBA after college: “I think just coming in and understanding that every team that you go out and play, every individual person you go out and play, is just such an elite player. They play at elite pace. Especially defending really elite guards. You have to really lock into tendencies and scout and if you make a mistake they’re going to punish you for it. So I think it’s really being able to come into the game locked in. There’s not really any time to have any mistakes. You have to go out there and really compete.”
CLW on playmaking as a rookie point guard: “Yeah, I think, coming in and just really getting to well, continuing to get to know my teammates and how they want to play and where their best shots come from, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and I need to do a better job at facilitating that and getting us better looks on offence. Coming in you have that adjustment period, but you know, it’s a really amazing opportunity at the same time, being thrown into the fire. A lot of people don’t get that opportunity as a rookie point guard. It’s definitely a challenge but one that I can for sure step up to and continue to find ways to help this team win and move forward.”
Charlisse Leger Walker WNBA Minutes By Game:
21, 20, 16, 18, 23, 28, 30, 19, 27
Charlisse Leger Walker WNBA Points By Game:
4, 6, 2, 1, 10, 16, 5, 9, 11
Charlisse Leger Walker WNBA Assists By Game:
1, 2, 2, 5, 2, 3, 5, 2, 3
For the Paid Subscribers, you can read all about the death of FIFA+ and the way that Auckland FC used their OFC Pro League squad to bridge A-League and National League
Maggie Jenkins is back in the Football Ferns despite not yet being back in professional football. Pretty rare these days that a kiwi player gets picked out of the amateur/semi-pro level but when the national team is struggling in front of goal and you’ve scored 36 goals in your last 18 appearances spanning from Wellington United to Auckland United to Essendon Royals... then clearly you’re worth a punt. There’s a Footy Ferns squad yarn in the works that’ll get into that side of it more, this section is about the Aussie NPL as a stepping stone to the A-League. It’s a path that worked for Kelli Brown, Charlotte Lancaster, and Deven Jackson within the last year or two. Many ALW players drop down into the NPL leagues during the offseason to stay busy and work on their game – Alyssa Whinham did that very successfully last year. And unlike the ALW itself, they’re not as bothered about foreign player limits so heaps of kiwis are increasingly getting gigs there.
Jenkins joined Essendon a couple weeks ago, linking up with kiwi defender/midfielder Kendrah Smith (former West Coast Rangers and Southern United) and also head coach Jaiden van der Heijden (former Eastern Suburbs men’s player). In her first game she scored twice in a 4-1 win over South Melbourne. Would have been more except she limped off after 37 minutes. That didn’t stop her from scoring a first-half hatty in the next game, a 7-1 win over Box Hill United (who were leading the league at the time)... though with her team 4-0 up and an international trip on the calendar they did sub her off at HT of that match. Five goals in 82 minutes at what should be a step above where she was in the NZ domestic comp. Utter madness.
But in researching that, I took a closer look at Kiara Bercelli who plays for Box Hill. She’s an attacking midfielder who has played U20s for NZ and was really good for Auckland United as they won the National League last year. Spent some time with Sampdoria in Italy’s Serie A before that (until they got relegated and disbanded their women’s team). Turns out Bercelli has 8 goals and 12 assists for Box Hill this season across 14 appearances. Another absolutely brilliant undercover season so far. Also having a fine time is retired Ferns striker Hannah Wilkinson with 8 goals and 4 assists for Avondale. Natalie Olson, now a Thai international, joined Preston Lions after scoring buckets for Wellington United in the Central League (and alongside Jenkins for the National League phase) and she’s got four goals and one assist.
Already mentioned Kendrah Smith starting games at the back for one of the best teams. Mary Brown is Aussie-born but plays age grade for NZ and she has two goals and two assists for Melbourne City U20s – she was in the NZ U20s squad that just played a couple games against Australia. Heidi Draii wasn’t... but she did go to the U17 World Cup last year and is in that same Melbourne City U20s team having made 10 appearances. Defender Jess Shilton (formerly Waterside Karori) is a regular for Alamein. As is Rosie Wild for Heidelberg Utd – she’s been based there for several years now. Goalkeeper Brooke Bennett is with Wilkie at Avondale and has kept four clean sheets in 14 games. That’s one more than Geo Candy has kept in 13 games for South Melbourne.
Not bad going entirely from the NPL Victoria. Other NPL leagues are trickier to research and we don’t have all day here but that’s an indication of the quality we’ve got floating between the National League and the A-League tiers. From that group, Jenkins and Bercelli have the most upside but I could see a world in which Olson, Candy, or Smith hold down ALW deals someday. Candy already has with both the Phoenix and Melbourne Victory (though only as a backup).
Musical Jam...
