Living Memory
Warriors vs Rabbitohs preview, Kosta Barbarouses departure, Blackcaps depth, Kiwi-NRL deep cuts, Michael Mayne as Footy Ferns coach, and more
Scotty’s Word
Some NZ Warriors things...
With a game in Las Vegas and the Magic Round game as the 'home' team, I wanted to boil the record down to in NZ and in Australia. Both are 4-1. NZW are just as good in Australia as they are in NZ and, having rebounded with at least three wins in a row after their previous losses before the Raiders game, there is reason to be optimistic heading into the game vs Rabbitohs in Sydney on Sunday.
The player who needs a good game the most is Dallin Watene-Zelezniak. His form was covered in the NZW vs Rabbitohs preview and with plenty of wing options in at Mt Smart, as well as the team needing more oomph from the right winger in making metres; this is an important game for DWZ.
Two roles with funky battles for selection are centre and middle forward…
The competition for centre game time has already seen Moala Graham-Taufa move to Rabbitohs for next season. Adam Pompey is the most reliable centre right now, then there is the situation where Rocco Berry returns from injury to replace Ali Leiataua ... who returned from injury to play Raiders but wasn't near his best.
Leiataua is now named in NSW Cup. Sio Kali is the next best centre but he is playing wing at the moment as he builds up reps in reserve grade having battled injuries. The best centre combo is Berry/Leiataua but neither has commanded a starting role because they are often injured and haven't played their best when needed.
Middle forward is settled in the top-tier and the only murky pocket is whether Marata Niukore is an edge or middle forward now then into the future. Behind Demitric Vaimauga are Tanner Stowers-Smith and Bunty Afoa, followed by Tom Ale.
Stowers-Smith, Afoa and Ale are off-contract for next season. I expect Stowers-Smith to stay at Mt Smart and NZW still probably need one of Afoa/Ale to stay as solid depth options, before youngsters come through. These three are all starting in NSW Cup which has bumped Kalani Going down to the bench - Going is a servant of Mt Smart and I'm curious if NZW still want to develop him as a small forward.
I've cooked up a NZ Warriors Depth Chart for paid subscribers which has a focus on future potential for NZW. We need your support to keep doing what we love to do so please consider upgrading to a paid subscription on Substack or joining the Patreon whanau to help fund our mahi.
Kiwi-NRL juniors named in the first round of NRLQ (U20s for Queensland NRL teams) that I know about…
Titans: Meihana Pauling (Halswell)
Dolphins: Patrick Kailahi (Hamilton Boys High School)
Cowboys: Setaleki Mafileo (Rotorua Boys High School)
Broncos: Disharne Tonihi (Shirley), Marley Igasan (Otumoetai), Kylem Vunipola (Kia Ora)
Pauling played the U19 SG Ball Cup season for NZW earlier this year. I've been tracking Tonihi for a few years and he seems keen to represent Queensland having come out of Christchurch. Igasan and Vunipola are fantastic youngsters who were recruited by Broncos from Aotearoa.
Kiwi-NRL deep cuts...
Knights have promoted Haami Loza and Sosaia Latu (both Mangere East) from U21s to NSW Cup. Both started the year in U19s so that's a nifty rise through the Knights ranks for them and the move up for Loza leaves Knights with Ryder Williams (Marist) and Cullen Gray (Hikurangi) in the halves for U21s. Here's the full Knights Kiwi-NRL breakdown for this week
NRL: Leo Thompson (Napier Marist) - Elijah Leaumoana (Mangere East)
NSW Cup: Sosaia Latu (Mangere East), Haami Loza (De La Salle College), Tyrone Thompson (Maraenui), Francis Manuleleua (Papatoetoe), Elijah Leaumoana (Mangere East)
Jersey Flegg Cup: Cullen Gray (Hikurangi), Ryder Williams (Marist), Tamakaimoana Whareaorere (Te Puke), Te Kaio Cranwell (Linwood), Jayden Harris (Kohukohu/Hikurangi) - Xavier Lynch (Halswell)
Te Hurinui Twidle (Turangawaewae) has returned to fullback for Eels in NSW Cup after playing two games there earlier in the season and missing a recent chunk. In these three games Twidle has two tries, three try assists and five linebreaks.
Kaawyn Patterson (Westlake Boys High School) was in the 2024 Harold Matthews Cup (U17) championship winning team for NZW then moved to Bulldogs for this year. He started in U19s and has now been named as the starting hooker in their U21 team.
Devante Mihinui (Glenora) scored a try for the Rabbitohs U21s last week and is on the bench for NSW Cup this round.
Phillip Lavakeiaho (Wesley College) is named in NSW Cup for Roosters on the bench after playing U19s earlier this year and only playing one game of U21s.
For paid subscribers and the Patreon whanau I have highlighted a few young players in the NZ-A squad who struggled in Bangladesh. No dramas there as it's a development exercise in tricky conditions and they will be better for the experience. There is a bit of a lull as County Championship/Women's One-Day Cup takes a break for the T20 Blast in England and I don't cover T20 leagues so there probably won't be many updates.
We're always talking cricket in the Bonus Pod though and this week we talked through some County Championship stuff, as well as the murky future of Kane Williamson. I don't think Williamson will play any Blackcaps cricket in Zimbabwe and I do not have him in my T20 World Cup squad.
Here are some quick squads to map out the Blackcaps pipeline...
T20 World Cup team/squad mixer
1st 11: Rachin Ravindra, Tim Seifert (wk), Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Neesham, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson
Squad: Finn Allen, Devon Conway, Bevon Jacobs, Kyle Jamieson, Will O'Rourke, Jacob Duffy, Ben Sears, Zak Foulkes
Alternative Blackcaps Test team/squad to tour Zimbabwe
1st 11: Tom Latham, Rhys Mariu, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Nathan Smith, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Will O'Rourke
Squad: Muhammad Abbas, Mitch Hay (wk), Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Adithya Ashok, Ben Sears
Emerging Blackcaps of players not named (similar to NZ-A)
1st 11: Tim Robinson, Dale Phillips, Nick Kelly, Matt Boyle, Dean Foxcroft, Bevon Jacobs, Josh Clarkson, Max Chu (wk), Kristian Clarke, Ben Lister, Jayden Lennox
Squad: Curtis Heaphy, Jesse Tashkoff, Luke Georgeson, Will Clarke, Cameron Paul
Women's One-Day Cup
Suzie Bates: 292 runs @ 41.7avg/80sr | 2w @ 23.5avg/6.7rpo
Maddy Green: 118 runs @ 59avg/104sr
County Championship
Matt Henry: 27 runs @ 27avg/87sr | 11w @ 22avg/3.7rpo
Tom Latham: 268 runs @ 53.6avg/48sr
Nathan Smith: 66 runs @ 33avg/58sr | 7w @ 46.8avg/3.1rpo
Henry Nicholls: 145 runs @ 18.1avg/43sr
Jacob Duffy: 21 runs @ 5.2avg/44sr | 18w @ 26.7avg/3.9rpo
Ben Sears: 30 runs @ 10avg/73sr | 7w @ 24.5avg/4.5rpo
Brett Hampton: 40 runs @ 13.3avg/69sr | 5w @ 46.4avg/4.2rpo
Logan van Beek: 226 runs @ 28.2avg/51sr | 26w @ 23.7avg/3.2rpo
Blair Tickner: 103 runs @ 34.3avg/50sr | 19w @ 31.2avg/3.6rpo
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
These were already rough times for the Wellington Phoenix... and now Kosta Barbarouses is leaving. In the same week that Sam Sutton and Scott Wootton’s moves to Perth Glory were finally confirmed, Barbarouses has declined the second-year option in his contract and intends to sign elsewhere. There goes the bloke who swept the team’s awards night, leaving another area where the Nix will need to rebuild.
I dunno though, I’m not convinced that this is the disastrous outcome for the club that it’s mostly being presented as. It’s tough to replace a local who scored double-figures in each of the last two seasons but he’s also 35 years old and despite being the unanimous Player of the Year for this team... there was a long stretch in that season where he wasn’t actually playing that well.
Kosta Oct-Dec: 6 goals in 9 games (2.44 shots per game)
Kosta Jan-Mar: 1 goal in 10 games (1.80 shots per game)
Kosta Mar-May: 3 goals in 7 games (2.43 shots per game)
Granted, it’s hard to separate the individual from slumping team performances. The only game that Barbarouses scored in during that January to March window was also the only game that the Phoenix won in that time. But that goal was a penalty – meaning that Kosta went ten games without scoring from open play. His early season flurry carried his reputation through that drought without many people noticing yet the drought was still there.
What was pesky about it, was that you could see his game adapting away from what had previously been working for him. Whether it was instructional or something he was doing out of desperation, Barbarouses began dropping into the midfield and looking to find lay-offs and hold-ups way more often. That’s not what he’s best at and it’s not what was getting him those goals. KB should be playing high and trying to stretch the defence with his genius-level movement off the ball. Fortunately, he did get back to that towards the end of the term which led to some more goals (as evidence: 15 of his 17 offsides this season occurred within the last nine matches). That was partly as Chico Geraldes began occupying those in-between pockets instead... until he inevitably got injured.
Obviously the Nix wanted to keep Barbarouses. But a different style of striker should help them move forward under Giancarlo Italiano, allowing them to expand upon what has become a pretty one-dimensional attack. Not to mention that they’ve just freed up one of their most expensive contracts - perhaps even giving them room to go after another All Whites calibre player. To be honest, I don’t think Ben Waine will entertain an A-League return at his age. The only reason to do so would be for a guaranteed role as he tries to make the World Cup squad... admittedly a pretty big motivation. I actually think Max Mata could be a far more available option, especially if Auckland FC choose to use Neyder Moreno’s visa spot on a number nine.
Mostly, I just think this is weird from the perspective of Kosta Barbarouses. Shaun Gill did a press conference in which he said multiple times that he believes Kosta “feels his football is going to be better suited away from the Phoenix”. This despite the fact that it was his performances with the Phoenix that earned his way back into All Whites contention, now he’s leaving a year out from a World Cup and taking a huge gamble that wherever he ends up will offer the same smooth sailing that he’d been having.
Especially since he still blames his departure from the Nix way back before the 2010 World Cup as the reason he wasn’t selected in that squad. That was when Ricki Herbert was coaching both teams and Kosta reckons he held a grudge over the move. Ricki denies this. But Barbarouses was still saying this a few months ago, 15 years after the fact, so regardless of what’s truthful, that’s clearly his belief. Now he’s going to mirror that move after having worked so hard to get another chance at a World Cup? At a time when there already only seems to be space for one out of Ben Waine, Max Mata, and Logan Rogerson in the squad? When there was no pressing need for him to leave because he had an existing contract and key player status with the Nix? Waine, Mata, and Rogerson should all be pretty stoked with this development.
As we’d probably all guessed was going to happen, Michael Mayne has been announced as the Football Ferns permanent head coach. He’d been serving as the interim boss ever since Jitka Klimkova’s original leave of absence and, since the Olympics, he seemed to have been given more licence than most interim bosses would usually get in amassing a brand new staff around him and implementing a fresh style of play. Not dissimilar to how it worked out with Darren Bazeley where the previous assistant eventually got the full job after a protracted recruitment process. MM is the first NZ-born Football Ferns coach since Alison Grant & Wendi Henderson had a short stint together back in 2004. And all it took was an entire year since the dramas began with the previous boss...
26 May 2024 – Jitka Klimkova temporarily stands down as Football Ferns coach due to an investigation into “an employment-related matter”.
8 June 2024 – Jitka Klimkova is announced to be returning to the Ferns following the conclusion of that investigation... the details of which were all kept confidential.
28 June 2024 – Jitka Klimkova opts to stand down for the Olympics after all, due to concerns that the “restorative process” had not been fully completed.
13 September 2024 – Jitka Klimkova (finally) officially stands down as Ferns coach with immediate effect.
21 January 2025 – Jitka Klimkova is hired by her native Czechia to be their new women’s head coach.
23 May 2025 – Michael Mayne is confirmed as the new permanent coach of the Football Ferns through until the 2027 World Cup (the same timeframe that Klimkova was hired until).
It took nine months for NZF to hire Darren Bazeley, it took eight months for NZF to hire Michael Mayne... which was more like 12 months if you, like I, subscribe to the idea that they should have fired Klimkova as soon as she lost the dressing room. But yeah sure there was a process they had to go through so we’ll stick with the eight month timeline. Which is still a very long time to end up hiring the first and most obvious bloke that was available. Good luck to Mayney though. He’s worked his way up to earn this opportunity and he’s clearly got some big ideas. The main (Mayne?) thing is it’s just cool to see the Ferns with a homegrown coach for the first time in my living memory.
Mayney: “I’ve said this before, all of our fans are stakeholders and they want to see us scoring more goals. I’ve indicated with the new playing model that I’ve started to introduce that that is the focus. How we excite our fans and our people. We’ll work with pace and precision. We’re going to get more detail in what we do. And come 2027 we’re going to be ready to hit the world stage in a complete different place to where we’ve been before.”
The Ferns are in action this week against Venezuela in the neutral venue of Spain. There’s a full preview over here but one quick update to that... Claudia Jenkins has been left out as an injury precaution with Bri Edwards summoned in her place. I was leaning towards Jenkins being given a debut after her excellent season with Adelaide United – in which she won the A-League’s Save of the Year award – alongside her recent commitment to Aotearoa. But with Edwards called up at late notice, and with youngster Alina Santos as the other keeper in the group, I’d imagine Vic Esson just plays both. We’re trying to win these things so I don’t think much rotation will be on the cards.
New Zealanders With 100+ Points In NBL 2025 (So Far)
Jackson Ball (HB) – 329pts (17yo)
Dontae Russo-Nance (MAN) – 265 (20yo)
Corey Webster (MAN) – 246 (36yo)
Carlin Davison (TAR) – 242 (21yo)
Izayah Le’Afa (WEL) – 215 (28yo)
Kruz Perrott-Hunt (TAU) – 206 (24yo)
Jack Andrew (TAR) – 197 (23yo)
Hyrum Harris (WEL) – 194 (28yo)
Jonathan Janssen (OTA) – 191 (30yo)
Taylor Britt (CAN) – 188 (28yo)
Jaylen Gerrand (IND/TAR) – 166 (28yo)
Tohi Smith-Milner (CAN) – 163 (29yo)
Campbell Scott (HB) – 161 (21yo)
Tom Vodanovich (AKL) – 160 (30yo)
Tobias Cameron (FRA) – 156 (26yo)
Liam Judd (NEL) – 150 (23yo)
Carter Hopoi (TAU) – 147 (19yo)
Tamatoa Isaac (CAN) – 133 (18yo)
Tukaha Cooper (SOU) – 129 (22yo)
Kaia Isaac (CAN) – 126 (21yo)
Rob Loe (AKL) – 124 (33yo)
Walter Brown (CAN) – 120 (21yo)
Hayden Jones (NEL) – 110 (18yo)
Jayden Bezzant (TAU) – 109 (29yo)
Shea Ili (WEL) – 107 (32yo)
Keep in mind that different teams have played different amounts of games and that the same applies to players, not all of whom have been available all season. Nor were shooting percentages considered here at all. It’s not meant to be a scientific list, just a loose collection of contributing local dudes who’ve been bringing points to the picnic in the kiwi NBL.
And among them are nine guys aged 21 or younger: Ball, Russo-Nance, Davison, Scott, Hopoi, T.Isaac, K.Isaac, Brown, and Jones. Russo-Nance hit a game-winning three-pointer just last night as the Jets beat the Sharks. Getting minutes at that age is hard enough but making clutch shots and scoring reliable buckets is taking it to a whole other stratosphere.
Musical Jam...