Mana Waves
All Whites at the ONC, Warriors revival vs Broncos, White Ferns woes, Jitka Klimkova drama, Flying Kiwis transfers, domestic footy roundup & more
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Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Winning Mahi Breakdown (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Low Key Love Aotearoa (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Penrith Panthers Mid-Season Breakdown (Rugby League)
White Ferns Tour Of England Preview (Cricket)
All Whites at the 2024 Oceania Nations Cup: Squad Yarns & Preview (Football)
Ben Old Has Dribbled His Way Into Golden Boy Status At The Wellington Phoenix (Football
Macey Fraser Signs With Utah Royals: A Unique Journey, A Record Fee & Wellington Phoenix Pathways (Football)
The Rise and Rise and Rise of Alex Paulsen, From Wellington Phoenix to AFC Bournemouth (Football)
Scotty’s Word
White Ferns are on track for a 'White Ferns sweep' after losing the second ODI to England. New Zealand were rolled for 141 with Amelia Kerr scoring 43 runs, then England cruised to 142/2. Two massive losses to start this series and, while NZ Warriors battled for a win this weekend, White Ferns have slipped deeper into their woes.
Thankfully, no one seems to care about how stinky White Ferns are. NZ Cricket don’t even care enough to cover their own games…
No one cared when White Ferns fumbled through a home World Cup to bring an end to the Bob Carter era, which was a hefty low point. Somehow Ben Sawyer has found a way to make this team worse and that alone is bonkers - this whole situation should be more dramatic than whatever is going on with Jitka Klimkova and Football Ferns.
Ponder how stinky the White Ferns need to be for me to suggest that there should be more drama here than the Klimkova/Football Ferns pocket. Crazy.
There has been a thread of intrigue throughout this tour with Lauren Down summing up the White Ferns mess. When the squad was announced, I highlighted how Down hadn't done much to warrant the 'straight back in selection' treatment she received. Down last played a serious game of cricket in February 2023 and, for not scoring many runs at that time… then not playing any cricket prior to this tour… Down was rewarded with selection.
(Down was rewarded with selection ahead of, you know, high performing kiwi cricketers)
So selecting Down for the ODI leg of this tour was weird. Down didn't play the first ODI and she batted seventh in the second ODI. This is the second game of Down's ODI career (25 innings) batting seventh and she has batted at least four times in spots one, two, three and five.
Down is so good (ODI average of 18.4) that she got 'straight back in treatment'. She wasn't good enough to play in a team that was rolled for 156 in the first game and she wasn't good enough to bat in her proper spots for a team that was rolled for 141. Down got a five-ball duck batting seven and she averages 12 in six innings against England.
Even when I try to embrace the White Ferns perspective (selecting Down's alright), nothing makes sense (no clarity in her role). This Down stuff doesn't impact results but it is the latest example of shenanigans for a team with dubious selections, performances, development and ... a sneaky bad team culture.
If that Down stuff didn't hit right, here's some White Ferns notes to ponder...
In two games NZ scored less than 160 twice and took a total of 3 wickets
NZ scored at 4.6rpo and 3.3rpo, England scored at 7.3rpo and 5.7rpo
Brooke Halliday is the only NZ bowler to take a wicket!!
Suzie Bates batting in 2024 ODIs: 21avg/68sr
Maddy Green batting in 2024 ODIs: 21avg/52sr
Fran Jonas bowling in 2024 ODIs: 73avg/4.9rpo
Sophie Devine bowling 2024 ODI bowling: 5ov @ 8.4rpo
No NZ bowler is conceding less than 4.5rpo in ODIs this year
ODI result summary...
Ben Sawyer as coach: 8-9
2023 onwards: 5-8
2024: 1-4
England ODI series stats...
Batting
Brooke Halliday: 57 runs @ 28avg/71sr
Amelia Kerr: 53runs @ 26avg/49sr
Sophie Devine: 41 runs @ 20avg/85sr
Maddy Green: 32 runs @ 16avg/58sr
Georgia Plimmer: 32 runs @ 16avg/69sr
Jess Kerr: 24 runs @ 12avg/120sr
Suzie Bates: 21 runs @ 10avg/77sr
Izzy Gaze: 12 runs @ 6avg/60sr
Bowling
Brooke Halliday: 2w @ 14avg/5.2rpo
Jess Kerr: 10.3ov @ 5.7rpo
Amelia Kerr: 9ov @ 6.4rpo
Molly Penfold: 8ov @ 5.8rpo
Fran Jonas: 6ov @ 8.1rpo
Sophie Devine: 5ov @ 8.4rpo
Hannah Rowe: 2ov @ 7.5rpo
Nathan Smith is back in action with Worcestershire with 4w @ 3.1rpo followed by brief batting innings and then 2w @ 2.8rpo. This game is ongoing and Smith has 25w @ 21.4avg/3.1rpo this season heading into the overnight action.
NZ Warriors got the job done against Broncos. Here are the NZ Warriors crowds at Mt Smart this year which lay out a baseline of 22,000 this season...
vs Sharks: 24,076
vs Knights: 24,112
vs Sea Eagles: 23,076
vs Titans: 23,912
vs Dolphins: 23,116
vs Storm: 24,495
vs Broncos: 22,711
Here is an updated, smaller sample of NZ Warriors winning rates...
Marata Niukore: 67%
Chanel Harris-Tavita: 60%
Mitchell Barnett: 47%
Te Maire Martin: 42%
Shaun Johnson: 25%
Unfortunately for Xavier Willison, his mana wave was overshadowed by Freddy Lussick's version. Big ups to Willison for his mana wave consistency this year though…
Willison and Deine Mariner scored the only tries for Broncos in the loss to NZW. These two were awesome when Broncos defeated NZW in Napier last year as well with Mariner scoring two tries in each game, while Willison has been the biggest body on the field in both games. Willison is also from Taharoa and while we didn't get the Taharoa trio in this game, all three lads from Taharoa had good days with Te Maire Martin leading NZW in the NRL game and Taine Tuaupiki scoring two tries with 10 tackle breaks in NSW Cup.
Here are the junior clubs listed for these lads on their NRL profiles...
Xavier Willison: Whatawhata
Te Maire Martin: Turangawaewae
Taine Tuaupiki: Ngaruawahia
This is Willison's fourth season of NRL and his 103m/game this season is his first year over 60m/game. Willison's also played a career-high 11 games this season.
Mariner scored two tries but he made a few errors and had 9 runs - 51m @ 5.6m/run. Mariner has also played a career-high 13 games and has 14 tries which is a high watermark as well.
Jesse Arthars and Josiah Karapani weren't involved much. Arthars had a similar output as Mariner without the tries (10 runs - 56m @ 5.6m/run) and Karapani got 19 minutes off the bench as a left centre - Selwyn Cobbo seemed to shift into a roaming role to chase points.
After rolling through those Mariner/Arthars stats and spending a couple paragraphs to highlight the hard mahi from NZ Warriors outside backs, there is quite a difference in this outside back mahi.
Broncos
Tristan Sailor: 15 run - 91m @ 6m/run
Jesse Arthars: 10 runs - 56m @ 5.6m/run
Kotoni Staggs: 7 runs - 30m @ 4.2m/run
Selwyn Cobbo: 11 runs - 137m @ 12.4m/run
Deine Mariner: 9 runs - 51m @ 5.6m/run
NZ Warriors
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad: 17 runs - 161m @ 9.4m/run
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak: 15 runs - 130m @ 8.6m/run
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck: 14 runs - 125m @ 8.9m/run
Adam Pompey: 11 runs - 96m @ 8.7m/run
Marcelo Montoya: 11 runs - 127m @ 11.5m/run
Focus on the efficiency because NZW had more footy so they had more runs. All five NZW outside backs were above 8.5m/run and Cobbo was the only Bronco over that mark.
Brandon Smith's two games after being dropped...
26-8 win vs Bulldogs
61mins, 9 runs - 81m @ 9m/run, 4 tackle breaks, 1 offload, 29 tackles @ 91%
40-6 win vs Roosters
80mins, 4 runs - 41m @ 10.2m/run, 1 linebreak, 1 tackle break, 46 tackles @ 88.4%
That's not the game time of someone who is on the outer, let alone the mahi.
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The All Whites have emerged triumphant at the OFC Nations Cup...as we all expected. Granted, they had a tricky time of it in the final against Vanuatu before a raucous home crowd at Freshwater Stadium in Port Vila, which has a seating capacity of 7000 people but which allegedly packed in more than 10,000 fans for the match – not sure if that includes the many folks chilling on the roofs of neighbouring buildings…
The All Whites did what they’ve done in every game and took the lead inside of ten minutes (this time a Cam Howieson goal in just the second minute of action) but it wasn’t until late that they finally put a second away. They controlled the game confidently and never looked threatened so nothing to worry about. But the pitch was in a poor state for flowing football and Vanuatu’s defence were up for all the physical stuff against a front four of Waine, Just, Barbarouses, and Old. Waine had his moments but he’s not Chris Wood in the size and strength categories. Hence it was a much scrappier game that we’d have liked.
Darren Bazeley’s minimal rotation throughout the tournament also seemed a factor as a few of the lads looked pretty tired. Somehow Alex Rufer played every minute of all four games. Good Iron Man areas from him... but it’s fortunate he didn’t emerge with an injury like Tim Payne. There were two spare spots in the squad that Baze didn’t fill because he didn’t see the point in picking guys who wouldn’t be playing. On top of that, Fin Conchie and Oskar van Hattum only played sparingly and Oli Sail didn’t play at all. Seven different dudes started all four games while only suspension and injury prevented Payne and Cacace from doing the same. Four games in 12 days.
Also, let’s be honest, we knew this was an understrength squad from before it was even announced so can’t be expecting first eleven efficiency. They did what they needed to do. Won all four games without conceding a goal. Lifted the trophy. Even claimed the Fair Play Award... while Max Crocombe got the Golden Gloves (without hardly making a save in his three matches) and Liberato Cacace was the Player of the Tournament. Roy Krishna did sneak the Golden Boot to avoid the clean sweep – he finished one goal clear of Ben Waine.
Most Minutes
Alex Rufer – 360
Kosta Barbarouses – 353
Finn Surman – 343
Elijah Just – 337
Cameron Howieson – 329
Goals + Assists
Ben Waine – 4 (4 goals)
Elijah Just – 4 (1 goal, 3 assists)
Kosta Barbarouses – 4 (3 goals, 1 assist)
Liberato Cacace – 3 (3 assists)
Max Mata – 3 (2 goal, 1 assist)
Jesse Randall – 2 (1 goal, 1 assist)
Tim Payne – 1 (1 assist)
Ben Old – 1 (1 goal)
Finn Surman – 1 (1 goal)
Cameron Howieson – 1 (1 goal)
G+A Per Ninety Minutes
Jesse Randall – 2.86
Max Mata – 2.45
Ben Waine – 1.78
Elijah Just – 1.07
Kosta Barbarouses – 1.02
Liberato Cacace – 1.00
A fantastic anecdote here courtesy of Coen Lammers for Friends of Football:
“Aside from the FIFA-funded Freshwater Stadium, other venues are run by the [Vanuatu] government and the pitches are not always their top priority, while the broadleaved island grass makes it difficult to create a smooth surface. The ground staff at Freshwater tried to grow a pitch with thinner grass like players are used to in New Zealand, only to see the local grass take over in a matter of weeks. The best training pitch on the main island of Efate turned out to be at the Montmarte School, far in the hills above Port Vila, surrounded by dense tropical bush which can only be reached after some serious off-roading. The All Whites used Montmarte as their training base, where the support staff got a bit of a fright in their first session, retrieving wayward balls from the bushes and being confronted by huge spiders, allegedly the size of small dogs. As a result, some of the balls were left behind in the bush for the local school kids to retrieve, and the shooting drills were moved to the other goal.”
Hard to imagine any of Liberato Cacace’s Empoli teammates ever having to go off-road for national team training sessions, let alone having to brave dog-sized spiders.
Game Two of Tall Blacks pre-Olympic Qualifying preparation turned out to be a big loss against Poland. They only went down to a buzzer-beating triple against Finland in game one but were blitzed off the court by Poland, losing 88-59. Pretty good Polish team that included Jeremy Sochan but a pretty nasty box score to look at from our perspective. Poland shot 57% from threes (12/21) while New Zealand shot 23% (10/42). Poland attempted 28 free throws while NZ attempted nine. Poland were +10 in rebounds and +12 in assists. Mateusz Ponitka led the way with 29 points on 8/11 shooting (4/4 from deep, 9/12 FTs).
In contrast, Corey Webster scored 0 points in 21 minutes, shooting 0/11 from the field. Also getting blanked were Izayah Le’Afa (0/6 in 21 mins), Finn Delany (0/3 in 26 mins), Ethan Rusbatch (0/3 in 9 mins), and Tyrell Harrison (0/2 in 8 mins). Shea Ili was a bright spot with 17 points on 7/10 with a couple of assists. Also Sam Mennenga hit 3/4 triples for his 12 points.
The game was tied early in the second quarter but it soon got ugly from there. At least the Tall Blacks were able to get twelve different blokes out there. The results aren’t as important as the preparation for what’s to follow and Dan Fotu is the only dude in the 14-strong squad who hasn’t taken the court in these two games. Curious to see Yanni Wetzell sit this one out after only playing 15 mins in the first game. He had five fouls but maybe he also had an injury?
Combined Tall Blacks Minutes vs Finland & Poland
Finn Delany – 55:13
Shea Ili – 49:23
Corey Webster – 48:49
Reuben Te Rangi – 43:52
Tom Vodanovich – 37:10
Izayah Le’Afa – 36:52
Sam Mennenga – 36:32
Jordan Ngatai – 33:52
Flynn Cameron – 20:50
Yanni Wetzell – 14:47
Ethan Rusbatch – 9:09
Tyrell Harrison – 8:08
Ben Gold – 5:24
Dan Fotu – 0:00
Sadly, we’ve got more shenanigans with the Jitka Klimkova situation. Having cleared the investigation hurdle over the mystery ‘workplace matter’ at the start of the month, she’s now not going to be coaching the Football Ferns at the Olympics after all. This was a decision which NZF says was made in conjunction between her and them but reading between the lines it sounds like the players don’t want her back. Naturally, NZF did nothing to alleviate speculation on the matter... but shout out to Newshub (before the brand collapses into nothingness) for doing something resembling journalism and revealing that:
“An incident prompted the initial investigation, the details of which remain unclear. As a result of this incident, Klimkova has lost the dressing room's confidence. Sources within the team confirm 'players only' meetings were held, led by senior players to try and remove her as coach, despite having three years to run on her deal”.
Nobody’s talking but there was a letter leaked to RNZ two weeks ago, sent from NZF CEO Andrew Pragnell to the players/players union, which talks about bringing in “trained independent facilitators” to implement a “restorative process” in order to move towards “a more cohesive and high performance environment that is founded on high trust”. Lots of corporate jargon. Not a lot of solving the problem (clearly not, given what’s happened since).
Whatever JK’s done, she’s blown her trust with the players and that’s very significant. This isn’t anything to do with her record as coach – but it is something that probably makes her position untenable moving forward. The only counterbalance is the three years she’s still got on her contract, which potentially makes it cheaper for NZF to hire trained independent facilitators rather than just bite the bullet and fire her. That and our governing body’s tendency to drag everything on for interminable lengths (remember when it took them nine months to hire Darren Bazeley as All Whites coach despite him already being the assistant?).
Enough nonsense, please. When have you ever seen a coach regain the dressing room after losing its confidence? Let alone one whose record is not as bad as many suggest, when put into proper context, but which is hardly worthy of any brownie points. Michael Mayne will be the interim for the Olympics and as soon as that’s done Olli Harder needs to be getting a notification in his inbox. He’s now working with the boy’s academy team at Viking FK so Joe Bell could even hand-deliver a letter if need be.
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
Nothing to add about the Ben Old to Saint-Étienne yarn other than to say that you read about it here in our previous newsletter. Now it’s been further reinforced with an “exclusive” on the NZ Herald website claiming that “sources in France who are close to the club, when contacted by the Herald, said that the deal was ‘all but done’”. So... exactly what you read here on Friday afternoon (which was based on what was already being reported in France). But it’s happening. Don’t doubt it. And now that the Nations Cup is over, he’s very conveniently going to be in France soon anyway for the Olympics... as long as ASSE don’t block him since that France are actually in the same group as New Zealand.
On Friday I also mentioned how the English WSL/Championship transfer window had just opened. Now we’re into July so expiring contracts are now expired contracts. That means the action should heat up from this point onwards. In that Friday yarn, a few names were mentioned worth tracking in the English scene: Jacqui Hand, Kate Taylor, and Hannah Blake. Hand played in the Champo last season. Blake is currently training at an academy in Manchester. Taylor just seems like a good fit for that level, though could as easily move to USA or Scandinavia. Well, a bit of digging has revealed that those three all have the same agency representation. Sisu Sports Management, whose stated list of clients on their website also includes: Alyssa Whinham, Helena Errington, Liz Anton, Maggie Jenkins, Malia Steinmetz, Olivia Page, and Zoe McMeeken. I found that to be very curious information.
Norman Garbett has signed with Dundalk for the rest of the League of Ireland season. Younger brother of Matt Garbett. Scored the winning goal against Guatemala at the U20 World Cup last year but has been bouncing around the trial circuit in Europe ever since. Will be interesting to see how he goes at a level that we’ve seen Max Mata score plenty of goals at. More on this one in Flying Kiwis tomorrow.
Unfortunately, Oscar Obel-Hall was released by Esbjerg after they were promoted back to the second division in Denmark. They gave him a first-team contract ahead of last season, following a couple of years in their academy system, but he only played eight times for them during that campaign and they’ve chosen not to keep him on after getting back up to a higher level again. Oh well. On to the next.
Domestic Football Roundup
The biggest game of club football in the country last week was in the NRFL Women’s Premier Division as West Coast Rangers hosted Auckland United in a top-of-the-table clash. Unfortunately for Rangers, they lost 3-0. Greer MacIntosh (33’), Alexis Cook (55’), and Charlotte Roche (90’) scored the goals for United, who move four points clear with only one draw blemishing their otherwise perfect record. WCR battled well but AU were just too stacked. Mickey Foster, Saskia Vosper, and Chloe Knott all started while Ruby Nathan and Ava Collins each featured off the bench (though it was Roche who scored as a substitute). All five are internationals or recent professionals. Hard to see AU slipping up from here with eight more rounds left. If they do though, there is one last meeting between AU and WCR in August that could be pivotal.
Elsewhere, Western Springs are back in the top four after leapfrogging Fencibles with a 2-0 win. Eastern Suburbs also strengthened their position, bouncing back from last week’s big defeat against Auckland United by winning 4-0 away to Ellerslie. Zoe Benson got a brace as they got the scoring done inside of half an hour. Then we also had Hibiscus Coast winning 3-0 against Hamilton Wanderers. Two goals for Danica Urlich-Beech moves her clear in the golden boot ranks with 13.
To the Women’s Central League, and there’s now daylight between Wellington United + Waterside Karori and the rest of the division. Welly Utd won 3-0 against Taradale. WKU took a 4-0 win from Moturoa, with Kennedy Bryant scoring twice. Looks like we’ll get the same two National League representatives there. The other game this week was a 5-3 win for Palmerston North Marist against Seatoun. Ruby-Aroha Gurnick got a couple of the goals for PNM.
There were only two games in the Women’s Southern League this week. Cashmere Technical shrugged off the challenge of Roslyn Wakari by beating them 10-0 with Annalie Longo and Margi Dias both getting doubles. Coastal Spirit were also too good in their match, beating Nelson Suburbs 4-1. Like Cashy Tech, Dunedin City Royals have also won 2/2… but they weren’t in action this round.
Another week in the Men’s Northern League and Birkenhead United remain in first place. They won 2-0 over Melville with Sam Philip (34’) and Dino Botica (90’) getting the goals. Auckland City are keeping pace though. They won 5-0 away against Tauranga City with new signings Derek Tieku and Kailan Gould both scoring within the first ten minutes. Incoming Auckland FC scholars Liam Gillion and Jonty Bidois went head to head... Gillion scored the third goal for ACFC. But the rest of the top four failed to match. Western Springs were beaten 2-0 by Bay Olympic; Eastern Suburbs were dropped 2-1 at home by East Coast Rangers – Ryusei Ishibashi with a double for the victors there.
Unfortunately for fifth-placed Auckland United, they were only able to make up one point on those two as they drew 1-1 with Hamilton Wanderers. Will Mendoza put them ahead on 54’ but Ashton Hurd equalised for Wanderers on 76’. They’re all valuable points for Wanderers as they battle relegation. However, that task did just get trickier for them after West Coast Rangers pulled off a miracle win over Manurewa. They were 1-0 down heading into injury time then Allan Pearce and Dawson Strafford both scored for a 2-1 win.
Everything went to expectations in the Men’s Central League. Wellington Olympic remain eight points clear with five matches remaining after they beat Waterside Karori 5-0. Five different goal-scorers in that one. Western Suburbs vs Miramar Rangers looked like a funky matchup, with Rangers probably needing points to stay in the hunt for National League football. They didn’t get any. Wests won 2-1. Therefore Wests and Napier City Rovers now have a six-point buffer for those spots. NCR won 2-0 against Stop Out with Oscar Faulds extending his top scorer’s lead. Elsewhere Petone won 3-0 away to Island Bay, while the Wellington Phoenix Reserves had a 2-1 win against North Wellington. Luke Supyk (35’) and Luke Flowerdew (68’) with the goals. The WeeNix also had Lachlan Candy playing after his loan at Waterside Karori (probably in light of a couple of Oceania youth tournaments in the coming weeks that’ll drain some of the WeeNix depth).
In contrast, the Men’s Southern League continues to throw up curveballs. Nothing the worry with Cashmere Technical who now have a four-point lead after demolishing FC Twenty11 by a 10-1 scoreline (lots of goals for that club this week). No typos there. It was already 7-1 when Twenty11’s Luke Foster was sent off for a second yellow. And this is Tech without Garbhan Coughlan, who is still six goals clear on the golden boot standings despite not even being in the country for the last six weeks and counting - he’s returned to Ireland for his wedding.
But we’re getting into serious territory for Christchurch United who lost 3-2 to Ferrymead Bays – a Trey Stewart winner in the 83rd minute – for their third loss in 11 matches. Plus they’re out of the Chatham Cup. Coastal Spirit only drew 2-2 with Nelson Suburbs so that keeps The Rams within three points of second place. But it’s looking very dicey as to National League qualification. Liam Cotter scored both of Coastal’s goals, yet Dauntae Mariner got the crucial equaliser on his return from the Nations Cup with Samoa. In other results, Dunedin City Royals won 2-1 against Nomads, plus Universities of Canterbury were too good in a 3-0 win against Selwyn United, with Charlie Bayly scoring twice.
Musical Jam...
White Ferns now only #6 ranked Women's ODIs team; no batters ranked in top 10, no bowlers ranked in top 10.
Wonder what NZC's KPIs are for the team?