Mature Practitioners
Blackcaps & White Ferns happenings, Football Ferns era shifts, A-League returns, international rugby league glory, MNL Team of the Week, and more
Scotty’s Word
The Blackcaps batters didn’t get a crack in the first T20 vs England but there was a top order batting change. Devon Conway was shuffled out of the 1st 11 with Tim Robinson moving up to open and Rachin Ravindra batting three. Add in Tim Seifert and Finn Allen who are also in this equation as openers for a top order mixer. Here are their stats since the start of 2024…
Tim Seifert: 634 runs @ 37.2avg/152sr
Finn Allen: 505 runs @ 31.5avg/178sr
Tim Robinson: 397 runs @ 36avg/137sr
Rachin Ravindra: 307 runs @ 27.9avg/147sr
Devon Conway: 295 runs @ 24.5avg/125sr
Blackcaps T20 bowling stats this year…
Jacoby Duffy: 24w @ 15avg/7.4rpo
Matt Henry: 14w @ 18avg/8.5rpo
Jimmy Neesham: 13w @ 11avg/7.6rpo
Ish Sodhi: 12w @ 15avg/7.7rpo
Zak Foulkes: 8w @ 27avg/8.2rpo
Mitchell Santner: 6w @ 32avg/7.7rpo
Kyle Jamieson: 5w @ 27avg/8.4rpo
Michael Bracewell: 4w @ 51avg/8.9rpo
Adam Milne: 4w @ 19avg/6.5rpo
Ben Sears: 4w @ 36avg/10.2sr
Will O’Rourke: 3w @ 34avg/6.8rpo
Blackcaps T20 bowling strike-rates since start of 2024…
Jimmy Neesham: 9.7
Lockie Ferguson: 11.3
Jacob Duffy: 13.2
Adam Milne: 13.6
Matt Henry: 13.7
Ben Sears: 16.7
Ish Sodhi: 16.9
Zak Foulkes: 18.1
Kyle Jamieson: 19.2
Will O’Rourke: 23.1
Mitchell Santner: 24.2
Michael Bracewell: 28.9
2025 England Tour Of New Zealand: T20I Series Preview
Basics For The Best Emerging Cricketers With Each Team Ahead Of The 2025/26 Ford Trophy
I have a few more Blackcaps T20 stats, one funky youngster for each women’s domestic cricket team and some NZ-A/Ford Trophy crossover beyond the paywall. White Ferns had their most recent game washed out and now they need a win against India on Thursday night. One of the biggest issues right now is the batting pocket of Suzie Bates, Georgia Plimmer and Amelia Kerr at the top of the line up…
Suzie Bates: 29 runs @ 9.6avg/67sr
Georgia Plimmer: 35 runs @ 11.6avg/41sr
Amelia Kerr: 57 runs @ 19avg/53sr
Kerr’s only ODIs this year have been at the World Cup so Bates and Kerr are both averaging below 20 in ODI batting this year. White Ferns will need runs from one of those three to beat India as well as winning mahi from Eden Carson who has been graced with selection in every game so far - her 27.4 overs are the third highest for Aotearoa at this tournament.
Eden Carson
World Cup: 2w @ 68avg/4.9rpo
ODIs since start of 2024: 6w @ 38.1avg/4.3rpo
Fabulous Sunday evening of international rugby league at the temple of Mt Smart. Kiwi Ferns were down 0-20 at half-time and came back to win 22-20. Kiwis had an intense battle with Samoa and won 24-18. For paid subscribers and the Patreon whanau I have more NZ Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns details, but the main thing I keep thinking about is how this was a much needed dose of Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns mana.
Kiwi Ferns could have crumbled after the first half or even fought back only to lose. Kiwis were under pressure throughout their brutal win. There is something tremendously kiwi about New Zealand rugby league teams being the bad folk at ‘home’ games and rising to that challenge. Especially with the all black uniforms.
These Tests vs Samoa and Tonga in Aotearoa are not home games for Kiwis/Kiwi Ferns. The last two Tests for Kiwis and Samoa have been bangers so I love it.
If I had to pick a Kiwi and Kiwi Fern legend right now they would be Joseph Tapine and Georgia Hale. Leaders in their teams, best middle forwards in both games and they have been doing this in every Pac Champs so far.
Eligibility wins were on display with more guidance of the cultures brewing. Mele Hufanga (wow) scored try to level scores and Patricia Maliepo kicked the winning goal. Two Tongans who went to Southern Cross Campus and played union for Marist as well as various rep honours.
I’m fairly confident Hufanga has a Kiwi Fern shield tattooed on her arm, but regardless she quickly established her Kiwi Ferns mana with her actions. Maliepo laid the same foundations in her debut and her first year of rugby league has been excellent.
Casey McLean was born and raised in Australia too. He could have been trying to get in the New South Wales mix and hope for an eligibility rule change. Nah, he is dominating Tests for Aotearoa.
Samoa men have now lost six games in a row. Four losses since their 2022 World Cup final loss vs Australia means that they haven’t won since that tournament.
The sneakiest Pac Champs thing from the opening round was Tokoroa’s Caelys Putoko playing for Cook Islands in their loss to Fiji where he joined another young play-maker from Tokoroa in Cassius Cowley.
Putoko was named in the halves but started at fullback and then moved to the wing. Putoko has now played every backline position except halfback this year as his first season in the NZ Warriors system saw him play fullback, centre and five-eighth for the Under 21 team. He also scored two tries on NSW Cup debut at centre and the former NZ Schools rep (2023 alongside Dolphins NRL player Tevita Naufahu) will be probably start next season in NSW Cup.
Musical jam…
Nick’s Notebook
The A-League began over the weekend and the kiwi teams served up back-to-back draws. Good draws though. Auckland FC drew 0-0 away to Melbourne Victory, the team that knocked them out in the semis last year, while Wellington Phoenix overcame a very messy start to actually serve up some very sexy football within a comeback 2-2 effort away to Perth Glory. Time for some quickfire ideas.
Auckland FC Defensive Replenishment
See, they can keep clean sheets without Alex Paulsen. There wasn’t a whole lot of Michael Woud involvement but he did make two saves and he was good with the aerial stuff plus his long passing was pretty accurate too. Great confidence booster for him. And the reason he didn’t have that much to do was that Louis Verstraete was brilliant as the holding midfielder and young Aussie defender Jake Girdwood-Reich had a flawless debut, particularly with how commandingly he was winning his headers.
Champagne Chiefball
You may not have believed it when they were 2-0 down after twenty-odd minutes having gotten their backline-goalkeeper calibrations horribly wrong (high line + deeply positioned goalie = bad news) but Josh Oluwayemi soon sorted that out and from there the Wellington Phoenix looked... kinda awesome. Ifeanyi Eze and Carlo Armiento both scored on debut. Eze was spectacular with his physical play up top – after a while, Perth just started kicking the crap out of him (and largely getting away with it). But the star of the show was Kazuki Nagasawa. The Nix played a 3-4-2-1 formation with emphasis on getting the ball through the lines and then bouncing it around, lots of one-two touch stuff with everyone understanding their angles. Nagasawa set up the first goal and seemed to thrive with those quick passes. The Nix kept 71% of possession in an away game. They got chances from it too. Early days but by the looks of this that preaseason mahi from Giancarlo Italiano didn’t involve a single wasted second. This was not only drastically different to how they played last season... but drastically more entertaining too (something that Chief emphasised in his pre-game press appearances).
The Next Wave of Kiwi Debutants
Anaru Cassidy travelled with the Phoenix to Perth. Didn’t make the matchday squad but that’s a huge rap for a lad who was unlucky not to make the U20 World Cup squad a few weeks back. Really classy midfielder who’s been on my radar for a wee while. Meanwhile, Xuan Loke made an expected debut off the bench in place of Tim Payne once his recent workload finally caught up with him and the exhaustion hit. Loke was almost everpresent during the Aussie Cup stuff so we knew this was coming. Very good at that same U20 World Cup too. That’s academy debut #1 for the Phoenix, who also had Eamonn McCarron on the bench as backup goalie. There were four academy debutants last season and seven the time before that.
And over at Auckland FC it wasn’t much different with 18yo centre-back Ryan Mackay a surprise presence on the bench. Didn’t get out there but with Luka Vicelich and Semi Nabenu also circling the first team there’s some serious CB talent coming through that reserves team. Some predicted debuts this season: Anaru Cassidy, Mac Munro, and Dylan Gardiner for the Welly Nix; Sam Lack, Luka Vicelich, and Codey Phoenix for AFC.
That Man Kosta
Before either NZ club got underway, old mate Kosta Barbarouses had already gotten his Western Sydney Wanderers tenure going with a goal after ten minutes of his first league game. He also scored in the Aussie Cup a few months ago. When he announced he was leaving the Nix in a World Cup year, it had me worried... now I’m tending towards thinking he’s made a wonderful decision which, coupled with Ben Waine and Max Mata sliding down the relevancy scales, has probably got him cemented for that World Cup squad now.
Football Ferns vs Mexico/USA: Squad Yarns & Preview
All Whites vs Poland & Norway: The Reaction
The Plus/Minus Battle of the Izaiah’s/Izayah’s at the NZ Breakers
vs Brisbane (L): Brockington -9 in 27 mins vs Le’Afa -17 in 16 mins
at Melbourne (L): Brockington -31 in 29 mins vs Le’Afa -4 in 18 mins
vs Perth (L): Brockington -5 in 18 mins vs Le’Afa -6 in 22 mins
at Sydney (L): Brockington -1 in 24 mins vs Le’Afa -19 in 19 mins
vs Illawarra (W): Brockington -1 in 19 mins vs Le’Afa +30 in 21 mins
vs South East Melbs (L): Brockington -5 in 21 mins vs Le’Afa +13 in 21 mins
vs Tasmania (W): Brockington -1 in 28 mins vs Le’Afa +18 in 12 mins
at Melbourne (L): Brockington -11 in 31 mins vs Le’Afa -8 in 10 mins
From those eight fixtures, the Breakers have had the better on-court points differential during Le’Afa’s minutes compared to Brockington’s minutes in let’s say five games. Depends how you want to balance it with the minutes played (eg Brockington’s -11 in 31 mins is arguably better than Le’Afa’s -8 in 10 mins in the most recent game despite it being a worse number).
Brockington was decent against Melbourne scoring 25 points on 10/16 shooting including three triples... easily his most useful outing and the Breakers still lost comfortably. But that was against Melbourne United. They’re amazing. Can’t overreact to a defeat like that... although I dunno about you, I’m not too stoked seeing one of NZB’s imports having had a negative plus/minus in every single game thus far. Especially when Rob Baker continues to be a non-presence. He’s only twice played 20+ minutes in a game and doesn’t seem to have a natural place in the rotation.
NZ Breakers Net Ratings After Eight Games (Min. 100 Minutes Played)
Sam Mennenga – 125.6 ORtg | 110.5 DRtg | +15.1 Net
Karim Lopez – 112.0 ORtg | 108.6 DRtg | +3.4 Net
Carlin Davison– 113.6 ORtg | 111.7 DRtg | +1.8 Net
Rob Baker – 112.3 ORtg | 110.6 DRtg | +1.7 Net
Rob Loe – 106.2 ORtg | 111.1 DRtg | -4.9 Net
Parker Jackson-Cartwright – 105.4 ORtg | 113.1 DRtg | -7.7 Net
Izayah Le’Afa – 101.8 ORtg | 111.9 DRtg | -10.1 Net
Izaiah Brockington – 105.5 ORtg | 117.2 DRtg | -11.7 Net
Reuben Te Rangi – 88.1 ORtg | 116.6 DRtg | -28.5 Net
Nasty numbers for Te Rangi... who has probably played more than expected to begin the season. That’s fine, he’s there to be a leader and a culture-setter and the best version of the Breakers doesn’t involve him in the starting line-up. We’re already starting to see that as Carlin Davison has earned a bigger role and when Karim Lopez comes off his minutes restriction it’ll be more of the same. RTR was awesome in the team’s first win as well... all of these numbers are skewed by the small sample size and a couple of hefty defeats but his more than anyone’s.
No surprises that Sam Mennenga is number tahi. Interesting that Baker’s done as well as he has in his shortened role, while Rob Loe and Izayah Le’Afa feel like dudes who are trending upwards after poor starts. That low Offensive Rating for PJC is a concern though – these are team stats based on points per 100 possessions while that player is on the floor and we’ve all seen plenty of instances this year when Jackson-Cartwright is putting up personal stats as the team slips further behind... hence why I’ll repeat that the first stat column I’m looking towards with him is always going to be his assists.
MNL Team of the Week #4
GK – Emmett Connolly (Western Springs) – Alby Kelly-Heald was pencilled in after an impressive return from seven months out injured... and then I watched young Connolly (even younger than AKH) save a penalty, make a goal-line recovery, and produce several sharp saves as the Swans went down to Christchurch Utd and won 2-1.
RB – Riley Dalziell (Auckland City) – This bloke’s only played two games for ACFC (he’s an U20s loanee from Eastern Suburbs) and both times he’s come up with crucial assists with his wicked crosses from the right edge. Great energy too.
CB – Finn Diamond (Western Suburbs) – Big man with a commanding performance in the win against Birkenhead as he and Alifeleti Peini repelled damn near everything that got into the box.
CB – Christian Gray (Auckland City) – Kinda crazy how much this hombre has risen to the occasion for Auckland City this year, so dependable. Anchored the defence within a marvellous tactical approach as ACFC beat their old mates Wellington Olympic.
LB – Aidan Carey (Western Springs) – Yeah another centre-back in there, why not. Carey reads the game so well, he was one of the best defenders in the comp last year and nothing has changed.
CM – George Green (Western Suburbs) – Teenager on MNL debut as the defensive midfielder up against that difficult Birko team and damn did he step up, jumping into everything he could and putting his body on the line like it was the most important game he’s every played (if it was, it won’t be for long on this trajectory).
CM – Michael Den Heijer (Auckland City) – The extra man in the midfield this week, playing alongside Mario Ilich, and didn’t give Wellington Olympic an inch. Such a dangerous second-phase team and ACFC pretty much locked them up.
CM - Wan Gatkek (Western Springs) – He’s not the razzler dazzler that he used to be a few years ago, these days Wan Gatkek is a mature midfield practitioner who win the ball and shifts it wherever it needs to go. He and Daniel Normann were as good as they’ve been in the win vs Christchurch Utd.
FW – Toshiki Makimoto (Western Springs) – Turned the game in his team’s favour in the second half, breaking the stalemate, as he zipped into pockets and made things happen with his movement and short passing. A goal and an assist in a 2-1 win, that’ll do it.
FW – Sebastian Barton-Ginger (Western Suburbs) – Now the equal top scorer with four goals, having scored in the last three games in a row... SBG’s tendency to break the line keeps leading to good things and he’s fast becoming one of the most exciting forwards in the competition.
FW - Derek Tieku (Coastal Spirit) – In one of the lowest-scoring rounds in recent Men’s National League memory, you’ve gotta look towards the blokes who had the golden contributions. Coastal Spirit didn’t create much in a relatively dull game against AFC Reserves but Tieku’s movement was the one outlet they could always roll the dice with and sure enough he scored the only goal as Spirit finally got a notch in the win column.
Musical Jam…
