Mission Success
Auckland FC are A-League champs, Warriors NRL hot pockets, White Ferns & NZ-A on tour, Blackcaps, Kiwi-NRL, All Whites, and more
Scotty’s Word
Some NZ Warriors hot pockets to boost your yarns...
Best start to a season of the two Andys era after 11 games
2023: 6-5 | -6 points
2024: 4-6-1 | -7 points
2025: 8-3 | -1 points
2026: 9-2 | +156 points
Top-five in these per game stat pockets
Points: 31.8 - 1st
Tries: 5.6 - 1st
Try assists: 4.4 - 4th
Set Completion: 83.2% - 1st
Dummy half runs: 9 - 5th
Fewest penatlies conceded: 4.2 - 2nd
Fewest errors: 10.1 - 1st
Halves this season
Tanah Boyd: 10 games, 3 tries, 10 try assists, 80% wins
Chanel Harris-Tavita: 8 game, 3 tries, 6 try assists, 100% wins
Te Maire Martin: 2 games, 3 tries, 1 try assist, 100% wins
Luke Metcalf: 2 games, 0% wins
Luke Hanson: 1 game, 1 try, 1 try assist, 100% wins
Young wave in NSW Cup win vs Dragons
Jeremiah Lemana (Mt Albert): started in U17s, skipped U19s, NSW Cup debut at 17yrs
Harry Tauafiafi-Iutoi (Pt Chevalier): started in U21s, NSW Cup debut last round
Jye Linnane: From Knights, U21 eligible
Jett Cleary: From Panthers, started in U21s
Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea (Mangere East): started in U19s
Makaia Tafua (Linwood): started in U19s
Kayliss Fatialofa (Otara): started in U19s
Jacob Auloa (Pt Chevalier) started in U19s
Jason Salalilo (Papanui): started in U19s
Christian Sikuvea (Mangere East): started in U19s
Bishop Neal (Hornby): started in U17s, NSW Cup debut at 17yrs
Tyson Hansen (Ngongotaha): started in U17s, U19 eligible
Connor Bowden (Botany Downs): started in U17s, U19 eligible
Melbourne Storm aren’t just struggling in NRL, they are losing lots in the next two grades as well…
NRL: 15th | 4-8
NSW Cup: 14th | 2-9
Jersey Flegg Cup: 12th | 2-8
Their most notable Kiwi-NRL juniors below NRL are all from Christchurch with K-Ci Newton-Whare (Riccarton) in NSW Cup, Victory Isaako (Eastern) in U21s and Isaiah Savea (Hornby) starting in U19s then moving up to U21s.
Bulldogs Kiwi-NRL crew this weekend…
NRL
Leo Thompson (Napier Boys High School
NSW Cup
Sosaia Alatini (Hornby), Alekolasimi Jones (St Paul’s College), Zyon Maiu’u (Te Atatu), Fahmy Toilalo (Otahuhu)
Jersey Flegg Cup
Chelden Hayward (Linwood), Alvin Chong Nee (Manurewa), Bronson Reuben (Kaiapoi), Kaawyn Patterson (Dargaville), Azariah Toki Mautairi (Otahuhu)
For paid subscribers
NZ Warriors in NZ Kiwis mix
NZ Warriors hooker development
White Ferns spotlights on Georgia Plimmer, Jess Kerr, Nensi Patel
NZ-A spotlights on Bella James, Hannah Rowe
Matt Boyle in T20 Blast (almost)
White Ferns won the second T20I vs England and their impressive start to the Melie Kerr era continues. They are 6-2 in ODIs and 8-2 in T20Is this year, having not lost back to back games in either format. There were two notable tweaks to their 1st 11 from the first game with Lea Tahuhu replacing Rosemary Mair and Nesni Patel replacing Suzie Bates, which weren’t solely responsible for the win but winning is a bit easier when selecting the best players.
This includes keeping Bree Illing in the 1st 11 and because Tahuhu’s always at this level, this was more about Illing being selected ahead of Mair. Illing has wickets in every game of this England tour and there is a clear difference between her mahi and that of Mair in T20Is this year...
Bree Illing: 21ov, 5w @ 23.2avg/5.2rpo
Rosemary Mair: 27.2ov, 2w @ 92.5avg/6.7rpo
Patel and Bates haven’t done much batting in T20Is this year to clarify their battle further, but Patel was tidy in the win with 2w @ 6.2rpo in her 4 overs. Patel and Illing are the only White Ferns with 2+ wickets in the series so far, while Patel has quickly stacked up 20 overs this year which is twice as many as Bates (9ov) in the same number of games.
The T20Is vs England offer a snapshot of this as Patel bowled all her available overs and Bates bowled just one in her appearance. Both played as the second spinner behind A-Kerr and while Patel’s overall mahi is still boosted by the series vs Zimbabwe, the fact that she is being used far more than Bates while playing the same role is informative.
Two tricky spots vs England...
Georgia Plimmer: 0 runs off 2 balls
Jess Kerr: 6ov, 1w @ 67avg/11.1rpo
Both have been good overall this year so I’m curious to see if they can find a groove soon.
NZ-A Women have lost their T20 series vs Sri Lanka A and the third game is being played Monday afternoon, so Bella James may find some runs and Hannah Rowe may struggle in the last game of the tour. James and Rowe have dropped out of the White Ferns tier over the last six months and they have had different responses with James struggling for runs and Rowe eating up wickets.
James has one score over 10 runs in four innings and that was a knock of 20 runs to start the tour. She didn’t dominate domestic cricket last summer either and despite a refreshed ODI group, James hasn’t featured in ODIs since the end of 2024. An opening spot will open up with Bates retiring but Kate Anderson’s in a better patch of form and the skills of the younger players offer a wide range of team combos.
Rowe has 2+ wickets in three consecutive games for NZ-A. Her batting has underwhelmed in recent years and she has scores of 10* and 11 so she doesn’t have much juice as an all-rounder. Rowe has been overtaken by faster seamers in Illing, Molly Penfold and Kayley Knight with White Ferns depth on show in how Knight has also been good for NZ-A.
Rowe’s taken 7 wickets in Sri Lanka and Knight’s taken 5 wickets. Knight also had a knock of 38* @ 173sr in the third one-dayer and she has already been effective for White Ferns. A funky comparison for Rowe is Marama Downes because they lack the pace of the others and rely more on movement, along with J-Kerr and Emma Black.
All of which is useful for White Ferns moving forward. They have four seamers hovering around 115km/h (including Mair) and capable of giving 120km/h a nudge. Then there is a different group of seamers who move the ball with swing/seam and while not at the genuine all-rounder level like Patel/Devonshire, all these seamers have shown strong progress in their batting that will increase in the White Ferns environment.
Musical jam…
Nick’s Notebook
There’s going to be a lot of Auckland FC in this section after what happened over the weekend: Not only did they win the A-League championship but the OFC Pro League championship as well. The Reserves lost 1-0 to Eastern Suburbs on Friday night to spoil perfection… but they weren’t competing for a trophy so it doesn’t matter.
Not gonna lie about it, that was not a grand final for the neutrals. It was a bit of a nothing game between two very good defensive teams who mostly cancelled each other out. Auckland FC did enough to deserve the luck that came their way after an hour when Cam Howieson’s second-phase volley took a deflection that wrong-footed PFA goalkeeper of the year Harrison Devenish-Meares, however they didn’t exactly have an abundance of other chances (Jesse Randall had one chance to ice it but that was about it). But that was more than they allowed Sydney. Dan Hall was superb and Nando Pijnaker not too far behind him as Michael Woud was gifted an uneventful evening with the gloves. There were only 13 shots in total in this game. Two on target each. The Expected Goals count was 0.40 vs 0.41. Not a lot of corners either way. Honest, it was a pretty dull contest.
And that’s exactly what Auckland FC wanted. Steve Corica kept the same team that did a job away against Adelaide, including the back three, and although it never opened up for them after the goal like things had done at Coopers, they were even more smothering at the back. Objective #1 was to frustrate and disarm their opposition – which is not the most exciting approach but that tends to be when AFC are at their best. They only kept 38% of possession in this game... mirroring the figure from the win vs Adelaide and extending their season’s record to 5-0-0 when AFC keep less than 40% of the ball in a game. Here’s the updated stat from Thursday’s preview section...
When AFC have over 60% of possession they are 0-2-3 (W-D-L)
When AFC have over 50% of possession they are 2-6-5
When AFC have 50% or less of possession they are 10-5-1
When AFV have 40% of less of possession they are 5-0-0
In a grand final, you do what you do best and try to win by whatever means necessary. Steve Corica knows that – he’s won three of these things as a coach after winning two of them as a player.
Minutes Played During Finals Run
Michael Woud, Dan Hall, Jake Girdwood-Reich, Louis Verstraete - 390
Hiroki Sakai – 390*
Jesse Randall – 353
Callan Elliot – 337
Cam Howieson – 327
Sam Cosgrove - 321
Lachlan Brook - 290
Nando Pijnaker – 250
Guillermo May – 171
Logan Rogerson – 154
Liam Gillion – 47
Francis de Vries – 43
Jake Brimmer – 37
Luka Vicelich – 10
Van Fitzharris - 0**
*Subbed once in injury time
**Subbed on in injury time once
This is a team that won the competition having to play four finals games during which import midfielder Felipe Gallegos (who had started the previous 14 games in a row) did not get a single minute due to injury. Another import, Guillermo May, went off injured in the second game and therefore missed the two most important ones entirely (second leg away in the semis and the grand final). Francis de Vries, one of their World Cup bound All Whites, wasn’t fit enough to play more than twenty minutes in any of those matches. Jake Brimmer, one of the few in this squad who has played in an ALM grand final before, was restricted to one substitute appearance in week one of the playoffs also due to injury. And they won anyway.
For The Paid Subscribers…
Darren Bazeley’s path to the All Whites
Kane Williamson’s last shot at a Test world record
Top 10 uncapped Football Ferns & All Whites update
In the starting eleven for this successful grand final outing were five New Zealanders, three Australians (one of them also Fijian), a Belgian, an Englishman, and a Japanese captain. The three subs used were all New Zealanders, with a Chilean, an Australian, and two more kiwis left unused.
Of those kiwis, the only one that they signed who was an established All Whites international at the time was Nando Pijnaker – and he was playing in the League of Ireland where his form was admittedly awesome but the A-League is a step up from there. Keep that in mind when a lot of those initial two-year contracts end in a few weeks and they have to replace some of these lads – AFC are not going to be able to turn the heads of your favourite World Cup selections, sorry to say it. They can’t afford them in a salary-capped league and anyway NZ’s best players are too good for the A-League. Circumstances have to be perfectly aligned for that to happen (think Sarpreet Singh’s loan to Wellington for example).
But you know what? It doesn’t matter. Because look at what AFC have already done with players signed from less renowned situations around the world. They don’t need to spend the big bucks when they can get top value (championship calibre value!) from guys beyond that, thus expanding our professional player pool by giving opportunities to guys who might not otherwise get them. These are the ten kiwis in the matchday squad for the grand final and how they ended up at Auckland FC:
Cam Howieson – Signed after many years running the midfield for Auckland City, winning National League and Oceania Champions League titles and competing at Club World Cups every year. People forget he did play overseas early in his career – in the Burnley academy and for St Mirren in Scotland at a senior level (he once scored a goal against Rangers). Earned a decent number of All Whites caps from that amateur situation. Personal circumstances prevented him from leaving Auckland but fortunately professional football came to him and now he’s the hero of a grand final victory.
Nando Pijnaker – Won a National League with Eastern Suburbs as part of that great generation of Ole Academy players (McCowatt, Just, Parker-Price, etc) and was a standout at NZ age grade levels so was always on the radar... but struggled to find a home at club level in Switzerland, Portugal, and Denmark before finally settling in Ireland and parlaying that into AFC.
Michael Woud – Another one who was a standout at age grade level but had trouble translating that into his club career. Spent time in the Sunderland system before moving to the Netherlands where he played a few games in the Eredivisie with Willem II as a backup and then became a starter for Almere City in the second division. Erratic form cost him his spot there so he moved to Japan where he was mostly a reserve keeper during those 2.5 years (although did play some AFC Champions League, including a clean sheet against Melbourne City). Was on the bench for every game in year one with AFC and didn’t fully win the fans over until the last quarter of this campaign... now he’s even earned a World Cup spot. What a ride.
Callan Elliot – Had some good times at the Wellington Phoenix, twice leaving to chase overseason opportunities and failing to even debut for either Xanthi (Greece) or Motherwell (Scotland). When he made his introduction for AFC, he’d gone almost 18 months without playing a competitive league game. Was a capped All White but only recently has he become a regular selection.
Jesse Randall – A highly regarded youngster in the Wellington scene (going to the U17 World Cup in 2019) and bounced around a few different National League teams to get established. Had a good year playing for Northern Kentucky University in 2021 and went back to America in 2023 for his first taste of pro footy... where he barely even got a look-in for that USA second tier club. So he returned to Wellington Olympic and was awesome again before AFC came calling. Solid rotational player in year one, then exploded as their best and most reliable forward in year two... now is a regular international and is about to join Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership.
Logan Rogerson – Left the Wellington Phoenix system after making 10 ALM appearances, scoring two goals, but not managing to earn a pro contract. Then embarked on a nomadic overseas career that took him from Germany back to Auckland City to Finland to Armenia and then to Auckland FC. Debuted for NZ in 2015 but has doubled his cap tally in the past two years since joining AFC (nine caps in nine years, then nine caps in two years).
Francis de Vries – Probably the most significant reputation boost of any of these guys (okay, second to Jesse Randall perhaps) though it’s so often overlooked that FDV was starting games in the top division of Swedish football until he busted his ACL in 2022. Of all the guys on this list, he has easily the most extensive experience above the A-League. But that knee injury did knock him off course and it took him a wee while at Eastern Suburbs to get his mojo back. Now he’s better than ever.
Liam Gillion – Was thrilling the Auckland City crowd at Kiwitea Street for a couple years as one of the most exciting younger players in the National League before signing his scholarship deal. He dropped down to the Pro League team to work on a few aspects of his game, which proved a successful mission as he regained his A-League role for this finals run and could be one to benefit from Randall’s departure. Hadn’t played any international footy until the U23s during his Auckland City stuff. Nor had he any professional experience until AFC came calling.
Luka Vicelich – Part of the initial Reserve team intake, having previously been in the Auckland City system - in fact he was the youngest player signed to that original squad. He’s progressed so quickly since then that he’s now made five first team appearances (including two in the finals) by the age of 18. They signed him to a scholarship deal in January. He’s also played at the U17 World Cup and has captained NZ at age level.
Van Fitzharris – Only joined the AFC Reserves for the National League phase of the 2025 season after being a regular starter for his hometown Tauranga City throughout the Northern League. Like Vicelich, once they got him in-house they clearly loved what he brought so he’s moved swiftly up the ranks to where he was sitting on the bench for a grand final having gotten on the pitch late in the semi one week earlier. Expect a scholarship offer to come his way soon.
That’s ten players. Two of them are teenagers (18yo) signed originally to the Reserve team who developed fast enough to already be in the first team framework (Vicelich, Fitzharris). Two were capped All Whites playing in the NZ National League at the time (Howieson, De Vries) while another two were uncapped younger National League standouts (Randall, Gillion). The other four were capped All Whites playing either in lesser situations overseas (Rogerson, Pijnaker) or good situations where they were out of favour (Woud, Elliot).
Every one of them is a superior player now to when they first joined AFC. Every one of them has improved their standing with the All Whites. None of them, except maybe Pijnaker, were seen as glamorous additions at the time. We don’t need AFC to even bother chasing any first-choice All Whites because they’ve shown both with the opportunities they offer to established players and the development they’re providing for younger players that they can create new (or reinvigorate old) All Whites.
Finally, gotta give an extra word for Cam Howieson who has been a back-up midfielder for most of his time with Auckland FC yet absolutely shone during this entire finals run, deservedly getting the decisive goal in the grand final. Already mentioned him in that last bit but I wanted to properly highlight what’s been an excellent and unique career for the 31yo so far, since a few too many people seem to think that the NZ National League is some kinda wilderness as if Howieson wasn’t playing Club World Cups and winning championships that entire time. Here’s Cam Howieson’s career in snapshot:
Represented Aotearoa at U17 World Cup, U20 World Cup, and Olympic Games (U23s)
Debuted for All Whites at 17 years and 4 months in May 2012 and has earned 21 senior caps, appearing under each of the past five coaches (Herbert, Hudson, Schmid, Hay & Bazeley)
Joined Burnley on a scholarship as a teenager and made two league appearances for them in the EFL Championship. Also spent time with Doncaster Rovers on loan before joining St Mirren where he scored on his league debut (against Rangers, no less)
After a stint with Team Wellington, he joined Auckland City in 2017 and spent seven years there during which time he did all this:
Three NZ Premiership/National League championships (2018, 2020, 2022)
Three NZ Premiership/National League runners-up (2017, 2021, 2023)
Four OFC Champions League titles (2017, 2022, 2023, 2024)
One Chatham Cup title (2022)
192 games played, 42 goals scored
Now he’s won an A-League Premiership (2024-25) and an A-League Championship (2025-26) with Auckland FC, scoring the winning goal in the final and being awarded the Joe Marston Medal for Player of the Game - the first NZer to ever win that award.
Musical Jam...
