Nothing But Goodness
Blackcaps T20 yarns, Football Ferns depth focus, Kiwis at Pacific Championships, FIFA U17 Men's World Cup, Kiwi-NRL movement, Steven Adams & Charlisse Leger-Walker, and more
Scotty’s Word
The funkiest Blackcaps T20 thing ahead of the second game vs West Indies is Mitchell Santner’s batting. The T20 spinny stuff is still a bit weird with Santner and Michael Bracewell both averaging 40+ and conceding over 8rpo in T20Is this year. This has led to less Bracewell mahi as Rachin Ravindra got an over ahead of Bracewell vs Windies and Bracewell has bowled in one of his last four games.
Santner’s T20I spin isn’t as good as his ODI spin but his batting has been tremendous in both formats. First off, his T20 batting average this year (57.5) is higher than his bowling average (45.8). His strike-rates are the key pocket though as he has an ODI batting strike-rate of 105 this year and a T20I strike-rate of 185.
Here are his recent scores...
T20I vs England: 36 runs @ 240sr
ODI vs England: 27 runs @ 108sr
ODI vs England: 34 runs @ 200sr
ODI vs England: 27 runs @ 93sr
T20I vs West Indies: 55 runs @ 196sr
Along with his 57.5avg in T20 batting for Aotearoa this year, Santner has a 26avg in ODI batting in 2025. Santner currently averages 25.8 in Test batting, 26.7 in ODI batting and 18.3 in T20I batting.
With Bracewell’s solid T20I batting (22.8avg/145sr this year) balanced by mediocre bowling (48.2avg/9.2rpo), it’s tricky to get these all-rounders sizzling in both departments. Jimmy Neesham is battling with the bat this year in T20Is (9.1avg/107sr) but is one of the most efficient bowlers for Blackcaps this year with 14w @ 13.5avg/8.2rpo. His bowling strike-rate of 9.8 makes Neesham the only kiwi bowler with 5+ wickets in T20Is this year and a strike-rate below 12.
One of my favourite Blackcaps zones is having Nathan Smith and Zak Foulkes in the same team, which could be amplified by having the spinny all-rounders Ravindra and Glenn Phillips in the same team. Flowing down the depth chart there are Kristian Clarke, who was called up to the Blackcaps ODI squad as a seamer while he was the leading run-scorer in Ford Trophy, and Josh Clarkson, who is one of two best players in Ford Trophy after three rounds mainly because of his bowling.
2025 England Tour Of New Zealand: ODI Domination
2025/26 Ford Trophy: Round Three Basics
Beyond the paywall I have more Blackcaps stuff including some holes in the T20 group, all the stats for Blackcaps in T20Is this year, a spotlight on Jacob Duffy, three fresh youngsters who have played all three Ford Trophy games and some List-A stats for younger White Ferns because I’m eager to see how they start this summer. We also chat through Ford Trophy and National League football in our Bonus Pod.
Henry Nicholls has hit two centuries in three games of Ford Trophy and has three centuries in his last four innings (150*, 117*, 11, 138). That’s smells like the best player in Ford Trophy and while Nicolls’ domination deserves celebration, it’s not quite as funky as Clarkson’s form to start the season.
Ford Trophy: 12w @ 8.08avg/3.2rpo
vs Wellington: 10ov, 5w @ 3.2rpo | 4th bowler used, only CD bowler hitting 10 overs
vs ND: 10ov, 4w @ 4.2rpo | 2nd bowler used, only CD seamer below 5rpo
vs Otago: 10ov, 3w @ 2.3rpo | 1st bowler used, only CD bowler below 4rpo
Clarkson is the only bowler in Ford Trophy with 10+ wickets. He is the only CD bowler who has rolled out the full 30 overs available and the next best CD bowler is lefty tweaker Jayden Lennox on 6w @ 20.1avg/4.3rpo. Clarkson’s best bowling format is one-day cricket where he has a record of 25.8avg/5.3rpo and here’s his recent List-A bowling seasons...
2022/23: 9w @ 18.6avg/4.8rpo
2023/24: 15w @ 23.8avg/5.5rpo
2024/25: 10w @ 34.6avg/5.3rpo
2025/26: 12w @ 8avg/3.2rpo
Clarkson has played three ODIs and eight T20Is for Aotearoa and he was predominantly selected for his batting. Clarkson averages 26+ in all three formats with a T20 strike-rate of 142 and his highest average (32) is in First-Class batting. Blackcaps can never have enough all-rounders and the best path to more Blackcaps cricket for Clarkson would be high quality swing/seam with lower order runs - not as a middle order batter who may bowl a few overs which is how his previous Blackcaps roles were.
As always I’m covering Kiwi-NRL news beyond the paywall. This week I zone in on Jenson Taumoepeau, Siale Faeamani, Harry Durbin and Setu Tu. I can’t break it all down yet but Excel Sports Management (Instagram | Facebook) is the busiest agent/manager for young Aotearoa wahine and I’m amazed by the number of young wahine moving into NRLW systems, so it hasn’t quite hit the mainstream yet.
One example is Tayla Peters who will join the Dragons junior system. Peters is a Pakuranga junior and went to Botany Downs Secondary College, cracking lots of rep teams in rugby league and union as a play-maker. You may have seen some headlines about rugby league pathways compared to rugby union and this is nothing special or new; Peters is just like most young men and women who play both codes (every youngster in the NZ Warriors NRL tier played 1st 15 rugby).
New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga records since 2022 Rugby League World Cup
NZ: 5-3
Samoa: 1-5
Tonga: 1-7
Same team named for Aotearoa to play Samoa. Josiah Karapani was an intriguing addition to the Kiwis squad to cover the outside backs after Sebastian Kris suffered an injury. Karapani is from Otara, an Otahuhu rugby league junior and he went to Pakuranga College. He could have been in the mix for Samoa and his selection would suggest that he is part of the Kiwis depth moving forward.
Kiwis will be keen to repeat their shutdown defence from the first two games, especially against Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. The difference in his running mahi isn’t massive but just enough to slow Samoa’s roll...
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck running mahi vs NZ and Tonga
NZ: 23 runs - 229m @ 9.9m/run, 69 pcm @ 3pcm/run
Tonga: 28 runs - 296m @ 10.5m/run, 100 pcm @ 3.5pcm/run
Three more pockets...
Phoenix Crossland dummy half running
vs Samoa: 3 DHR - 23m @ 7.6m/run
vs Tonga: 3 DHR - 37m @ 12.3m/run
Most offloads
vs Samoa: Jospeh Tapine (4), Moses Leota (3)
vs Tonga: Joseph Tapine (5), Keano Kini (4)
Most middle forward minutes
vs Samoa: Naufahu Whyte (60mins)
vs Tonga: Naufahu Whyte (55mins)
The Kiwi Ferns team to play Australia again has Tysha Ikenasio on the wing in place of Leianne Tufuga who is injured. Patricia Maliepo isn’t injured but she has lost her halves spot to Ash Quinlan which opens up a spot on the bench for Tyla King. King’s had a fascinating year of rugby league because she played a few different roles for Sharks in NRLW and didn’t play the first two games of Pacific Championships.
King played eight games in NRLW this year with six games coming off the bench where she usually covered hooker. She also started an played all 70 minutes at fullback for one game and started in the halves for another game.
Offloading wahine in Pacific Championships
Alexis Tauaneai: 1 vs Samoa, 2 vs Australia
Ivana Lauitiiti: 4 vs Samoa, 2 vs Australia
Musical jam…
Nick’s Notebook
Steven Adams is had a break today, rested with a minor injury for the Houston Rockets game against the Memphis Grizzlies. That was nice for the Grizzlies not having to see what they traded away. He’s not on a minutes restriction nor will he be automatically excluded from back to backs like he was for much of last season... but with a deep roster they can afford to give him a spell every now and then. Certainly no need to risk anything this early in the season. This team is in it for a championship after all.
Six appearances into the season, Steven Adams has been quietly awesome as usual. He’s laying down generational offensive rebounding numbers (probably going to lead the best offensive rebounding team in the NBA for the ninth time in twelve years. Yes, that’s a real stat – he’s at 8/11 right now (and remember he was injured for a year and a half). This was in the email a few weeks ago but it bears repeating...
NBA Offensive Rebound Leaders
2024-25 Houston Rockets (Adams)
2023-24 New York Knicks
2022-23 Houston Rockets
2021-22 Memphis Grizzlies (Adams)
2020-21 New Orleans Pelicans (Adams)
2019-20 New York Knicks
2018-19 Oklahoma City Thunder (Adams)
2017-18 Oklahoma City Thunder (Adams)
2016-17 Oklahoma City Thunder (Adams)
2015-16 Oklahoma City Thunder (Adams)
2014-15 Oklahoma City Thunder (Adams)
2013-14 Detroit Pistons
As for the individual rates, safe to say that nobody is challenging his title at the moment...
Highest Offensive Rebounding Percentage in the NBA This Season:
Steven Adams (HOU) – 21.3%
Moussa Diabaté (CHA) – 16.8%
Donovan Clingan (POR) – 15.5%
Jalen Duren (DET) – 15.5%
Day’Ron Sharpe (BKN) – 13.6%
Adams has a healthy positive plus/minus in his minutes thus far (+55 in 130 mins). He’s got one of the best Net Ratings on the team (+16.1). He’s doing a lot of things very well and contributing nothing but goodness to a team that looks like it could be a title contender. He’s third in the league for Box Outs per game. Screen Assists are actually down a bit but it’s only been six games. These aren’t very instructive sample sizes except for the fact that we know from seasons gone how Adams operates. But one thing that he’s never been good at is free throw shooting which is why one of the most undercover aspects to the start of Adams’ 2025-26 campaign is that he shot 11/12 at the line (91.7%) until missing a pair against Dallas the other day. That still puts him at 78% which is waaaaay better than the pitiful 46.2% he shot last year or the career low 36.4% he managed in his last half-season with Memphis.
Steven Adams + Alperen Sengun Double Big Update:
+56 in 95 minutes
Team shooting splits of 52/40/80
Opponent shooting splits of 47/33/57
132.7 Offensive Rating, 107.4 Defensive Rating, +25.3 Net Rating
There was a realisation that I stumbled into when writing the last Football Ferns yarn that we just don’t have as many players in the world’s best leagues as we used to. Writing about Ali Riley’s last professional appearance in Flying Kiwis yesterday got me thinking more about this. Due to Riley’s injury, Milly Clegg’s loan, Abby Erceg’s move to Mexico, and Macey Fraser’s poor treatment, there were only 198 minutes given to kiwis in the NWSL this year. But at least Riley and Fraser did still keep up the trend of at least two NZers being involved every season since 2016.
A similar streak was true in England’s WSL too... until CJ Bott, Anna Leat, and Indi Riley all left at once. Now there’s nobody. And there’ll be nobody in America’s NWSL next year until Milly Clegg can crack the Racing Louisville squad. Hopefully she will. Along with Spain’s Liga Femenil, those are the three best leagues on the planet (representing the three best national teams) and New Zealand has almost zero presence in them at the moment after many years of seeing our best players able to forge out spots for themselves there (well, not in Spain… but in the other two, sure).
This is a major factor in the current phase of the Football Ferns journey. Kate Taylor (Dijon in France) and Katie Bowen (Inter Milan in Italy) are holding it down at a very high level... those are arguably the next two best leagues going around. But in a vastly expanding women’s football scene with so many more opportunities available these days, it seems like the kiwis are starting to get overlooked.
It’s the same reason why we’re slipping down the FIFA rankings as more nations invest in female footy. We can’t do much about the latter as a small nation with limited funds... which is all the more reason why we need our best players at the highest level possible to piggyback off those more resourced spots. Part of that is our connection with the A-League which is why the delays to an Auckland FC team are so frustrating. But the ALW should only ever be a stepping stone for Aotearoa’s finest.
To put it all into context, here’s a breakdown of the club situations of every player picked in a Football Ferns squad this year (along with a few other asterisked notables who fit the criteria) using Global Football Rankings as a baseline...
Elite Three Global Leagues (USA, England, Spain)
USA: [Milly Clegg (Racing Louisville)]
Top Tier Leagues Ranked 4-10 (France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Brazil, Mexico)
France: Kate Taylor (Dijon FCO)
Italy: Katie Bowen (Inter Milan)
Germany: Suya Haering* (Carl Zeiss Jena)
Norway: Jacqui Hand, Liv Chance* & Liz Anton (Kolbotn)
Mexico: Abby Erceg* (Toluca)
Second Tier Leagues in Top 10 Nations
England: Katie Kitching (Sunderland), Hannah Blake & Mickey Foster (Durham), Grace Neville (Ipswich Town), Indi Riley (Crystal Palace)
Germany: Maya Hahn (Viktoria Berlin)
Sweden: Gabi Rennie (Eskilstuna United)
Top Tier Leagues Outside Top 10
Netherlands: Emma Pijnenburg (Feyenoord)
Canada: Meikayla Moore & Ally Green (Calgary Wild), Milly Clegg (Halifax Tides), Rebecca Lake (Vancouver Rise)
Iceland: Betsy Hassett (Stjarnan)
Denmark: Grace Wisnewski & Malia Steinmetz* (FC Nordsjaelland)
Switzerland: Lara Colpi* (FC Thun)
Austria: Jana Niedermayr* (Union Kleinmünchen)
Portugal: Jana Radosavljevic (Maritomo)
Plus everybody in the A-League... at which point it seems worth pointing out that the current All Whites squad has four players based in the A-League whereas the most recent Ferns squad had seven and that number’s likely to go up when Anna Leat and Macey Fraser return. Way too much A-League reliance there... although we do at least seem to be in for a very strong season in Aussie. The ALW is going to be good fun to track, which should ideally help boost a few more players to bigger and better things.
There is one golden addendum in that Gabi Rennie’s team have been promoted to the Swedish top division for next year so that’ll see her leap up into a higher category. But that’s likely to come at the expense of Haering and the three Norwegian girls who may be at top division clubs but they’re at top division clubs that lose every week and are on course for relegation. Poor old Jacqui Hand will have been relegated three seasons in a row with a different club each time unless a miracle occurs.
Also Abby Erceg is retired so it’s really only Taylor and Bowen at a genuinely high level right now. Even in the last tier there, Pijnenburg is only depth player, Colpi and Niedermayr are at relegation battlers, Radosavljevic and Steinmetz are out long term with ACL injuries, and Lake is the only one of the Canadian crew who made the playoffs (despite it only being a six-team comp with a top four).
2025 Women’s National League – Week 6
2025 Men’s National League – Week 6
The Wellington Phoenix & Auckland FC Pre-Derby Notebook
MNL Team of the Week #6
GK – Kai McLean (Auckland United) – His team won 3-0 in a game where they probably had fewer and lesser chances than Coastal Spirit... but that’s where a great goalkeeper comes in handy, as the Northern Irishman made a bunch of great stops, was flawless in the air, and was quick to get off his line when needed. Superb work.
RB – Hideto Takahashi (Auckland United) – Of course the veteran Japanese international was going to be a calming and instigating presence when AUFC finally won their first game. He was doing this in Aotearoa before Hiroki Sakai ever came to town, just so you know.
CB – Ryan Mackay (Auckland FC) – The last two weeks, Mackay has sneakily crept onto the A-League bench on a Saturday and then started in the National League on a Sunday. Gotta be doing something right to make it into a Steve Corica squad at age 18... watch how fluently well he goes in the Nats and you can see the vision.
CB – Ben Stroud (Christchurch United) – A goal and an assist on top of his also being a wicked defender, this dude is having a really strong campaign for the Rams.
LB – Oliver Van Rijssel (Christchurch United) – Another Rams defender, although as a wing-back his attacking duties are equally important and OVR happens to excel at both so there ya go.
CM – Tor Davenport-Petersen (Wellington Olympic) - If your definition of MVP is the best player on the best team then you know what? TDP might be your guy. I’m definitely starting to think that way.
CM - Daniel Normann (Western Springs) – The baby-faced Norwegian enforcer set up the winner for Western Springs in their win against Miramar and was all over their dominant second half as the Swans set up camp in the attacking half against ten men.
CM – David Yoo (Auckland City) – It hasn’t always flowed for Auckland City during this National League but even when the death-by-1000-passes stuff hasn’t worked (and in fairness there’s been a lot less of that without Albert Riera this year) they’ve always had David Yoo capable of creating something outta nothing with that wand of a left boot.
FW – Dejaun Naidoo (Auckland FC) – Here’s a stat from the write-up... AFC have lost both games that Naidoo didn’t start and are undefeated when he does (2 wins, 2 draws). Naidoo brought some flair to the left wing, especially in his combo with fullback Adama Coulibaly in the first half, boosted by an early goal and assist to get it going in a fantastic 3-0 win against Birkenhead United.
FW – Caspar McGavin (Western Springs) – Very intriguing prospect, a 19yo striker with pace and good movement and the tendency to pop up in the right place. He scored eight times during the Northern League and is now starting ahead of Ben Wallace in the Nats, scoring three times including the winner vs Miramar.
FW – Isa Prins (Wellington Olympic) – It’s just so much fun to watch this dude play at the moment. Always looks like he can spark something. A thrilling footballer who ought to very soon be playing at a much higher level.
Musical Jam...
