Oozing Mana
Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and Matt Henry in Bangladesh, Tall Ferns Return, plus Flying Kiwis Transfer Season
Podcast
Sons Of Sarpy (Flying Kiwis Football)
Kiwi NRL Podcast: Round 24 Preview
Reading Menu
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Tapping Into Junior Ratuva's Development (NRL)
How Jared Warea-Hargreaves and Jesse Bromwich Keep On Leading The Best NRL Teams (NRL)
Roster Tweaking & Other Offseason Occurrences with the NZ Breakers (Football)
Cast Your Blackcaps Gaze Towards Tim Seifert In The Caribbean Premier League (Cricket)
Growing Sprouts In The Northern Districts Knights Garden (Cricket)
A Deep Dive Into Aotearoa White Ferns Talent Identification (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Preparing for Blackcaps in Bangladesh…
The Blackcaps get their T20 extravaganza started this week with the group of second tier T20 lads playing a hot Bangladesh outfit. All I really know about Bangladesh T20 business is that they defeated Australia fairly comprehensively recently - although that’s balanced out by Australia’s low key turmoil featuring mediocre T20 results in general and dramas around coach Justin Langer. Bangladesh in Bangladesh will be good and they should be rolling out a team much closer to their T20 World Cup group than the kiwis.
Regardless of results, this will be a fun series to track which individuals impress over five T20I games. Young players coming into their first Blackcaps mixer, domestic troopers getting a look in at higher honours and veteran Blackcaps enjoying a bit of T20I cricket. That last pocket features three Cantabrians who are an undercover fun yarn to follow.
Finn Allen’s absence led to Matt Henry’s call up. As explained by Gary Stead this is not like for like and everything is reinforced by the theme of 2021; player wellbeing.
Henry is also pretty good at T20 cricket. Had Henry been selected over Blair Tickner, Ben Sears, Scott Kuggeleijn, Jacob Duffy or Doug Bracewell it would have not have been too big an issue. Hamish Bennett is the the best T20 seamer in this squad. Henry isn’t perceived as being a T20 gun, while the rest of those dudes above have been in T20I team recently or have x-factor in Sears’ case.
Henry was 2nd in Super Smash wickets: 11inns 14w @ 24.64avg/8.28rpo/17.8sr.
Tickner was 1st so shout out to him with 17w @ 20.52avg/8.30rpo/14.8sr.
Henry’s T20 record…
T20I: 7w @ 27.28avg/8.68rpo/18.80sr.
T20: 88w @ 29.35avg/8.71rpo/20.20sr.
Henry’s form (featuring no T20 cricket)…
Ford Trophy: 3 wickets, 1, 1, 0.
Plunket Shield: 2, 3.
ODI vs Bangladesh: 1, 1, 4.
PS: 3, 1.
Test vs England: 3, 3.
26w in 13inns. Typical wicket gathering. No 5-fors, but lots of wickets. I’m interested in how much Henry plays, then how he performs in conditions that don’t really suit him. Henry’s a lovely kiwi seamer, nibbling on a length who is not known for a wide range of skills. Check Henry’s slower balls, swing and seam movement in weird conditions and how Henry leads as a senior Aotearoa bowler.
Tom Latham an Henry Nicholls are also kinda fascinating in this context.
Neither played in the Super Smash last summer. Latham’s last T20 game (Super Smash) was early 2019 and Nicholls last played early 2020. Latham’s last T20 international was late 2017 and Nicholls was early 2019. For Nicholls that is despite him grabbing a Sydney Thunder gig back in 2015/16.
What’s cool there is that Latham and Nicholls are certified Blackcaps who aren’t too buzzed about T20 cricket. This is in tune with the avant-garde superstars Neil Wagner and BJ Watling - now it’s Wagner holding things down. If they really really really wanted to, I reckon Latham and Nicholls are good enough to fine tune their T20 batting and operate at a higher level consistently.
Both have kinda horrible T20I records, but for T20 cricket both average just below 30 with strike-rates around 130 (same bracket as Tim Seifert - big knock overnight so big ups).
Keep an eye on their work square of the wicket - sweep shot mainly. Slower Asian pitches and two savvy kiwi batsmen who have scored runs around the world. Both are good cutters as well, strong off their legs to deal with straight spinners. Their craft will be crucial and instead of whacking sixes, these two could shine by banking on scoring 30 runs @ 110sr … as senior batsmen.
As Test and ODI 1st 11 players, Latham and Nicholls ooze Blackcaps mana. More so than Henry. This specific Blackcaps squad needs their veterans to score the bulk of their runs - I’m eager to see Latham and Nicholls do just that.
One last thing that I enjoyed about Latham and Nicholls was how they scored runs for Blackcaps and Canterbury. Here’s how these two performed for Canterbury last summer…
Plunket Shield
Latham: 7inns, 365 runs @ 52.14avg, 1 x 100, 2 x 50.
Nicholls: 4inns, 229 runs @ 57.25avg, 2 x 50.
Ford Trophy
Latham: 6inns, 280 runs @ 70avg, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.
Nicholls: 5inns, 365 runs @ 121.66avg, 2 x 50.
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Hits Keep Coming
Goals on top of goals on top of goals. Nothing for Sarpreet Singh this week, his streak of goal contributions is over after SSV Jahn had a back-down-to-earth game losing 2-0 to St Pauli... but that was overdue. Up until then he’d been on fire and McCowatt/Just at FCH are on fire and Joe Bell’s on fire and Bell got to play alongside Olympic teammate Gianni Stensness who made his debut off the bench for the last quarter of an hour of that game and Emma Rolston is on fire with two goals already for a club she only just joined about three weeks ago.
The goals are always good fun and there’ll be plenty of context in Flying Kiwis tomorrow, which I can tell ya because I’m neck-deep in putting it all together at the moment is gonna be another absolute banger. They’re so stacked these days that I’m having to leave out perfectly reasonable performances just to keep things feasible. It’s borderline a full time project at the moment. Bloody hell. Support us on Patreon if you appreciate the hustle, gotta pay the bills somehow especially in lockdown days.
But as you know I’ve also been deep in on this idea of Flying Kiwis Transfer Season and it feels like the appropriate time to mention that the English transfer window closes on Wednesday at 10am Aotearoa time. Most other Euro nations will close around the same time so things are about to get extremely frantic as second chances go out the window and the panic buying begins. Even the clever teams often wait until late as they try to haggle prices down.
Further yarns about the various Flying Kiwis deals of August 2021 will follow on Weds/Thurs. Already we’ve seen Emma Rolston(Arna-Bjørnar), Anna Leat (West Ham), Gianni Stensness (Viking FK), Logan Rogerson (FC Haka, loan), Olivia Chance (Celtic), Joey Champness (Giresunspor), Katie Rood (Southampton), and Matthew Garbett (Torino) all in the books – not to mention the W-League signings - and we may not be done there either.
Speculation remains rife that Joe Bell could be off to Barnsley or some other English Championship team. Ryan Thomas is being linked with a loan out to Fortuna Sittard. Erin Nayler is still without a club (the womens’ transfer window remains open beyond the men’s deadline tbf – she’s also a possibility for a W-League contract). You never know with Libby Cacace, he’s got many fans around the traps.
Meanwhile West Ham’s signing of Kurt Zouma over the last couple days seemingly makes Winston Reid’s perilous path back into the Hammers’ backline even less likely... though he’s gotta get fit again before anything can happen there. Another loan to the Championship feels like the best bet. Then you never know if some domestically based player may have a move in the works from outta nowhere. Busy couple days on the horizon.
Yeah Go On Then...
There’s a growing trend of NZ teams getting back into international competition after long breaks. Word is that the All Whites are close to confirming a couple fixtures in the October FIFA window – almost certainly in Asia/Middle East and probably with a largely Euro-based squad. Aotearoa last played a senior men’s football international in November 2019... which was the same month that the Tall Ferns last played.
Neither the Ferns nor the Tall Blacks were able to go to their Olympic qualifying tournaments, same deal with the 3x3 teams, because the money ran out. That sucked. But here’s a pretty exciting Asia Cup squad competing in a month’s time (with the squad to be reduced to 12 for the tourney).
Japan are the danger team in that group, while Korea will probably be narrow-ish favourites against NZ though we’ll be expected to beat India. The Ferns are capable of winning all three though. No Toni Farnworth (retired), Stella Beck (injured), or Ella Fotu (work commitments) but the likes of the Leger-Walker sisters, Kalani Purcell, Penina Davidson, and Micaela Cocks are all there. The men’s team will find out their World Cup 2023 qualifying draw path tomorrow night too. International basketball on the return. Love it.
On The Screen
Important loungin’ update now to tell you that I’ve watched the first three episodes of Reservation Dogs, the new telly comedy/drama created by Sterlin Harjo and produced by our fella Taika Waititi. With an entirely Native American crew and a largely Native cast it tells the tale of a group of teenagers living on an Oklahoman reservation as they go about their daily adventures, dreaming of one day escaping to the (supposedly) golden shores California. A show which is giving a voice to the indigenous communities of America that goes beyond – and actively makes fun of – the typical representation that they get in media which tends to stick somewhere between bad guys in westerns, noble spirit guides, and casino owners.
All of that fits in beautifully with Taika Waititi’s endeavours, though he hasn’t actually had that much to do with the creative side of things (even though he was influential in getting it greenlit). He’s credited as a co-writer on episode one but doesn’t direct any of the eps, presumably down to pandemic reasons. And yet the humour feels so much like his deadpan style. Waititi and Harjo are mates going back a while – Harjo’s an acclaimed indie director and part-time comedian of indigenous heritage so lots in common there – thus there’s clearly an influence... but also maybe there’s a parallel tendency to find laughs in a post-colonial world that transcends Native American and Māori cultures, dunno. Could be. Not really for me to say.
Main point being that it’s really good. The cast is superb, the writing is sharp yet subtle, there’s an instantly recognisable vibe to the show and it’s able to get you caring for the main characters pretty much right off the bat. Things move at a comfortable pace, a couple of the eps are basically hangout capsule episodes, yet there remains more than a hint of tragedy just below the surface (explored mostly in the first ep). It’s really good. Give it a go.
Also gotta warn you that I watched Pig as well. A new one with Nic Cage in the lead role as a widowed hermit whose prized truffle pig gets stolen and he spends the rest of the movie trying to get it back. Strange film. I went in expecting Mandy 2.0 (in which Cage’s girlfriend gets stolen and he spends the rest of the movie trying to get her back) but this was very much not that. That movie was wild and vivid and violent and psychedelic. This one is slow and dark and quiet.
It does flirt with being a revenge flick for a while there but then it also flirts with a lot of genres. It’s a fancy restaurant culture satire for a bit. It’s an underground mystery for a bit. It’s a familial drama for a bit. It’s even a road movie for a little while. Mostly though it’s a deep and dark meditation on grief, on suffering, and on the things that we chose to grieve and suffer for (because those are the things that we love).
I don’t wanna spoil anything about it. Pig is not for the faint of heart (emotionally speaking) but there’s a lot to like about it. Cage’s performance was tops, as was supporting main man Alex Wolff (aka the kid from Hereditary – who is also really good in those two surprisingly good Jumanji reboots, that lad knows what he’s doing). It’s a debut feature by Michael Sarnoski so that’s always exciting. Just needed to be a tad more tonally consistent, maybe scratch a couple of the detours out. But close enough. Definitely recommend it if you’re a fan of the last couple Lynne Ramsay films - this had overt You Were Never Really Here vibes for me, although not sure it’d quite stack up as a double feature with that particular modern classic.