Opportunity Jumps
Super Smash notes, Five Funky Kiwi-NRL Juniors, another Breakers defeat, kiwi boxing in the spotlight & more
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2025 New Zealand Women Warriors Signings Tracker: Third Wave (Rugby League)
2025 New Zealand Women Warriors Signings Tracker: Second Wave (Rugby League)
2025 New Zealand Women Warriors Signings Tracker: First Wave (Rugby League)
Five Funky New Zealand Warriors Storylines Heading Into The 2025 NRL Season (Rugby League)
Regular Programming Resumes For New Zealand's White Ferns After 2024 Rose Bowl (Cricket)
2024/25 New Zealand vs Sri Lanka T20 Series Preview (Cricket)
Taking Stock Of New Zealand's 2024 Test Cricket Transition & Future Forecast (Cricket)
This New Zealand Breakers Season Is Capitulating Before Our Very Eyes (Basketball)
2024 Women’s National League – Team of the Season (Football)
Flying Kiwis – December 18 (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Not much to report about from the first day of Super Smash, apart from Auckland women bowling. Bree Illing leads the new wave of lefties in New Zealand, along with Northern Districts batter Yasmeen Kareem and Central Districts all-rounder Flora Devonshire. Rolling with the trio theme, Illing is similar to the Penfold sisters who offer more pace and bounce than most.
Here’s Illing's recent mahi in domestic cricket, showing an improvement in HBJ Shield leading into Super Smash...
HBJ Shield
23/24: 56ov, 11w @ 26.6avg/5.2rpo
24/25: 57ov, 13w @ 17.5avg/4rpo
Super Smash
23/24: 30ov, 6w @ 31.5avg/6.3rpo
24/25: 3ov, 2w @ 8.5avg/5.6rpo
Of the three Auckland seamers, Josie has the best Super Smash record by a hefty margin...
Molly Penfold: 36.6avg/6.9rpo
Bree Illing: 31.5avg/6.3rpo
Josie Penfold: 15.7avg/6.8rpo
For M-Penfold it's obvious because her pace/bounce combo led to a swift rise into White Ferns. There aren't many seamers who bowl faster than J-Penfold and Illing though, something I'll be watching for in Super Smash.
Otago host Canterbury today at one of my favourite Super Smash venues - Molyneux Park in Alexandra (Basin Reserve in Wellington and Saxton Oval in Nelson spring to mind as other contenders). Funkiest squad selection wrinkles for this game day are Mason '17-year-old who bowls like Pat Cummins' Clarke and Lahiru Vimukthi, who offers rather cosy travel vlogs.
At a time when Aotearoa has an abundance of kinda freaky young talent, Clarke pops up to amplify the noise. Clarke was the youngest in the NZ U19 squad earlier this year and, crikey, the lad took 7w @ 15avg/5.5rpo.
Also no Rhys Mariu for Canterbury today. Tom Latham could be replaced by Henry Nicholls so Mariu will be down the pecking order unless there are injuries etc. This is a good learning spot about how Mariu's game is viewed right now - Matt Boyle and Harry Chamberlain are the notable inclusions ahead of Mariu. Boyle top-scored in the two NZ 11 hit-arounds vs Sri Lanka.
Five funky Kiwi-NRL juniors to look up/yarn about/stash up your sleeve...
Te Hurinui Twidle (Turangawaewae - Eels)
Fullback/half. Big body, quick, skillful. Similar Eels journey to Dylan Brown. Should be a consistent NSW Cup starter next season moving up from U21s.
Felix Fa'atili (Hornby - Sharks)
One of the best genuine big boppers in Australia, stepping up to NSW Cup from U21s. Likely to get bench minutes and will probably snap up any chance to start.
Makaia Tafua (Linwood - NZ Warriors)
Hooker who played three U21 games this year and 17 NSW Cup games. Impressive physicality in defence, crafty out of dummy half. NZW recruited Sam Healey as a hooker which stalls Tafua and Jacob Auloa, but they are younger and have already flashed NRL-calibre physicality.
John Fineanganofo (Auckland Grammar - Dolphins)
Utility who played six games of U19s for Redcliffe and six games of Queensland Cup. In Q Cup his first two games were in the halves, then one game on the bench and three starts at centre. This U19 chap started and played 80+ minutes in five of his six games of reserve grade. Perfect bench player for Dolphins in the NRL.
K-Ci Newton-Whare (Riccarton - Storm)
Middle forward, smaller than Fa'atili. Left Christchurch to play two seasons for Burleigh (U19/U21s) and has now had two seasons in Melbourne. Played six U19 games last year and 17 U21 games, then 22 games of U21s this year. Could get a few reserve grade games in QLD or NSW depending where Storm put him.
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
There’s a fascinating Aussie NBL game going down on New Year’s Eve, when the Cairns Taipans will host the New Zealand Breakers. Cairns played last night, losing 76-66 to Melbourne United. It was a low scorer in which the two sides combined to shoot 16/70 from three-point range. Melbourne’s kiwi trio didn’t help matters, shooting 0/8 combined for their threes, though Rob Loe and Flynn Cameron in particular were both big positives on the court despite relatively small stat lines – part of the bench unit that took the game away from Cairns.
Melbourne Utd needed that win after following a five-game winning streak that had surged them right up the ladder… with a four-game losing streak that tumbled them back down a couple places. However, those Taipans... jeepers. Great to see Sam Waardenburg back after missing a couple games injured but he couldn’t get his team to avoid a 14th consecutive defeat. They were 3-1 to start the season and now they’re 3-15. Horrendous stuff yet if there’s one team that can rival them in current slumpage then it’s the New Zealand Breakers with their eight losses on the trot. These two meet on New Year’s Eve and they can’t both lose. One of these pathetic runs of form is at least going to get a temporary correction.
I’m repeating myself here but the Breakers were 7-3 at the FIBA break and have since lost eight games in a row – coinciding with the Freddie Gillespie>Tacko Fall transition. The latest was a Christmas Day loss away to Tasmania JackJumpers in which they once again stayed close for three quarters then crumbled in the fourth to lose 97-82. Another double-digit deficit. The funny thing is, Tacko Fall had 11 points and 9 rebounds and is starting to make a habit of logging positive on-court numbers. He was +14 in his 16 minutes against the Jacks. Of course, anything less than that would be a joke given that they’re adjusting the entire team on the fly to suit his unique skill set, an adjustment that is very clearly coming at the expense of everyone else.
The embarrassment seeped beyond the scoreline in that JackJumpers game... with star player Parker Jackson-Cartright now facing a possible fine/suspension after shoving over a referee during the fourth quarter. It wasn’t quite as bad as that sounds, PJC got in a scuffle with Reuben Te Rangi (who’s had a couple banger games for Tasmania lately) and the refs tried to break things up. The ref in question actually argued in favour of leniency for PJC, hence he escaped with only a technical foul, but PJC still extended the arm and bumped him off. Gut feeling is he escapes with only a fine but we’ll find out tomorrow when the judiciary meets.
Regardless, it was a bad look for the leader of this team to be losing his head like that, no doubt reflecting the free-falling state of the team’s season. Also not a good look is when you’re trying to be a tough guy and one of the other referees walks in and simply picks you up and carries you away, taking a leaf out of Steven Adams’ book. Reuben Te Rangi was very obviously not intimidated by any of it. Finally, those Xmas jerseys from both teams are awful lol.
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The Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury fight that went down the other day got plenty of attention. Great battle between two of this era’s finest, though Usyk did ultimately deserve the victory (albeit probably not by as much as the judges suggested on the cards). Forget about that though, the real funkiness in the boxing world is still to come. If you watched the aftermath of that heavyweight title bout you’ll have spotted a certain Daniel Dubois getting in the ring and telling Usyk that he “wants his revenge”. This after Usyk beat Dubois with a ninth-round knockout back in 2023. Usyk even went as far as telling one of the Saudi emissaries hanging around to go ahead and make that his next fight.
Yeah but the thing with that is... Dubois is fighting Joseph Parker on 22 February in a defence of the IBF heavyweight title that Usyk himself vacated in order to arrange the Fury rematch. And if that whole incident reminds you of anything it should be the Parker vs Deontay Wilder bout where even the press was already hyping up the Wilder vs Anthony Joshua effort that was arranged to follow... only for Parker to topple Wilder over a comprehensive twelve round decision and spoil everything. Parker then beat Zhilei Zhang who himself beat Deontay Wilder a few months later. Dubois is risking the exact same eye-off-the-ball mistake that Wilder did.
That’s going to be a fantastic fight but before that happens there’s another kiwi going for a world title: David Nyika has stepped up on short notice to fight Australian Jay Opetaia for the IBF cruiserweight championship on 8 January. Huseyin Cinkara of Germany got injured (a broken ankle) and withdrew three weeks out from the date. When that happens for a title fight, the governing body tends to move down the rankings to find the best possible replacement.
Nyika is ranked tenth by the IBF so they would have had to go through a few rejections before they got to him. Everyone else in the top ten is based in Europe though, whereas Nyika is a kiwi who trains in Australia. In fact, he trains in the same state (Queensland) as Opetaia does so the pair have sparred many times and this is a bout that Nyika has long targeted. It’s happened earlier than expected, given that 10-0 Nyika’s never really fought anyone of serious note yet in his pro career (never needing to go past the fifth round). But you can’t necessarily wait around for the most convenient moment. It says a lot that Nyika jumped at this opportunity.
Opetaia is 26-0 with 20 knockouts as a professional. He won the IBF Cruiser title in July 2022 when he beat Mairis Briedis in a unanimous decision – an event that Nyika was also involved in (much earlier in the afternoon). Opetaia pummelled Jack Massey most recently for a sixth-round TKO, though he was sloppy in his rematch win over Briedis before that. Nyika’s definitely not without hope against a potentially vulnerable champ here.
But wait there’s more because on 25 January there’s also Mea Motu seeking to win a Super Bantamweight unification bout against Ellie Scotney in England. This is a rescheduled bout after Scotney got injured in the lead up to the original October date. Motu then took on Shannon O’Connell of Australia at short notice instead and absolutely wrecked her for a fourth round stoppage (O’Connell’s team throwing in the towel). Scotney holds the IBF, WBO, and Ring Magazine world Super Bantamweight belts. Motu holds the IBO championship which she claimed with a decision win against Tania Walters in April 2023 and has successfully defended on four subsequent occasions. She is 20-0 for her career with eight wins by knockout.
So that’s three NZ boxers fighting for world titles within the next two months:
David Nyika vs Jay Opetaia on 8 February (IBF Cruiserweight)
Mea Motu vs Ellie Scotney on 25 January (IBF, WBO, IBO & Ring Magazine world Super Bantamweight)
Joseph Parker vs Daniel Dubois on 22 February (IBF Heavyweight)
NZers in ALW by Expected Goals
Deven Jackson (Newcastle) – 3.6 xG for 2 goals
Kelli Brown (Perth) – 3.3 xG for 3 goals
Emma Main (Wellington) – 2.3 xG for 1 goal
Alyssa Whinham (Wellington) – 1.7 xG for 0 goals
Manaia Elliott (Wellington) – 1.5 xG for 1 goal
Annalie Longo (Wellington) – 1.1 xG for 2 goals
Liz Anton (Canberra) – 0.8 xG for 0 goals
Ruby Nathan (Canberra) – 0.7 xG for 0 goals
Zoe McMeenen (Wellington) – 0.6 xG for 1 goal
Olivia Ingham (Wellington) – 0.4 xG for 0 goals
Based on those numbers, the finishing needs a touch up. Grace Jale isn’t even in the top ten there, with 0.3 xG from her seven total shots. There isn’t necessarily a Hannah Wilkinson type NZer in the comp this year though, most of these players are either wingers or midfielders primarily. Also it sounds like Kelli Brown is going to miss a bit of time with a knee injury now which is very much not appreciated.
Leading Test Match Wicket-Taker For NZ In Each Calendar Year
2024 – Matt Henry (48 wickets 2 18.58 average)
2023 – Tim Southee (24 @ 27.41)
2022 – Tim Southee (28 @ 38.89)
2021 – Kyle Jamieson (27 @ 17.51)
2020 – Tim Southee (30 @ 17.03)
2019 – Neil Wagner (43 @ 17.81)
2018 – Trent Boult (33 @ 23.90)
2017 – Neil Wagner (36 @ 25.47)
2016 – Neil Wagner (41 @ 21.04)
2015 – Trent Boult (36 @ 31.47)
2014 – Trent Boult (34 @ 28.58)
2013 – Trent Boult (46 @ 25.08)
2012 – Doug Bracewell (26 @ 37.38)
2011 – Chris Martin (20 @ 29.45)
2010 – Daniel Vettori (26 @ 38.42)
2009 – Chris Martin (30 @ 33.93) & Iain O’Brien (30 @ 40.66)
2008 – Daniel Vettori (54 @ 26.12)
2007 – Chris Martin (6 @ 33.83)
2006 – James Franklin (29 @ 29.96)
2005 – James Franklin (27 @ 28.37)
2004 – Daniel Vettori (38 @ 32.21)
2003 – Daryl Tuffey (16 @ 32.62)
2002 – Daryl Tuffey (26 @ 14.69)
2001 – Chris Cairns (23 @ 26.69)
2000 – Shayne O’Connor (29 @ 23.86)
Musical Jam...