Paddling Down The Estuary
Super Smash Men & Women, Wellington Phoenix vs Brisbane, Flying Kiwis trends, NZ Breakers stuff, Blackcaps cricket, and more
Scotty’s Word
Super Smash finally takes a chill pill for one day and that gives us an opportunity to take stock. There have been a few rained off games but Canterbury are 3-0 at the top of the men’s competition while no other team has more than one win and Wellington are 3-1 at the top of the women’s competition, while Southern Districts (formerly Otago) and Central Districts have two wins each.
The funkiest women’s player has been Izzy Sharp who has two 50+ scores in three innings and three losses with Canterbury wahine. Sharp has been in tremendous form this summer and none of her comrades aside from another youngster in Jodie Dean seem keen to smack runs, so it’s all about Sharp.
Izzy Sharp (21yrs) this season
HBJ Shield: 195 runs @ 32.5avg/87sr, 1 x 50
North vs South: 91 runs @ 30.3avg/157sr, 1 x 50
Super Smash: 144 runs @ 72avg/156sr, 2 x 50
Aside from Wellington’s Xara Jetly being the leading wicket-taker in Super Smash and tied for the most wickets in HBJ Shield, my favourite bowling thing is the cluster of young seamers around Aotearoa. Southern Districts’ Louisa Kotkamp is the best of these bowlers in Super Smash, closely followed by Lucy Boucher, while others like Kayley Knight, Jess Simmons, Marama Downes, Emma Black and Missy Banks are tracking well.
Young seamers in HBJ Shield & Super Smash…
HBJ Shield
Kayley Knight: 13w @ 11.6avg/3.6rpo
Emma Black: 12w @ 15.4avg/3.3rpo
Missy Banks: 11w @ 18.1avg/4rpo
Jess Simmons: 8w @ 20.7avg/4.7rpo
Lucy Boucher: 7w @ 14.1avg/3.9rp
Marama Downes: 5w @ 30avg/3.2rpo
Louisa Kotkamp: 3w @ 40.6avg/5.3rpo
Super Smash
Louisa Kotkamp: 6w @ 14avg/7.6rpo
Lucy Boucher: 5w @ 7.4avg/4.1rpo
Emma Black: 5w @ 12.6avg/5.2rpo
Jess Simmons: 3w @ 11.6avg/5.8rpo
Marama Downes: 3w @ 17.3avg/6.2rpo
Missy Banks: 3w @ 23.6avg/10.1rpo
Kayley Knight: 2w @ 24.5avg/6.1rpo
Canterbury men have Chad Bowes and Tom Latham as two of the three batters who have scored 140+ runs. They also have Matthew Boyle and Mitchell Hay who have flourished on the backs of those openers with the two youngsters owning the highest strike-rates for Canterbury.
This offers a snapshot into Aotearoa cricket. On the women’s side we have had the combination of Ellyse Perry withdrawing from the WPL and playing for Wellington on the same day, as well as a bunch of Aussies/English players who want to play Super Smash ... but the best players in women’s Super Smash are still kiwis and many are emerging young players.
The leading run-scorers in the men’s competition are mature blokes in Dane Cleaver and the Canterbury openers, but there are lots of youngsters at the top of the highest batting strike-rate charts. Scott Kuggeleijn added himself to this list with his epic knock to snatch a draw for ND vs SD last night but that’s balanced by youngster Ben Pomare also shining after being subbed in for Jeet Raval and hitting a six of his first ball.
Eight batters have strike-rates over 170 and all except Kuggeleijn are 25-years-old or younger...
Scott Kuggeleijn: 67 runs @ 231sr
Matt Boyle: 99 runs @ 198sr (22yrs - 7x6)
Ben Pomare: 38 runs @ 190sr (25yrs)
Lachlan Stackpole: 60 runs @ 181.81sr (20yrs)
Mitch Hay: 40 runs @ 181.81sr (25yrs)
Bevon Jacobs: 109 runs @ 178.68sr (23yrs - 8x6)
Jamal Todd: 117 runs @ 174.62sr (21yrs - 10x6)
Jesse Tashkoff: 117 runs @ 172.05sr (25yrs)
Playing the most games lends itself to hitting the most sixes which is why I prefer strike-rates at this stage but three of the four players who have hit seven or more sixes are youngsters as well. Tom Latham has eight alongside Jacobs, while Todd’s leading the competition and Boyle is fourth.
The best seamers are all in the emerging bracket as well. Unfortunately one of my favourite cricketers Luke Georgeson suffered an injury for SD at Bay oval. He’s been having an awesome season and, despite not doing much last night, is still one of five bowlers who have taken 5+ wickets.
Two are spinners in Ajaz Patel (7w) and Cole McConchie (5w). Then there are two Canterbury seamers in Fraser Sheat and Cameron Paul along with Georgeson. Similar to their batting, Canterbury have two spin matua in McConchie and Ish Sodhi (4w) doing well plus the younger lads in Sheat and Paul shining.
The only bowlers who have strike-rates below 10 and have rolled through at least 4 overs are youngsters...
Luke Georgeson: 6.2ov, 5w @ 7.6sr
Harjot Johal: 4ov, 3w @ 8sr
Yahya Zeb: 5.4ov, 4w @ 8.5sr
Cameron Paul: 8ov, 5w @ 9.6sr
I’m also loving the wicket-keeping depth of Aotearoa. Last summer was Max Chu’s best season of domestic cricket for SD and he’s maintained that for this season, while Ben Pomare is in his best season across all three formats for ND. Both are behind Hay in the Blackcaps pipeline and while there are a few more deep cuts, having three fabulous wicket-keepers in their mid-20s delivering career best mahi is a fantastic pozzie.
White Ferns have Izzy Gaze and Polly Inglis competing for game time in the same squad, then Kate Gaging and Holly Topp are on the rise as the next wave of keepers.
One more funky thing is how two undercover spinners are doing well on the women’s circuit. CD’s Elizabeth Cohr is tied with Jess Kerr and Jetly for the most HBJ Shield wickets after her first four games of one-day cricket at this level, while SD’s Chloe Deerness is averaging less than 20 in both competitions this season.
Fran Jonas decided to dip out of Super Smash and Eden Carson is injured. The last thing I’d want to do as a White Ferns spinner is not be playing cricket because it’s one of the deepest positions in Aotearoa. SD don’t have Carson but they do have Anna Browning, PJ Watkins and Deerness, for example.
Jetly’s the best bowler in women’s cricket this season. Jess Watkins and Nensi Patel have been on the fringe of White Ferns mahi for a few year. Others like CD’s Ashtuti Kumar are on the rise as well. The best spinny talent though is Devonshire who also has the highest batting strike-rate (175.43sr) of the four ladies who have scored 100+ runs.
Not unique because all teams across the Niche Cache beat have tremendous depth and those who are worried about depth clearly aren’t paying attention. I’m expecting the Blackcaps T20 World Cup squad to drop any moment and I won’t have an update to this blurb if it’s announced later today, but there are so many options available that I’m happy to roll with selections.
This is complicated by T20 mahi around the world. Tim Seifert, Finn Allen, Devon Conway and Adam Milne are doing well in their jobs. Three of those dudes are competing for two batting spots at the top of the order along with Tim Robinson and Rachin Ravindra, with Sefiert’s wicket-keeping prowess and his mahi for Aotearoa making him the only bloke doing T20 jobs that I really want in my Blackcaps 1s 11.
Lockie Ferguson is out injured and I doubt he will play for Blackcaps again. Milne is one of the best bowlers in SA20 (6w @ 9avg/5.4rpo) and his experience would be perfect for the Blackcaps squad, but even then I’m not desperate. Matt Henry and Jacob Duffy have been elite over the past year, Kyle Jamieson’s back moving the ball both ways and Zak Foulkes has been one of the most consistent kiwis in T20I cricket in recent times.
2025/26 Super Smash: Five Funky Emerging Men & Women
2025/26 Super Smash: Spotlight On Bevon Jacobs, Izzy Sharp, Xara Jetly & Cameron Paul
2025/26 Super Smash: All Things Otago
2025/26 Super Smash: Matthew Boyle, Flora Devonshire, Fraser Sheat & Xara Jetly
Ben Sears is back playing for Wellington and Jimmy Neesham’s fantastic efficiency makes him a T20 seam factor as well. There are five seamers and Neesham before getting to Milne, then sprinkle in the spinny conditions that will limit the number of seamers used in India. Blackcaps are well equipped in that silo as well with Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell and Rachin Ravindra in the squad to play India.
Kane Williamson? He wasn’t in my top-tier Blackcaps T20 group and now he has the second lowest strike-rate for the 19 SA20 batters who have scored 70+ runs. Williamson has 76 runs @ 25.3avg/122.5sr and is one of three batters who have 70+ runs and strike-rates below 130, which aligns with his T20 batting before his retirement ... that saved him from being ‘dropped’.
Beyond the paywall I paddle further down the estuary with a quick check in on Rhys Mariu and how he hasn’t found a Super Smash groove yet in his career. Considering that Mariu is one of Aotearoa’s best emerging talents and scored runs in his first dose of ODI cricket, the fact that he isn’t Canterbury’s best Super Smash youngster or in the same universe as the young sluggers shows how deep Aotearoa’s cricketing stocks are.
It’s even more crazy considering that Muhammad Abbas and Curtis Heaphy haven’t been mentioned prior to this paragraph. None of these lads are in my Men’s Emerging Super Smash 1st 11 which is listed beyond the wall along with the wahine team.
My mind is clouded by bread, ice cream and other festive kai so my rugby league antenna isn’t working as well as I want right now. Aside from the re-up about depth and how NZ Warriors have multiple options in every position, as well as flexibility to cover all positions mid-game as they did plenty last season, I can only offer plenty of recent rugby league mahi in the video format...
NZ Warriors Flexing In Australia & South Island Indicators
NZ Warriors Departures & U21 Recruitment | Rabbitohs Kiwi-NRL Spotlight
Freddy Lussick & The Small Forward Role At NZ Warriors
The Best Kiwi-NRL Juniors From Christchurch At The End Of 2025
NZ Warriors Sign Alofiana Khan-Pereira & Harry Inch
Musical jam...
Nick’s Notebook
What a Saturday night that was for the Wellington Phoenix. Particularly the fellas whose 3-0 win against Brisbane Roar was a resounding bounce-back after getting thrashed away to Melbourne Victory. I mentioned after that game how there have been certain match-ups where Chiefy Ball 3.0 just doesn’t seem to work... there are also a few where it works beautifully because they’ve now won twice against the Roar this season (home and away). They beat them through Carlo Armiento’s stoppage time winner in game two and now they’ve beaten them after Armiento was sent off in game eleven. The Roar have only lost three games this season: two against the Nix and one against Macarthur just prior to Xmas. Brizzy have also only conceded nine goals in 11 matches… five of those were scored by the Wellington Phoenix (Kazuki Nagasawa scored in both matches).
After the match, Giancarlo Italiano spoke about the unifying experience of a team having to suffer for a result, also mentioning how an away trip can help galvanise things. He even hinted that the team having had so many early home games might have counted against them (which I kinda agree with – especially since the low crowd numbers and the post-derby negativity began to hover over them). Well, they definitely suffered for this one. But playing more than half the match with ten men, in an echo of their defeat to nine-man Auckland FC a few months ago, might have helped in a backhanded way by forcing them into a deeper more conservative approach. That was perhaps more suited the task ahead of them. The Nix had 64% of possession in the first win against Brisbane and only 34% in this one.
The fact they were already 1-0 thanks a gift-wrapped goal for Ifeanyi Eze (made possible by the Nigerian’s insane work-rate) was also a boost, giving them something to protect. But they didn’t just sit back and soak things up… they continued to search for counter-attacks throughout, even deep in the game when they didn’t need to. They didn’t over-commit yet they always had enough numbers in support. Huge effort.
All three of the Nix’s goals were from direct/transitional moments. The second and third stemmed from dynamic deep dribbles by Eze and Luke Brooke-Smith respectively – situations that aren’t usually there in the more possession-orientated and high defensive line approach we usually see. Not saying they should abandon that for this... but it’s helpful to know you’ve got alternatives up the ol’ sleeve. Also note that it was Nagasawa and Paolo Retre who finished those two moves, a pair of midfielders making deep supporting runs where others in those situations might have held back rather than risk getting caught out of position. That’s what I mean about them staying positive even with ten men.
Despite how awful they were against Victory, Chiefy only made one change and that was Fin Roa Conchie coming in for Lukas Kelly-Heald. First minutes all season that LKH has missed (he was subbed on at HT for Roa Conchie because of the red card). Corban Piper switched to RWB with Matt Sheridan moving to LCB. Not coincidentally, that was the best that Sheridan’s played in ages... I like him so much better in the back three. With Armiento suspended next week, L.Kelly-Heald will probably play that left wing-back role and the back three can stay as it was. That’ll include teenage goalkeeper Eamonn McCarron, who suddenly ranks high on the Cojones Scale after an excellent display in response to shipping five against the Victory five days earlier. Made some very nice saves along the way although it was his composure under the high ball that stood out the most (as it did in his debut too).
More Quickfire Ideas...
That clean sheet snapped a 22-game streak without one for the Wellington Phoenix.
The last three ALM clean sheets for this team have been kept by Alby Kelly-Heald (2) and Eamonn McCarron. Josh Oluwayemi has a 21-game active clean sheet drought in his own personal appearances, dating back to a 1-0 win against Melbourne Victory in Unite Round in November 2024. And that doesn’t include the game he went off injured in after ten minutes in his last appearance.
The Nix blokes have won three and drawn once when they’ve scored the first goal in games this season. They had a comeback draw (Perth) and win (Brisbane) to begin the term but since then they’ve lost all five instances where they conceded the opener and are undefeated when they score it instead.
Ryan Lee debuted very late off the bench, subbed on for the closing seconds to soak up some time. He was on the bench unused for the Victory game as well. Probably best known for setting up the Luke Flowerdew winner in the Wrexham friendly, Lee is a left-back specialist with good energy and a bit of zip about him. Not as well-rounded as Xuan Loke but a similar style of player.
That makes Lee the fourth Academy debutant of the season and we’re not even halfway through: Xuan Loke, Anaru Cassidy, Eamonn McCarron, and Ryan Lee. Centre-back Mac Munro is probably the next guy up after that. Then perhaps guys like Dylan Gardiner and Luke Flowerdew might get a sniff, although there’s not a whole lot of room to go around. These things aren’t supposed to happen every week.
Welly Nix lads in Aotearoa this season:
7 G | 3 W | 0 D | 4 L | 10 GF | 12 GA | -2 GD | 9 PTS
Welly Nix lads in Australia this season:
4 G | 1 W | 2 D | 1 L | 7 GF | 8 GA | -1 GD | 5 PTS
Meanwhile, Auckland FC are playing tonight, also seeking to bounce back after a really poor loss against the New(zealand)castle Jets on New Year’s Day. Funny how Guillermo May comes back into the team and Lachlan Brook has to move back out wide and not only did AFC lose their recent attacking edge (aside from Jesse Randall who scored again via a cheeky free kick) but Sam Cosgrove reverted to his early season poor form. Shout out to those Jets though... they’ve won all three ALM games on NZ soil this season and their women’s team is stacked with kiwis. Gotta love what they’re up to.
Anyway, can’t say much about AFC that won’t become redundant in a few hours so forget them for now. There’s some chat about the Welly Nix Women later on for paid subscribers but first some basketball.
Three Signs of NZ Breakers Improvement
The Tai Webster addition was an excellent one, picking up an international calibre player with big NBL experience fresh from competing in the top division of France. This was also another one of those moves which you couldn’t have imagined happening prior to the ownership change. Webster’s not the three-point marksman they ideally needed but he raises the bar in every other way, giving them another ball-handler, a rebounding guard, a very solid defender, and an impact guy off the bench.
Better production from the imports has been the main difference between their early season defeats and their mid-season mini revival. That revival is on hold after four losses in their last five but they did win three in a row prior so they’re still averaging out at 50% and the main reason for that has been Karim Lopez having his minutes restriction lifted. Another reason why complaints about the kiwi depth in this roster were dumb is that the Breakers effectively have an extra import thanks to their Next Star being a valued starter at 18 years of age. For one thing, they’ve lost all five games in which Lopez has played fewer than 20 minutes. They’re also 6-2 when Lopez scores 12+ points. His threes are dropping a little less often than they were before and he has had a couple of stinkers across this recent dip but he’s second only to Sam Mennenga for rebounds and is getting steals and dunks every game. So many ways in which this guy helps the team.
Carlin Davison has scored in the double digits in three of the last four games. He shot 6/6 (with two triples) in the loss to Perth Wildcats on Sunday, with 14 points in 21 minutes. His career high was the 15 he got against Brisbane prior to Christmas. They lost all three of those games in question but not because of Davison, whose hustle off the bench (and increasing versatility) has been a bright spot even during the team’s off days. He continues to find ways to stay involved, constantly earning his opportunities. Believe it or not, he’s also made 6 of his last 8 three pointers to now have the equal third best 3P% in the team (behind Baker and Lopez, level with Webster). He and Reuben Te Rangi are the only locals to have taken the floor in every game this season
Three Ongoing NZ Breakers Weaknesses
Fourth quarter offence, yet again. There was nothing between them and Perth yesterday until the Breakers started doing silly things with the game on the line. Entire possessions spent patiently bouncing the ball around outside the key, zero penetration, before hoofing up a guarded three point miss (often from PJC who isn’t even that good of a jump shooter). Carlin Davison and Rob Loe got them to 82-all and then PJC put them ahead with 7:09 remaining... whereupon they missed their next ten field goal attempts in a row. Same drama this team has had in so many games this season. They don’t seem to have a reliable offensive identity to fall back upon when the game is on the line. They’re good when they can spring forward in transition, defence leading to offence, but when the game slows down and possessions get more deliberate they don’t seem to know what they’re doing.
Needless to say, that’s also a coaching issue.
Can’t only complain about the imports, Sam Mennenga needs a bit of focus too. The Tall Blacks big man has gone to a new level this season, discovering much of the consistency that he lacked in his previous campaigns. He’s a dominant player in any match-up... but with that comes responsibility. The team needs Mennenga to take over and guide them to victories in those fourth quarters. That’s the next step. In the 4Q against Perth, Mennenga shot 1/6 for 3 points with a turnover. He checked in at 82-all, then played the last eight minutes as his team ended up losing by eight. PJC gets the hype but Mennenga is the star of this team, he’s just gotta hammer that home a little more (guess what? This is another coaching issue).
Musical Jam...
