Pathways
1st 15 union/league deep cuts from NZR rep teams + a few Kiwi NFL prospects
Podcast
TNC Variety Show - Episode 33
The Niche Cast: Metaphorical Santa
Reading Menu
Learning About Kiwi-NRL Recruitment Through Deine Mariner's Journey (NRL)
Flying Kiwis - Winston Reid And West Ham Have Consciously Uncoupled (Football)
Flying Kiwis – September 21 (Football)
The All Whites Have Been Summoned Back From The Lost Realms For Some Actual Football Games (Football)
Sean Marks Has Quietly Had Yet Another Fantastic Offseason With The Brooklyn Nets (NBA)
New Zealand Cricket Pulls Out Of Pakistan Tour As Late As Possible (Cricket)
Joseph Parker’s Next Opponent Is His Last Opponent: Prepare for Parker vs Chisora II (Boxing)
Scotty’s Word
Tales From Aotearoa Junior Footy…
Couple junior footy deep cuts that have popped up recently - starting with NZ Rugby’s U18/Schoolboy rep teams. Three different teams were named and the Under 18 Maori team features Tamakaimoana Whareaorere from Rotorua Boys High School who signed with NZ Warriors back in 2019.
Whareaorere featured in Future Warriors stuff back in January 2020 alongside Francis Manuleleua, Jacob Laban and Xavier Tito-Harris who will pop up again below.
The U18 Maori team also features Northland duo Cullen Gray (Auckland Grammar) and Jade Stewart (St Kents) who were selected for a Junior Crusaders Camp in October. Crusaders do a nifty job of picking specific players from Auckland and these two continue that trend. Stewart is also the only player from St Kents selected across the three NZR rep teams and St Kents went 3-7 in Auckland’s 1st 15 competition.
Kelston Boys won the Auckland competition, going undefeated in the process. Tony Tafa played 6 games for NZ Warriors SG Ball (U18) early in 2020 and after helping KBHS go undefeated, Tafa was named in the NZ Schools team. Essendon Tuitupou was the other KBHS selection for NZ Schools and he played for Auckland Vulcans U16 vs Future Warriors U16 back in 2019.
Notable names from that Vulcans U16 team: Benaiah Ioelu (Roosters), Deine Mariner (Broncos), Keano Kini (Titans), Nathaniel Tangimataiti (Bronos), Salesi Ataata, Sebastyan Jack, Zyon Maiu’u (Warriors).
The NZ Schools team also features Manuleleua via Kings College. That’s two Warriors SG Ball players from early 2020 in the Aotearoa 1st 15 All Star squad.
The NZ Under 18 Barbarian team features Jeremiah Asi via St Peter’s College who played Warriors SG Ball. There’s also a chap named Filipo Whitehouse Opetaia Tovio who has featured in a bunch of NZRL rep teams while in Auckland before moving down to Otago Boys 1st 15.
Swing back to KBHS. Their penultimate game was against Kings College and that saw Tafa start at prop, Laban at lock and Maiu’u (NZRL U20s MVP) at flanker and Xavier Tito-Haris in midfield for KBHS (Tito-Harris and Laban / NZ Warriors reminder).
Kiwi-NRL Prospects named in Queensland U21s finals:
Wynnum: Sefa Roache-Faimalo (Marist), Caleb Savelio-Thompson (Northcote).
Townsville: Zinzan Martin (Hornby - Chch), Tyson Chase (Hato Paora - Palmerston North).
NZ Warriors named for Redcliffe Dolphins for their finals game Saturday arvo:
Viliami Vailea, Edward Kosi, Peesi Kepu, Tom Ale, Pride Petterson-Robati, Preston Riki, Kina Kepu.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Howdy Hugo…
76 days it took between the Hugo Besson signing being reported and the Breakers finally announcing it. The Besson thing first broke alongside the news that Peyton Siva was also signing as an import. Siva was unveiled a few weeks ago. Besson had to wait even longer. Besson has been in the country for ages, completed all his MIQ, and is in full training with the club now that Auckland is down to Level 3.
There was no roster reason why they couldn’t make Besson official. Corey Webster’s release only cleared space for the third import that they haven’t signed yet. Maybe they wanted to save this for after Tai Webster’s release because they had an inkling where that was headed? But Victoria only announced those new covid rules the other day. Eh, go figure. The Breakers’ media strategies are never normal.
Interesting point here is that the Breakers were initially looking at Besson for their Next Star spot but when they nabbed Ousmane Dieng instead they decided they liked Besson so much that they’d bring him in as an import too. Which is a hefty gamble. Those import spots are crucial to a team’s success and even more so now that the Webster Bros are gone. Relying on a teenager to produce in one of them ain’t exactly safe. Peyton Siva was a quality signing from day one but after the last week he’s now practically pivotal to their hopes and injuries have not been kind to the Breakers’ key players the last couple years, knock on wood.
But Besson is a very tidy prospect and there’s a genuine chance that both he and Dieng are drafted into the NBA within 12 months. Perhaps even both in the first round. It’ll be curious for sure because last season didn’t see as much Next Star prowess as the NBL would have liked due to the pandemic. Josh Giddey obviously led the way there although as an Aussie prospect he’s not quite what the programme is targetting. The Next Star idea is more about the LaMelo Ball/RJ Hampton types from the season before yet it’s fair to say that neither of them saw their draft stock boosted by playing in Australia. Ball still went third overall but, you know, a season at Duke or Kentucky and he’d have probably gone first.
Next Stars don’t contribute that much to wins in the NBL, there’s enough evidence of that already. But the Breakers have players they believe can carry them in those areas anyway and they’ve never been able to resist an NBA flirtation. Nor can the league itself as it vies to boost its commercial and competitive value with closer NBA links.
As for Dieng and Besson, they aren’t coming in purely to try win an NBL Championship. They’re looking for an experience that helps their development as players and gives them a boost in draft stock. Gonna be fascinating to see how that tracks come the 2022 NBA Draft.
NFL International Ambitions
The NFL has nowhere near the level of globalisation that the NBA has mustered but they’re trying. It’s harder for a sport that’s only really played at a high level in one country (apologies to the CFL)... but they do have this International Player Pathway thing in place which helps foreign players transition into the big league. Often from other sports.
The IPP has been around for about five years now, though there were other initiatives before it (and obviously many, many international players who got to the NFL by more conventional means – this is more for those who never moved to the States to go to uni). It functions as a catchment for foreign players who’d never otherwise be considered, the NFL knowing well the fresh markets that a single player can bring (remember the Jarryd Hayne bonanza making the NFL mainstream in Australia for a wee while?).
In order to allow for that potential, there are incentives for teams who have IPP players. Specifically that they count as a bonus player on their 90-man preseason roster or their 10-man practice squad. A free player, effectively (though not on the active roster). There are four new IPP players on practice squads this season:
Aaron Donkor, LB, Germany, Seattle Seahawks
Alfredo Gutierrez, OL, Mexico, San Francisco 49ers
Max Pircher, OL, Italy, Los Angeles Rams
Bernhard Seikovits, TE, Austria, Arizona Cardinals
That’s to go with several more from previous intakes who are still hanging around. The most famous of them in these parts is probably former South Sydney Rabbitohs U20 prospect Jordan Mailata who plays as an offensive lineman for the Philadelphia 76ers and who just a couple week ago signed a 4yr/$64m contract extension. Valentine Holmes also used the IPP as his way into the NFL.
You notice how the four players mentioned above all went to teams within the same division? That’s not a coincidence. The NFC West was selected at random to receive the four IPP players to make it through the 11-man competition for spots that took place at the start of the year. This was the longer list of contenders:
Aaron Donkor (Germany), Taku Lee (Japan), Yoann Miangue (France), Leonel Misangumukini (Austria), Adedayo Odeleye (United Kingdom), Ayo Oyelola (United Kingdom), Max Pircher (Italy), Sammis Reyes (Chile), Bernhard Seikovits (Austria), Lone Toailoa (New Zealand) & Alfredo Gutierrez (Mexico)
Spot that cheeky ‘New Zealand’ in there? Lone Toailoa was the first NZer ever invited to partake in the International Player Pathway. 25 years old, Samoan heritage, grew up in West Auckland and attended Kelston Boys High. He learned grid iron from playing Madden on the Playstation and was able to get a scholarship to head over to the USA first at a junior college and then, two years later, transferring to the University of California where he got on the team as a defensive lineman.
In 16 games across two seasons, he made 27 total tackles (8 solo) as well as 2.0 sacks and a fumble recovery. He also played rugby for Cal and graduated last year. Although Toailoa wasn’t picked up for one of the four roster spots, he did get nine weeks of training with NFL calibre coaches. The dream lives on.
Then there’s Misiona Aiolupotea-Pei who was born in Wellington and moved to the Gold Coast as a teenager, playing rugby league for Keebra Park State HS (one of the top league schools in Oz). Apparently he learned about the sport via the movie The Longest Yard, and after a couple setbacks in his league career he started playing locally in Queensland which led to Aiolupotea-Pei eventually attending Washington State as a defensive lineman. He played 25 games there over two seasons (he also did two years of junior college first) with 29 tackles, 3.5 sacks, and a forced fumble.
MAP wasn’t a part of the IPP but he did get drafted in the second round of the inaugural Canadian Football League’s Global Draft by the Edmonton Elks. He made their practice roster and although he was cut early in the season, he was then picked up by the Calgary Stampeders where he remains. The Stampeders have a 2-5 record at the midway stage of their season and are currently on their first bye week. Fingers crossed there’s a full roster spot for him before the end of the year.
Which brings us to this...
44 athletes from 14 countries amassing in London on October 12 at Tottenham Hotspur stadium - where the NFL has an existing relationship, hosting International Series games there. It’s also convenient timing for that exact reason because New York Jets vs Atlanta Falcons will take place there on October 10 and then on October 17 it’s the Miami Dolphins vs Jacksonville Jaguars. No doubt that’s far from accidental.
This is effectively a long list for next year’s IPP intake. A select number will be drawn from this camp to head to the USA for three months of training, like what Lone Toailoa did, with the final four allocated to NFL teams at the end of it. And a quick peek down that 44-man list pulls up the names Lance Leota and Shawn Tuione.
Lance Leota had been playing junior college in California, very much on the same progression as Toailoa and Aoilipotea-Pei, when his mother got sick and he returned to Aotearoa. She the passed away and he remained to look after his father. That appeared to be the end of a career path that had begun when he impressed at an open training camp in Aotearoa searching for foreign prospects.
But then Leota got the opportunity to play in Germany for the Leipzig Kings in the inaugural European League of Football (there are other, older European grid iron comps but this is the first fully professional one). Next thing Leota was selected as an ELF All Star defensive lineman. Now he’s on this 50-man list heading to London (one of 14 EFL players selected – four of them being from Leipzig).
And, as revealed on a 1 News profile, this is all happening a month after his daughter was born: Vaolele Grace Leota, named after Lance’s late mother. Leota was born in Samoa and grew up in South Auckland.
As for Shawn Tuione, like the rest of them he’s also a defensive lineman. Tongan heritage and has been studying at the Hawaii branch of Brigham Young University. BYU is a Mormon-founded college based in Utah and as such it’s a popular destination for a lot of kiwi sportsfolk who head down the USA college route – their rugby team usually has a New Zealander or two. Paul Lasike, the last NZer to play in the NFL, went to BYU. Not a lot of info out there about Tuione’s grid iron career though. He’s the only player on the longlist with an ‘N/A’ listed in his current team affiliation. Bit of a mystery man. Which’ll make the yarn even cooler if he makes it further.