Patience & Trust
Warriors victory notes, All Whites defeat notes, Northern League/NRFL Prem footy, Plunket Shield, Kiwi-NRL & NBL basketball
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Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Ooh Ah, Up The Wahs! (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Xavier Willison The Blossoming Big Bopper (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Deine Mariner's Flashy & Tough Start To 2024 (Rugby League)
All Whites at the ACUD Cup: A Typical Narrow Defeat vs Egypt (All Whites)
Exploring The Wellington Phoenix’s Newfound Defensive Excellence (Football)
Ben Old Has Dribbled His Way Into Golden Boy Status At The Wellington Phoenix (Football)
Football Ferns vs Thailand: Squad Yarns & Preview (Football)
Flying Kiwis – March 19 (Football)
2023/24 Plunket Shield: Michael Bracewell Explodes & More From Wellington vs Otago (Cricket)
2023/24 Plunket Shield: Canterbury & Auckland Upset Contenders (Cricket)
White Ferns vs England: Sneaky Player Stats & Trends (Cricket)
27fm Weekly Playlist: March 22 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
After digesting the NZ Warriors win over Raiders, I pondered how the playing style under coach Andrew Webster is most evident in Shaun Johnson and this playing style has nothing to do with razzle dazzle. NZW want to complete their sets, land kicks 10m out from the opposition tryline and dominate tackles. Most teams want to do this but coach Webster has had a swift impact as this style was fundamental to NZW success last season and after doing well in this set for set grind for the first two games, they perfected it against Raiders.
Here are Johnson's last three seasons for kicking metres, running metres and tackling efficiency...
2022
11th - 344km/game | 49m/game | 87.89% tackling
2023
1st - 524km/game | 60m/game | 90.82% tackling
2024
2nd - 523km/game | 76m/game | 81.69% tackling
Johnson had never averaged over 425 kicking metres per game prior to last season, now he's around 520km/game under coach Webster. Johnson has averaged over 70m/game running in five seasons prior to 2024 but this was dipping (72m, 65m, 49m) in the three seasons before coach Webster arrived. Last year was Johnson's first season tackling over 89% and being back in the low-80s is a concern, but something that will probably be corrected as the games roll along.
More kicks mean more kicking metres. Johnson's also offering longer kicks with more hang time to allow his defenders to get down the field. The patience and trust of this cycle is enjoyable and when it's working, points will be scored in the second half as was the case against Raiders.
Nothing makes me happier than seeing Tohu Harris' late footwork in front of a defender. Not quite as dramatic as Roger Tuivasa-Sheck but defenders and viewers may expect a Harris run to be a basic settler, until the footwork. In four of the five highlights vs Raiders used here, Harris either plays the ball or makes a pass. Harris' footwork and size helps him earn a quick play the ball or his passing can shift the footy/put Tom Ale into a hole.
Harris is averaging more minutes this season compared to last season as well after a small sample size. There is a slight decrease for Mitchell Barnett and almost 10mins less for Addin Fonua-Blake...
Tohu Harris
2023: 68mins
2024: 75.3mins
Addin Fonua-Blake
2023: 59.8mins
2024: 51.7mins
Mitchell Barnett
2023: 58.9mins
2024: 56mins
Xavier Willison finally played his first game of the season for Broncos in their loss to Panthers. Typically excellent mahi from Willison and the Waikato big bopper is averaging at least 10m/run in all three games he has played this year...
Q Cup Round 1: 43mins, 10 runs - 109m @ 10.9m/run, 18 tackles @ 90%
Q Cup Round 2: 21mins, 6 runs - 60m @ 10m/run, 12 tackles @ 100%
vs Panthers: 42mins, 9 runs - 93m @ 10.3m/run, 1 tb, 1 offload, 22 tackles @ 91.6%
Brandon Smith seems more comfortable in his second season with Roosters. Below are some stats from his last three seasons which includes his final season with Storm where he usually played as a small forward, resulting in more running metres. The Waiheke Ram has increased his running from last season, doubled his kicking and there is a decent jump in his tackling.
(Running | Kicking | Tackling)
2022: 96m/game | 13.2km/game | 91.7% tackling
2023: 61m/game | 30.4km/game | 90.4% tackling
2024: 69m/game | 61.6km/game | 96.6% tackling
I'm fascinated by Bay Roskill junior Naufahu Whyte with Roosters, who is overlooked for Siua Wong as fantastic young Roosters forwards (who were both recruited from Aotearoa). Wong has hype, Whyte doesn't. After 11 games in three seasons, Whyte was selected in the Aotearoa Kiwis squad last year and he is offering career-best mahi to start this season.
Whyte didn't have a linebreak in his first three seasons and he's got one so far this season. Whyte had three offloads last season and they were his only offloads across his first three seasons, this season he already has four. Whyte has also gone from 1.5 tackle breaks to 2.3 per game and while he is playing less, thus getting less metres per game; Whyte's more energetic this season.
Plunket Shield cricket is being played and three of Aotearoa's best youngsters showcased their talents on the first day. Zak Foulkes took 5 wickets for Canterbury and Dale Phillips scored 144 runs for Otago, plus Gareth Severin scored 80 runs in the anti-final for Wellington. Here the the career stats for these lads (Foulkes' bowling and batting for the other two)...
Zak Foulkes - 21yrs
FC: 26.7avg/3.2rpo
LA: 22.6avg/4.rpo
T20: 15.8avg/6.9rpo
Dale Phillips - 25yrs
FC: 37avg/52sr
LA: 25avg/81sr
T20: 16.1avg/109sr
Gareth Severin - 24yrs
FC: 48.3avg/50sr
LA: 20.4avg/62sr
T20: 23avg/106sr
Tim Southee is playing for Northern Districts in their must-winner vs Wellington ... bummer for Kristian Clarke who has 27w @ 24avg/3.5rpo as their second best bowler this season. ND rolled with the spinning Walker brothers, which along with the injection of Southee bumped Clarke out of the 1st 11. Southee is Southee and the Walker bros have 7 wickets between them on a spinny Seddon Park deck (Wellington are 282/9 at the time of writing), so it's a fair decision just a bummer for Clarke.
Below are the key performers from the NZ-A win over England in the first one-dayer with their HBJ Shield mahi from this summer in brackets...
NZ-A vs England
Polly Inglis: 46 runs @ 79sr (54avg/78sr
Caitlin Blakely: 44 runs @ 86sr (27avg/6sr)
Nensi Patel: 18 runs @ 163sr | 1w @ 3.2rpo (16avg/77sr | 31avg/3.6rpo)
Hayley Jensen: 4w @ 3.7rpo (27avg/3.8rp)
Leigh Kasperek: 3w @ 3.8rpo (20avg/4rpo)
Emma Black: 2w @ 3.7rpo (11avg/3.3rpo)
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The All Whites lost 1-0 to Egypt on Saturday, which is about par for the course with this team by now. They look good but then they still lose because they can’t score goals and there’s usually one silly mistake in there that costs them. There was good and bad from that match, which I’ve already written about in detail. And the outcome settles into what’s become a frustrating trend between both of our senior international sides.
Last 13 Games Against Non-Oceania Opposition:
All Whites:
1 W | 4 D | 8 L | 5 GF | 17 GA | -12 GD | 2 CS
Football Ferns:
2 W | 3 D | 8 L | 5 GF | 15 GA | -10 GD | 4 CS
There were a few pics from the NZF socials of the squad checking out the pyramids, doing what you’ve gotta do when you’re in Egypt. In that photo you might be able to spot what looks like a bandage on Finn Surman’s forehead. He copped a head knock in training and has since flown back to Wellington after being ruled out of the second match of the tour due to concussion protocols...
Add him to a list that also includes Chris Wood, Joe Bell, and Tim Payne as injured players. They were able to swap Payne’s seat on the plane over to Alex Rufer as cover but the other two, and now Surman too, got no replacements. I suspect they’ll keep a pretty similar line-up to the first game as they chase an elusive victory against Tunisia on Wednesday morning but this does leave them short on options. A 24-man squad has become a 21-man squad pretty quickly. And yet there are way more folks than that in the pyramids pic there. I count a full dozen support staff. Maybe there’s a tour guide and a bus driver there with complementary All Whites jackets, dunno, but that’s a large cohort. I’m all for the team getting whatever resources they can manage, I’m just surprised is all.
Northern League football began over the weekend. Central and Southern Leagues begin this upcoming week but there are more teams in the Northern conference so they get cracking quicker. Friday night was the first game, with Auckland City showing the benefits of having already played a couple of very competitive OCL qualifiers against Wellington Olympic as they started faster against Auckland United, with Tong Zhou (16’) and Liam Gillion (22’) both getting early goals. Ryan de Vries would add another in the second half for the defending champs to claim a 3-0 win against one of their main rivals.
There had been rumours of both Ryan de Vries and Adam Mitchell leaving Auckland City (both being listed as having left by Transfermarkt for a time) but neither of those seems to have transpired – easing some of the worries about where ACFC were at. The Auckland United team they faced was fascinating though. They had five separate player who went through the Wellington Phoenix Academy: Boyd Curry, Kurtis Mogg, Charlie Beale, Josh Tollervey, and Ben Wallace. They also had a guy called Phoenix... Codey Phoenix. The Welly Nix of the North. Chuck them in alongside guys like Dan Atkinson, Oli Fay, and Oliver Middleton and that’s some serious young talent. Hideto Takahashi must feel like a bit of a grandfather amongst them, especially with Mack Waite having moved on and Ross Haviland transitioning into more of a coaching role (perhaps he’ll still lace ‘em up now and then though).
Speaking of transfers, Manurewa lost damn near half their squad plus a coach since making the National League... but those that remained are still pretty decent and they won 3-0 away to East Coast Bays in week one with Jerson Lagos scoring twice. Lagos has joined them from Melville. Will be funky to see how it goes with Shuaib Khan down the line because he popped over from Manurewa to Rewa during the summer, helping the Fijian side qualify for the Oceania Champions League. So they might want him back later in the year, who knows.
The biggest upset was Bay Olympic scrambling in a 90+5th minute winner to beat Eastern Suburbs 2-1. Olympic only just avoided relegation last season, now they’ve started by beating a National League qualifier. This was a top notch Suburbs team too, featuring the likes of Luis Toomey, Adam Thomas, Kelvin Kalua, Noah Karunaratne, Aaryan Raj, and more. For some reason Transfermarkt also had Thomas moving to South Auckland Rangers so remind me never to use that site as a source again. Anyway, Callum McNeill scored the late winner there.
Newcomers Tauranga City had a 4-0 statement win against Melville United. Jonty Bidois scored a hatty for City, carrying on where he left off last year in getting them promoted (Bidois also had a National League loan-out to Christchurch United – he’s the younger brother of Riley Bidois, ex-Phoenix striker). A double from Kofi Dwamena helped West Coast Rangers draw 2-2 with Hamilton Wanderers in a back and forth contest. Plus there was also a 3-2 win for Western Springs against Birkenhead, in a clash between the two non-NL squads from last year who’ve done the most transfer work in order to get there this time. Emiliano Tade scored on debut for Springs, as did Sam Philip for Birko. Springs had both Jackson and Riley Manuel in their eleven, plus another ex-Phoenix youngster Marco Lorenz appears to have been listed on the bench... which is wild because he was covered in Flying Kiwis recently as having signed with German lower-league club BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden. Apparently that didn’t last, which is a pity. Oscar Mason kept goal for Springs following his move from Napier City Rovers. The Birko side included fellas like Monty Patterson, Jaylen Rodwell, Haris Zeb, Corban Piper, and Leon van den Hoven as fresh additions.
But that’s not all... the Women’s NRFL Premier Division also kicked off, with West Coast Rangers springing a 3-1 win over Western Springs. Rangers narrowly missed out on WNL last year but a few of their players did pop up on loan elsewhere. One of those was Marisa Porteous who was a breakout star for Southern United. She was here, alongside smart additions such as Emily Lyon, Maisy Dewell, and Shannon Henson. Players from rival clubs who were stuck in backup situations. Rina Hirano did give Springs the lead (37’) but Luci Hollister (43’), Henson (64’), and Catherine Smith (73’) soon turned it around. Former Footy Ferns Nicole Stratford and Emma Kete both featured off the bench for WCR.
No such issues for Eastern Suburbs who won 5-1 away to Hamilton Wanderers. Kenya Brooke (10’), Zoe Benson (21’ & 87’), Saki Yoshida (36’), and Shion Hwang (66’) got the goals. Quite a few new names for the Lilywhites in there... with the most notable being former Western Springs import Sofia Garcia.
And in the other game, Fencibles beat Ellerslie 1-0 thanks to a 90th minute Louise Turley penalty. Vibha Godha was playing for Fencies after featuring for Ellerslie in the National League last year. Also see they had Rosie Missen in their ranks, a midfielder who has spent the last several years in England – most famously with Newcastle United, a time that overlapped with Chris Wood’s stint there.
And that was all, because the Auckland United vs Hibiscus Coast game was postponed on account of Auckland United being busy winning the Oceania Champions League. They made hard work of it, conceding late in the semi-finals against Tafea (Vanuatu) to get taken into extra time. But Dani Canham, who’d earlier set up Talisha Green’s opener, tapped in a winner for a 2-1 victory. Then they beat Hekari (Papua New Guinea) in the final by a 1-0 scoreline thanks to Bree Johnson, who always seems to score important goals when this team needs her. AUFC are the first NZ team to participate in the OCL and the first to win it. Talisha Green was awarded the tournament’s Golden Ball, while Amberley Hollis got the Golden Gloves.
Utter madness in the Aussie NBL finals last night, with Tasmania JackJumpers’ Jack McVeigh hitting a deeeep three pointer after a sloppy Melbourne United inbounds turnover to claim a game three victory. United looked like they had this thing in the bag with a big game one win, but are now 2-1 down and on the brink of defeat – with this latest loss coming at home. None of the fringe kiwi lads are getting minutes at the moment, however Shea Ili continues to be superb for Melbourne United. Here are his grand final numbers so far...
Shea Ili in NBL24 Grand Final Series
Game 1: 26 MIN | 8 PTS (2/8 FG, 1/2 3PT, 3/7 FT) | 2 REB | 3 AST | +17 +/-
Game 2: 24 MIN | 20 PTS (8/12 FG, 2/2 3PT, 2/5 FT) | 2 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | +11 +/-
Game 3: 31 MIN | 11 PTS (4/11 FG, 1/4 3PT, 2/2 FT) | 3 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 +/-
Bit of foul trouble in the second game or else he might’ve dropped a 30-bagger. That proved kinda crucial too because Ili made a three to give Melbourne a 15-point lead during the third quarter of that game. He fouled out with a minute to go and his team leading by one point, they were outscored by six the rest of the way.
Also, the NZ NBL tips off on Wednesday night with the Canterbury Rams, defending champs, hosting the Nelson Giants. There’s an extra team this time with the Mid-North Whai (representing the Bay of Plenty area, if that Mid-North thing is confusing to you) taking us up to 11 teams – the Whai already having had a women’s side in Tauihi. Lots of player movement, lots of exciting squads coming together. As always the best place to get a grasp on them is through the fine tracking work of Tony O’Connor on Twitter. Many of the NZers in the Aussie league are popping back to partake in the Aotearoa stuff plus there are always a few fascinating youngsters emerging. Excited to bring the NBL back into the coverage mix.
Have a tune, get amongst…