Plug And Play
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker (Chris Wood to Newcastle?) plus yarns on Michael Bracewell, Brooke Halliday, Yanni Wetzell & more
Podcast
The Niche Cast: Nature Is Perfect (Blackcaps vs Bangladesh)
Reading Menu
Jess and Amelia Kerr Are Aotearoa Cricket's Best Double-Whammy (Cricket)
Maddy Green's Found A Low Key Crucial Pocket Of Form (Cricket)
The Murky Mangroves of Ajaz Patel Bowling in Aotearoa (Cricket)
Finn Allen Is Aotearoa's Funkiest Domestic Cricketer (Cricket)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #5: Too Big, Too Strong (Basketball)
Gotta Keep This First Welly Nix Women’s Season In Context (Football)
The Welly Nix Blokes Are Now Officially In ‘Searching For Solutions’ Mode (Football)
Kiwi-NRL Takeover Continues With Seven Young Hookers From Auckland Signed To NRL Clubs (NRL)
Aotearoa Warriors Re-Jig Their Redcliffe Dolphins Collab With Fresh Aotearoa Juniors (NRL)
Scotty’s Word
Michael Bracewell’s epic Super Smash knock…
If you didn’t catch Wellington skipper Michael Bracewell smacking 141* @ 216.92sr, you probably would have heard about it. Wellington grabbed a much-needed win over Central Districts at the batting paradise of Pukekura Park and Wellington are now 3rd in the Super Smash, 4 points ahead of CD.
11 fours, 11 sixes. Praise 11:11.
I love these type of knocks where a bloke drags his team to victory and even more so when it’s the captain. Add an extra bit of funk when it’s a bloke like Bracewell who made his First-Class debut in 2011 and has almost played 100+ games in all three formats (106 List-A games, closing in on 100 in the other two).
Michael has set up shop among Aotearoa’s most talented domestic cricketers - he’s part of the Bracewell whanau after all. When a player has consistently showcased their talents over a long period of time and enjoys such a headline-grabbing performance, folks naturally wonder what Bracewell must do to earn a promotion.
Don’t worry about stats here. I wrote about Rachin Ravindra starting his Test career this morning and Bracewell falls into the opposite camp to Ravindra; plug and play vs potential. Most of the new Blackcaps have ample experience and Blackcaps success has flowed from a team full of experience and maturity, making Ravindra unique in this mixer.
Bracewell feels like the perfect plug-and-play type of domestic veteran who can help Aotearoa win cricket games. His cousin Doug is the bowling equivalent of this and taking a geeze across the ditch has me pondering how Australia have dominated England with Scott Boland, Jhye Richardson and Michael Nesser stepping in as seamers with ample domestic experience.
This pocket of kiwi cricketers skews slightly younger than one would initially think, which follows the greater domestic landscape being far younger than it was five years ago. Mark Chapman and Glenn Phillips come to mind as batters in this slot, while Aotearoa has two wicket-keepers in Dane Cleaver and Cameron Fletcher who are just as experienced as Tom Blundell.
These blokes are in every team and I’ve only mentioned a few. This is super relevant for me because I believe Aotearoa has an exceptional wave of young cricketers coming through on the men’s and women’s side. I’m also documenting the Kiwi-NRL takeover and the younger wave of talent is far superior to those who came before. Football is the same, basketball is thriving and all of Aotearoa sport will soon be swept up by the young wave.
What helps winning games? Experience.
I have to remind myself of this and exist with these two different ideas. I am aware (tbh I’m deep in the mangroves) of the immense young talent coming through and I know that winning requires self-mastery and maturity. Add a freakish young talent into a mature group and that can still be part of the winning recipe. Rely on young players to perform consistently and one must adjust expectations.
For Aotearoa cricket, both are evident. The current domestic veterans made their debuts around 2010-2013 and we have seen these experienced domestic players contribute to the Blackcaps. At the same time the young wave are freaky talented and my sporting experiment mind is intrigued as to how this plays out for the Blackcaps, Aotearoa cricket and Aotearoa sport.
Big ups Brooke Halliday…
There is a group of wahine cricketers who fascinate me as they have been part of White Ferns woes and are now competing for World Cup selection later this summer (in Aotearoa). Maddy Green was part of this and then she exploded with HBJ Shield runs, while I have also covered the Central bowlers like Hannah Rowe, Rosemary Mair and Claudia Green in different emails. Brooke Halliday has also received some attention.
Halliday hit 106* in Northern’s win over Auckland yesterday, taking Northern to 4th in the HBJ Shield (one-day) with a 2-2 record. Meanwhile, Auckland with their own ‘chasing White Ferns’ players are 6th (0-4) and 5th in Super Smash (3-3).
In the Super Smash, Northern are 6th (1-5) and Halliday has 46 runs @ 11.50avg.
In her two HBJ Shield games, Halliday has scores of 24 and 106*.
I am trying to find a sweet spot in balancing the HBJ Shield performances (same format as the World Cup) against Super Smash mahi. This is the opposite of the Blackcaps who are in a T20 World Cup cycle and we now have two WF in Green and Halliday who are jacking up HBJ Shield runs without the same Super Smash production.
One rugby league thing…
I want to drop one rugby league thing at the end of my yarns for each email. Fresh off the above note about Aotearoa’s young talent, I’m curious how two extremely different cultures clash. Aussie bloke culture is hilarious and Australian rugby league culture is built upon pokies, drinking, drugs and rugby league media that is rooted in old school ideals.
Don’t trip thinking about that too much - just ponder how many NRL off-field dramas there are. NRL seems to have far more mischief that Super Rugby for example and we don’t need to go too deep; NRL players and NRL media kinda seem to enjoy all their drama? Especially when drama then becomes ‘player overcame adversity’.
I can’t pretend that players from Aotearoa don’t get caught up in mischief. I can suggest that many are like Brad Takairangi (recently caught up in England) were born and raised in Australia, or moved to Australia as children. Then they represent Aotearoa and are forever labelled as ‘kiwis’ - kinda similar to the 501 deportee stuff.
The young players moving from Aotearoa to Australia to join NRL clubs or schools aligned to NRL clubs are cut from a completely different cloth. Apart from the pure talent young sports folks are also nice folk, humble, aware, hard-working, driven, generous. All the players I’m aware of who are part of the Kiwi-NRL junior flood are A) mature enough to move by themselves into supportive environments or B) moving over with their whanau. Not to mention that they all seem to be great kids chasing their dreams.
Aussie NRL culture and Kiwi-NRL junior culture are extremely different. Some juniors will get caught up in the Aussie culture, most will represent Aotearoa in fine fashion. The greater the disparity between these cultures, the more it exposes how weird those Aussies are.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
Looks like this segment is going to be a regular thing throughout January. There’s just too much going on and transfer speculation always needs a bit of translating. Plus who else would you trust to do this better? The NZ Herald? Stuff? Your uncle on Facebook? Nah mate. Put your Fabrizio Romano hat on because heeere we goooo...
A barnstormer on a Monday morning: Chris Wood linked with the richest club in world football... a phrase that admittedly is less cool now when it’s Newcastle than it would have been six months ago when it was Manchester City.
Newcastle United got their sportswashing money earlier in the season but have been terrible so far since. At the halfway point of the Premier League campaign they have a solitary one win from 19 games. They’re one point off last. Just got knocked out of the FA Cup by Carlisle United. Onto their second manager already. And the one win they’ve managed was... well, it was against Burnley.
Burnley have also only won one game. They’re equal on points with Newcastle but with two games in hand. I wrote a couple emails ago about what a downbuzz they seem to be on and since then they’ve also been knocked out of the FA Cup by a lower tier team (going down 2-1 to Huddersfield). Every season they flirt with relegation and every season they seem to do just enough to survive... but it’s harder than ever to see that path to safety right now.
Thus we’ve got a funky situation where two relegation candidates - with only one team ahead of them within eight points, hence it’s unlikely they can both find a path to safety – are scrapping over the same striker. What gives?
The Newcastle POV
Newcastle now have unfathomable finances and the long term vision is to establish them as a new superclub, similar to the rise of Manchester City once upon a time. But that vision will be set back at least a couple years if they get relegated – Kylian Mbappe ain’t playing in the Championship (he’s not playing for Newcastle either, would bet good money he goes to Real Madrid along with Erling Braut Haaland, but you get the idea). They need a short term fix in order to salvage the long term vision. That means proven Premier League talent who can grind out results for the next few months, just enough of them to keep the Toon in the top flight.
They’ve already signed Kieran Tripper, a former Burnley man and a regular England international who is one of the best crossers of a football that the English system has produced in a wee while. But who’s he gonna cross to when top striker Callum Wilson is out injured for up to eight weeks?
That’s where Chris Wood would come in. Proven scorer at this level with 10+ goals in each of the last four seasons (although he’s only at 3 at the halfway point of this one). He’s someone who dines on quality service. By no means a guy who’d be part of that long term design but a sensible short term option for sure. And let’s be honest, they can afford the fee whatever it may be.
The Burnley POV
But why would Burnley sell their leading striker, a guy who has started every single PL game this season? Why would they weaken themselves when they’re in the midst of a relegation battle? Selling him to their main rival for survival, no less?
They might not. This could be all bluster. We’re only talking about speculation here although The Telegraph article that sparked the news did suggest that there’s interest from each side in the move (it’s paywalled so no point linking it).
One of Burnley’s major dramas has been that they’ve failed to strengthen the starting team pretty much since signing Wood four years ago. The team has gotten stale, not enough depth or competition for places, then when those starting guys fall out of form there’s no ready solution. The main reason they’ve struggled in the transfer window: a lack of funds.
Burnley have recently had a takeover of ownership themselves but suffice to say that their owner has a tiny fraction of the wealth of the Newcastle owners. They made a lovely addition to the group in Maxwel Cornet in the summer and he’s already scored six times while offering a point of game-breaking difference to the typical Burnley route one thing (though is now away at the African Cup of Nations for a month) but in order to make further additions they probably need to sell first. Which is easily achieved by milking a club whose ownership is worth US$430b for a big enough fee that they can buy three more players to replace Wood.
Of course, Burnley are still the party with the least reason to want to sell him, especially to a relegation rival, so don’t make any assumptions or anything.
Chris Wood’s POV
Woodsy loves it at Burnley. He’s valued highly there and has scored plenty of goals for the club. He knows what his role is and gets guaranteed minutes. Newcastle would be signing him knowing what he can offer but there is a risk of what happens after he theoretically saves them from the drop and then they throw some blank checques around the continent in the summer transfer window.
But there’d be a large pay-rise coming his way, surely. There’d be a window of opportunity to show what he can do and an instant chance to win the fans over if he succeeds, given what’s on the line. This move would be no guarantee of Premier League football next season but you’ve gotta think he’s got a better chance of that with Newcastle than with Burnley. Plus he might be open to a change of scenery after several years at Burnley, particularly at a club with some upward ambition (albeit ambition that came about through some morally nefarious means).
Very curious. Wood’s been linked with many a-club in recent years – remember the Lazio stuff? - but this is one that I could honestly see happening. Will be a funky few days ahead if it progresses.
Yanni Wetzell Things
The Breakers finally won their first game of the season yesterday. Up to 1-6 through seven games... all it took was coming up against a team that hadn’t played for three weeks as covid ravaged through their roster.
Them Breaks did what they needed to do with a quick start against the rusty Bullets and then managed to hold off the usual second half comeback for the dub. They were a little better on defence, Peyton Siva bringing some much-needed energy on his return from injury (RIP to Chasson Randle’s 1-game Breakers career), and they benefited from a number of unforced turnovers via the Bullets. So it goes. Play what’s in front of you and make sure you get the win.
One of the strategies that the Bullets went to in order to find a foothold in the game was to give Jack Salt an extended run. The kiwi big man has had his post-college career wrecked by injury so far and even after working his way onto an NBL roster you could tell he’s still not fully there by the fact he’d not even played three minutes of total action for Brisbane prior to this game. But with compatriot Tyrell Harrison in foul trouble he popped up with a fine cameo, rebounding and scoring and providing a presence down low. 10 points and 5 rebounds on 5/6 shooting in 12 minutes. Needs to work on his free throw motion but hopefully this was the sort of performance that’ll get him into the rotation moving forwards.
The reason Harrison was racking up the fouls was because Breakers starting centre Yanni Wetzell was on some typical Yanni Wetzell business. No need to talk around things: it was the work of Wetzell that allowed the Breakers to win that game, they don’t ditch the drought without him. YW gave his team a consistent scoring option to go with his well-rounded abilities, abilities that allow him to hang in there defensively with his quick feet and he even bagged a quartet of assists against Brisbane too.
Wetzell’s a versatile and reliable big man playing to a super high standard this season. After missing game one with covid, here’s what he’s done since...
SEM - DNP (Illness)
SEM – 18 PTS (8/13 FG) | 4 REB (3 OFF)
ADL – 20 PTS (10/12 FG) | 4 REB (1 OFF) | 2 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK
ILL – 25 PTS (12/16 FG) | 16 REB (6 OFF | 1 AST | 2 STL
MEL – 12 PTS (5/12 FG) | 4 REB (2 OFF) | 2 STL
TAS – 20 PTS (6/8 FG) | 8 REB (2 OFF) | 1 BLK
BRI – 27 PTS (9/15 FG) | 8 REB (3 OFF) | 4 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK
Tally it all up and he’s averaging 15.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.2 steals per game while shooting 65.8% from the field and a particularly impressive 78.6% from the free throw line. He’s hit 17/21 from the charity stripe in his last two games - not only getting to the line but converting from it too. As good as Yanni was for South East Melbourne last season, he’s gone to a new level since joining the Breakers. Six instances of 18+ points in 39 games with SEM compared to five such instances already from only six games with NZB.
Credit where it’s due, man. I’ve taken a few shots at the overall poor recruitment of the Breakers these last couple seasons but getting Yanni Wetzell was an undeniable slam dunk. Outstanding player... and what do ya know it seems investing in kiwi players goes alright after all.
Welly Nix Squad Happenings
Scott Wootton is on the way in. English central defender, came up through the Manchester United academy and played four times for the senior team. None in the Premier League but a couple in the Champions League. After he left he was briefly a teammate of Chris Wood’s at Leeds as their times overlapped though Wootton has spent the last several years alternating between League One and League Two. More of a David Ball pedigree of player than a Steven Taylor but hey he’s an experienced defender to add to a backline that so desperately needs one of those.
Slight issue is that he’s a right-sided centre-back so either he or Tim Payne will have to play on the left where Josh Laws has been holding down the fort. Given James McGarry’s attacking instincts from left back that can be a crucial area of the pitch, to be fair. But wouldn’t worry about that too much. The benefits outweigh the negatives. The Nix needed a player like him and now they’ve got one.
Meanwhile out goes Luka Prso. Released by mutual consent having only appeared in two FFA Cup games. Signed as a promosing young Aussie dude who’d featured 17 times for Newcastle last season on loan from NK Osijek in Croatia but the 20 year old never broke through and it’s safe to say that he’s been surpassed on the depth chart not only by Ben Old but also probably by Oskar van Hattum too. A couple of academy grads coming out of the woodwork and with Talay trusting the depth that he’s been able to call up from the WeeNix there isn’t much need to hang onto a player who would probably rather be somewhere that he’ll actually get a few games.
Unfortunate times right now for the Nix Men with all the covid cases... though the one helpful aspect of that is when they eventually next play they will have Gael Sandoval available to them. Games that would’ve been played without him have been postponed and will now be played with him. So that’s handy. They’ll be a different looking team when they return.