Rabbit Punch
A Blackcaps Test defeat, Junior Fa loses to Lucas Browne, another Wellington Phoenix signing, Gayle Broughton joins NRLW, another Junior Footy Ferns squad + more
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Podcast
Reading Menu
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Raiders vs Roosters Kiwi-NRL Extravaganza (NRL)
Flying Kiwis – Paying Respects To Career Year Bill Tuiloma (Football)
The Many Wrinkles Of Glenn Phillips' Move To Otago Volts (Cricket)
Turns Out Trent Boult Is The Best Number 11 In Test Cricket (Cricket)
27fm Album Jukebox – May 2022 (Music)
Recapping The Junior Football Ferns Series In Australia (Football)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #14: The Way of the Warrior (Basketball)
A Wellington Phoenix Offseason Primer For The 2022-23 Campaign (Football)
27fm Weekly Playlist - June 6 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
After a niggly first round, Lydia Ko has sealed a 5th finish at US Women's Open. Ko was poised for crack at 2nd but three bogeys in the last four holes saw her slide; 30 putts and 8/14 fairways hit tells that story. This was Ko’s third consecutive LPGA event with a scoring average below 70, with results of T3, T12 and 5th.
The winning angle will catch headlines especially as Ko slipped up at the end. Ko didn’t play her best golf and in true gritty kiwi fashion, battled away for her fourth top-10 finish in nine tournaments. Ko’s worst result is T25 and continues to maintain a strong plateau, just without the sexy/obvious narratives. Ko is still 1st in Scoring Average and is now 1st in Sand Saves as well. Ko is 3rd in the CME Globe season and that generally means Ko is a top-three player in the world. This is also reflected in her Rolex Ranking of 4th which updates slower than the other rankings.
Ko is still one of the best LPGA Tour players and continues to show folks how to deal with adversity, staying solid and positive. There is ample ‘raise your mana’ guidance in Lydia Ko’s journey, now more than ever.
Losing to England always conjures up a special type of sporting disdain, let alone when England are riding their little red-ball reset wave. This was a frustrating first Test for Aotearoa as they were far from their best and while I'm optimistic that they will improve as the series rolls along, the slither of World Test Championship hope I had has now vanished. The Blackcaps may not play this bad again in the series, maybe not the rest of the WTC cycle, and it's a stink way to start a crucial tour.
In last week's Niche Cast, I shared my confidence in the Blackcaps top-four batters. That didn't feel like a hot take because Will Young, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson and Devon Conway are really good batters. Williamson's 15 in the second innings was the highest score of the top-four batters in this Test and that's how you lose a Test; that's how Aotearoa consistently lost Tests in a previous era.
Will that happen again? Maybe, probably not. It happened in this first Test though, at Lord's, just as England are standing up on this new wave and just as Aotearoa really needed to win.
I also connected some dots to suggest that Ajaz Patel would play, although I thought Patel would play in place of Trent Boult with Neil Wagner keeping his spot. Somehow Mr 'Run It Straight Up Mt Maunganui' Boult was all good to play the first Test and Patel was also picked, leaving Wagner out of the 1st 11. A drawn first Test would have left me eager to see either team's depth on display throughout the series, but now that's less interesting.
This is about Patel though. Patel wasn't required for the first innings and then bowled 2 overs @ 11rpo in the second dig. Patel took 7w in the two warm up games (most of all kiwi bowlers) and that came after a strong finish to the domestic summer as Patel took 7w in his last two Plunket Shield games. Around those 14w in four games, Patel hasn't done much and this makes it tricky to get a gauge of what Patel really is in the Test arena.
I wrote this about Patel and his journey from Mumbai magic to struggling for wickets in Aotearoa's domestic summer. Patel appeared to have bounced back but either through his own form or skipper Williamson lacking trust in Patel, the spinner has fallen back into murky estuary waters. Patel took 4w at Birmingham last year after missing the first Test at Lord's and moving north to Nottingham may help Patel, although the bro Wagner needs to play.
This loss was a stinker, the type to drag you down. Given that Williamson didn't play in the losses to Bangladesh and South Africa, they don't fit snug around this loss to England. The best thing for the team is an 'out of sight, out of mind' vibe and they have plenty of mahi to do to find the confidence of ... a year ago?
NZ Warriors fumbled their way to a loss against Manly Sea Eagles and the adjectives used by Aotearoa media to describe these losses continue to amuse. Of course, the Warriors aren't very good and we knew that coming into the season with our 'zero expectations' cap on, which is only amplified by the many disadvantages they face.
Unfortunately the Warriors are the last of the Phoenix/Breakers/Warriors trio still battling this adversity and despite moments of hostility, I'm reserving all judgement until these three organisations have the same starting point as their opponents.
Warriors footy is not enjoyable, not even close to the Kiwi-NRL beat. If you want to watch Warriors games, focus on the young players and especially youngsters from Aotearoa.
State of Origin selection yarns highlighted how moving to a club like Bulldogs can hinder higher honours - Josh Addo-Carr fell out of the NSW team since moving to Bulldogs. That vibe is more intense with Warriors as Shaun Johnson won't be selected ahead of Jahrome Hughes, Dylan Brown or Kieran Foran for Aotearoa Kiwis.
Reece Walsh was in Queensland's squad last year and isn't a factor this season. Walsh isn't only behind Kalyn Ponga as Jayden Campbell and Xavier Savage are both better fullbacks right now in the Queensland ranks. Walsh is also 5th in NRL errors, the most of any fullback.
Warriors won't have many players in the upcoming Aotearoa Kiwis squad. They could have Eliesa Katoa, Viliami Vailea, Taniela Otukolo joining Addin Fonua-Blake and Ben Murdoch-Masila in Tonga's group.
Let's try whip up a Kiwi-NRL team from round 13 (four games, eight teams) featuring no NZ Warriors...
Fullback: Joseph Manu
Wings: Jordan Rapana, Christian Tuipulotu
Centres: Matthew Timoko, Peta Hiku
Middles: James Fisher-Harris, Joseph Tapine, Jason Taumalolo
Edges: Sitili Tupouniua, Isaac Liu
Hooker: Jeremy Marshall-King
Bench: Erin Clark, Josh Aloiai, Griffin Neame, Raymond Faitala-Mariner
Gayle Broughton is the latest Aotearoa wahine to join NRLW after being signed by Parramatta Eels. Broughton shifted from Aotearoa Sevens to the NSW Women's Premiership where she has been playing fullback for Mounties and is now likely to be the Eels fullback for the second season of NRLWahine this year.
Broughton scored a try over the weekend and there aren't any NSWWP stats for a full try tally, although she seems to be scoring plenty of tries. Aotearoa's footy abundance is on display at a grassroots wahine level and the highest levels as Broughton joins Roosters NRLW champion Leianne Tufuga in recently moving from Aotearoa rugby union to NRLWahine. This is all about abundance and celebrating the talents of these players, although I will suggest that there are stronger professional pathways around NRLWahine compared to any union stuff in Aotearoa.
Broughton is likely to bolster Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns depth and could be a starting fullback asap. Apii Nicholls-Pualau has been the long term fullback but she dipped out of NRLWahine when the pandemic started, while Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly in starting at fullback for Newcastle in NSWWP.
Broughton's signing adds to the NRLWahine crew being assembled. Amber Hall and Lavinia Gould (another former Sevens rep) have re-signed with Broncos and Madison Bartlett now moves from Dragons to Titans.
Aussie Ben Sawyer is the new White Ferns coach. Lots of 'processes and process-driven' yarns in the NZC announcement as Sawyer moves from the Australian women's set up to Aotearoa head coach. The announcement also states that 'Sawyer said his underlying remit was to work within the NZC high performance system' which is slightly intriguing as it wasn't a direct quote and Sawyer may not connect with a high performance system that has contributed to White Ferns woes.
This provides an interesting mix as NZC announced contracts before deciding on the White Ferns coach. Sawyer might get the best out of the players given to him by NZC HP and they work together strongly. Sawyer may also opt to select players he likes from outside the NZC HP bubble which will only complicate matters further as we all ponder the point of NZC's HP contracts.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Junior Footy Ferns Return Again
It wasn’t that long ago that the Junior Football Ferns and Aussie Young Matildas played a two-game series in Canberra as each team got back up and running after pandemic hiatuses ahead of the U20 World Cup in Costa Rica later in the year. Australia won the first game 5-1 before a much improved performance from the kiwis earned 1-1 draw in the second match.
That was only in April... but guess what it worked so well they’re doing it again next week with a match this time on the correct side of the Tasman Sea. Auckland’s Kiwitea Street will host the two teams on June 12 (that’s Sunday) at 2pm and it’s apparently free entry to get in so have a geeze if you’re in town (and slip me a scouting note or two since I won’t be able to make the trip down). The match is not going to be livestreamed unlike the ones in Australia... not sure why not but oh well. There’s also a second behind-closed-doors game to be played at a later date.
The squad is a very similar one from coach Gemma Lewis. Still got a heavy dose of Wellington Phoenix players in there who’ll form the core of the team that goes to the World Cup. Already with a headstart there. And they, as well as Marisa van der Meer (Melbourne City), are all listed as playing for the “A-League Off Season Programme (NZ)” just in case you were wondering what they’re up to in between Nix terms.
There’s one extra player picked this time, a fourth goalkeeper. 24 players with 19 of them having been part of the squad last time... although Macey Fraser was named but didn’t feature, presumably an injury or something.
Here’s the squad...
Of the players who weren’t involved last time, gotta be excited to see Grave Wisnewski back in action after her mental health sabbatical. Wisnewski’s been remarkably brave with how she’s dealt with that and it’s a credit to her as a person and also the folks around her that she’s good to go again. The way I see it, you have to look at mental health issues as injuries. If you’re not fit to play then you’re not fit to play, right? Nobody bats an eye if it’s a hamstring strain so just gotta keep that same energy for other forms of injury.
Wisnewski will be a key player for this team in the midfield as someone with both A-League experience and also U17 World Cup experience from the bronze medallist crew from a few years back – which would have been part of the previous U20 wave had covid allowed them to have their U20 WC but GW is young enough to go around again.
Joining her in the big game experience bag is Ava Collins who is becoming an increasingly common face in senior Football Ferns squads despite still being at university. Some of that was convenience as she was available at a time when others weren’t due to travel restrictions and playing in a position (striker) where we don’t have a lot of depth to begin with. Part of that is Collins making the most of that convenience by impressing in camp and earning five caps already. Again, she shapes as a key player going into the World Cup so it’s extremely helpful to get her involved in a camp like this during her uni offseason.
The other three new additions are goalkeeper Alina Santos of Marist (Palmerston North) who like Macey Fraser has been involved in the Ole Academy. Ruby Nathan is another, she’s young enough that she was involved in an U17 camp last year but has scored five times for Auckland United this season. Then also there’s Ella Findlay who is a defensive midfielder out of Eastern Suburbs.
Rene Wasi, Olivia Ingham, Kitty Jacob, and Jemma Catherwood are the four from last time who miss out. Obviously I’ve got no idea if those are injury based or form based.
Meanwhile the Australian squad of 24 contains 17 players who were a part of the previous group with seven more added based on performances in training camps. Only one Wellington Phoenix player is in the group this time and that’s Cushla Rue. Hannah Jones and Izzy Gomez had been involved in the previous series.
Junior Fa vs Lucas Browne
Absolutely stunning upset defeat for Junior Fa against Lucas Browne yesterday. I’ve got more coming on that when I finish my article on the kiwi contingent at Kambosos vs Haney but I’ll chuck this one up here for some extra perusal. Fa was a bit sloppy in catching that first shot but even at the time I thought the second one looked dodgy. Didn’t feel that way so much about the first knockdown but in hindsight the replays do look sketchy there as well.
Thing is, after that first blow the fight was over. Fa was able to stumble back to his feet and beat the count and the ref inexplicably let the bout continue but Junior was gone, it was only a matter of time until the thing was put to rest. Still, the clinching shot may have been inevitable but it was a clear rabbit punch. Will be interesting to see if the Fa camp’s complaints go anywhere... this is a pretty awful loss for him if they can’t get it overturned.
Meanwhile as an email cleanser, here’s David Nyika wearing a Boba Fett Star Wars mask for his ring walk prior to moving to 3-0 as a professional cruiserweight...
Welly Nix Things
Chuck another one on the list because the Wellington Phoenix just signed that bloke (who to be fair is a really solid player when not taking penalties on a slippery Eden Park surface).
27yo Australian midfielder Steven Ugarkovic, in town on a one year deal, a lovely addition to the group especially with captain Alex Rufer likely to miss at least the first few months of the campaign. Midfield was major issue for the team after Rufer and also Clayton Lewis were injured. Here’s a starter level domestic player who can help that. Fantastic deal.
The Nix don’t always have a lot of success in hooking decent Aussie players. Generally they’ve gotta trend younger or more inconsistent but Ugarkovic is a dude who’d have legitimately have had interest from several other ALM clubs so for the Phoenix to win the signature is an impressive one. And the reason they’ve done so is pretty clear: Ufuk Talay.
Steven Ugarkovic: “The big pull is Uffy as a coach. He’s someone I feel like I can learn under a lot from, on and off the field. His brand of football played an important role in my decision. Playing against Wellington, it’s always hard to break them down. They’re very structured and everyone knows what their job is. That’s what I like and that’s what I think I need to go to the next level.”
As long as the Uffmeister is around, the Welly Nix are in a good place.