Righteous Vengeance
Super Smash notes, Warriors spine projections & five funky kiwi footballers to focus on as 2023 comes around
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2022 Kiwi-NRL Team Power Rankings (Rugby League)
2022/23 Women's Super Smash: Update #1 (Cricket)
2022/23 Super Smash: Update #1 (Cricket)
2022/23 Women's Super Smash: The White Ferns Mixer (Cricket)
2022/23 Super Smash: Three Intriguing Lads (Rob O'Donnell, Rachin Ravindra, Jacob Duffy) (Cricket)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #3: Tackling The Big Assignments (Basketball)
Flying Kiwis – December 21 (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Super Smash is underway and there were some young seam bowlers who started their campaigns nicely. Missy Banks took 3w @ 5rpo and Gabby Sullivan took 2w @ 7.25rpo for Canterbury, Emma Black took 3w @ 6rpo for Otago and Northern’s Lucy Boucher took 2w @ 7rpo.
All four are right-arm seamers and Sullivan's the oldest at 24-years-old, while the other three are 21-years-old. I covered some of Sullivan's context in the first Women's Super Smash update and here are some notes on the other three...
Black and Banks were 5th and 6th for wickets in last summer's Super Smash. Black took 16w @ 19.5avg/6.78rpo and Banks took 14w @ 17.5avg/5.21rpo.
Black averages 26.66 in List-A and 20.25 in T20.
Banks averages 60.1 in LA and 17.86 in T20.
Black has 3w @ 33.33avg/4rpo in HBJ Shield and Banks has 3w @ 26.66avg/2.96rpo.
Boucher has a LA average of 25.81 and T20 average of 42.28.
Boucher is 5th for HBJ Shield bowlers with 6w @ 12.83avg/3.85rpo.
Boucher has taken 8w in her last three games.
Aside from the headline notes in the first blokes update, I have also pondered the use of spinners. Canterbury rolled out Todd Astle and Blake Coburn, while Northern had Tim Pringle, Mitchell Santner and Joe Walker. Otago had Michael Rippon, Ben Lockrose and Dean Foxcroft bowling spin overs. Wellington relied on Rachin Ravindra and Peter Younghusband.
10 different spinners used in two games. Four wrist spinners and six finger spinners.
Foxcroft was the only spinner to take 2w. Pringle, Younghusband and Lockrose took 1w. That leaves Santner, Astle, Rippon, Walker, Ravindra and Coburn with no wickets.
As of Monday morning, Adithya Ashok and Louis Delport are in Auckland's squad to face Canterbury - who will probably repeat the Astle/Coburn tandem.
Slide back to the wahine competition where Wellington had Amelia Kerr, Leigh Kasperek and Xara Jetly in their line up. Canterbury played with Amy Satterthwaite, Kate Anderson and Sarah Asmussen. Otago now have Suzie Bates as a capable spinner along with Eden Carson and Sophie Oldershaw. Northern used Aussie leggy Amanda-Jade Wellington as well as Eimear Richardson and Nensi Patel.
Two games and 12 spinners used with three spinners in all four teams.
The Aotearoa Warriors spine is also on my radar. Here are some notes I'm working with...
Wayde Egan has increased his average running metres per game every season...
2018: 14m/game
2019: 18m/game
2020: 29m/game
2021: 39m/game
2022: 49m/game
Egan is a crafty dummy half, not an explosive runner. Who else fits this profile? Apisai Koroisau - who Warriors coach Andrew Webster worked with at Panthers.
Shaun Johnson's 49m/game this year is the lowest of his career. This is balanced with more management mahi; after three seasons of averaging below 300 kicking metres, Johnson has two seasons averaging 340+ kicking metres.
Te Maire Martin seems likely to partner Johnson in the halves and he was low key crucial for Broncos last season at fullback. Most of Martin's mahi at fullback should translate well to halves stuff with Warriors and you can see Martin’s natural footy class in how he sums up edge defence quickly…
The weird thing about Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad is how he couldn't hold the fullback gig for Raiders last season. Nor could Nicoll-Klokstad get a starting centre gig with Matthew Timoko’s emergence. Prior to his injury last season, Nicoll-Klokstad averaged 161m/game and his peak fullback mahi in 2019 featured 175m/game, then 179m/game in 2020.
Nicoll-Klokstad had just three try assists in 2019 and then 2020. While Nicoll-Klokstad can improve his distribution and play-making, having Johnson and Martin in the halves will help share the burden. This feels similar to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck at fullback as he was the best runner I've ever seen, but lacked the passing skills to pounce on the edges.
Ideally the Johnson/Martin combo can build with repetitions, allowing Nicoll-Klokstad to pop up in positions best suited to his running. Martin can swing to either edge which is an asset as well.
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
Flying Kiwis has had to be a sporadic thing recently because of winter breaks and World Cup hiatuses and end of season efforts and all sorts. There just hasn’t been much going on – even with last week’s edition there were as many entries about games that didn’t happen as there were those that did (bloody frozen pitches in the UK being the issue there).
That’s likely to still be the case for a few more weeks until the European winter eases off a bit, so in the meantime here are five funky kiwi footballers to stay alert to as 2022 fades into 2023...
Sarpreet Singh - SSV Jahn Regensburg (German Bundesliga 2)
That pesky pelvic injury meant that Singh hasn’t played a proper game of football since the very start of April. Even before that he was struggling playing through the pain barrier. For the first half of his season on loan with Jahn Regensburg in the German second tier he was immense, scoring goals and setting them up at close to a goal contribution per match.
But that slowed down once the injury set in… and once it set in it really hung around. Ruled him out of the All Whites World Cup qualifying playoff against Costa Rica and had he played there was a decent chance the A-Dubs might have made it back to Qatar for the tournament itself. Then it continued to linger as he failed his medical for a proposed transfer to top flight side Werder Bremen. And as if he hadn’t already paid his cosmic dues then he went back on loan to SSV Jahn where they botched his registration meaning that he couldn’t play until after the January transfer window opened.
The club’s technical director was given the boot soon after that. It hasn’t been confirmed if it was related to the Singh stuff-up but it feels like quite a coincidence if it wasn’t. And Regensburg themselves are on a dud run hitting up the winter break with just one point from their last four games. They need a spark. Sarpreet Singh is going to be available when they next play (in late January) and he was superb for this team last season when he was healthy. 2022 was a disaster for the fella but 2023 could be a year of righteous vengeance.
Ria Percival – Tottenham Hotspur (English Super League)
Next year is going to be massive for all the Footy Ferns as there’s that not-so-insignificant matter of the World Cup to be hosted by Australia and Aotearoa happening mid-year. That’s already had a major impact on how some players have chosen their next gigs (think Katie Bowen moving to the A-League to boost up her playing minutes) and that focus is only going to become sharper as the World Cup draws nearer. Ria Percival has also been out injured since April although at least in her case she knew she was done for the year once she busted her ACL in a Fernies game against Aussie.
Percival is back running on grass again. She’s got great support at Tottenham Hotspur where she remains under contract and so long as all things progress to plan then she should be back on the pitch before the end of the English season. That’s what we wanna see. Percival’s midfield energy and pressing ability has been huge for both Spurs and New Zealand and despite being NZ’s most capped footballer ever she was playing the best footy of her career just prior to the injury.
Should also give a bonus mention to Rebekah Stott who is back at Brighton for a second stint, having left when she was diagnosed with cancer a couple years ago. Stott returned to fitness and health before re-signing with the Seagulls to pick up where she left off... then had to miss the first half of the season due to pre-season ankle surgery. But she’s made it back to the bench already and should be raring to go when the WSL comes back in a couple weeks.
Chris Wood - Newcastle United (English Premier League)
How much is he actually gonna play? That’s not the point, though at the moment Callum Wilson is fit while Alexander Isak is still a couple weeks away so The Woodsman will remain the backup striker, getting at least a few minutes in every game. Wilson is due another injury soon and maybe that’ll align with a Chris Wood start at some stage but either way he’s happy at Newcastle and his manager trusts him and the team is really good.
Newcastle are away to Leicester City overnight as the Premier League returns, seeking to add to the five game winning streak that they left off with when the World Cup caused everything to hit pause. Newcastle are third on the ladder having conceded the equal fewest goals in the competition. We’re 15 games into a 38 game season and that’s no small sample.
Not joking here when I say that Newcastle United could play Champions League next season... in the very least they should get some form of European football – which would mean more games in the calendar and thus more opportunities for Chris Wood, who’s only Euro stint so far was way back on loan with Birmingham in late 2011 where he scored twice in six Europa League games. He did also get a few qualifiers in with Burnley although that’s not the same thing.
Wood’s not going to be the main man in getting Newcastle to that place but he’s still an important member of that squad and if he stays ready and takes his opportunities when they come around then that could mean crucial contributions.
Joe Bell – Brøndby IF (Danish Superliga)
Even before the games all dried up there was a trend of some of the top All Whites dudes in particular simply not getting that much game time. Guys who’s careers have all been on the up and up to this point them suddenly hitting their first speedbumps at the same time.
Liberato Cacace is a backup for Empoli and has hardly featured as their new manager has done a whole lot less rotation than the bloke who signed him (doesn’t help that his rival, Fabiano Parisi, has been so good that he recently got an Italy call-up). Matt Garbett is still awaiting a Serie A debut with Torino – although he did get a game in the cup. Elijah Just has had some sharp moments since signing for AC Horsens though he has also been in and out of the team as he establishes himself in the Danish top division. Even Marko Stamenic, whose incredibly swift rise saw him playing Champions League earlier in the season, breaking a 15-year drought for the kiwi blokes, met the winter break having slipped out of the rotation as FC Copenhagen tried a more attacking dude in his role.
Then there’s Joe Bell, who ended last season on the bench for Brøndby but quickly won his way back into the preferred eleven to start this new term. However some rubbish results for his club meant that nobody was safe and soon enough he’d fallen out of favour again. Hadn’t played particularly poor or anything, they just went in a different direction with their midfield... and stayed in that direction despite the results not getting any better. Joe Bell has played just 12 league minutes since the All Whites vs Australia games. An unused sub in the past six Superliga games on the trot – although he did start a cup game as well as captaining the reserves one time.
Well, Brøndby sacked their manager just prior to the winter break. Haven’t signed a permanent replacement yet, the previous assistant is currently in charge as an interim. Regardless, it should mean a fresh start for Bellinho and his teammates when things resume. It had better, at least.
Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eerste Divisie)
All those injuries, man. In four years with PSV Eindhoven, Thommo was only able to play 33 out of 128 Eredivisie matches. No need to rehash the journey because we all know it well. Thomas has signed with his old club PEC Zwolle in the second tier of the Netherlands as he attempts to work back into the swing of regular football once more. Zwolle are looking decent for promotion (having been relegated last season) and the word is that Thomas could be back in contention to play some time in the new year.
It’ll be a blessing simply to watch Ryan Thomas kick a ball in competitive anger once again. But on top of that he’s also got a decent shout of being able to help his old team back into the Eredivisie and either hang around or use that as momentum to find another gig elsewhere. Important times for the fella.