Rollin' On
NRL Finals hunt, Tom Walsh post-Olympics & Sarpreet Singh doing things
Podcast
Setting The Table (Kiwi Sporting Scopes)
TNC Variety Show - Episode 29
Reading Menu
Further Thoughts About Steven Adams’ Fit With The Memphis Grizzlies (NBA)
Growing Sprouts In The Northern Districts Knights Garden (Cricket)
A Deep Dive Into Aotearoa White Ferns Talent Identification (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Kiwi sports roll on…
We’re deep in lockdown business here in Aotearoa which has hit pause on sport within Aotearoa, although for me the sport that was happening in Aotearoa was super deep cut stuff. I caught the Future Warriors games at Mt Smart last weekend and squads were being named for NZRL tournaments coming up for example, with all Kiwi-NRL matters taking place over in Australia. I was catching bits and bobs of the NZ Women’s Basketball league where Charlisse Leger-Walker and her crew were having fun, while the biggest bummer of this lockdown in this context is that it came right before Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was going to lace up for Auckland.
Other than being forced into hermit mode, not much changes on the Niche Cache Aotearoa sports beat. Jirah Momoisea was the 17th Kiwi-NRL debutant of 2021 as he came off the bench for Newcastle Knights to play through the middle and he didn’t look out of place - not many fresh Kiwi-NRL talents are looking out of place right now.
NZ Warriors fluffed their game vs Brisbane Broncos and this was a bummer because it was clear in the first-half that the Warriors were lacking energy, vigour and intensity. Because the Broncos are the Broncos, this kept the game up for grabs but at no point did it feel like the same Warriors outfit that had won three games in a row. Even then, the Warriors scored more tries (5-4) and Reece Walsh’s 1/5 conversion attempts were the difference.
That loss hits the sneaky top-eight chase hard. In the long term though, nothing about that loss changes the general vibe that the Warriors are building towards next season. This makes the last few games a little less exciting … wait …
The Warriors are on 18 points and moved up a spot via points difference as Tigers had 50 points put on them by Sharks and Dragons had 40 points put on them by Roosters. Three teams are on 20 points with Sharks 8th, Titans 9th and Raiders 10th then the Warriors leading the 18-point crew. The Warriors now play Raiders and Titans - the two teams ahead of them.
This leaves six teams competing for the 8th spot and here are the remaining games for the other five teams in the mix…
Sharks: Broncos, Storm.
Titans: Knights, Warriors.
Raiders: Warriors, Roosters.
Dragons: Cowboys, Rabbitohs.
Tigers: Panthers, Bulldogs.
Of these six teams, Warriors are the only team who don’t play a top-eight team in their last two games. Most important here will be player availability as the Warriors need their best players or as many as possible, while the dip vs Broncos may be timely as it sets up two high-intensity games. Still possible folks.
Then again - who cares about NZ Warriors when so much funky Kiwi-NRL stuff is happening. I wrote about Manly Sea Eagles today while Momoisea’s debut came in a Knights team that is all but locked in for finals footy and the Knights have a young crop of Kiwi-NRL talent.
Here’s how the Kiwi-NRL talent looks for the best teams…
Storm: Jesse Bromwich, Kenny Bromwich, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Jahrome Hughes, Reimis Smith.
Panthers: James Fisher-Harris.
Rabbitohs: Benji Marshall, Jaxson Paulo, Steven Marsters.
Roosters: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Joseph Manu, Isaac Liu, Siosiua Taukeiaho, Sitili Tupouniua, Naufahu Whyte.
Sea Eagles: Kieran Foran, Morgan Harper, Martin Taupau, Josh Aloiai, Toafofoa Sipley, Christian Tuipulotu.
Eels: Dylan Brown, Isaiah Papali’i, Marata Niukore, Makahesi Makatoa, Wiremu Greig.
Knights: Starford To’a, Jirah Momoisea, Simi Sasagi.
Lydia Ko couldn’t quite kick on after a massive three weeks, finishing tied-29th. Ko hit fewer fairways in her first two rounds (bad) with fewer putts (good), then hit more fairways (good) with more putts (bad) in the next two rounds. Ko will now take a break and it will be interesting to see where she slots back in as September features three tournaments, starting late next week. Ko can take a break for two weeks from now and still play two tournaments in September, or take a longer break with four tournaments in October and three in November.
Genah Fabian suffered a loss in her PFL Playoffs MMA bout against Kayla Harrison, which unfortunately went exactly how Harrison would have liked. Harrison’s grappling prowess saw her take the fight to the mat and Fabian couldn’t hang with Harrison which sucked but is all part of the City Kickboxing style; if you can defend takedowns then the world-class striking matters less.
Dan Hooker has a fight locked in for September 25 (26th NZT) at UFC 266 against Nasrat Haqparast. Haqparast has won his last two fights, after losing to Drew Dober who Team CKB’s Brad Riddell defeated in his last fight. This is a dip down for Hooker, but could be a solid re-group chance before taking another crack at lightweight division’s best.
Of course, it remains to be seen how all this stuff in NZ impacts Team CKB fighting overseas. Something to keep an eye on, but the UFC like most sports outside Aotearoa is in full forward motion.
The first Blackcaps game of their Bangladesh series will be played on Sunday - it’s a warm up game featuring the ‘New Zealanders’. The T20I series starts next Wednesday and soon enough we’ll be up to our necks in Blackcaps cricket.
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Post-Olympic Wash
Watching a little bit of Tom Walsh at the Diamond League over the weekend, back in high grade competition so soon after the Olympics it’s a clean reminder that these sports are the day job for these folks. This is what they do. Tom Walsh wins a bronze medal in Rio and a couple weeks later he’s back slugging it out with the same few blokes in Eugene, Oregon.
For what it’s worth, Walshy was far from his best on Sunday morning. There seemed to be an Olympic hangover in general amongst the shot putters (though not amongst the track runners where there were various records tumbling all over... Elaine Thompson-Herah ran a 10.54 sec 100m!) but one thing’s always for sure and that’s that Ryan Crouser dominated the field with six throws all above 22.30 metres, including a top shot of 23.15m which is a Diamond League record and his third longest throw ever. At the same place that he set the world record of 23.37m back in June. His second best mark is the 23.30m that won him gold in Tokyo. This dude is the greatest shot putter of all time and it’s amazing to watch him compete.
Walsh meanwhile... he looked rusty as his five attempts served up a best of only 21.93m. It looked like that might still get him into the three-man sixth round as Olympic silver medallist Joe Kovacs fouled his first three puts but then Kovacs lobbed one 21.94m at the fourth (before red-flagging the fifth) and that was Walshy’s day done in fourth place. Darlan Romani of Brazil (the only other non-USA competitor at the meet) was second with 21.69m... nice for him after the poor bugger finished fifth and fourth at the last two Olympic Games. He’s part of the elite four of men’s shot putting, he’s just often the odd man out on a three-man podium.
We’re about two-thirds through the overall Diamond League meets at this point, with four more remaining plus the finals, but this was only the third men’s shot put event and Tom Walsh did actually win the first two. Mostly because Crouser – who has now won his last 21 meetings in a row, all but one of them by a distance of 60+cm – wasn’t there. And Crouser might not be there for the next few either as he’s talking about maybe skipping the European legs to avoid any lockdown/quarantine/covid yarns.
Walsh is the only male shot putter to have been at all three DL meets so far so there’s a good chance he wins the whole thing... though most DL events have had similar issues with athletes not competing at all the meetings, particularly in an Olympic year where that takes priority.
Which brings us to Paul Coll and look what old mate just did...
The British Open is apparently the Wimbledon of squash (Susan Devoy said so, so it must be true). Coll is the first kiwi man to win the competition – though Susan Devoy won it eight times back in the day – and he absolutely did it the hard way. In the semi-finals he took on the world #1 ranked Mohammed ElShorgaby in the semis and then the #1 seed and world champion Ali Farag in the final. Both Egyptians, who have been bossing the sport in recent years. Against ElShorgaby he’d won just once in ten previous competitive matches but he took him down 11-8 11-7 11-5... then against Farag he’d lost 13 of 14 previous matches only to top him 6-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 for the British Open title. How about that?
Coolest thing here, aside from the achievement itself, is the timing of it. This has been an Olympic year, in which the NZ Team was outstanding on their way to a record total haul of medals. Paul Coll might very well have been a part of that medal count had squash been added to the Olympic Games but despite being a finalist in each of the last three intakes the sport has continually been overlooked. It has been a Commonwealth Games event since 1998 with Coll becoming Aotearoa’s first men’s single medallist in the event with silver at Gold Coast 2018 (while Joelle King won gold in the women’s singles). But there’s no Olympics for Paul Coll. So it’s a pretty sweet thing that he gets his big moment, a career-defining achievement, in the post-Olympic sporting wash.
Superstarpreet Singh
A beautiful goal. One which put the icing on the cake of a 4-1 win over Schalke that keeps SSV Jahn Regensburg perfect with four wins from four, all pretty convincing, and Sarpreet Singh has a goal contribution in each of those games... plus an assist in their DFB-Pokal round one win too. It’s a five game streak and suffice to say that it ain’t like he’s only popping up for the glory at the end either. He’s working hard in the build-up and playing great footy.
Heaps more on that in Flying Kiwis tomorrow (plus we talked about it in today’s podcast, is up now - links at the top), the point I wanna make here is that we don’t have to only look at what he’s doing in regards to Bayern Munich. Old mates at Bayern signed him, they brought him to Europe. They did a beautiful thing there.
But cracking the first team at Bayern is no easy feat, not at a club that big who can buy pretty much anyone they want as opposed to punting on academy players. Bayern has a great culture (some boardroom kerfuffles aside) and guys like Thomas Muller and Philipp Lamb show there are always pathways... but for every one of those guys there are probably 15-20 dudes who end up elsewhere.
Point being that no matter how well Singh does on loan with SSV Jahn, it might not be enough to get him a new Bayern contract. Like, it may have absolutely nothing to do with that decision at all. Their forward/attacking mid stocks right now include Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry, Kingsley Coman, Thomas Muller, Jamal Musiala... there’s no easy way in there.
So if he should get released at the end of his contract next June then no dramas, that’s just another benefit to this loan deal because right now WhoScored.com have him as the top rated player in the 2.Liga and if you’re bossing the second tier in Germany then you’re absolutely good enough for a spot on a mid-table Bundesliga team. Let alone top leagues elsewhere in Europe. Hell, he’d go pretty decent for PSV alongside Ryan Thomas at the moment.
Every goal and assist, every impressive performance, it’s all getting talked about amongst the Bayern coaches so don’t even worry about that. But if they still can’t find a place for him then, well, he’s putting together quite the highlight reel to send around to other clubs. Football is a ruthless sport. Careers don’t tend to progress in a tidy linear fashion where you always get the opportunities/transfers that you deserve – especially for foreign players. As long as fellas/ladies are playing regularly in a top/second tier division then don’t fret about what the standard is like. Scouts are watching regardless.
And for Singh, like, the way he’s playing at the moment doesn’t require that Bayern Munich context at all. He’s scoring or assisting every damn game in a competition that’s stronger (especially this season) than most nation’s top division. That alone is a special thing no matter how long he’s able to sustain it or whatever comes next in his career.