Ruthless Exchanges
Brad Riddell's defeat, Ardie Savea + Brandon Smith, Breakers get smoked in game one, and National League footy
Podcast
TNC Variety Show 43
The Niche Cast: Let It Be
Reading Menu
2021/22 Women's Super Smash: Otago Sparks Optimism Manifested (Cricket)
What Can We Expect From the Welly Nix Women This First Season? (Football)
Get To Know The Wellington Phoenix Women’s Inaugural Kiwi Contingent (Football)
Flying Kiwis – November 30 (Football)
Football Ferns vs Korea Republic: Game Rua, The Sweet Nectar Of Victory (Football)Aotearoa Warriors Re-Jig Their Redcliffe Dolphins Collab With Fresh Aotearoa Juniors (NRL)
The Sky Blue Connection: Cronulla Sharks Love Otahuhu Leopards (Semisi Sikei/Salesi Ataata) (NRL)
Kiwi-NRL Takeover Continues With Seven Young Hookers From Auckland Signed To NRL Clubs (NRL)
Scotty’s Word
Brad Riddell UFC loss…
Tough loss for Brad Riddell yesterday, smoked by a twirl-kick (not official lingo). Riddell and Rafael Fiziev traded ruthless exchanges for two and a half rounds in an even contest between two homies. What I’m pondering is how Riddell evaded a kick combo from Fiziev in the first round and looked impressed by Fiziev’s flurry, then Riddell was a sitting duck as Fiziev unleashed the same kick to finish the fight.
This fight was always going to be close and Riddell loses nothing but pride in defeat. Now he’ll have to stack up some wins again, while we approach Kai Kara-France vs Cody Garbrandt this weekend.
Ardie Savea & Brandon Smith…
What do Ardie Savea and Brandon Smith have in common?
Both shared contract chat directly to fans without mainstream media and mainstream media made content out of this content. While these ideas are common across USA sports with players tapping into their power, controlling their narrative and all those player empowerment ideals; Savea and Smith shook up the status-quo in this corner of the world in the space of a couple weeks.
Smith outlined his 2023 free agency with Isaac John at YKTR. This is part of a fairly funky marketing deal signed with Smith and YKTR that involves crypto, content and merch. A bunch of brands dropped Smith after his coco saga, YKTR pounced to step into this space. You’ve seen and heard the response.
Then Savea stepped in to take things further. Savea made social media content about him re-signing with NZRU and I was intrigued to find his podcast feed updated with a podcast about the contract. That was his first podcast since May 15, 2020 and the podcast also popped up on his Youtube channel - his first video since October 9, 2020.
Along the same lines: Reiko Ioane did vlogs until his last one on April 12, 2020.
I love Savea’s content, so I’ve been tapped in. Savea did two technique/tactic breakdowns for his Youtube channel that were epic, then nothing else until his NZRU contract video. This points to sporadic podcast/Youtube content and I might be the only joker who finds this interesting but for someone who is clearly aligned with their power, Savea seems a bit scattered. Tap in further and you’ll find that the Aride Savea brand is ‘Asav’ and head to Asav.co for an Ardie Savea hub.
In the podcast, Savea outlined his contract negotiations and his passion for this type of stuff. The whole point of these things is to inspire others to tap into their power and change the narratives of athletes in Aotearoa - all of which is following on from USA. The weird thing here is that there isn’t much to this situation and as much as I want to big up Savea, everything I found was kinda common sense for Asav himself.
Savea is top-two All Blacks forwards right now with Sam Whitelock? All the other big dawg forwards were impacted by injury in 2021 and Savea stacked up games, while performing at a world-class level. That’s leverage and we have consistently seen for players of Savea’s standing, NZRU will accommodate their needs.
Savea also discussed how other players have negotiated their own contracts and he would have learned a lot through Julian Savea’s contract stuff - doing contracts with NZRU as well as how sometimes it’s better to stay in Aotearoa. Savea himself outlines how not everyone has this passion, which when combined with a unique background for this specific mahi makes for a perfect combination to execute the deal.
Upper echelon All Blacks have immense leverage, enabling them to get what they want. Very few players want to negotiate their own deals. All of which sounds like an experience that is unique to Savea and something that can’t really be applied to others.
Smith and Savea both made content around their free agency vibes, dictating the messaging and information around their respective decisions over the space of two weeks. This is Aotearoa’s first dip into player empowerment ideals, although neither instance is as dramatic as they seem - positive or negative. All these players have watched this wave in USA sports and are trying to execute the same thing, with the nek level being more widespread moves like this.
That nek level will also involve more niggle between mainstream media and athletes as the media tries to understand wtf is happening. Given that the Aussie NRL media seem jealous of Smith outlining his free agent meetings, this wedge between media and players is already in place. Expect it to grow as players explore their power.
Ama Lou is lovely…
Wildcard’s Notebook
UNBREAKABLE
Oh man I watched that Breakers game on Saturday night at the same time as the Blackcaps were crumbling in their first innings in India and it was not an enjoyable viewing experience. Pretty much a race to the bottom, at one point I legit didn’t know if the Breakers would score more points than the Blackcaps scored runs or vice versa. In the end the Breakers won 73 to 62... but they got absolutely tonked in the scoring comparison that mattered, going down 89-65 to the SEM Phoenix.
This was the Breakers without coach Dan Shamir. He has since been given the all clear after a bout of covid that got severe enough that he had to head off to hospital for a check up at one stage (helpfully the squad is all double-vaxxed). Assistant Mody Maor took charge in Shamir’s absence.
They were also without Yanni Wetzell who was able to attend but had missed training all week after also being a part of the covid positive section of the wider NZB travelling party. Which is a real worry – glad to hear he’s doing better (same goes for everyone in that group) but there have been quite a few worrying tales of sportsfolk taking a while to get back up to their usual standards after dealing with covid.
Wetzell is absolutely massive for this Breakers team. Preseason and this first game against SEM Phoenix has made that abundantly clear. They haven’t signed an import big man this year. Rob Loe remains very underrated and Kyrin Galloway was potentially their best performer in that season opener (very surprised they didn’t use Sam Timmins at all) but Yanni is the main man. An extremely well-rounded skill set which includes some very reliable footwork on defence. They need him to deliver in order to be challenging for the top four.
The context of what they dealt with last week has to be kept in mind. But damn they were awful in that game. Xavier Munford got whatever he wanted all night, scoring 27 points on 11/18 shooting. Mitch Creek wasn’t far behind. Kiwi Izayah Lea’afa had a solid evening. And though he only played 20 minutes, the Phoenix outscored the Breakers by 23 points when Chinese import big man Zhou Qi was on the floor. Meanwhile the Breakers’ top import, Jeremiah Martin, was a -29.
Martin looked alright, just a bit rusty. Peyton Siva brought some good energy though his 3/11 shooting night was less than ideal. His shooting numbers were sketchy in preseason and will be another barometer for this team. Finn Delany had a strong second half after being well off his standards in the first. His 18 points were the best for the Breaks. But the damage was already done by then.
That’s not what the aggregators wanna know about though, right? They wanna know how the French kids went. Well, Ousmane Dieng showed some sizzling athleticism and a great feel for the court around him while Hugo Besson’s ability to score in a few different ways is awesome. He’s a gun shooter already but can beat dudes off the dribble too, way more athletic than you realise at first.
That’s what draft scouts are seeing. As to what Breakers fans should be seeing... Dieng had 3 turnovers and shot 1/7 from the field, missing all four triples. Besson also had three turnovers and shot 2/7 (though he did get to the free throw line a couple times). Neither of them had a net-positive impact. At one point Dieng threw an inbounds pass straight to a SEM dude right under his own hoop. But hey it was only game one and the team was down on numbers.
Glad to see Matt Walsh shooting down the Matt Logue suggestion that Peyton Siva is on the brink of being cut already. Walshy wasn’t at the game because of his own covid case (he reckons he’s doing better now, glad to hear it) so he did a Q+A on twitter beforehand. Which was how I noticed he’s stopped following TNC, lol. Oh well. Wonder when that happened. Anyway he reckoned Logue was a “liar” who “made that shit up” about Siva being cut.
Sweet. Because the way this team has operated since he took over, not gonna lie, I didn’t find that idea too hard to believe (even though I though it would be a ridiculous thing to do).
Not the first time that Logue has written something that seemed harsh on the Breakers either – he was the one who hinted that Tai Webster might have milked his covid status to get out of the team because he was annoyed at how they cut his brother. That never quite added up to me. I wrote about it here. And I’m saying this as someone who has also been accused of being harsh on the Breakers. I mean, I’m not, I’m just writing about what happens, but if you’re a meme-loving fanboy of the new regime then anything short of a reaction gif of Donald Trump would seem harsh to you. Btw, there’s truly is an abundance of Trump memes on their socials these days. As if it wasn’t cringey enough already.
Here’s something else that Walshy said (you’re getting a bit more of an unfiltered Wildcard in the Substacks, ain’t ya?)...
The best in the world. Shame on the Milwaukee Bucks for turning Giannis Antetokounmpo into a two-time NBA MVP. Or Real Madrid for building up Luka Doncic the way that they did. Or the Denver Nuggets with Nikola Jokic. Nah, the best player development club in the world is the New Zealand Breakers who took RJ Hampton from a potential top five draft pick to... *checks notes*... the 24th overall selection.
Am I being too harsh on the Breakers again? Eh, get back to me when they make the playoffs.
Scoreboard Pornography
National League Thoughts – SCS Week 5
1) With a little over five minutes remaining, the Canterbury Pride were down 2-1 at home against Capital. They only reason they were even that close was a superb Una Foyle save with her leg to keep Kaley Ward from completing her hatty ten mins earlier. But Foyle did the business, Annalie Longo tapped in an equaliser with five to play, and then 16 year old Kiara Bercelli scored a direct free kick in stoppage time for an absolutely amazing comeback victory for the Pride that keeps them well in the title race going into the last week, despite having lost their first two games. You just cannot count this team out, aye?
2) The goal from Kiara Bercelli...
She was unlucky not to be starting this game IMO. Her and Charlotte Mortlock hadn’t been the most clinical duo up front in the two games against Central but they’d been heavily involved and making things happen all the same. They were both on the bench for the must-win vs Capital but were also both summoned with the Pride trying to get back into the contest. Bercelli especially has gotta be going close to a start against Southern next week now. A game which will decide the title one way or another.
3) Yeah speaking of that women’s final weekend... Southern (12pts) host Canterbury (9pts) in one game while it’s Capital (9pts) hosting Central (0pts) in the other match. If Southern win or draw then the South Central Series title is theirs. However if Canterbury win then they take out the trophy supposing that Capital don’t beat Central by four goals more than the Pride beat Southern by... which is not out of the question at all.
Canterbury beat Central 5-0 on both occasions they played them. NZF has done some weird things with head to head tiebreakers in the past but while I can’t find any SCS regulations, the Men’s National League says that goal difference is the main tiebreaker and that was the same for the Women’s Premiership a year ago. Stacks up then. Gonna be an amazing finish. Both games are on Saturday though SOUvCAN kicks off at 1pm with the other one on straight after at 3pm... so Capital will know exactly what they need to do to win if indeed it’s still possible.
4) Two big hidings dished out in the men’s side this week. Wellington Olympic were well in the game against Cashmere Tech with the score 1-1 at the half. Then they fell behind and crumbled to a 5-1 loss. To be fair to Olympic, they’d rolled out a heavily rotated team with their place in the final already secured so it’s no reflection on where they are heading into that title match... but it was a trend that overlapped with the other big result. That was the WeeNix smoking Western Suburbs 6-0. Again, Suburbs started alright playing Western Suburbs style footy but once it got away from them it got away in a hurry. Same as with Olympic, Wests had rotated their team significantly for the last game. It was a super young team and that inexperience was clear in how they compounded their own errors once things started to go against them. Good lessons to learn.
5) Luis Toomey scored a hatty in that game having scored twice the week before. Tooms is a creative midfielder capable of playing as an 8 or as a 10 or even out wide. Great versatility. He’s got a silky touch and hits a mean dead ball. Love how direct he plays. This guys has seen plenty of his mates called up to the wider A-League squad over the last 24 months and you’ve gotta think he’s right near the top of the queue now.
6) Kailan Gould and Ollie Whyte both have 5 goals heading into the final. Luis Toomey also has 5. Ben Mata, Oskar van Hattum & Josh Rudland have 4. Sam Mason-Smith, Joao Moreira & Garbhan Coughlan are all on three. Could be a frisky battle for that golden boot (assuming they count the final towards those standings – NZF may not but I certainly do). As for the women’s comp, Annalie Longo has 6 goals having scored a brace in each of her last three matches. Kaley Ward is on 5 goals. Rebecca Lake and Amy Hislop have 3 each. Similar areas there with a week to play.
7) Another pitch invader...
