Setting Up Shop
Warriors vs Sharks, All Whites vs Ivory Coast, Rob Walter as Blackcaps coach, NRLW update, Flying Kiwis goalkeeping transfers, and more
Scotty’s Word
My favourite nuggets from the NZ Warriors vs Sharks winning notebook...
NZW are 22-4 in NRL and NSW Cup this year. The NSW Cup team won vs their Sharks equivalent and are top of the ladder with a 12-1 record.
NZW have won games this season without James Fisher-Harris, Charze Nicoll-Klokstad, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Jackson Ford, Mitchell Barnett and Wayde Egan.
NZ Warriors at Sharks in two Andys era
2023: 32-30 win
2024: 30-28 win
2025: 40-10 win
New Zealand Warriors Winning Notebook After Another Win In Cronulla
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Elijah Salesa-Leaumoana Debut For Knights
Jackson 'Go' Ford spotlight
He's played 50+ minutes in the last three games. Before the Sharks game, he had 50+ minutes in back to back games for the first time this season. That means more running mahi and he's had 150+ metres in each of these games.
Here's his mahi in the two games covering Barnett's absence...
vs Rabbitohs: 59mins, 15 runs - 153m @ 10.2m/run, 1 try assist, 2 tackle breaks, 37 tackles @ 88.1%
vs Sharks: 53mins, 18 runs - 158m @ 8.7m/run, 1 tackle break, 1 offload, 38 tackles @ 95%
Ford has a tackle break in every game he's played this season and 2+ tackle breaks in eight of his 12 games.
He has 40+ post-contact metres in 10 games.
Per game stats for three seasons at NZW in which he has shifted from edge to middle forward...
2023: 72mins, 102.9m, 2.7 tackle breaks, 34.6 tackles, 3.5 missed tackles, 0.9 penalties conceded, 0.8 errors
2024: 69.2mins, 102.8m, 1.7 tackle breaks, 37.4 tackles, 2.6 missed tackles, 0.7 penalties conceded, 0.8 errors
2025: 48.3mins, 133.1m, 2.8 tackle breaks, 33.4 tackles, 1.9 missed tackles, 0.5 penalties conceded, 0.4 errors
James Fisher-Harris vs Addin Fonua-Blake
The actual battle between them was over-hyped by media and neither is the type to pick a scrap with one bloke, so direct niggle was never going to happen. This game highlighted the influence of Fisher-Harris and, while I love his tackling stats, Fisher-Harris is all mana and mana can't be measured.
Fisher-Harris has changed NZW. Fonua-Blake hasn't changed the Sharks and they way they are currently playing, he's made them worse compared to the previous two years. If you only look at stats, Fonua-Blake won this anti-battle quite easily...
James Fisher-Harris: 50mins, 1 try, 12 runs - 107m @ 8.9m/run, 2 tackle breaks, 34 tackles @ 87.1%
Addin Fonua-Blake: 64mins, 13 runs - 125m @ 9.6m/run, 1 tackle break, 1 offload, 34 tackles @ 94.4%
That was a below average game for Fonua-Blake as well. Fisher-Harris inspires his team though, and the way NZW dismantled Sharks on their home turf was led by Fisher-Harris. NZW are playing Fisher-Harris footy.
Every week I have notes for NZW in NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg Cup for paid subscribers and the Patreon whanau. I also have some quick notes for Maddy Green, Devon Conway and Kane Williamson on the cricket side.
As for the Kiwi-NRL Sharks...
Ronaldo Mulitalo didn't play vs NZW and he would of helped with the set for set flow. He wouldn't have helped the bad vibes though and Sharks are cooking up a stench. Sharks love Aotearoa and are still one of the best Kiwi-NRL organisations across the levels, even if this wasn't the ideal weekend to lay it out.
The NRL team had KL Iro (Aorangi/Mt Albert), Mawene Hiroti (Western Suburbs - New Plymouth), Braden Hamlin-Uele (Glenora).
Chris Vea'ila (Waitemata) didn't play NSW Cup in Newtown's loss vs NZW so there were no Kiwi-NRL juniors in that team. The U21s had a win over NZW which featured Pharrell Gray (Victoria Hunters), Felix Fa'atili (Hornby) and Richie Tupuailei (Hornby). Ben Peni (Papatoetoe) has been a steady presence in the Flegg team after leaving NZW earlier this year and Manako Piutau (St Paul's College) has played a few games as well.
Slide back to the last game Sharks played in U19 SG Ball Cup where their team had Elijah Paea (De La Salle College), Hudsyn Frost (Otahuhu) and Karlos Hati-Ross (Papatoetoe).
Sharks NRLW squad: Annessa Biddle (Otara), Brooke Anderson (Sydney), Tyla King (New Lynn), Jaydika Tafua (Papanui).
Aliana Tonu'u (Otara) was always at starting prop for the Sharks U19 Tarsha Gale Cup team.
I noticed a wee update for the NZW NRLW squad as well. This Instagram post has Ashlee Matapo as the fourth development player and she isn't listed in the NRL.com squad break down. Matapo came through Glenfield and Westlake Girls High School to play for North Harbour, while also having a stint at Ponsonby. She also seems to have played junior rugby league for Northcote before spending recent years at Mt Albert.
The four development players for NZWW...
Danii Gray: Mangere East | half
Ivana Lauitiiti: Otahuhu | middle forward
Sharnyze Pihema: Manurewa/Papakura | edge forward
Ashlee Matapo: Northcote/Mt Albert | middle forward
Blackcaps have a new coach in Rob Walter...
Gary Stead was a really good coach, the best Blackcaps coach of my lifetime. Blackcaps were better under Stead than they were during the Mike Hesson years and I'm happy saying that Stead was a better coach than Hesson. Blackcaps punched into top-four status a few times under Hesson but they set up shop there during Stead’s time in charge.
Stead leaves Blackcaps in a better position than when he started and it's such a strong position that my expectations are high for Blackcaps moving forward. I don't think much will change under Walter and that points back to Stead's mahi because the Blackcaps' world-class culture is already established, plus a fresh wave of incredible emerging talent has already been integrated.
The coach is an important role but one factor in my Blackcaps optimism is that the whole system is awesome. To be honest, the Blackcaps system is so good that I don't really care who the coach is right now. Sam Wells has entrenched himself as chief selector, domestic cricket is an excellent development foundation, coaching is aligned throughout Aotearoa and business is booming for kiwi cricket.
Coach Walter literally outlined the strength of Blackcaps this during the 2023 World Cup..
"They've gone beyond the time where people couldn't understand why they achieved the results they have. They're a very good side now and you don't see many holes in their make-up. They have a lot of depth in different positions and for the most part, highly experienced cricketers who've played a lot and achieved a lot"
"That's probably the strength of this New Zealand side, it's not easy to get a game, let alone a World Cup squad. In New Zealand, when a player steps in to the national side there's pressure from beneath and it inspires the incumbents to raise their game"
"It's just a bunch of quality cricketers and if it were it's just as easy as doing your scouting and prep against them, it would be an easy game. But it's not, they've been playing great cricket."
I reckon Blackcaps are in a better position right now than they were when Walter offered those thoughts. The fact that Blackcaps are still highly competitive without senior players who have moved on, having easily filled the spots of those dipping out of the contract pool, tells most of that story.
Two hearty captains in Tom Latham and Mitchell Santner. Matt Henry somehow keeps getting better (and is now one of the best all-format bowlers in the world), an honour shared by Daryl Mitchell.
Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips are 1st 11 across the formats. Will O'Rourke, Jacob Duffy, Ben Sears, Nathan Smith and Zak Foulkes offer ample seam bowling funk. Mitch Hay and Adithya Ashok will soon be the best at their roles in the country. Young batters? Take your pick from Rhys Mariu, Muhammad Abbas, Dale Phillips, Matt Boyle, Curtis Heaphy and on and on.
T20 Blast stat update
Suzie Bates: 153 runs @ 38.2avg/127sr | 4w @ 14avg/8.1rpo
Logan van Beek: 88 runs @ 29.3avg/107sr | 9w @ 20.8avg/9.4rpo
Matt Henry: 7w @ 11.1avg/6.5rpo
Jacob Duffy: 7w @ 18.1avg/8.7rpo
Jimmy Neesham: 50 runs @ 25avg/125sr | 6w @ 18avg/9rpo
Mitchell Santner: 14 runs @ 14avg/140sr | 3w @ 12.3avg/6.9rpo
Nathan Smith: 11 runs @ 157sr | 3w @ 30.6avg/7.6rpo
Zak Foulkes: 4 runs @ 100sr | 4w @ 17avg/5.6rpo
Maddy Green: 28 runs @ 28avg/155sr | 1w @ 14avg/4.6rpo
Tom Latham: 109 runs @ 27.2avg/124sr
Will O'Rourke: 5 runs @ 167sr | 2w @ 80avg/10.6rpo
Kane Williamson: 70 runs @ 23.3avg/113sr
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
The All Whites won 1-0 against Côte d'Ivoire on Sunday in Toronto, Canada. Eli Just scored the only goal as the fellas laid down a supreme defensive performance and you can read all about that game right here (as well as a tour preview over here).
This wasn’t a high profile enough game for there to be comprehensive stats but pretty sure that if there were, we’d see that Ivory Coast had a large chunk of the ball and most of the chances. But, like, who cares? We don’t need to worry about style points in these kinds of games. Possession and shots tallies and corner counts and all those things are means to an end... results are what people remember. How much possession did the All Whites keep against Slovenia in 2010? How many chances did they create compared to their opponents? I don’t know, you don’t know. But we both know who rose up onto a Shane Smeltz cross in the 90+3rd minute to nod in the equalising goal.
This was an extremely rare win. Ivory Coast are the reigning champions of Africa so it was the best of Oceania against the best of Africa… and the Oceania team won. Only the third ever victory against African opposition for the All Whites following a 2-0 win against Ghana in 1983 and a 2-0 win against The Gambia in 2021. None of these three games were played on African (or New Zealand) soil, coincidentally. That Ghana game was in South Korea. The Gambia game was in UAE. This one was in Canada.
Funnily enough, when they were in UAE in 2021 for that game and also a 1-0 win against Bahrain three days earlier, it coincided with the Blackcaps playing there in the T20 World Cup and the lads were there in attendance as Daryl Mitchell slugged an unbeaten 72 runs off 47 deliveries in the semi-final against England as part of a five wicket win for Aotearoa...
Four years later, they beat another African nation on neutral ground and were able to indulge in another act of patriotic support for a different son of a rugby legend who plays a sport other than rugby. In this case it was Ryan Fox’s victory at the PGA’s Canadian Open. Foxy won via a playoff against USA’s Sam Burns and every time he nailed a putt the cameras chopped back to “the New Zealand men’s soccer team” for reaction shots. They even got interviewed during the broadcast.
Looks like a few more of the footy lads turned up for the cricket compared to the golf, which is heartening to see. But the important thing is that kiwis are winning wherever these blokes go. Maybe next time we schedule a game against an African team in Australia right around the NRL grand final, or perhaps we could help the Tall Blacks and Tall Ferns out with their upcoming Asia Cup campaigns.
Meanwhile, the NZ U20s played Chile on Sunday morning a few hours before that All Whites fixture in the second of their two-match series against their future U20 World Cup group hosts. The first game was played behind closed doors, as discussed on Thursday, with the NZ team losing 3-1. It turns out that Luke Brooke-Smith scored the goal for Aotearoa and it also turns out that goal was an absolute doozy. Dunno what the conditions of the closed door thing were but LBS put the clip up on his Insta story so cheers to him for doing the leg work.
The second game was open to the public with around 2000 fans turning up to support the home side. It was also broadcast live on Chilevision... who kindly put the stream on YouTube for the rest of us to see. Chile won 2-1 with James Bulkeley scoring the goal for NZ via a header from a Troy Putt corner kick. It was a pretty even game but Chile had a little more juice up top. There’s still about three months before the U20 World Cup and these games will have been very useful for them.
If you want some more reactions from this game then, guess what, those yarns are hiding behind the paywall for our heartiest of readers.
It would now appear that Alex Paulsen will not, after all, be heading to Hibernian. Hibs are part of the wider Black Knight Football Club umbrella and he just spent a season on loan with another one of those teams: Auckland FC (the others are FC Lorient, recently promoted to Ligue 1 in France, and of course AFC Bournemouth where Paulsen is registered… though they have formal understandings with a couple other clubs outside the umbrella too). The bloke who oversees the BKFC operations, president Tim Bezbatchenko, went on The Athletic FC podcast a few months ago and touted that very idea...
“One good example would be Alex Paulsen who is currently at Auckland. Goalkeeper. The decision now for us is would it make sense to move him within the group and Hibs could be a good location for him.”
Unfortunately, Hibs just signed Raphael Sallinger from TSV Hartberg in Austria on a three-year contract which would appear to put an end to any chance of Paulsen going there. Scottish sources have suggested the same thing. Paulsen will go somewhere that he can be the number one and with Hibs qualifying for the Europa League prelims after a third-placed finish in the Scottish Premiership... taking on a kiwi keeper untested at that level might have seemed too much of a risk. And despite the input and oversight from BKFC, they’re not going to go around demanding such things of their constituent clubs.
Never mind, AP will still get something good (St Mirren were very quick to throw their hat in the ring, that’s Alex Greive’s old club, though the denials were just as fast). But, same as Tyler Bindon and Marko Stamenic at Nottingham Forest, he’ll be reporting for Premier League preseason before anything else.
On Saturday morning it was also announced that Vic Esson would be leaving Rangers after three years. No shocker there, given how they iced her out over the last few months. In hindsight we could look at that like they knew she was leaving so they focused on the other keeper (and they did sign a third-choice Icelandic international in January so there was some premonition already) but this was a team competing for multiple trophies so pretty sure they just picked their fave and rolled with it. Esson was basically in a job-share situation with Jenna Fife (a Scottish international) throughout her time there. They alternated more or less 50-50 until those last few months. Esson’s 34 years old and trying to reestablish herself as Football Ferns top choice so she pretty much needed to leave.
That means the All Whites have got Alex Paulsen leaving Auckland FC and likely to head out on loan somewhere in Europe. There’s Max Crocombe who was offered new terms at Burton Albion but still hasn’t accepted anything and with every passing day it becomes more likely that he’ll be leaving. Nik Tzanev is a free agent after exiting Northampton Town. Kees Sims has been linked with a move to England, although he is on a long term deal with GAIS in Sweden. Henry Gray will surely get another progressive loan out from Ipswich Town next season, hopefully this time in League One or League Two. And while Oli Sail hasn’t gone anywhere at Perth Glory, they did just add Mark Birighitti to apply more pressure in that position. Sail is counted as a local player so this doesn’t necessarily forecast a departure after the Glory recently splashed out on defensive imports in Sam Sutton, Scott Wootton, and Brian Kaltack. But his job did just become tougher.
And the Football Ferns have Vic Esson as a free agent after leaving Rangers, while Anna Leat has only been playing for Hibiscus Coast (and as a striker, not as a goalkeeper) in the NRFL Premiership back in Aotearoa since she left Aston Villa. Neither of them have a professional club right now. We’ll see what Claudia Jenkins does after her breakthrough ALW season with Adelaide United because she only signed a one-year deal prior to that campaign and will suddenly have way more options.
Also, Jenkins hasn’t actually played for NZ yet. The Chinese Taipei series didn’t provide any games and she pulled out of the Venezuela series with a minor injury so forgive me for not being 100% comfortable counting her in this category quite yet. Brianna Edwards was her replacement for the latest series and she’s on a two-year deal with Sydney FC but that first year ended with her being out of the frame entirely so she should be able to sneak out of that contract if she asks nicely. Seems like it’s one big game of musical chairs for the goalkeepers of Aotearoa at the moment. (And check beyond the paywall for an update on Libby Cacace’s situation).
Musical Jam...