Sizzling Directions
Blackaps ODI selections, Wellington Phoenix reactions, Ford Trophy/HBJ Shield, Kiwis in the WNBL, NZ National League shenanigans & more
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Reading Menu
The Kiwi-NRL Juniors Who Helped Australian Teams Make Finals In 2022 (Rugby League)
Francis Manuleleua And The Kiwi-NRL Panthers (Rugby League)
The Six Aotearoa Warriors Juniors To Learn About (Rugby League)
The Breakers Have Rediscovered Their Mana, Aotearoa Rejoice (Basketball)
Flying Kiwis – December 14 (Football)
How Are The Wellington Phoenix Lads Looking Ahead of the A-League’s Return? (Football)
Scotty’s Word
To go with the Blackcaps Test squad, we now have an ODI group to play in Pakistan and India. Don't buzz too much about the Indian portion of this tour as those games aren't as important as the Pakistan games that feature in the ODI World Cup Super League. This evident in Kane Williamson and Tim Southee only playing in Pakistan, then Mark Chapman and Jacob Duffy coming in for the India games.
Ish Sodhi has now been named in Test and ODI squads, mainly thanks to conditions. Henry Nicholls is also in the squad and he is low key battling for game time having only played against Netherlands and Ireland in ODIs this year. Nicholls is competing with Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips for middle-order Test batting roles as well.
Henry Shipley is a funky inclusion and thoroughly deserved. Shipley appears to be selected ahead of Blair Tickner who is in the Test squad and Shipley's all-round ability probably gave him the nudge. Shipley is an impressive seamer, angling deliveries into right-handers with plenty of nibble… and, of course, Shipley is really tall.
Don't sleep on Shipley's batting either. Shipley finished last season's Plunket Shield with knocks of 61 and 70, then started this season with 82 runs and then a 49 in the next game. Shipley has averaged 30+ in his last two PS seasons with four scores over 50 and he scored two Ford Trophy half-centuries last season in five innings.
As noted in the many yarns in which Shipley has appeared this season, his worst bowling format is List-A (42.59avg). Shipley averages 27.5 in First-Class and 23.86 in T20. Shipley has been fantastic in FT so far this summer and he will benefit immensely from touring Pakistan and India.
FT takes a break for a few weeks, along with HBJ Shield. Super Smash starts later this week. This weekend's FT games saw Canterbury vs Northern and Auckland vs Otago rained off, while Central defeated Wellington.
Most Wickets
Seth Rance: 47ov, 13w @ 12.3avg/3.4rpo
Henry Shipley: 34ov, 12w @ 11.91avg/4.2rpo
Michael Snedden: 37.2ov, 12w @ 19.16avg/6.16rpo
Jacob Duffy: 37.4ov, 11w @ 11.45avg/3.34rpo
Ollie Newton: 39ov, 10w @ 19.8avg/5rpo
Most Runs
Dane Cleaver: 6inns, 225 runs @ 45avg/94.53sr, 2 x 50
Nick Kelly: 6inns, 210 runs @ 42avg/87.86sr, 2 x 50
Rob O'Donnell: 5inns, 199 runs @ 49.75avg/61.99sr, 3 x 50
Chad Bowes: 5inns, 195 runs @ 48.75avg/98.48sr, 2 x 50
Will Young: 4inns, 180 runs @ 90vg/97.82sr, 1 x 100
Ladder
Central: 4-2, 19 points
Canterbury: 3-2, 17 points
Northern: 3-1, 17 points
Otago: 2-2, 12 points
Wellington: 2-4, 9 points
Auckland: 1-4, 8 points
In HBJ Shield, Canterbury dismissed Auckland for 136 and 116 but only grabbed one win as the Saturday game was rained off. Lea Tahuhu was the leading figure with 7 wickets over the weekend taking her to the top of the bowling charts, while fellow Cantab Gabby Sullivan's 3w haul on Sunday is right behind Tahuhu.
Caitlin Gurrey smacked 183 runs @ 126.2sr for Northern in their win over Central. Northern put up 318/7 thanks to Gurrey's knock and Central fell short, all out for 195. Northern seamers Lucy Boucher and Shriya Naidu took 4w each.
Wellington and Otago lost their Saturday game to rain, then played a 31-over game on Sunday. Wellington scored 140/5 led by Thamsyn Newton's 42 runs and 32* from Kate Chandler, then Wellington dismissed Otago for 109. No Amelia Kerr and Wellington still rolled out four spinners...
Kate Ebrahim was 68* for Otago (155/5) when they left the field against Wellington. Ebrahim has a century and two 50+ scores in four innings this season, currently averaging 60+ for the fourth season in a row.
Most Wickets
Lea Tahuhu: 29.3ov, 10w @ 9.6avg/3.25rpo
Gabby Sullivan: 29.3ov, 9w @ 8.66avg/2.64rpo
Shriya Naidu: 30ov, 7w @ 17.14avg/4rpo
Caitlin King: 12.1ov, 6w @ 6.66avg/3.28rpo
Lucy Boucher: 20ov, 6w @ 12.83avg/3.85rpo
Jess Watkin: 25v, 6w @ 17.33avg/4.33rpo
Caitlin Blakely: 20ov, 6w @ 18.33avg/5.5rpo
Melissa Hansen: 21ov, 6w 2 22.66avg/6.47rpo
Most Runs
Caitlin Gurrey: 4inns, 324 runs @ 81avg/101.88sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50
Kate Ebrahim: 4inns, 256 runs @ 128avg/67.9sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50
Bernadine Bezuidenhout: 3inns, 184 runs @ 92avg/91.54sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50
Kerry-Anne Tomlinson: 3inns, 82 runs @ 27.33avg/48.23sr, 1 x 50
Laura Hughes: 4inns, 78 runs @ 26avg/60.46sr
Ladder
Wellington: 2-0, 14 points
Canterbury: 2-1, 14 points
Northern: 2-1, 12 points
Otago: 1-2, 8 points
Central: 1-2, 6 points
Auckland: 0-2, 4 points
Rough draft for 2022 Kiwi-NRL Power Rankings
Penrith Panthers
Sydney Roosters
Melbourne Storm
Parramatta Eels
Cronulla Sharks
Canberra Raiders
North Queensland Cowboys
NZ Warriors
South Sydney Rabbitohs
Brisbane Broncos
Gold Coast Titans
Newcastle Knights
Manly Sea Eagles
Wests Tigers
Canterbury Bulldogs
St George Dragons
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Three ideas from the Wellington Phoenix lads 3-1 win over Adelaide…
1) There’s That Ruthlessness We’ve Been Waiting To See
Scored inside two minutes of the kickoff, didn’t get rattled when Craig Goodwin equalised with a worldie of a free kick, took the lead back before the break, kept pressing and scored a third after their opponents were reduced to ten men, then happily copped a few fouls (including a Clayon Lewis yellow card) late on to make sure they got over the line. It’s allowed to be a bit messy when you’ve already done the hard work.
What they needed to do was prove they could hold onto a lead, especially against Adelaide who equalised in stoppage time against them in week one. That they did. This team had been missing a bit of an edge so this result should give them what they were lacking… and the A-League table being what it is that shoots them way up into contention only two points behind Adelaide in third place. One win did that. Imagine what 3-4 wins in a row could do.
2) Strength In Depth Is The Key To This Team’s Chances
It’s definitely kinda curious to see Lucas Mauragis getting games ahead of Sam Sutton but it’s worth trusting what Ufuk Talay is up to. He does this every now and then: drops a regular starter to fire them up and then a few weeks later they return in career-best form. It’s not always as deliberate as that but Tim Payne’s done pretty well since he got back into that defence. Ben Waine has been the recipient of that kick up the arse in the past. Clayton Lewis is one who thrived after similar treatment last season.
It was revealed after the fact that Sutton missed the squad with a slight muscle twinge… but Mauragis started ahead of him last week too. And Mauragis has done well. He’s so fast off the mark and passes sharply around corners. Good decisive fullback play, especially when getting forward. His positioning has been great (he looks miles better than he did the first two weeks of the season, having had five reserve games to work on whatever it was that Talay needed to see from him). Some of those things are aspects of Sutton’s play that he needs to improve on - remember he’s a converted midfielder. Sometimes a step back helps give you that perspective.
Having the option to chuck in someone like Mauragis for a few weeks (or more if he keeps playing well) is huge. It’s also the same situation further forward where guys like Kosta Barbarouses and Ben Waine have had to play off the bench lately. This is a team that has failed to come up with answers when Plan A has struggled in their last few finals matches. It’s important to retain that knowledge that it’s a 90 minute game and even if someone like Kosta/Waine may fall into a pattern of only playing 20 minutes per game on average those 20 minutes can be crucial. It takes more than eleven players to get over the line most weeks and especially in the finals. For once the Nix have more good players than can fit into a starting line-up.
3) Some Of Youz Owe Yan Sasse An Apology
Nothing drastic. Dude got a red card that almost everybody acknowledged was unlucky, costing him all but 25 minutes of the first three games. That set him behind the rest of the team and he didn’t get up to much in his next start, leading to a small cameo off the bench in the next match and an unused sub stint right before the World Cup break. We’re talking about a Brazilian pro adjusting to the A-League here. It takes more than a couple games and he’s had set backs along the way. That’s fine. Give him time and don’t panic, refer to point two about the strength in depth.
Sasse had a game for the WeeNix during the break in which he scored a goal, hit the post twice, and bagged an assist… with his manager watching on from the sidelines the whole time. He wasn’t too flash last week but finally here we got a glimpse of what he’s capable of with a deflected goal (they all count and he was due some luck) as well as some sizzling direct running. Sasse offers a point of difference to the rest of the forwards that this team has. A strong left foot gives him a shooting option to go with the dribbling. Just a matter of adjusting to the fellas around him - who by the way seem to love him based on their reactions when he scored.
Meanwhile Oskar Zawada is also beginning to settle in nicely while Bozhidar Kraev has scored in four consecutive games. All three goals were scored by imports on the weekend. Feels like things are beginning to click for this team.
A magnificent display of footballing activities from Eastern Suburbs crowned them the Women’s National League champions on Sunday, winning the grand final 4-0 over Western Springs. They were the best team all season and they saved perhaps their finest effort for the ultimate game. That’s what matters most and nothing’s gonna overshadow that outcome... but same as with the men’s final, there was a very slight frustration with another ridiculous outcome regarding the Most Valuable Player award.
There should be absolutely zero doubt that Tayla O’Brien was the competition’s MVP. 17 goals scored claiming the Golden Boot despite playing half her games from midfield, also third-equal with 9 assists for the season (plus another one in the final). She was the most influential player, the player with the best stats, the highest-performing player, and she did it all for the best team. No arguments will be accepted.
Instead Capital’s Renee Bacon got the award. An excellent footballer who had a breakthrough campaign having moved to Wellington and blossomed as an attacker after having played previous National League campaigns with Southern United as a fullback. Bacon was probably Capital’s second top performer after central defender Zoe Barrott... but that’s a matter of opinion. Pepe Olliver-Bell would also be in that convo.
Bacon was very good. 5 goals and 4 assists for a team that only scored 17 goals in total (same amount as TOB got all by herself lol). Not sure that’s MVP calibre when your team finishes second to last though. At least Bacon is going to be amongst the TNC Teams of the Season when those are revealed later this week, unlike Silvio Rodic for the fellas.
The problem here is the system that’s used to decide these things. It’s the same for both men and women. Opposition teams vote on a 3-2-1 basis after each game with those points tallied up over the full campaign. Here’s the official wording from the National League regulations...
27.5 At the conclusion of the NL the Most Valuable Player (MVP) will be awarded to the Player who has been awarded the most points voted by their opposition. Each Participant shall select the three opposition Players in each match and shall rank the Players based on performance and award 3 points, 2 points and 1 point respectively. If at the conclusion of the NL, two or more Players are equal on points, the winner will be determined as follows:
27.5.1 The Player that played the fewest games in the Championship.
27.5.2 The Player that has the superior disciplinary record in the Championship in accordance with Regulation 26.9 above.
Problem there is that unless I’m misreading that it means that the best players for both teams get points. Putting aside the potential conflicts of opposition teams voting, that’s a bafflingly dumb format in a league where there were ten different games decided by a 5+ goal margin. (Also those tiebreakers… surely you’re more valuable if you play more games not fewer games? And why can’t you simply have a tie for MVP?).
Let’s take Northern Rovers beating Central 9-0 in week three as an example. Kelli Brown scored five goals and probably had an assist or two as well. Safe bet she’s getting three points, while Leanna Ryan scoring two and setting up at least one more might have her with the two points. We’ll give Rene Wasi the one point as she also scored that day.
Who got the points for Central? Whoever they were, nobody on a team that lost 9-0 deserves the same credit as Rene Wasi’s efforts for one point yet the top Central player would have gotten the same value as Brown with her five-for. This format entirely devalues the actual result of the game (surely that’s the most valuable thing of all) and leads to situations like this where Renee Bacon’s consistency for a team with fewer MVP challengers tallies up ahead of the best players for the best teams.
It’s an illogical and borderline frivolous way to decide what should be a major prestigious award. At least we all know who the Rightful MVP is.
By the way, this escaped my attentions for a couple of days but it was announced on Friday that Christchurch United’s brilliant 4-1 win over Cashmere Technical in the final round of the Men’s NL has been overturned due to CU fielding an ineligible player off the bench. A substitute who wasn’t on the team sheet. They don’t specify who it was but Joe Hoole, Jackson Cole, and Daniel Meyn were the three subs used. Would be awkward if it was Meyn given that he’s the son of the club’s owner/president.
Seriously, we got all this way without having to worry about stupid defaults and then in the last round of the men’s there was this and in the last round of the women’s there was a covid cancellation. Both accidental, one faultless and one very much not. It’d be nice to one day reach a point where these things don’t happen but apparently we’re not there yet. An overturned result feels harsh considering we’re talking about a substitute in a convincing 4-1 win (although two of those goals were scored late), although maybe don’t play ineligible players and it won’t have to happen.
I think maybe the reason this news slipped my attentions for three days was that it’s been absolutely buried. There’s an article on the NZF website which I noticed while writing about the women’s grand final... and that’s about it. Not been shared on NZF’s Twitter or Facebook nor have I noticed it on any of the major sports news outlets (shame, The Niche Cache beat y’all to it). Meanwhile Christchurch United’s own channels are all focussed on attracting new academy players, no mention of their finest result of the season being overturned at all.
So... maybe we collectively just pretend it never happened? I’m cool with that. Armin Tamzarian the whole matter.
Time for a check-in with the WNBL, where we’ve got three New Zealanders in action this season. Penina Davidson and Lauryn Hippolite are back with Melbourne Boomers having won a championship with them last season. Krystal Leger-Walker has replaced Micaela Cocks at Townsville Fire, a rookie point guard for a veteran point guard. Lovely passing-the-torch moment.
There were going to be three more kiwis involved. Mary Goulding was going to return to Bendigo Spirit, same with Kalani Purcell at Sydney Flames. And fresh from winning the NZ Tauihi league MVP award, it’s come to be known that Tahlia Tupaea is actually a dual NZ/Aus citizen (although she played for Australia at youth level). She had signed with the Canberra Capitals having played for Bendigo last term. Unfortunately none of them ended up playing. Tupaea was granted personal leave as she withdrew from the season. Mary Goulding is still injured from the end of the Tauihi. And as for Kalani Purcell...
There ya go. Purcell is engaged to kiwi big man Tyrell Harrison of the Brisbane Bullets so that kid is destined to be a future Tall Black/Fern for sure.
So we could’ve had six but we’ll still get three. And so far things are going okay. None of those two NZ-repped teams are quite on the level of the Bendigo Spirit who are 7-0 to begin the season, they sit in first place, but in second are the 7-1 Melbourne Boomers and in third are the 5-2 Townsville Fire.
The Fire won three straight to begin things, then lost back to back to the Spirit and the Boomers, but they’ve bounced back with two solid wins since. Krystal Leger-Walker is still working her way into the professional realms though. Limited minutes so far, just 53 in total across seven games. The best by far was the win against Southside Flyers two games back in which she scored 6 points in 14 minutes hitting both her three-pointers. Also added 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal in an 82-79 victory. Didn’t really get rewarded for that as KLW only got six minutes in a 98-85 win over Perth next up… but those rewards will come soon enough.
Moving over to the Melbourne Boomers, Lauryn Hippolite joined the team as a development player last season and was re-signed on the back of their championship. Only seen her take the floor in two out of eight games so far and she didn’t really do anything in those three total minutes. However Penina Davidson is delivering some powerful mahi off the bench. Averaging around 15 minutes per game, contributing 6ppg on 50% shooting from the field to go with 2.4 rebounds and some mean defence. A 19 points game (9/9 field goals) in a huge win over Canberra in game four was easily her best effort.
Veeery few kiwi footballers actually playing at the moment. World Cup hiatus, international offseasons, and European winters combining to make it a difficult task putting a Flying Kiwis write-up together. So in case I don’t manage to fill that thing out (though I probably will even if it’s only a quarter size since there’s unlikely to be one next week due winter breaks), here’s the highlight so far...