Sporting Specialities
Warriors front row stuff, Breakers lose Coach Mody, Kiwi signings in NRLW, Wellington Phoenix offseason updates, Rachin Ravindra's activity, a Tall Ferns squad & more
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Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: The Josiah Karapani Debut For Broncos (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Taharoa Takeover With Taine Tuaupiki (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Paul Roache Snaps Up His New Zealand Warriors Opportunity (Rugby League)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Youngster Report (Rugby League)
Notes From The Wellington Phoenix’s Semi-Final Defeat vs Melbourne Victory (Football)
Flying Kiwis – May 21 (Football)
Recapping The Tall Ferns Efforts At The 2024 Olympic Qualifiers (Basketball)
Previewing The Tall Blacks’ 2024 Olympic Qualifying Campaign (Basketball)
Picking One Intriguing Player From Every NZ NBL Team (Basketball)
The Breakers Have Bowed Out Of NBL24, But It Wasn't Without A Fight (Basketball)
2024 T20 World Cup: New Zealand Blackcaps Basics & Notebook (Cricket)
2024 Kiwi County Tour: Michael Rae Joins Warwickshire & Nathan Smith Scores Runs (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
Busy wee Subscriber Pod yesterday diving into some Aotearoa sporting news. We record two podcasts every week that we think are full of valuable insights. While the Phoenix loss was pesky, chatting through the NZ Warriors win over Panthers and other bits such as Blackcaps T20 World Cup intrigue, Michael Rae's entry into County Championship cricket, NBL being cooler than NZ Breakers, David Nyika's progress, how the Flying Kiwis futbol department is sizzling and the murky underworld of Sydney's NRL teams, all made for fun yarns in our podcasts.
The Niche Cast is available in the links you scrolled past on your way to this point. Always there for you on a Tuesday evening. Then we have the Subscriber Pod available on Patreon and for paid Substack subs every Thursday evening. We also copy this newsletter into Patreon the next day as an extra for the Patreon whanau. It's a slow brew doing this thingy ma jig and we appreciate every little splash of support.
Shaun Johnson was not irreplaceable for NZ Warriors because he did lots of mahi and the team kept losing.
Similar vibe with Addin Fonua-Blake...
Loss vs Dragons: 69mins, 29 receipts, 196m
Loss vs Titans: 61mins, 21 receipts, 255m
Loss vs Knights: 66mins, 24 receipts, 217m
Loss vs Roosters: 69mins, 23 receipts, 171m
Win vs Panthers: 49mins, 12 receipts, 62m
NZW don't need to do anything with Fonua-Blake. If he's kicking up a stink, just let him wallow in his melancholy - I've never seen him smile. Everything is sorted for next season and there is no reason why NZW should release Fonua-Blake this season. Fonua-Blake wants a release now? Tough cookies, just do nothing and watch NZW have fun without ya.
Deploying youngsters is not a better option, but NZW have enough depth competing with each other to hold this position of leverage. Fonua-Blake has no leverage. He's already used his best tricks. I've kept this to myself for a while but there is this chap named Jarome Fonua who is part of the Comancheros gang and that swag…
Fonua and the new-to-Auckland Comancheros suffered a few arrests in 2019/20. After doing time in New Zealand, Fonua was deported in February of this year. Good to see some crims being sent the other way and Fonua-Blake announced his desire to make the same trip late last year.
NZW do have the ability to cover Fonua-Blake's absence. First thing is to try and get Fonua-Blake playing to a decent level, otherwise keep it moving without releasing him.
Mitchell Barnett played middle forward when Jackson Ford and Kurt Capewell were available. Barnett is one of the best NZW players this season and he's showcasing his mana by doing whatever the team needs - edge/middle and swapping mid-game. Barnett, Dylan Walker and Jazz Tevaga were the best players vs Panthers because they laid the platform vs James Fisher-Harris, Moses Leota etc.
Add in Tohu Harris and that's four middles right there, with the Walker/Tevaga combo adding quicker feet. Marata Niukore returns this week and he will probably play through the middle. Five middles, with Bunty Afoa and Tom Ale that's seven.
Jacob Laban's development is important and the NZW pipeline is awesome because players get better. Expect Laban to improve as he's in the top-17 consistently now and if he's in the mix, plus Ford and Capewell, then Barnett and Niukore stay in the middle.
So far we have seven middles and aside from carrying four middles on the bench which rarely happens, NZW only need six middles in their team (three starters, three bench). Now and only now do we get into the youngsters. Their role is minimal and simple: 10-20mins, go crazy.
These dudes are primed to go crazy and they can all thrive in this role, a role that will only open up through injury or suspension.
Zyon Maiu'u: 20yrs
Tanner Stowers-Smith: 20yrs
Demitric Sifakula: 20yrs
Leka Halasima: 18yrs
There are more and lots of NZW youngsters were covered in depth this week. Sifakula's playing his first game of the season and he along with Maiu'u, they have already played NRL footy. Stowers-Smith is similar to Leo Thompson/Fisher-Harris and these dudes aren't playing Under 20s, they are all playing NSW Cup every week against other fringe NRL lads ... often beating them up.
NZW control this situation with Fonua-Blake. They have already fired warning shots by dropping him this week and given the leadership showed in recent years, I doubt NZW take any backwards steps. Even if Fonua-Blake's vibe gets super stinky, NZW can just not play him and leave it on the backburner.
Like many, I'm fascinated by this NZ rugby battle between the players and the governing folk. The Niche Cache exists to put other sports aside from rugby union and netball in the spotlight, and while our big four (football, cricket, rugby league, basketball) are all booming, NZ rugby has major issues. Keep in mind that NRLW continues to grow and I'm fizzed with the number of wahine from Aotearoa who are signed for this season - with no NZW team.
Recent signings include Amelia Pasikala (Wairoa) and Tatiana Finau (Pt Chev) joining Raiders, plus Ngatokotoru Arakua (Manurewa) and Matekino Gray (Rotorua) joining Titans. Pasikala was awesome last year for Roosters, played a few minutes for Kiwi Ferns and scored a fabulous try then suffered a horrible injury. Arakua is a veteran who has combined league/union for a few years, while Finau and Gray are youngsters set to debut.
Cowboys
Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly, Harata Butler
Broncos
Annetta Nu'uausala, Brianna Clark, Gayle Broughton, Jasmine Fogavini, Mele Hufanga, Stacey Waaka, Tafito Lafaele
Titans
Georgia Hale, Hailee-Jay Ormond-Maunsell, Matekino Gray, Ngatokotoru Arakua, Niall Williams-Guthrie
Knights
Abigail Roache, Laishon Albert-Jones, Nita Maynard, Shanice Parker
Roosters
Amber Hall, Mya Hill-Moana, Otesa Pule, Tiana Davison
Eels
Noaria Kapua
Tigers
Leianne Tufuga, Najvada George
Sharks
Annessa Biddle, Brooke Anderson, Pia Tapsell
Dragons
Alexis Tauaneai, Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa, Raecene McGregor, Trinity Tauaneai, Jesica Patea
Raiders
Amelia Pasikala, Apii Nicholls, Ash Quinlan, Cheyell Robins-Reti, Felice Quinlan, Kerehitina Matua, Mackenzie Wiki, Madison Bartlett, Tatiana Finau
Kiwi-NRL juniors named for Queensland Under 19s final…
Burleigh: Mason Barber (Hokianga), Ryder Williams (Marist)
Tweed: Disharne Tonihi (Shirley)
I don't care about the IPL or T20 leagues, hence there isn't any coverage. I was rolling through some of the IPL stats for Blackcaps as they have a T20 World Cup and the funkiest wrinkle is Rachin Ravindra. The best thing about the IPL for Blackcaps is that it's kinda like a training camp as most of the kiwis play less than half the games and they are surrounded by the world's best, plus legends of the game.
It what other situation could Ravindra spend a couple months with MS Dhoni, Ravi Jadeja, Moeen Ali, and Stephen Fleming? Ravindra also played lots and gave it a whack...
10 innings, 222 runs @ 22.2avg/160.8sr
Ravindra has underwhelming T20 batting stats, really good bowling stats, and he got 2 overs in the IPL. Forget about T20I batting (16avg/133sr), Ravindra hasn't been a dominant force for Firebirds during a strong phase of Super Smash cricket (17avg/133sr). Ravindra does have high strike-rates in one-day cricket though with 108sr in ODIs and 100.8 in List-A.
Ravindra's T20I mahi shows development...
2021: 91.1sr
2023: 133.8sr
2024: 186.4sr
Then came that 160sr in the IPL. I want Ravindra in my 1st 11 at the T20WC and the Finn Allen/Ravindra opening combo still feels like the best way. That comes at the expense of Devon Conway (no IPL and a slump) which would make Allen the wicket-keeper. Kinda drastic and I'm open to Ravindra batting lower down the order, but his IPL strike-rate highlights how important he could be for Aotearoa in the Caribbean.
Carlos Ulberg has a UFC fight booked for UFC 303 on June 30th vs Jamahl Hill. As noted recently, Ulberg is the best City Kickoxing fighter right now and after a KO win a few weeks ago, he's taking up this chance to fight a highly-ranked Hill.
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
There is worry afoot in Breaker Nation with news that head coach Mody Maor is leaving. He’s been excused from the last year of his contract to take up a more lucrative deal in Japan – it’s understood he’s going to be the new head coach of Nagasaki Velca in the Japanese top flight, the team where his former import Jarrell Brantley currently plays, a team who coincidentally are in the same conference as Shimane Susanoo Magic who are coached by Paul Henare. The conference of former Breaker HCs.
As reported by ESPN: “Maor - who was at the helm of the Breakers for two NBL seasons - initiated the process of parting ways with the team in order to pursue an opportunity in Asia, sources said. The Breakers agreed to end Maor's contract.”
As reported by Stuff: “Sources indicate the Auckland-based outfit were blindsided by Maor’s decision and are in scramble mode to find a new head coach at an important juncture between seasons. The Breakers still have a half-dozen roster additions to make, with the pre-season just months away.”
Bit of contrast in how those two outlets covered this deal, aye? ESPN (Olgun Uluc) tend to have a very league-friendly angle. Stuff (Marc Hinton) has better connections to sources at the Breakers. Then again, this would hardly be the first time that somebody’s left the Breakers and it’s been presented as a travesty in which the club was entirely innocent. It used to happen all the time. My favourite was when Mike Fitchett told co-owner/then-CEO Matt Walsh that he was quitting at the airport after their trip to America, a week out from the start of the regular season. Funnily enough, it was Fitchett’s departure that led to the club hiring Mody Maor to replace him.
Needless to say, this is a huge concern. Maor’s first season in charge saw him take this franchise from being the worst team in the competition with a dismal 5-23 record, to instantly getting within one win of a championship. A truly magnificent achievement. Last season was not nearly so flash as roster imbalance and a number of key injuries left them in a precarious position. But largely thanks to Maor’s calm and determined approach (outside of the occasional controlled outburst, he was way calmer as a head coach than as an assistant) they were still able to creep into the play-in matches. An undercover achievement that very few coaches would’ve been able to muster from that situation.
Heading into the 2024-25 season, the team’s recruitment has been even more underwhelming than ever and that’s been exacerbated by several of their kiwi players sneaking out the exit door. Izayah Le’afa has swapped over to Sydney Kings. Finn Delany is probably going to use a European out-clause. Tom Abercrombie’s retired. Dan Fotu looks unlikely to be re-signed. They have brought in Sam Mennenga, while Mojave King was born in Dunedin and has some strong South Island kiwi basketballing pedigree in his whanau (though has repeatedly been clear that he wants to play for Australia). That’s it though.
Parker Jackson-Cartwright is returning as a rare import re-signing from the Breaks. They’ve also added Jonah Bolden, Mitch McCarron, and Grant Anticevich to go with the only bloke who remained under contract: backup centre Dane Pineau. So we’ve got one, maybe one and a half, kiwi players on the books alongside four or five Australians with one import locked in. No doubt they’ll add another random NBA Draft prospect from Europe as a Next Star. A couple more of the NZ development players do appear to still be under contract but those guys almost never played under Maor. Maybe it’ll be different now. Who knows.
One of Maor’s great attributes was his ability to help individual players improve. Will McDowell-White got the Mody Boost to a huge degree. All of the Next Stars have benefited from it. There’s no doubt that Mojave King - a dude who was good enough to get drafted into the NBA but whose 6.7 points average (40.6 FG% / 25.2 3PT%) across 45 games in the G-League didn’t take him any further - would have signed in search of that boost. Same deal with Jonah Bolden, who did play 61 games for the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns before retiring aged 25 to “pursue a career in cryptocurrency”. He came out of retirement after three years to join the Kings last season but only played 18 minutes per night, averaging 8.5p/6.4r. No doubt that there’s more to come from him... yet at the same time there are motivational issues and rustiness that make him far from a slam dunk addition.
Mennenga fluctuated in his rookie campaign with Cairns Taipans. McCarron is a crafty veteran but he’s only averaging 8.3 points per game with the Taranaki Airs, shooting 21.4% from deep (though contributing an excellent 7.4 assists per night). No dramas with PJC, whose shoot-happy style should merge well with McCarron’s pass-first attitude, and Anticevich is a tidy pick-up too... currently playing in Germany though he previously played for Southland Sharks in 2023 where he hit 46% from threes. Pineau is a back-up big who barely played last season and has seen multiple fresh bigs signed ahead of him this time.
Still two more import spots to fill plus a couple more locals. But gazing at what’s there now, there are way too many fellas whose additions looked way more risky without Maor as coach. This on top of a near eradication of the kiwi core off the back of a season where kiwi playing minutes had already plummeted to an all-time low – in fact, hey look, here’s a table...
Yeah nah this ain’t looking great, to be honest.
In contrast, the Wellington Phoenix fellas are having a stellar offseason so far. That began at the very start of the campaign when they made a concerted effort to lock up many of their younger players on longer contracts, such as Ben Old and Alex Paulsen, meaning they hit up their holidays in the unusual position of having most of their squad under contract already.
Since then they’ve admitted that Oskar Zawada won’t be retained... but have been able to sign Kosta Barbarouses on a one-plus-one deal (one year contract, option for a second – the sporting speciality for athletes aged 32 and over... call it the LeBron James Method) and there are strong reports that Giancarlo Italiano will be getting a much-deserved payrise as well, hopefully extending his deal beyond next season.
With the A-League’s internal funding to clubs apparently shrinking, and the Welly Nix working with limited dollars as is, they simply could not afford to re-sign both Zawada and Barbarouses. No dramas there. Zawada is a superb player but he played less than a quarter of the overall minutes last season due to recurring injuries whereas Barba was a ninety minute player almost every week. There are many import strikers across this great wide world that the club can turn to instead. There aren’t many veteran local forwards with a Wellington connection and who have won multiple A-League championships available to sign. The Phoenix absolutely made the right decision there.
Wellington Phoenix Blokes Contract Picture
2026-27: Ben Old, Alex Paulsen, Lukas Kelly-Heald, Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues, Alby Kelly-Heald (schol)
2025-26: Alex Rufer, Fin Conchie, Luke Supyk, Kosta Barbarouses (option)
2024-25: Sam Suton, Finn Surman, Oskar van Hattum, Tim Payne, Scott Wootton (imp), David Ball (imp), Mohamed Al-Taay, Isaac Hughes, Matt Sheridan (schol)
Out of Contract: Bozhidar Kraev (imp), Oskar Zawada (imp), Youstin Salas (imp), Nico Pennington, Jack Duncan
Wellington Phoenix Wahine Contract Picture
2025-26: Manaia Elliott, Daisy Brazendale, Olivia Ingham
2024-25: Mackenzie Barry, Zoe McMeeken
Out of Contract: Annalie Longo, Michaela Robertson, Mariana Speckmaier (imp), Rylee Foster (imp), Michaela Foster, Hope Breslin (imp), Rebecca Lake, Emma Main, Tiana Jaber, Hailey Davidson (imp), Isabel Cox (imp), Kelli Brown, Marisa van der Meer, Grace Wisnewski, Brianna Edwards, Kate Taylor, Alyssa Whinham, Helena Errington
Based on reports, it sounds like the HeNix want to bring back most of those local free agents. Pennington and Duncan are in discussions. Same deal for Bozhidar Kraev as an import, though Youstin Salas will not be retained. Along with Zawada, that gives them two import spots to potentially work with. Sheridan, AKH, and GSR are already locked in as scholarship players, pretty sure they can sign one more of those. Then whatever else they do will be contingent on whether any outgoing transfers happen... which could very well be the case given how well some of those younger lads performed. In order of saleability: Alex Paulsen, Finn Surman, Ben Old, and Sam Sutton should all be fielding offers, just a matter of whether any of them meet the club’s valuation and the player’s ambition.
The SheNix are in a trickier spot because of how many one-year deals there are in the ALW. They do have Paul Temple under contract for next time so they’ll be retaining a coach for the first time. Can they retain a top scorer for the first time? We shall see. Hailey Davidson has suggested she won’t be back and there have been rumours around European interest in Rylee Foster but so far none of those imports have signed anywhere else. Curious that NZF’s latest Football Ferns announcement listed Mickey Foster as a Nix player but not Kate Taylor when both are off-contract... they might be dropping hints there. A few of the other kiwis (Kelli Brown, Alyssa Whinham) have popped up playing NPL stuff in Aussie.
Obviously they did have Macey Fraser under contract too... but then they sold her for an A-League Women’s record incoming fee. It ain’t only the blokes who are bringing in the transfer revenue these days.
Very funky Tall Ferns squad named this week for a two-game tour of Japan in July. This comes immediately after former Australian international Natalie Hurst was announced as the new head coach. Guy Molloy, also Australia, stepped down after the Olympic qualifiers a couple months back. Hurst’s first tour is going to feature a very young group of players with an average age of 22-and-a-half and nobody older than 26. Various leagues being ongoing, especially NBL1 in Australia, means limited player availability hence only three women are backing up after those Olympic quals: Esra McGoldrick, Tera Reed, and Lauren Whittaker (the latter was a debutant on that tour). Granted, Eva Langton did travel with that squad as a non-playing reserve.
Here’s the full squad:
Amiee Book, Ella Bradley, Grace Hunter, Waiata Jennings, Eva Langton, Tara Manumaleuga, Esra McGoldrick, Lilly Parke, Tera Reed, Lilly Taulelei, Tahlia Tupaea & Lauren Whittaker
This does mean a return for Tahlia Tupaea though, who missed the quals due to injury. Alongside Tupaea, Grace Hunter was a part of the Asia Cup side last year, as were McGoldrick and Reed. A full six members of this squad are uncapped (Book, Bradley, Jennings, Langton, Manumaleuga & Parke), while seven of them are current college students (Bradley, Hunter, Jennings, Manumaleuga, Parke, Taulelei & Whittaker)... or will be in the case of 18yo Whittaker, the youngest in the squad, who starts her freshman season at Gonzaga in a few months.
This kinda looks like one of those Dawn of a New Era squads, where a fresh coach hits a reset on what came before then... except that they were already a young group at that Asia Cup. So it’s probably more of a ‘let’s see what the depth is like’ experiment instead.
Reed, McGoldrick, and Tupaea are the links to a full-strength side to ensure everyone keeps the levels up. A couple others have had a taste and are trying to show what they’re up to. For a few more this is a rare opportunity. The likes of Charlisse Leger-Walker, Penina Davidson, and Stella Beck will be back when the time is right, no dramas.
By the way, the biggest issue during Olympic qualifying? Three-point shooting. As a team they shot 9/70 for 12.9% across three games so if any of this lot want to advance their case in a hurry then knocking down some trebles should do the trick.
20+ Point Games By NZers in the Sal’s NBL
Corey Webster (Auckland) – 9
Rob Loe (Auckland) – 7
Keanu Rasmussen (Hawke’s Bay) – 6
Tom Vodanovich (Auckland), Jordan Ngatai (Hawke’s Bay) – 5
Hyrum Harris (Wellington), Tohi Smith-Milner (Wellington), Dan Fotu (Nelson), Izayah Le’Afa (Wellington) – 4
Ethan Rusbatch (Franklin), Carlin Davison (Taranaki), Taylor Britt (Canterbury), Tai Webster (Otago) – 3
A tune to take you into the weekend...