Stepping Stones
NZ Warriors context, A-League Women yarns, Dan Hooker loses in ENG, Leger-Walker Sisters lose in the NCAA tourney & more
Podcast
Full Monday Patreon Podcast
Clips from Monday Patreon Podcast:
Reading Menu
The All Whites World Cup Qualifying Quest Is Underway With A 1-0 Win Over Papua New Guinea (Football)
A Tip Of The Hat To Shane Warne’s Amazing Record Against The Blackcaps (Cricket)
How Will The Wellington Phoenix Cope With Alex Rufer’s Injury? (Football)
Flying Kiwis – March 15 (Football)
Labyrinthine Squad Yarns For The All Whites OFC World Cup Qualifiers (Football)
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors lose to Titans and…
Now is an all good time to tap out of NZ Warriors matters. Nothing from the first two games suggests that this season will be any different for Warriors and personally, Warriors are not high on my list of Aotearoa sporting priorities. Given that the vast majority of folks involved have been unable to shift Warriors away from mediocrity, there is no reason to get dramatic about current players and coaches. They are just rolling through the same sludge as the rest of them.
For casual fans, this means don’t buzz. I’m going deeper into Kiwi-NRL content and those who are interested in rugby league can easily shift their lens to Kiwi-NRL stuff. The NZRL Under 20s competition is pretty fun as well and I low key reckon this is amplifying Aotearoa’s rugby league growth as the competition serves as a window into Kiwi-NRL talent for NRL Clubs. NRLWahine is also an easy way to get your rugby league fix.
Aotearoa rugby league is not NZ Warriors. What I am pondering about NZ Warriors is the need for them to get back to Aotearoa, playing at Mt Smart and connect with their fans. It stinks that Warriors, Phoenix and Breakers have all lost that connection to fans and I have come to believe that this wider context is overlooked.
There is a light at the end of this tunnel. These teams will return to connect with their fans and build up their playing identity, being felt in the community. Ponder how this is applied to general life at the moment and this ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ message gets more important.
Hearty Warriors fans will stay tuned in and that’s great. There is nothing new to grab casual fans. Regardless, stay optimistic and ready for their return along with Phoenix and Breakers. Connection with fans has been a theme of the Women’s Cricket World Cup and I am reminded of how Aotearoa Kiwis didn’t play any footy in Aotearoa for years ahead of the 2017 World Cup. I viewed that World Cup as a great chance for rugby league fans to see their Kiwis heroes in the community, connect with them and build mana.
That connection skewed the wrong way with a horrible World Cup campaign. The White Ferns World Cup campaign hasn’t been as horrible as the Kiwis, but just as absorbing and draining. Flowing on from recent emails is this idea of the good/bad elements of such connections that sports fans love and I’m now curious about how this looks for Warriors, Phoenix and Breakers. No one really cares about Breakers and their return to fan connection feels most likely get icky.
White Ferns had all their woes overlooked in the same way Kiwis had their woes overlooked prior to that World Cup. There is the light at the end of the tunnel for Warriors, Phoenix and Breakers but greater attention (less out of sight, out of mind) could be tricky for the teams who have had their woes overlooked.
Cronulla Sharks Kiwi-NRL Breakdown (players selected this round)…
NRL: Ronaldo Mulitalo, Braden Hamlin-Uele, Briton Nikora.
NSW Cup: Jensen Taumoepeau, Kayal Iro, Tyler Slade, Reubenn Rennie, Charbel Tasipale.
SG Ball (U19): Salesi Ata’ata.
Penrith Panthers Kiwi-NRL Breakdown…
NRL: James Fisher-Harris.
NSW Cup: Preston Riki.
Jersey Flegg: William Fakatoumafi, Daeon Amituanai, Kyson Kingi.
Gold Coast Titans Kiwi-NRL Breakdown…
NRL: Patrick Herbert, Greg Marzhew, Isaac Liu, Erin Clarke, Sam Lisone, Kevin Proctor.
Queensland Cup (Tweed + Burleigh): Paul Turner, Lee Turner, Lamar Manuel-Liolevave, Esan Marsters, Herman Ese’ese.
Mal Meninga Cup U18 (Tweed + Burleigh): Keano Kini, Jackson Lepou, Kci Whare, Dorian Lotaki, Taniela Mapusua-Lotaki.
Dan Hooker loses in England…
First round KO loss for Dan Hooker against Arnold Allen at UFC London. This was an epic event for the English fighters as most had entertaining victories in front of their home fans. Unfortunately one of those entertaining victories was at the expense of Hooker and there is nothing more off-putting than watching Hooker get dominated.
Allen was rampant with his striking, putting Hooker under immense pressure for the first round finish. I embraced Hooker’s move down a weight division as he had proven that he can cut the weight safely and sports science has grown swiftly since Hooker’s last fight at featherweight. In the octagon though, Hooker looked slow and having endured legit UFC hidings, Hooker crumbled under the weight of Arnold’s strikes.
None of which reflects positively on Hooker’s drop in weight. Bro science tells us that cutting weight can result in less water in the head, thus making it easier to KO someone cutting weight. Who knows if that’s right, but it looked correct in Hooker’s fight.
City Kickboxing in 2022..
In the UFC, Team CKB is now 2-2. Israel Adesanya and Carlos Ulberg have wins, Blood Diamond and Hooker have losses. This coming weekend features Kai Kara-France.
BJ Bland also fought over the week at PFL Challenger Series 5 where he suffered a first round KO loss. Bland had to rush for is US visa like Hooker did last year which is niggly preparation and CKB continue to travel the globe for their mahi. Bland’s loss takes my Team CKB tally to 2-3 (UFC + PFL) and this comes after Kara-France was the only CKB fighter to finish 2021 with more wins than losses.
Like the rest of those teams currently in Australia, Team CKB will benefit greatly when travel and pandemic things relax.
Wildcard’s Notebook
More A-League Women Things
It’s gonna be Paige Satchell versus Claudia Bunge in the A-League grand final. Sydney FC against Melbourne Victory for the second straight year, only this time both teams will have a New Zealander in their ranks (though Annalie Longo’s presence a year ago did mean that MVC had two NZers to balance it out).
That’s after a fascinating semi-final in which the Victory toppled Melbourne City in a Victorian Derby. Guts to the three kiwis at City, they were 2-0 up against Sydney last week and went on to lose 4-2 in extra time with two red cards and then lost 3-1 to the Victory in their second-chance match. 2-0 up and half an hour away from a grand final... instead they lost 7-1 over the subsequent 150 minutes that their season would ultimately consist of. Did not see that coming, to be honest.
City started well against Victory. Rebekah Stott twice went close with attempts from outside the area on her 100th ALW appearance. But Victory had a good thing going in attack throughout. Melina Ayres missed a golden chance inside five minutes but made no mistake on 30’ after blocking a pass out from the back. 1-0 to Victory... who five mins later had Catherine Zimmerman missing an absolute sitter at the back post. Alex Chidiac had also spurned a great shot earlier. City lucky to only be one behind... until a killer blow just before half time as Claudia Bunge got a foot in from a deep corner to make it 2-0.
Tell ya what, Claudia Bunge missed a wonderful chance to score the winner in last season’s grand final (they got there in the end thanks to Kyra Cooney-Cross) but that was an anomaly coz she definitely knows how to put them away. This was her fourth goal in 26 ALW matches as a centre-back. This is the highest of praise right here: there’s a lot of Abby Erceg’s game about Claudia Bunge.
With a 2-0 lead Victory were in control of the game and when Lisa Privatelli scored on 53’ to make it triples fate was even more heavily in their favour. For a team that struggled to find their best defensive combo early in the season after the injury to Kayla Morrison (with Claudia Bunge holding it down alongside a procession of CB partners), they were superb at the back in this game and Bunge was first and foremost. Massive performance from her in such a big game. Remember the Victory only just made the semis thanks to a 0-0 draw with Canberra in the final round but they’ve suddenly surged back into form since.
Melbourne City being Melbourne City, there was always gonna be an attempted comeback and when Tori Tumeth scored with ten to play there was suddenly a small window of opportunity if they could just score a quick second to get within range. At which time you’re looking towards top scorer Hannah Wilkinson. Working so hard up top, lurking around those danger areas.
The chance was there on 85’ - an MCY free kick swung to the back stick where Wilko was hovering unmarked... and she put it wide. You absolutely would have backed her to score from there but alas it was just one of them days. 3-1 to the Victory. Full games for Wilkinson & Stott (Marisa van der Meer was an unused sub). Claudia Bunge was supreme for the Victory. Should be a cracker of a grand final.
So as not to bury the lede, let’s hear it one more time for Rebekah Stott making that 100th ALW appearance. To put that into context, no other New Zealander has even made it to 50. I’m also planning on writing more about Hannah Wilkinson’s season in the coming days as her 14 goals are not only the most by any kiwi in an A-League Women’s season but it’s actually the most by any kiwi in the ALW full stop. The all-time top kiwi scorer after one campaign, how about that?
Assuming that both Bunge and Satchell feature at some point in the GF (Bunge is a lock, Satchell will probably be on the bench so can’t be so sure) then that’ll mean an outrageous 234 games played by New Zealanders during this season. Needless to say that crushes the previous kiwi record of 86 in 2012-13 which narrowly edges out last season’s 85.
I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking that the Wellington Phoenix had a lot to do with that. Of course they did. But let’s take them out of the count for kicks and oh would you look at that we’re still at 81 games with potentially two more to come. If it weren’t for international duty in the middle then it’d be a walkover. And if the Phoenix weren’t there, which they are, then Lily Alfeld for starters would’ve surely played somewhere else and tipped things over the top.
This is exactly why we needed a Welly Nix team: the A-League is a fantastic stepping stone competition. Rebekah Stott is a rare case as someone who has stuck around for so many seasons – and to be fair she had left for the WSL in England before her cancer diagnosis. Other than her, the only NZers to have played three or more ALW campaigns are Annalie Longo, Emma Kete, and Marlies Oostdam.
That’ll soon change thanks to the Nix but more important are the players who’ll launch themselves into the Super League or the NWSL or wherever on the back of these opportunities. Abby Erceg spent time in the ALW back in the day. Anna Green too. Liv Chance leveraged a great term last season into a deal with Celtic. Hannah Wilkinson is trying to do something similar after this effort. No doubt there are a couple of Phoenix players being eyed up.
The A-League has a proven track record of developing players who can hang at the top level. That’s what all these kiwis are latching onto. Right on.
More Leger-Walker Things
Haven’t had the time to cover the NCAA tournament stuff as I would have liked to, annoying but so it goes. However I do have to make special mention of Washington State’s season coming to an end. A brilliant campaign led by Charlisse Leger-Walker (and sister Krystal back for one final year thanks to covid re-eligibility) but one which unfortunately came to an abrupt end.
After a 19-10 regular season, the Cougars booked themselves a third seed in the Pac-12 tournament but were dropped 70-59 by Utah in the quarters. Blown out in the opening frame, giving up 29 points, and unable to recover. The Leger-Walker sisters were targetted by Utah’s defensive stopper Kennady McQueen and were restricted to a mere 10 combined points shooting 4/24. So that sucked.
However the real one was the National Tournament that they were selected in for the second year in a row (after not qualifying at all for the previous thirty years). Last time they were bounced in the first round in a close one against South Florida. This time... they were bounced in the first round of a not-quite-as-close 50-40 defeat to Kansas State.
WSU were right in it during the first half, making a specific plan of restricting KSU’s 6’6 centre Ayoka Lee and at half-time Lee had only made one field goal. This time Charlisse was not going to be denied, tenaciously battling her way to 20 points in a game mostly defined by defence. That was WSUs pathway to victory and it was the game they were able to manufacture – leading 9-5 after the first quarter.
Except they couldn’t keep it up against the HT adjustments that were thrown their way. Ayoka Lee ended up with 20 points and 15 rebounds. The Cougars did not make a field goal in the final five minutes. An excellent season in which CLW found herself in possession of plenty of accolades... but that first national tournament win for the programme will have to wait another year at least. Gutted.
Which sadly means doing it without Krystal Leger-Walker as she finishes up her college career. Will be fascinating to see where the sport takes her next. She’s not someone who puts up mad stats but she’s an incredible teammate who is happy to do the tough yardage that allows others to thrive. At the very least, she should have zero troubles in getting a pro deal in Australia (like many other Tall Ferns). Here’s her coach laying down the big raps...
