Talk of the Town
Warriors & Kiwi-NRL, Blackcaps & White Ferns, All Whites & Football Ferns, NZ NBL young'uns, domestic football & more
Scotty’s Word
Blackcaps vs Pakistan...
Blackcaps are 4-2 in T20Is since the T20 World Cup last year. The only players who played in the first up loss vs Afghanistan at the T20WC who played vs Pakistan: Finn Allen, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman and Michael Bracewell.
Lads who have played all six T20Is since the T20WC: Bracewell, Chapman, Zak Foulkes, Mitch Hay, Tim Robinson.
The three youngest lads in the current T20I squad (Will O'Rourke will join later) have played every T20I game. For anyone who has been stuck in the mainstream, this is yet another example that Blackcaps have already pivoted towards younger players and it's happened in all three formats.
Foulkes bowled 3ov @ 3.6rpo vs Pakistan. Hay took three catches. Robinson finished not out on 18 runs @ 120sr. Foulkes is tied with Bracewell for the most T20I overs bowled in this period of six games and is second behind Jacob Duffy for wickets. Hay is averaging 13 in his five innings but has a monster strike-rate of 148.5, slightly behind Foulkes' batting strike-rate of 152.7.
Robinson is second for runs in this period as one of two batters with 100+ runs, the other being Daryl Mitchell. In Super Smash he had 230 runs @ 57.5avg/144sr with three 50+ score in five innings and his class was shown in his one Plunket Shield game before this series with scores of 40 and 85.
Kyle Jamieson took 3w @ 2rpo vs Pakistan. This is in tune with his Super Smash mahi where he was Canterbury's best bowler with 14w @ 18.7avg/5.9rpo which was part of Jamieson churning out overs this summer. Jamieson bowled the most overs in Super Smash for Canterbury with 44, then he had two Ford Trophy games with 16 overs and then 29 overs at the Champions Trophy.
Throughout Super Smash Jamieson was moving the ball both ways. Against Pakistan he mainly stuck with his out-swing and this is funky because Jamieson had the massive in-swing to righties firing when he entered Blackcaps. Perhaps the mechanics for the in-swinger aren't good for his back but he was combining both during Super Smash and for all the chat about his height/bounce, the best thing about Jamieson is how easily he moves the ball sideways.
White Ferns vs Sri Lanka...
After slipping up in the first T20I, White Ferns won the second game to set up a decider on Tuesday. A younger squad is always going to stumble at some point so the most important aspect of these games was how Aotearoa bounced back. Interestingly, that bounce-back didn't involve Rosemary Mair who bowled 3ov @ 8.6rpo in the first game and was swapped out for debutant Flora Devonshire.
Devonshire snared 1w @ 6rpo in her 2ov and was due to bat ninth, also offering lefty spin ahead of Fran Jonas. With this batting line up, White Ferns have two of the best domestic batters this summer batting eight (Polly Inglis) and nine, behind two more of the best batters in Maddy Green and Jess Kerr. Somehow these four could be a better batting quartet than the top four (Suzie Bates, Georgia Plimmer, Emma McLeod, Brooke Halliday).
Add in Eden Carson vs Izzy Sharp to take it further. Carson is batting 10, Sharp five. Carson played crucial knocks for Otago this summer and Sharp is awesome but hasn't quite found a consistent groove. Who cares about that weird battle though because White Ferns suddenly have a batting line up all the way down to Carson with runs in domestic cricket.
And White Ferns have a fast, swinging lefty in Bree Illing. In the first game Illing struggled with 3ov @ 10.3rpo but then she took 2w @ 4.5rpo in the second game. I saw 115km/h for one of Illing's deliveries which is quick in women's cricket and Illing could push for the 120km/h rapid benchmark with NZC's 'best in the world' strength/fitness training. She has the classic lefty swing and has already flashed deliveries that hold their angle away from righties/into lefties.
Another key pocket for White Ferns is Jess Kerr. She only scored 10 runs @ 71sr in the first game but Kerr has the highest T20I batting strike-rate for New Zealand since the start of 2024 (117sr) and she not only finished second behind Amelia for Super Smash runs, she was had the highest strike-rate of the six batters who scored 250+ runs.
Kerr was not one of Aotearoa's best T20I bowlers last year (6w @ 46.3avg/6.7rpo) which was part of two consecutive years averaging 40+. Kerr has 4w @ 11.7avg/5.8rpo in two T20Is vs Sri Lanka and has three consecutive games of 2+ wickets, as well as taking 14w @ 16.2avg/5.1rpo for Wellington in Super Smash.
In the ODIs vs Sri Lanka, Kerr scored 44 runs @ 22avg/64sr and took 4w @ 16.5avg/2.4rpo.
Kerr entered this series as one of the best batters and bowlers in domestic cricket (both competitions). Now she is the best White Ferns bowler across both formats vs Sri Lanka and is growing into her middle-order batting role.
Late season Plunket Shield spin festival...
Auckland v Northern Districts
Jeet Raval: 3w, 5w
Rohit Gulati: 2w, 1w
Adithya Ashok: 6w
Canterbury vs Wellington
Cole McConchie: 1w, 1w
Michael Rippon: 2w, 1w
Peter Younghusband: - , 4w
Otago vs Central Districts
Jadyen Lennox: 1w, 5w
Dale Phillips: 2w, 1w
Brad Schmulian: 2w
Angus Schaw: 1w
Dean Foxcroft: 4w
Along with Plunket Shield notes for every team, I have done a deep dive into the NZ Warriors NSW Cup team beyond the wall. The reserve grade outfit is the most important aspect of all NZ Warriors footy and after two consecutive winning seasons they have started 2-0 in 2025. Become a paid subscriber to support our mahi and access our weekly Bonus Podcast on Thursdays as well as the extra yarns in the whare for every newsletter dispatch.
NZ Warriors defeated Manly Sea Eagles on Friday night at Auckland's best stadium. The most important observation about NZW was their spirit and mana in rallying for a win after the loss vs Raiders. Returning to the temple of Mt Smart was important and it was great to see Mt Smart snatching the soul out of Sea Eagles, building a bit of momentum as a horrible place for visiting teams (even without a dominant home record for NZW).
I still haven't seen any clear style of footy or identity offered by NZW this season. The win vs Sea Eagles came more from the intensity of NZW footy, rather than their sublime plan and execution. Three pockets to ponder...
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Wayde Egan are my barometers for NZW. When NZW win, these two are usually among their best players and the other lads you see/hear Aussies or local media talking about build off what Nicoll-Klokstad and Egan do. One easy way to break this down is how Nicoll-Klokstad usually starts sets with his running and/or takes a run during the set as NZW gather momentum, while Egan's craft around the ruck gives everyone else space.
Big difference in Nicoll-Klokstad's running mahi from the first two games...
vs Raiders: 14 runs - 89m @ 6.3m/run, 1 tackle break
vs Sea Eagles: 20 runs - 171m @ 8.5m/run, 6 tackle breaks
Egan on the other hand has been offering 10m/run when scooting out of dummy half which is tremendous...
vs Raiders: 6 DHR - 62m @ 10.3m/run
vs Sea Eagles: 9 DHR - 91m @ 10.1m/run
Egan has also played 80 minutes in both games with 51 tackles @ 92.7% followed by 41 tackles @ 95.3%.
Erin Clark is my best NZW player in 2025. I already had this noted after the pre-season games and he has carried this into the two games so far this season. His speed, power and aggression is an awesome addition to NZW, plus Clark has flourished in a bigger role than what he had at Titans.
Clark averaged 38.8mins/game last season and he's on 45.5mins/game this season. After moving to more middle forward mahi, Clark averaged 83m/game and 99m/game in his last two seasons for Titans. That's jumped up to 140m/game this season - far more than his extra game time should account for.
Secret weapons: Demitric Vaimauga and Leka Halasima.
Many are already taking note of the impact these two provide off the bench but your NZW yarns will be boosted by chatting up the Otahuhu junior Vaimauga (De La Salle College) and Mangere East junior Halasima (Southern Cross Campus).
Vaimauga has mainly played through the middle and Halasima is mainly used at right edge. Anyone who knows how awesome they are wants them to play more minutes but their workload is aligned with the slow-brew development happening across all levels of NZW. They both played less than 20mins vs Sea Eagles and they came on either side of a Sea Eagles try that made the score 24-16.
NZW were boosted by their energy and went on to score two more tries, winning 36-16. This seems to be part of coach Andrew Webster's plan as the two young forwards increase the tempo when everyone else is battling. NZW just need to be good enough to grind with the opposition to set that up and after two games of two extremes, it's still unclear if they can.
Two rounds of NRL footy and two Kiwi-NRL debuts. Salesi Foketi (Manurewa) made his debut for Roosters in round one and Bayleigh Bentley-Hape (Moerewa) made his debut for Rabbitohs in their win vs Dragons.
Roosters had a big win vs Panthers. Foketi got his first sin bin in his second NRL game and was solid throughout, but my focus is directed to Naufahu Whyte:
58mins, 13 runs - 152m @ 13.9m/run, 3 tackle breaks, 1 offload, 30 tackles @ 90.9%.
Whyte was one of the best players for Aotearoa Kiwis last year and after averaging 33mins/game last season, he is averaging 53mins/game this season. That's flowed into more running mahi with a jump up from 77m/game last year to 115m/game this season, while the 22-year-old has tackled 94% efficiency in three consecutive seasons.
Matthew Timoko in two wins for Raiders...
vs Warriors: 1 try, 13 runs - 137m @ 10.5m/run, 1 try assist, 3 tackle breaks, 2 offloads, 18 tackles @ 85.7%
vs Broncos: 1 try, 15 runs - 139m @ 9.2m/run, 6 tackle breaks, 1 offload, 21 tackles @ 84%
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
Jackson Ball’s 40 point, 9 rebound, 4 assist, 2 steal performance for the Hawke’s Bay Hawks against the Indian Panthers was incredible. Multi-level scoring and fantastic wider contributions from a bloke who’d only turned 17 years old a few days earlier. But of course it was against a Panthers team that’s probably going to finish last and which fielded a team stacked with ring-ins after eight of their Indian nationals were held up at a national team training camp. Awkward timing, so it goes. That was like a reserve team for what’s already going to be a stretched team (we assume... but we don’t know yet) so as exciting as that performance was from JB, we did need to wait and see what he’d do against an actual NBL opponent.
Well, on Saturday he went head-to-head with Corey Webster and the Manawatu Jets and dropped 36 points on 13/19 shooting (5/7 from deep) with 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Turns out the Panthers Tax wasn’t that excessive because he’s making like he’s going to do this to everyone. There was only one New Zealander to score more than 35 points in a single game last NBL season (Tai Webster with a 40-bagger for Otago vs Canterbury) and Jackson Ball has already done it twice as a 17yo. Corey Webster did run him close with 32 points of his own, to be fair.
Jackson Ball’s already committed to Wisconsin University where, probably not coincidentally, one of his coaches will be none other than Kirk Penney, who is an assistant on staff there. But while Jackson Ball is shaping to be the talk of the town in kiwi basketball over the 2025 NBL season, he’s only one shining part of a deeper trend because there were kiwi youngsters doing crazy things all over the show across the opening week of the National Basketball League.
Jackson Ball, 17yo (HB vs IND) – 40 points (15/19 fg), 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals
Campbell Scott, 20yo (HB vs IND) – 16 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals
Carter Hopoi, 18yo (TAU vs CAN) – 17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists
Xanda Marsters, 19yo (TAU vs CAN) – 12 points (4/4 fg), 3 rebounds
Tama Isaac, 18yo (CAN vs TAU) – 10 points (4/5 fg), 6 rebounds, 5 assists
Jackson Ball, 17yo (HB vs MAN) – 36 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists
Campbell Scott, 20yo (HB vs MAN) – 10 points, 10 assists, 4 rebounds
Dontae Russo-Nance, 20yo (MAN vs HB) – 25 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists
Tama Isaac, 18yo (CAN vs NEL) – 23 points (8/14 fg), 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks
Hayden Jones, 18yo (NEL vs CAN) – 17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists
Lachlan Crate, 18yo (NEL vs CAN) – 11 points, 2 rebounds
And it would only be a little unfair to include Carlin Davison on this list at 21 years of age. He’s got more experience having been around a couple extra years and getting 71 minutes with the Breakers last season, surely putting himself in line for a much bigger role next time. But before that, he’s got another Taranaki campaign to embark upon and he’s begun it with a thrilling 36 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 5 steals in the Naki’s win over Wellington. Carlin being Carlin, those numbers were every bit as bouncy as you’d expect. The basketballing talent in this country is unreal.
The domestic football season began over the weekend with one (1) sneaky fixture. It was Auckland City against Tauranga City, with this game (and also a midweeker between ACFC and West Coast Rangers) having been moved forward to clear room for Auckland City’s entry at the Oceania Champions League which is taking place in a couple weeks.
The actual first round of Northern League fixtures is next weekend, with the women’s equivalent also starting at the same time. A couple more regional leagues start the following weekend while the Women’s Central League will be a bit further away. Note that the Women’s South Island League is moving to a full season for the first time. The previous three editions had regional (Southern and Mainland) qualifying stages with the best six teams advancing. This year there are nine teams with double round robin games (16 games each). Don’t think it’s happening this year but this is obviously a step closer towards there being South Island club teams in the National League instead of the federation sides.
Northern League begins (fully) on 22 March
Men’s Central League begins 29 March
Southern League begins 29 March
NRFL Premiership begins 21 March
Women’s Central League begins probably late-April
Women’s South Island League begins 29 March
Back to the Auckland City vs Tauranga game, how’s this for some season-starting action... Tauranga City scored inside two minutes through Liam Molloy (the usual suspect) to take the lead at Kiwitea Street. Looks like they were captained by Adam Davidson who is back after a couple of years playing in Northern Ireland. Auckland City had the Club World Cup trophy visiting on display for this game and everybody clearly wants a piece of that because they’ve got a squad of about 35 players getting ready for a very hectic year. They’ve also got Paul Posa back as coach while Albert Riera takes a voluntary year off to refresh (and upgrade his coaching badges).
Five of ACFC’s starters were new signings (granted, Nikko Boxall did temporarily pop by for the Intercontinental Cup stuff last year) with another newbie on the bench. Those include both Birkenhead wing-backs that played against them in the 2024 National League final (Dylan Connolly and Haris Zeb), a pair of fringe MVP candidates in Matt Ellis and David Yoo (Ellis has previously played for ACFC), and Otto Ingham returning from a few years in Sweden to join the Navy Blues. Auckland City have also announced Jackson Manuel who wasn’t involved here. Pretty crazy stuff.
Anyway, they equalised on 59’ through a Mario Ilich glancing header off a Tong Zhou corner kick. But then Adam Mitchell was red carded on 63’ for lashing out after a late challenge and Zhou joined him with a red of his own ten mins later for a sliding tackle with the sprigs showing.
Hence Auckland City played the last quarter of an hour plus stoppages with nine men... but it’s Auckland City so they still found a winner. The eighth minute added on. Myer Bevan got played through on goal by Zeb. Bevan hit the post... but then converted his own rebound. 2-1 to Auckland City… at which point Bevan ripped off his shirt and jumped into the crowd. These guys will be playing Bayern Munich, Benfica, and Boca Juniors in a few months, by the way.
It’s not only the All Whites preparing for the OFC World Cup qualifying finals. There are three other nations in the mix and, while realistically the New Zealanders should win, there’s a huge carrot on offer for the rest of them because second place will get the intercontinental playoff that the All Whites usually have to play.
Unlucky for Fiji that they’ve got New Zealand in the semis which probably closes that door for them... but they’re not cutting any corners. The Fijians have been in NZ for a couple of weeks already playing friendlies against Auckland United, Eastern Suburbs, and Wellington Phoenix Reserves – winning all three of those games without conceding a goal. They brought in a big extended squad that included a number of NZ-based players being given a chance to earn selection – which doesn’t happen that often, usually they pick a mostly domestic squad – with several such dudes making the final 23. A few of them have only recently moved to NZ but still. Semi Nabenu of Auckland FC Reserves is the main focus but there’s also Mohamed Nabeel (Birkenhead), Sterling Vasconcellos (Eastern Suburbs), Brendan McMullen (Island Bay), Mohammed Raheem (Manukau), and Thomas Dunn (Eastern Suburbs). A couple lads in Aussie plus Scott Wara playing lower league in England too. Nabil Begg recently joined Auckland City though he’s out injured, and it sounds like the same may be true of Sammy Khan who has been with Manurewa for the last couple seasons but has signed with Birkenhead for 2025. No Roy Krishna, sadly. He blew out his ACL in India a few months back.
New Caledonia and Tahiti are competing in the other semi-final. A couple of French colonies. The Tahiti side is mostly built up of AS Vénus players with a few scattered in from elsewhere. They’ve got a few forwards based in France. Teva Lossec is at university in the USA.
New Caledonia have a few more French-based players than their opponents will though they’re similarly bulked out by heaps of locals. Jekob Jeno is an exception, currently playing for Beitar Jerusalem in Israel where he’s scored a couple of goals in the top division there. And then the other one, get this... is Jaushua Sotirio. The former Wellington Phoenix forward played age-grade stuff for Australia but has switched allegiances to join the NCL quest. He recently reunited with Ufuk Talay at Sydney FC following an awful two years with Kerala Blasters in India where injuries meant he never played a competitive fixture.
Click the links to see the full squads for Fiji, Tahiti, and New Caledonia… and check the member’s lounge for All Whites and Football Ferns squad notes as well as a bit of Steven Adams stat crunching. Good stuff there for our heartiest followers.
Musical Jam...