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Blackcaps v England stink, Kosta Barbarouses goals, funky Warriors storylines, Plunket Shield, Flying Kiwis, and more
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Observations From The Second Auckland FC vs Wellington Phoenix Derby (Football)
Flying Kiwis – December 4 (Football)
2024/25 Kiwi-NRL Summer Guide: Knights, Sea Eagles, Rabbitohs, Roosters (Rugby League)
2024/25 Kiwi-NRL Summer Guide: Cowboys, Dolphins, Broncos, Titans (Rugby League)
New Zealand Warriors Wider Squad & Summer Training Break Down Ahead Of 2025 NRL Season (Rugby League)
Exploring Otago's Dominant Start To The 2024/25 HBJ Shield Season (Cricket)
Debriefing New Zealand's Return To Reality In Test Cricket After Being Thumped By England (Cricket)
27fm Weekly Playlist: December 6 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
Youngsters in Plunket Shield this round (before day three)
Will Clark (23yrs - CD): 5w, 109 runs
Curtis Heaphy (21yrs - CD): 63 runs
Matt Fisher (25yrs - ND): 4w
Zak Foulkes (22yrs - Canterbury: 5w
Cameron Paul (19yrs - Canterbury): 3w
Rhys Mariu (22yrs - Canterbury): 87 runs
Mitch Hay (24yrs - Canterbury): 81 runs
Luke Georgeson (25yrs - Otago): 3w
Adithya Ashok (22yrs - Auckland): 4w
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Prep mahi for five funky NZ Warriors storylines...
Replacing Shaun Johnson's kicking metres and Addin Fonua-Blake run metres. Both were among the busiest per game in the NRL last season and NZW missed finals, so does it really matter?
Tohu Harris involvement and role. 14 games last season, far less than 23 in 2023 but similar to 15 in 2021 and 2022. His 132m/game last season is in the same 130-140m as previous two seasons. 95.3% tackling is the same 93-96% tackling of last five seasons. Not quite as bad as many believed but clearly slowing down at a time when NZW have lots of middle forward depth.
The young wave: Ali Leiataua, Moala Graham-Taufa, Demitric Vaimauga, Jacob Laban, Leka Halasima, Zyon Maiu'u. Who steps up to consistent NRL production? Will Andrew Webster continue the slow brew or allow them space to grow in NRL?
The web of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Taine Tuaupiki. All three are connected and while coach Webster will probably start conservatively with Nicoll-Klokstad at fullback/Tuivasa-Sheck on the wing, there are plenty of funky outside back combos involving these three.
The Andrew Webster playing style. NZW wins and losses stem from the Webster's system. In 2023 it worked great and everyone was aligned, with slick combinations and defensive grit. 2024 was far more clunky and the defensive grit vanished. NZW footy is more system and less individual, so I'm curious about how coach Webster has developed after winning and losing seasons.
Kiwi-NRL Summer Guide prep mahi...
Panthers
Top-30: Preston Riki (Rawene), Asu Kepaoa (Sacred Heart College)
Supplementary:
Train/Trial: Austin Dias (Taniwharau)
Eels
Top-30: Wiremu Greig (Whangarei)
Supplementary:
Train/Trial: Te Hurinui Twidle (Turangawaewae)
Tigers
Top-30: Starford To'a (Mt Wellington)
Supplementary: Reuben Porter (Te Atatu)
Train/Trial: Eiden Ackland (Mt Albert)
Bulldogs
Top-30: Sitili Tupouniua (Marist)
Supplementary: Sosaia Alatini (Hornby)
Train/Trial: Cassius Tia (Marist), Alekolasimi Jones (Mt Albert)
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
I’ve whipped up a recap/reaction piece about the A-League derby from Saturday, have a read of that if you please - link’s in the list up top. But there was a stat within that piece that I want to build out further: with his goal against Auckland FC on the weekend, Kosta Barbarouses has now scored against 15 different A-League clubs. I don’t believe I need to look that up to prove that it’s a record, given that it takes a particularly timed career to have been able to score against both Auckland FC and North Queensland Fury. Brilliant stuff from Kosta.
Barbarouses only scored his first goal against Western United a few weeks ago so he’s added two more scalps this year and there’s no talk of him retiring so if all goes to plan he might add Canberra United to that list next season. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There have been 16 different teams to have played in the A-League Men’s through the years and the only one that Barbarouses never scored against, on account of how he never got to play them because they folded after only two years and thus didn’t overlap with his career, was the New Zealand Knights. Didn’t get the NZ Knights but he did get the Black Knights.
These are all the teams that Kosta Barbarouses has scored A-League goals against:
Melbourne City (12), Brisbane Roar (11), Perth Glory (10), Sydney FC (10), Wellington Phoenix (9), Adelaide United (8), Newcastle Jets (8), Melbourne Victory (7), Western Sydney Wanderers (6), Central Coast Mariners (5), Macarthur FC (5), Gold Coast United (2), North Queensland Fury (2), Western United (1) & Auckland FC (1)
He’s also scored in three consecutive games and is up to 97 career goals in the A-League, a few games away from joining Jamie Maclaren (154), Besart Berisha (142), and Bruno Fornaroli (108) as centurion scorers in the ALM. He’s already gone past Shane Smeltz (92) and the next top-scoring NZers after that are Marco Rojas (43), Jeremy Brockie (39), and then Tim Brown (24).
Speaking of centuries, here are some cricket stats...
Blackcaps Innings (And Average) Since Their Last Test Century
Tom Blundell – 0 innings (woo-hoo!)
Rachin Ravindra – 9 innings (23.65 avg)
Kane Williamson – 12 innings (34.16 avg)
Daryl Mitchell – 25 innings (31.95 avg)
Glenn Phillips – 25 innings* (36.00 avg)
Devon Conway – 30 innings (22.87 avg)
Will Young – 34 innings* (30.03 avg)
Tom Latham – 36 innings (29.00)
* zero Test centuries
Tom Latham’s numbers stretch back into 2022 which means he’s got two chances left to avoid consecutive calendar years without a hundy as a Test match opener. That’s worrisome. As is the fact that the Blackcaps are about to play their twelfth Test of the year and these are their opening partnerships throughout this span...
vs South Africa (H): 2, 10, 1, 40 – Conway & Latham
vs Australia (H): 12, 15, 47, 6 – Latham & Young
vs Sri Lanka (A): 63, 6, 2, 0 – Conway & Latham
vs India (A): 67, 0, 32, 36, 15, 2 – Conway & Latham
vs England (H): 4, 3, 18, 9 – Conway & Latham
So... two 50+ opening stands from 22 efforts with the highest being 67 runs. On 16/22 occasions we’ve lost the first wicket for fewer than 20 runs. That’s a shambles. Devon Conway won’t be playing the third Test as his wife is due to give birth and with Mark Chapman called up as cover that suggests that Will Young will slot in as the replacement, resuming the partnership that didn’t do much against Australia earlier this year. But at least it’s something. Devon Conway scored three centuries in his first nine innings and since then has one additional triple-figure knock in 42 innings. He was spectacular to begin with but at this stage he’s been a bad Test opener for a lot longer than he was a great one.
If Joe Root scores 81 runs in the third Test against the Blackcaps then he’ll become the all-time leading run scorer against New Zealand in Test matches. Based on how things are tracking so far, it’s pretty easy to imagine that happening.
Most Test Runs vs New Zealand
Javed Miandad (PAK) – 1919 runs @ 79.95 avg
Joe Root (ENG) – 1839 runs @ 54.08 avg
Rahul Dravid (IND) – 1659 runs @ 63.80 avg
Sachin Tendulkar (IND) – 1595 runs @ 46.91 avg
Jacques Kallis (RSA) – 1543 runs @ 61.72 avg
So yeah that’s nice for him. Root is going to break a lot of “most _” records thanks to the disgusting quantity of matches that he plays (he debuted after Kane Williamson and has played nearly 50% more Tests). He also needs one more hundred against us to match Miandad’s record of seven tons vs NZ. Not that these guys are probably even aware of these records. Also, they’re all only holding temporary space until Harry Brook’s played enough matches. That guy has scored 678 runs in only seven innings against NZ. Three hundreds and three fifties and he was run out for zero in the other innings.
Since this has gotten me curious, I also looked up who has taken the most wickets against Aotearoa in Tests and it makes a lot of sense looking at these names...
Most Test Wickets vs New Zealand
Shane Warne (AUS) – 103 wkt @ 24.37 avg
Stuart Broad (ENG) – 94 wkt @ 28.21 avg
Jimmy Anderson (ENG) – 84 wkt @ 26.05 avg
Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) – 82 wkt @ 21.53
Ravichandran Ashwin (IND) – 75 wkt @ 18.53 avg
Meanwhile, a few of the stats I’ve been tracking are in the process of going down in flames. Tim Southee getting to 400 Test wickets in his last series? Well, he needed 15 more and he’s taken four at an average of 61.50 so far. As for the seven sixes that he needed to get to triple-figures for his career, there’s still a flicker of hope as long as he plays the third Test but he’ll have to hit five of them to get there. That stuff fits into a longer trend. We all know about it. Tim Southee has bowled the tenth most overs in Test cricket this year and he ranks equal-39th for wickets taken.
But Rachin Ravindra was cruising towards becoming only the third NZer to score 1000 runs in a calendar year (after Williamson in 2015 and McCullum in 2014) when he tonned up against India in October. Since then he has scores of 39no, 65, 9, 5, 4, 34, 24, 3, 6. Heading into the last Test of the year he needs another 78 runs to make it happen. Still possible. Also, Kane Williamson is on 813 runs in 2024 with more hundreds and a much better average than Ravindra. If he’d played in India then he probably would have gotten there himself.
The Breakers lost 98-83 to the Sydney Kings over the weekend. Add that to the pile of trashy defence ever since they got rid of Freddie Gillespie for no good reason. They’re 0-4 since that move and have lost those four games by 38 points (Illawarra), 11 points (Perth), 27 points (Melbourne), and 15 points (Sydney). But I don’t really wanna talk about them right now.
Chris Wood in the Premier League this season...
Goal vs Bournemouth
No goal vs Southampton
Goal vs Wolves
No goal vs Liverpool
Goal vs Brighton
No goal vs Fulham
Goal vs Chelsea
Goal vs Crystal Palace
Two goals vs Leicester City
Goal vs West Ham
No goal vs Newcastle
No goal vs Arsenal
Goal vs Ipswich
No goal vs Manchester City
Goal vs Manchester United
Add it all together for 10 goals in 15 games. He’s already reached double figures and it’s not even Christmas yet. He actually is on track for the 20-goal target he’s set himself. This is the fifth time in his career that he’s scored double digits in a Prem season. He’s also scored six goals in four internationals during this time as well.
But don’t act like Woodsy’s the only one. Elijah Just scored another goal over the weekend which means that his last 12 games for club and country have combined for eight goals and an assist. Four in four for the All Whites and the rest in his past eight club games for St Pölten. And Just isn’t doing this from the striker position where things are aligned for him to score, like Wood, he’s doing this from out wide or as an attacking midfielder. Incredible run of form from this guy. Also, Liberato Cacace this morning finally scored his first club goal since he was at the Wellington Phoenix while Indi Riley scored for Crystal Palace too so the good times keep rolling for these kiwi footballers.
Musical Jam...