The Aggregate
All Whites vs Australia reaction, Warriors vs Panthers connections, NZ-A cricket, Joseph Parker, Auckland FC & more
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors finals footy is coming...
New Zealand Warriors Combined High Performance & Development For Another Fabulous NSW Cup Season
2025 NRL Finals Fizz For New Zealand Warriors: Taking Stock & Early Ideas
One thing on my mind is the Penrith Panthers connection. There are obvious tentacles like Ivan Cleary and Andrew Webster having history with both organisations, along with players like James Fisher-Harris and Isaiah Papali'i. A sneaky tentacle is how NZW and Panthers seem to be sharing junior talent in good faith.
Preston Riki and Daeon Amituanai moved to Queensland as part of the Warriors-Redcliffe connection, then they both joined Panthers. Amituanai returned to NZW prior to this season and Riki has been stuck in NSW Cup at Panthers, probably likely to depart this summer.
You already know that Jett Cleary moved from Panthers to NZW. Luke Hanson left Panthers for NZW ahead of the 2024 season and he has already played 32 games of NSW Cup with a 72% win record in the halves, while still being eligible for Under 21s this season.
NZW have recruited two young Aussie halves straight out of the Panthers pipeline and both have featured for the dominant NSW Cup team this year. Panthers recruited Siale Faeamani (St Peter's College) from NZW last summer and he played most of this year in U21s but also stepped up to play three games of NSW Cup for Panthers.
Compton Purcell (Marist) made a mid-season switch from NZW to Panthers earlier this year as well. Purcell started this year in U19s for NZW and had one game of U21s before moving to Panthers where he played six games of U21s. This move made sense for Purcell as he had more opportunities to play U21s at Panthers with NZW rolling out a settled group of outside backs in their U21 team.
Panthers tried to sign Kayliss Fatialofa (Otara) a few weeks ago and apparently that deal was all but done until Fatialofa decided to stay at Mt Smart. Last week there were a few reports that Panthers were chasing Tom Ale and Toby Crosby with those deals allegedly locked in.
Fatialofa's decision to stay with NZW probably led Panthers to chase other NZW forwards, as well as cluttering the future pathway for Crosby in particular. Ale has been overtaken by younger forwards at Mt Smart and will have a better opportunity at Panthers, which also applies for Crosby who will benefit from a rugby league clinic at Penrith (awesome from the Kiwi-NRL perspective).
Crosby is a freakish talent and it's a bummer for NZW to lose him, but NZW basically chose Fatialofa over him. NZW also snapped up the Christchurch trio of Jason Salalilo (Papanui), Makaia Tafua (Linwood) and Bishop Neal (Hornby) a few months ago. I have Salalilo ranked ahead of Crosby in the middle forward depth chart right now and he has played more minutes than Crosby in most NSW Cup games this season.
One of the NSW Cup quirks this season is how Harry Durbin (Pikiao) and Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea (Mangere East) started most of their games in reserve grade when not playing U21s. I don't have them ranked ahead of Salalilo or Crosby despite that quirk but this shows what they are capable of and how they are viewed by NZW staff. Both are ready to take Crosby's spot as a regular member of the NSW Cup team next season.
Neal is just as freaky as Crosby. NZW also have Paea Sikuvea (Mangere East) who started this year in U19s and finished as a starter for U21s, plus there are others like Tepatasi Laumalili (Mangere East) who are genuine big boppers. Want another wrinkle? Gordon Afoa (Papatoetoe) is finishing school at St Paul's College and he played U21s for NZW this year, while his St Paul's comrade Albert Balchin (Papatoetoe) has switched from Bulldogs to NZW for next season.
All of which is to suggest that NZW are well stocked with talent. The funky thing here is that the players leaving NZW for Panthers are doing so because they have a better opportunity with Panthers. It's a good thing that Panthers are chasing NZW talent and the fact that there are better opportunities at Panthers, show how flush NZW are with competitive depth.
Fane Finau (Otara) and Azalleyah Maaka (Gisborne) made their NRLW debuts this weekend. Both played on the edge with Finau rising through the Knights ranks in recent years and Maaka featuring in the Broncos win vs NZW. Finau was fantastic in the Knights win vs Titans: 1 try, 12 runs - 114m @ 9.5m/run, 7 tackle breaks, 10 tackles @ 91%.
Monica Tagoai (Marist St Pats) had her best game of the NRLW season for Bulldogs in their upset win vs Sharks: 14 runs - 146m @ 10.4m/run, 8 tackle breaks, 6 tackles @ 86%
I've got plenty more Aotearoa rugby league stuff for paid subscribers and the Patreon whanau. I list players in the NZ Kiwis mixer from bottom eight teams, highlight the two best NZW women who could debut for Aotearoa and break down two Kiwi Ferns halves contenders in Gayle Broughton and Rosie Kelly.
On the cricket side I have made five groups of five kiwi cricketers; T20 seamers, T20 batters, spinners, emerging batters and young seaming all-rounders. No player is listed more than once and it was a fun exercise to flex out Blackcaps depth.
New Zealand T20 Tri-Series In Zimbabwe Debrief
Five Funky Things About The State Of New Zealand Test Cricket
2025 New Zealand A Tour Of South Africa Preview
NZ-A started their First-Class game vs South Africa A last night. They finished day one on 357/1 with Rhys Mariu on 200* alongside Joe Carter who is on 50* and Dale Phillips was the only batter dismissed after scoring 103 runs.
Dale Phillips (36.2avg in FC)
Scores for NZ-A this year: 0, 79, 34, 0, 6, 147, 103.
Last summer
Plunket Shield: 28.4avg/55sr
Ford Trophy: 45.7avg/86sr
Super Smash: 23.3avg/154sr
Rhys Mariu (54.4avg in FC)
Scores for NZ-A this year: 42, 33, 13, 6, 14, 38, 0, 200*
Three seasons of FC batting
2022/23: 57.8avg, 1 x 100, 3 x 50
2023/24: 40.5avg, 1 x 100, 1 x 50
2024/25: 74.7avg, 1 x 200, 1 x 100, 3 x 50
Joe Carter (36.5avg in FC)
Scores for NZ-A this year: 13, 33, 17, 58, 62, 3, 47, 50*
Recent FC seasons
2019/20: 45.2avg, 2 x 100, 1 x 50
2020/21: 43.8avg, 2 x 100, 2 x 50
2021/22: 31.3avg, 2 x 50
2022 in India: 69.4avg, 2 x 100
2022/23: 24.1avg, 2 x 50
2023/24: 53.9avg, 1 x 100, 6 x 50
2024/25: 49.8avg, 2 x 100
Musical jam…
Nick’s Notebook
The All Whites lost to Australia on Friday night for the seventh time in a row dating back more than two decades. They’ve failed to score in any of the last four of those games, while this also snapped a nine-game overall scoring streak for the All Whites. None of that sounds very nice but actually the lads were awesome for about 60-70 minutes of this game and were bloody unlucky to lose to an 87th minute Max Balard goal. Bit of a lapse in letting him get loose in the box. Felt like a kick in the guts. But there was plenty of encouragement to be taken from that performance.
Chris Wood missed a couple of chances in the first half, including a 1v1 after Sarpreet Singh had slipped one in behind for him. Paul Izzo made some good stops (on debut for Oz). New Zealand probably didn’t create enough to for us to say they absolutely should have scored, although much of that was due to a very good Aussie back three led by captain-for-the-day Milos Degenek. Those blokes won a lot of headers and continually got bodies in the way – six of NZ’s nine shots were from outside the area. Even still, you kinda assume that if Chris Wood gets multiple sights of goal, he’s going to score at least one regardless of difficulty. That didn’t happen and the All Whites were left to regret it.
That was pesky... yet there was so much good stuff around it. The All Whites aren’t always a pressing team however they brought a very organised and selective strategy into this one which really had the Socceroos scrambling at the back trying to play their way out. The kiwi midfield was brilliant. Ryan Thomas was the best player on the park while he was out there, fitting seamlessly into the squad after six years away. So smooth on the ball, so smart with his passing. Singh, Just, and McCowatt all linked up nicely behind Wood – although a little more directness wouldn’t have gone astray.
With Just and McCowatt out wide, they’re going to drift around so you really need some dynamic fullbacks to use that space... problem was the only two A-League players in the eleven were in those positions: Francis De Vries and Tim Payne. There’s a difference in levels there but the main issue was match fitness with those two still in preseason mode (and Payne having only featured on limited minutes as a centre-back during the Nix’s Aussie Cup run).
Where the game really swung was with the substitutions. Australia improved heaps with the introduction of guys like Mo Toure and Nestory Irankunda. Not to mention goal-scorer Max Balard. The All Whites got worse with their subs. That’s not to pick on the guys who the All Whites brought on (Barbarouses, Elliot, Rufer, McGarry, Old, Surman), it’s entirely about those who were taken off. Particularly Chris Wood and Ryan Thomas on the hour mark. This is the usual friendly game drama where Darren Bazeley is having to be careful about managing the workload of his star players – by his own admission he would never substitute Chris Wood for tactical reasons. In a tournament, this wouldn’t be a concession they’d need to make. For this game it was and we suffered for it.
It’s also a reflection of the players they’re missing from this squad. Taking off Ryan Thomas isn’t such a drama if you can bring on Marko Stamenic (or vice versa, as the team was initially going to be before Stamenic aggravated a minor knock and went back to Swansea). Libby Cacace, Matt Garbett, and maybe even Ben Waine as well. We’ve got unprecedented depth these days and that’s why they’ve been able to absorb those absences and still roll out a side capable of dominating for an hour against Australia (albeit a rotated Australian squad). It’s on the bench where the absences are felt.
There were a few injury scares in that game but everybody has trained in full since they got back to Auckland for Tuesday night’s game (expecting a bumper crowd for that, happy to say). Technically speaking, these games are part of a two-game Soccer Ashes series so we’re only at half-time in the tie. Aggregate scoreline will decide who gets the trophy (pretty sure they said it’ll be straight to pens if it’s a draw, rather than Aussie retaining it as existing holders). Frustrating ending in Canberra... but one which they’re well capable of making up for at Mt Smart Stadium if they can repeat that performance.
New Zealand’s excellent year of FIBA tournament results has continued with the NZ Men’s U16s team finishing third at the Asia Championships. The lads swept their group by winning 96-54 against Indonesia, 101-82 against Chinese Taipei, and 85-64 against the Philippines. That sent them straight into the quarters where they defeated Iran by 92-69 before falling to China in the semis by an 86-72 scoreline.
Their tournament concluded this morning when they whipped out an incredible finish to beat Japan 93-92 in the third-place game. Japan went on a 10-0 run in the final few minutes to take the lead, only for Jackson Couper to knock down a three with five seconds left. There was then a foul on the inbounds pass which allowed Japan to go back ahead by making 1/2 free throws. NZ took a timeout... and then Marco Sula scored from designed play for the win. You can watch the replay here.
By finishing in the top four, they’ve qualified for the next U17 World Cup. Tawhiri Cate (who you may have already seen playing NBL with the Canterbury Rams) was selected to the tournament’s All Star Five. Have a peek at the overall stats and see how many names you can memorise because the hit ratio of players from kiwi age-grade selections lately has been massive...
Aotearoa at FIBA Events in 2025
Men’s U19 World Cup – Fourth
Women’s Asia Cup – Fifth
Men’s Asia Cup – Fourth
Men’s U16 Asia Cup - Third
Joseph Parker was supposed to be fighting Oleksandr Usyk next. It’s the WBO mandatory defence and there seemed to be genuine interest from the wider boxing community in seeing it happen. Except Usyk’s got an injury at the moment so they haven’t even gotten around to negotiations. What does that mean for Parker? It means he’s going to stay busy by fighting undefeated English contender Fabio Wardley (19-0-1) in London on October 25 as the headline bout of an event at O2 Arena. Big time stuff.
Wardley has 18 knockouts from his 19 wins. He had a draw against Frazer Clarke in March 2024 but then beat him by stoppage in the rematch a few months later. Wardley then knocked out Australian up-and-comer Justis Huni earlier this year. Wardley holds the WBA interim championship title, hence winning this will only strengthen his case to finally face Usyk afterwards with unified world championship status on the line.
Bit of a risk from Joe... but it just wasn’t going to suit him being out of the ring for much longer. He hasn’t fought since dropping Martin Bakole in the second round back in February. Prior to that it was the Zhilei Zhang fight in March 2024. One completed round in 18 months is far from ideal. If Usyk isn’t ready then somebody else will have to do and this should be a very fun fight.
Kiwi Tennis Players at 2025 Grand Slam Events
Michael Venus Men’s Doubles
Australian Open: First Round
French Open: Second Round
Wimbledon: Second Round
US Open: Semi-Finals
Erin Routliffe Women’s Doubles
Australian Open: Semi-Finals
French Open: First Round
Wimbledon: Quarter-Finals
US Open: CHAMPION
Michael Venus & Erin Routliffe Mixed Doubles
Australian Open: Semi-Finals
French Open: Second Round
Wimbledon: First Round
US Open: N/A
Lulu Sun Women’s Singles
Australian Open: First Round
French Open: First Round
Wimbledon: First Round
US Open: Second Round
Musical Jam...