The Albatross
Warriors vs Panthers, Blackcaps in England, Alex Paulsen/All Whites goalies, Charlisse Leger-Walker in WNBA, Ben Gold in NBL, Wellington Phoenix, and more
Scotty’s Word
NZ Warriors vs Panthers...
NRL: 18-20
NSW Cup: 20-30
Jersey Flegg Cup: 40-30
My favourite thing in recent weeks has been the thriving Taharoa connection with Te Maire Martin joining Taine Tuaupiki in the team. I was reminded of the crazy rugby league hub of Ngaruawahia earlier this year when Te Hurinui Twidle made his NRL debut for Eels as he is a Turangawaewae junior same as Martin.
Tuaupiki is a Ngaruawahia junior and both clubs sit within a kilometre or so of each other in Ngaruawahia. Two cousins coming from rival clubs in Ngaruawahia is pretty cool and their performances vs Panthers helped NZW score 18 points against an excellent defensive unit. NZW scored three tries vs Panthers and these two were involved in all three with Tuaupiki scoring a try, while Martin had two try assists.
Tuaupiki had 10 tackle breaks in his 24 runs - 228m @ 9.5m/run and Martin had a linebreak, as well as being the only NZW player with two offloads. Martin also did his share of the kicking and while kicking has been a minor weak spot since arriving at Mt Smart, his kicking along with Chanel Harris-Tavita helped NZW find some territory after being beaten up deep in their own end of the field.
Neither were locked in starters to begin the season. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was still viewed as the best fullback and Tuaupiki has thrived with more opportunities to the point where he’s now the best fullback, with a chance he sneaks into the NZ Kiwis World Cup squad. Martin was the fourth half in the depth chart to start the year and now he’s in one of the best patches of his career.
Martin is keeping Metcalf out of the NRL team. NZW lost vs Panthers but Martin’s level of performance didn’t dip from his two wins and I reckon that only injury/suspension will open up a spot for Metcalf. The NSW Cup Warriors lost vs Panthers and that was expected with Panthers leading NSW Cup as well as NRL, while NZW are mid-table.
Metcalf has now lost five games in a row. He lost four NRL games before returning to NSW Cup with a loss. It’s not like his presence made NZW lose because they are 6-6 having rolled through a wide range of players, but the trend of Metcalf losing does seem connected to the bad vibes around how his decision to depart NZW played out.
The NSW Cup Warriors is super funky right because below the Metcalf intrigue is an amazing group of emerging talent. This is evident in the Sio Kali/Bishop Neal/Jett Cleary/Jye Linnane combo for Linnane’s try as all four of those players are freakish talents who are 21-years-old or younger.
Palmerston North’s Joseph Ratcliffe also made his debut at fullback and he joined Neal, Connor Bowden, Jeremiah Lemana and Tyson Hansen as Under 19s who played NSW Cup vs Panthers. All but Lemana played U19s earlier this season before progressing through U21s to reserve grade and Lemana skipped U19s while still 17-years-old to start his year in U21s.
Two Kiwi-NRL juniors I learned about this weekend...
Jeshua Maa-Nelson and Lauti Lauvao both went to De La Salle College (which continues to produce lots of rugby league talent). Maa-Nelson is a Manurewa junior who has been playing on the wing for Eels U21s and Lauvao had a year with Panthers after leaving school where he played U19/U21s, before returning to Auckland and playing on the wing for NZW U21s vs Panthers.
A few NRLWahine of note...
Kerri Johnson and Azalleyah Maaka are still with Broncos after watching all other NRLWahine depart over the summer. Both moved from rugby union and had their first season with Broncos last year, now they are primed for bigger roles.
Daynah Nankivell has switched from rugby union to NRLW with Bulldogs. Nankivell is from Northland (like Johnson) and has been playing Super Rugby Aupiki with Blues and most recently in Japan. I’m not sure about the status of Moana Courtenay and Monica Tagoai with Bulldogs but they also moved from rugby union in Aotearoa to Bulldogs NRLW, so Bulldogs are making a habit of this.
Wainuiomata junior Te Ngaroahiahi Fanua Awhina Rimoni is in the Titans squad after working her way through Queensland’s Women’s Premiership. She is a middle forward and joins a growing group of NRLWahine juniors from Wellington.
Another is Jessica Patea who like the three Tauaneai sisters are also Wainuiomata juniors. Patea isn’t in NRLW but she was named in the Panthers NSW Women’s Premiership squad along with Kahu Cassiday (Kaikohe), Olive Connolly (Linwood), Harmony Covacich (Northern Wairoa), Malena Lavea (Richmond) and Dejah Tuliau (Linwood). That’s lots of wahine from Aotearoa for an organisation that doesn’t have an NRLW team yet.
For paid subscribers
NZ Warriors spotlights of Taine Tuaupiki, Te Maire Martin, Jacob Laban
NZ Warriors kicking stats
NZ Warriors deep cuts
Blackcaps role depth
Blackcaps bits and bobs
The news of Mitchell Santner’s return for Blackcaps came just before I started typing my debrief of the Test vs Ireland. One of my favourite Blackcaps meditations is trying to have Santner and Glenn Phillips in the same team, while also trying to build teams with Nathan Smith and Zak Foulkes together. Perhaps all four in the same team together.
The top-six is settled. The best way to have all four in the same team would be to shake up the top-six but that’s unrealistic as I think they will play throughout the series vs England unless there is an injury. Even then, I believe Henry Nicholls would step into the batting unit as next man up, and given how he has fought for his Blackcaps spot, as well as how the others sit in various spots of the legendary Test batting spectrum for Aotearoa, these blokes deserve to be given time and space as a settled batting unit.
Here’s the easiest way to select the four all-rounders: Phillips, Santner, Smith, Foulkes, Henry.
I have Smith ahead of Foulkes though, leaving Kyle Jamieson and Will O’Rourke as more likely options in that Foulkes spot. Santner is also on the comeback from injury and may not play the first Test. Add in how Foulkes has been steady but not dominant in Test bowling and the most realistic combo is Phillips, Smith, Jamieson, Henry, O’Rourke.
That would leave Santner, Foulkes and Tickner as surplus in the squad along with Nicholls. However this cookie crumbles, Blackcaps will have Smith batting eight or nine. Smith averages 21.2 at eight and 36 at nine in Test batting, as well as having a First-Class batting average of 27.3.
Runs from the bowlers will be crucial throughout the series vs England. Since the start of 2024, Phillips and Santner have both hit at least two 50+ scores in Test cricket while averaging 28. Smith has a top-score of 42 in this period averaging 23.6 and Foulkes has a 23* averaging 19.5.
Most importantly, none of this batting stuff takes away from the potency of the bowling. Phillips and Santner are both averaging early-30s as Test spinners, while the seam bowling skills are tremendous throughout that group.
Musical jam...
Nick’s Notebook
There are many critical questions on people’s minds as we pass the two-week warning for the All Whites at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Will Joe Bell and Ryan Thomas be fit to start? Which two centre-backs get first choice status out of Surman, Bindon & Boxall? Will Tim Payne with the Golden Ball? But the biggest question of them all... how tall is Alex Paulsen?
The reason that’s a question is because he’s come under some pretty heavy critique after his loan season at Lechia Gdańsk in Poland, largely due to his perceived lack of height. At first it wasn’t a major deal because his team was doing alright but as they sunk deeper and deeper towards relegation, and their kiwi goalkeeper proved unable to do anything to halt the slide, the chat got louder.
That might be a surprise to folks who haven’t really tracked him since he left the A-League but that’s how it happened. Not very many egregious errors from AP, just a whole lot of accumulated goals conceded where it looked like he could have done better. We can’t expect the Polish folks to care about what Paulsen did in the A-League beforehand but even if they did, there wasn’t much comparison between that version of AP and this version of AP...
Alex Paulsen’s last three seasons:
Wellington Phoenix - 80.9% Save Percentage & 12.94 Goals Prevented
Auckland FC - 73.0% Save Percentage & 2.07 Goals Prevented
Lechia Gdansk - 61.0% Save Percentage & -8.26 Goals Prevented
One of the local shows even voted him the Worst Goalkeeper of the Ekstraklasa season. Jeepers. It wasn’t all bad because his team definitely improved when he first arrived, however if you’re allowing too many goals past you and hardly saving anything while your team loses over and over again on the way to relegation then that’s going to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths. AP ended up being dropped for the last game of the season but it was too late by then: the reputation had already stuck that he’s too small and can’t make the saves that other keepers can. And in fairness what else are they supposed to think after a season like this...
AP actually did an interview a few months ago where he addressed his feelings on the matter in the confidently defiant manner you’d hope. He was asked about what he thinks is his biggest weakness and he said not being loud enough with his communication, to which the interviewer straight-up said: “I thought you’d say not being the tallest keeper”. That sparked a friendly debate about the merits of goalkeeper size. Paulsen used David Raya (Arsenal goalie, same height as Paulsen) as an example of a shorter dude who still gets the job done.
Alex Paulsen: “I don’t really think about heights. For me personally, if you can navigate and become an aerial threat with claiming crosses or coming for punches or demanding and being a presence within the box, then you shouldn’t really look at the player being not as tall as like a 6’3 goalkeeper or 6’4 goalkeeper. If he’s doing better statistics compared to somebody who’s 6’4 then like what’s what’s the difference? I don’t try to have that mindset because I know that like within myself, I obviously wouldn’t say that I’m the tallest of players, but at the same time, I can say that I can still make a difference within the box. And even if players are taller than me, my starting position can affect the cross to claim balls or being physical in the air or being dominant within the air would help me navigate the fact that people try to think, oh, he’s a short goalkeeper, if that makes sense.”
This is going to be an albatross around Paulsen’s neck his whole career. People are going to look at his profile and doubt him straight away because they see 6’0. It also leaves me more confident than ever that Darren Bazeley will pick Max Crocombe as his no1 for the World Cup – not only because AP’s low on form but also because it fits with his general modus operandi of leaning towards experience, as we saw with Michael Woud getting the GK3 nod ahead of Kees Sims or Henry Gray (Woud also had good form to back it up, granted).
Note that these fellas are all really tall. Tracking proper heights can be a hassle since different sources claim different numbers but major tournaments squad lists include heights so we’ll go with those as a baseline (with one asterisk).
Listed Heights of Various NZ Goalkeepers
Oli Sail – 197cm
Alby Kelly-Heald – 196cm (2023 U20 World Cup)
Michael Woud – 196cm (2021 Olympics)
Nik Tzanev - 195cm
Max Crocombe - 194cm
Kees Sims – 194cm (2024 Olympics)
Henry Gray – 193cm (2025 U20 World Cup)
Jamie Searle – 191cm (2021 Olympics)
Joe Wallis – 190cm (2025 U20 World Cup)
Josey Casa-Grande – 187cm (2025 U20 World Cup)
Alex Paulsen - 183cm
Don’t have verified heights for Crocombe or Sail or Tzanev who weren’t at any of those tournaments but frankly I don’t fully trust any of these numbers anyway. For example, the U20 WC squad had Lukas Kelly-Heald being two centimetres taller than twin bro Alby which doesn’t actually look to be true. For what it’s worth, re-signed Phoenix youngster Eamonn McCarron is apparently 199cm so keep an eye out if AKH and EM are ever standing side by side. Josh Oluwayemi is 185cm, if you were wondering. Using Chiefy as a barometer you can see that McCarron clearly towers above Olu.
The specifices of a few centimetres aren’t important, this is merely a general idea to show how Paulsen is considerably shorter than the goalkeepers we usually produce and which are in vogue around the world – if you’re a Premier League club with the resources to go after any goalie you want, and you’re picking between two transfer targets of a similar ability but one is four inches taller than the other... you’re going to pick the taller guy every time.
The asterisk is that Alex Paulsen has been listed at 193cm at both the 2021 Olympics and the 2024 Olympics and he’s for damn sure not that. Can’t be a typo if they did it twice, three years apart. Maybe they factored in the ‘fro? If he was legitimately 193cm then he’d be 6’4 and nobody would be whinging about his height. Here he is standing next to 198cm tall Alby Kelly-Heald, tell me that’s only a five centimetre difference lol...
And again next to 188cm Michael Boxall...
For the Paid Subscribers:
Working through the Wellington Phoenix’s latest squad updates
Charlisse Leger-Walker’s rotational minutes in Connecticut
Speaking of tall people, there was a brilliant bit of news yesterday with kiwi big man Ben Gold being signed to a two-year development contract by the Tasmania JackJumpers. Gold is a 23yo centre who stands at 6’11 and has already played several times for the Tall Blacks including at last year’s Asia Cup. He’s just finished up at Marquette University where he spent four years and was a regular starter in the last two of them, averaging 8.0 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in his senior season.
Gold maybe didn’t kick on quite as much as was hoped when he was a highly touted prospect coming out of the NBA’s Global Academy in Canberra (he joined that programme before Oscar Goodman or Julius Halaifonua went there, helping pave the way). Part of that was his three-point percentage taking a huge dip in his last year, going from 37.1% in 2024-25 down to 26.4% in 2025-26. But that still shows that he’s got the capability to knock down threes as he steps into what’ll be a more defined role in the pros, having alternated between bench and starter and power forward and centre throughout his time at Marquette.
Gold joins a very reliable procession of the best kiwi graduates from American colleges being able to land Aussie NBL deals straight away... and most of them not with the Breakers, curiously, even though Gold is exactly the type of guy that NZB might have wanted to try mould into a next generation Rob Loe. Unlike previous Tazzy signings, like Tom Vodanovich or Walter Brown, we can’t hype up JackJumpers general manager Mika Vukona for this one because he’s moved back to Brisbane and resigned his post there. Tasmania didn’t actually have any kiwis in their squad last season.
Notable Kiwi NCAA Graduates Going Straight Into NBL
NBL27 – Ben Gold to Tasmania JackJumpers
NBL26 – Taine Murray to Brisbane Bullets
NBL24 – Flynn Cameron to Melbourne United
NBL24 – Sam Mennenga to Cairns Taipans
NBL23 – Sam Waardenburg to Cairns Taipans
NBL22 – Jack Salt to Brisbane Bullets
NBL21 – Yanni Wetzell to South-East Melbourne Phoenix
The Breakers did end up signing a couple of those guys afterwards but they didn’t take the punt on them as rookies which is curious. Granted, there was a different ownership (with different ideas about kiwi players) for most of that time. And admittedly there is some logic in knowing that you’ll always have pull with attracting New Zealanders so you can wait to see how they settle in the NBL before going after them.
NZers Currently Contracted for NBL27
Adelaide 36ers – Flynn Cameron, Keanu Rasmussen
Brisbane Bullets – Tyrell Harrison, Taine Murray
Illawarra Hawks – N/A
Cairns Taipans – N/A
Melbourne United – Sam Waardenburg, Shea Ili
NZ Breakers – Sam Mennenga, Carlin Davison, Reuben Te Rangi, Izayah Le’Afa
Perth Wildcats – N/A
South-East Melbourne Phoenix – N/A
Sydney Kings – N/A
Tasmania JackJumpers – Ben Gold (DP)
The Breakers haven’t announced their DPs yet or whether any are under contract, that remains to be seen but they’ll be adding a few more kiwis to the ranks. Mojave King is the main free agent, last heard he was trying to see if they’d let him play a year of college basketball (after he’s already been drafted) – though it seems they’re going to tighten the rules back up to prevent that. Keanu Rasmussen has signed a 1yr deal to return to Adelaide which sees him move onto the main roster. Preston Le Gassick with the Breakers is eligible for the Tall Blacks but dunno whether that’s something he’ll pursue or not. Everybody’s got room in their squads for adding further players so we’re definitely not done yet.
Musical Jam...
