The Bash Bros
Panthers win NRL, Roosters win NRLW, Wellington Phoenix ALM squad, White Ferns beat India, Steven Adams, Tauihi Kiwis, WNL Team of the Week & more
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Reading Menu
2024 Women’s National League – Week 2 (Football)
Deep Cuts For The 2024/25 Ford Trophy First Stanza (Cricket)
2024 T20 World Cup Winning Notes For New Zealand After Defeating India (Cricket)
All Whites vs Tahiti & Malaysia: Squad Yarns & Preview (Football)
Kiwi-NRL/NRLWahine Spotlight: 2024 Grand Final Preview (Rugby League)
Three Themes Of New Zealand Warriors Recruitment & Development Ahead Of The 2025 NRL Season (Rugby League)
2025 New Zealand Women Warriors Signings Tracker: Second Wave (Rugby League)
Early Signs That Bulldogs Will Enter NRLW With Strong Connections To Aotearoa (Rugby League)
Scotty’s Word
Penrith Panthers are the NRL champions and Sydney Roosters are NRLW champions. Given that all four Grand Final teams had at least two players from/representing Aotearoa, there was always going to be a heavy kiwi flavour but with Roosters winning it means that both champions had three players currently in the Kiwis/Kiwi Ferns mix.
The funkiest wrinkle for Panthers is Scott Sorenson playing 70 minutes as a late inclusion at edge forward. This was Sorenson's first finals game of the season and his 16 games this year is the lowest of his four years with Panthers, but he got through heaps of GF mahi alongside the best prop combo I have seen play rugby league...
James Fisher-Harris: 53mins, 18 runs - 158m @ 8.7m/run, 3 tackle breaks, 1 offload, 32 tackles @ 94.1%
Moses Leota: 34mins, 8 runs - 75m @ 9.3m/run, 1 try assist, 2 offloads, 27 tackles @ 93.1%
Scott Sorenson: 70mins, 17 runs - 123m @ 7.2m/run, 2 tackle breaks, 31 tackles @ 92.9%
Sorenson's injury niggle may keep him out of the NZ Kiwis squad but he's a trustworthy squad option. With the usual flow of injuries/suspensions impacting NZ Kiwis squad building, having players like Sorenson as reliable international job-doers can be valuable.
Fisher-Harris and Leota are above reliable job-doers, finishing their Panthers phase with the same mahi...
James Fisher-Harris: 203 games @ 72% winning
Moses Leota: 175 games @ 72% winning
Considering that they both started in 2016, a few years before Panthers started dominating, this is fabulous. For context, Payne Haas is on 118 games @ 46% winning at Broncos and Addin Fonua-Blake rolled through 97 games @ 44% winning for Sea Eagles followed by 85 games @ 41% winning for NZ Warriors.
The kick-off tells the story of how these two lead Panthers, especially after they have talked about being bullied by Storm (led by Jesse Bromwich) in the 2020 GF. Leota pushes Harry Grant over as Panthers steam down the field to meet Tui Kamikamica on the 10 metre line, then four other Panthers get involved in winning that tackle. Fisher-Harris and Leota are late to the scene but lay all over the ruck, while Sorenson is part of the collision with Paul Alamoti...
Stats never really tell the full story with Fisher-Harris and Leota. Fisher-Harris is averaging his lowest metres per game since 2018, Leota is averaging his lowest metres per game since 2019. They are essentially averaging the lowest metres per run of this five-year dynasty phase of reaching GF and yet they keep owning the middle of the field.
Fisher-Harris and Leota are the big donnies of a position that the most ruthless athletes play. They have won four Grand Finals in a row as the starting prop combo, a key mark considering that Leota came off the bench in the 2020 loss.
I'm sad that the Bash Bros are parting ways in the NRL but this path leads us to the enticing Fisher-Harris/NZ Warriors era. Fisher-Harris brings mana to NZ Warriors and that's the most important element required right now as there was a palpable lack of mana in the 2024 crop. This is most evident in how NZ Warriors rolled forward behind Fonua-Blake's stats but kinda sucked, meanwhile Fisher-Harris was dishing out brutality and intimidation directly connected to winning.
Something to ponder from the 2024 NRL season...
James Fisher-Harris: 23 games, 4 tries, 37 tackle breaks, 14 offloads, 128m/game, 990 post contact metres, 95.9% tackling
Addin Fonua-Blake: 23 games, 8 tries, 84 tackle breaks, 24 offloads, 175m/game, 1,698 post contact metres, 95.8% tackling
Kiwi-NRL Storm stats...
Will Warbrick: 80mins, 19 runs - 185m @ 9.7m/run, 3 tackle breaks, 5 tackles @ 71.4%
Jahrome Hughes: 80mins, 14 runs - 115m @ 8.2m/run, 2 tackle breaks, 20 tackles @ 76.9%
Alec MacDonald: 45mins, 6 runs - 59m @ 9.8m/run, 38 tackles @ 86.3%
MacDonald's 45mins in the GF was second only to his 61mins as starting lock in round 27 (when Storm rested a few players) for game time this season.
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Roosters are NRLW champions with NZ Kiwi Ferns Otesa Pule, Amber Hall and Tiana Davison playing 30+ minutes (of 70mins) in the forwards. Davison has back to back NRLW championships after winning with Knights last year and she has a career winning record of 13-3 in NRLW since leaving Taranaki ahead of the 2022 season.
Hall is 10-1 in two seasons with Roosters. This was just the second game (of 11) this season in which she didn't have an offload and she is still one of the best edge forwards in women's rugby league. Here's her 2024 mahi...
10 games, 5 tries, 7 linebreaks, 23 offloads, 82m/game, 90.9% tackling
NRLWahine Roosters & Sharks in the GF...
Otesa Pule: 43mins, 6 runs - 61m @ 10.1m/run, 1 tackle break, 18 tackles @ 94.7%
Amber Hall: 50mins, 8 runs - 80m @ 10m/run, 1 linebreak, 3 tackle breaks, 17 tackles @ 94.4%
Tiana Davison: 32mins, 7 runs - 65m @ 9.2m/run, 19 tackles @ 90.4%
Annessa Biddle: 70mins, 14 runs - 150m @ 10.7m/run, 1 linebreak assist, 3 tackle breaks, 14 tackles @ 93.3%
Brooke Anderson: 52mins, 6 runs - 55m @ 9.1m/run, 1 linebreak assist, 1 offload, 38 tackles @ 90.4%
Biddle finishes the season with at least three tackle busts in nine consecutive games. Here are her first two NRLW seasons after leaving local footy in Aotearoa to join Sharks (19 games @ 58% winning)...
2023: 8 games, 2 tries, 2 try assists, 7 linebreaks, 170m/game, 93.9% tackling
2024: 11 games, 4 tries, 2 try assists, 4 linebreaks, 164m/game, 93.4% tackling
Of the five NRLWahine playing in the GF, Pule and Anderson entered NRLW as Aussie-based players. Hall, Davison and Biddle all earned NRLW opportunities from footy in Aotearoa and none of them played for NZ Warriors Women; Aussie teams recruited them from mahi in Aotearoa.
As excited as I am about men's rugby league growth throughout Aotearoa, women's rugby league is more exciting. Bulldogs announced two more NRLWahine signings to their first NRLW team last week with Shannon Muru and Paea Uilou joining Ash Quinlan, Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa, Alexis Tauaneai and Sarahcen Oliver.
16 NRLW players have been listed for Bulldogs so far and six are from/representing Aotearoa. Quinlan and Teakaraanga-Katoa entered NRLW as Aussie based players, while Bulldogs have been busy with their tentacles throughout Aotearoa in recent years.
Muru was playing for Mt Albert before joining Eels in NRLW last season, then settling with Bulldogs in the NSW Women's Premiership. Uilou is a Manurewa and Howick junior who started this year in Under 19 Tarsha Gale Cup for Bulldogs and finished in NSW Women's Premiership.
Forget about NZ Warriors Women, the other NRLW expansion team has strong links to Aotearoa and is building their NRLW squad with young wahine recruited from NZ. Keep in mind that Bulldogs sorted out a deal with Canterbury Rugby League and yet none of their NRLWahine signings are from Canterbury...
Ash Quinlan: Taupo
Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa: Auckland
Alexis Tauaneai: Wainuiomata
Sarahcen Oliver: Petone
Shannon Muru: Mt Albert
Paea Uilou: Manurewa/Howick
The White Ferns win over India was kinda crazy. Their net-run-rate of 2.9 is still the highest of the T20 World Cup and they are the only team with a net-run-rate over 2. Next up is a game against Australia on Wednesday morning.
White Ferns 2024 T20I Stats
Batting
Suzie Bates: 343 runs @ 24.5avg/109.5sr
Amelia Kerr: 265 runs @ 22avg/108r
Sophie Devine: 227 runs @ 28.3avg/124sr
Brooke Halliday: 188 runs @ 15.6avg/94sr
Georgia Plimmer: 166 runs @ 16.6avg/100sr
Maddy Green: 153 runs @ 15.3avg/94sr
Izzy Gaze: 138 runs @ 15.3avg/113sr
Jess Kerr: 86 runs @ 17.2avg/126sr
Lea Tahuhu: 55 runs @ 27.5avg/125sr
Bowling
Amelia Kerr: 15w @ 24avg/7.5rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 13w @ 19.6avg/8rpo
Fran Jonas: 11w @26.4avg/7.2rpo
Eden Carson: 9w @ 17.8avg/8rpo
Rosemary Mair: 8w @ 23.5avg/6.7rpo
Sophie Devine: 4w @ 42.5avg/9.2rpo
Brooke Halliday: 3w @ 16avg/8.6rpo
Suzie Bates: 2w @ 9avg/6rpo
Leigh Kasperek: 2w @ 34avg/7.8rpo
Jess Kerr: 2w @ 115.5avg/7rpo
Molly Penfold: 2w @ 28.5avg/8.1rpo
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Wellington Phoenix lads have added Jayden Smith to the first-team squad on a scholarship basis. Three year deal, third is on senior terms (same contract they gave to Luke Brooke-Smith). Smith is a central defender out of Nelson who is still only 17 years old, but Cheify has already given him minutes in three different preseason games and reckons that his physicality, stature, and technique make him ready for the next step. To give you some context there, he’s one day younger than Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues who last year became the club’s youngest-ever player (but I’ll bet you right now he won’t hold that record by the end of next season, with Brooke-Smith a whole year younger than both GSR and Smith).
Smith is the same height as Finn Surman. Both are 1.90m tall. Smith played a bit of National League last year but hasn’t been sighted over the first two rounds of this season... presumably because he’s been away with the first team. Same goes for LBS. The other scholars have been getting in their reps though, with Dublin Boon, Gabe Sloane-Rodrigues, and Corban Piper each playing both games.
GSR was superb in the win against Cashmere Technical on the weekend. Boon’s not had a huge showcase in these matches but he’s been good with his feet and his long kick is an absolute bomb. Piper, who is being converted from midfielder to central defender, has been excellent. Looks a complete natural in that role winning headers, positioning himself nicely, and of course proving slick on the ball. Luke Supyk has also been getting reserve games and he scored against Cashmere. Good eye for goal and his workrate off the ball is notable. Also, Fin Conchie popped up in the week two line-up and delivered a quietly superb midfield performance winning heaps of ball and driving his team forward.
Jayden Smith is the fifth scholarship player for the upcoming season and the 24th senior signing overall. As per the announcement, he’ll also be the last one. 24 players locked and loaded for the new campaign. Time to update the picture one last time with the season kicking off in less than two weeks.
Wellington Phoenix ALM Squad
GK – Josh Oluwayemi (Imp), Alby Kelly-Heald, Dublin Boon (Sch)
DEF – Scott Wootton (Imp), Tim Payne, Sam Sutton, Lukas Kelly-Heald, Isaac Hughes, Matt Sheridan, Corban Piper (Sch), Jayden Smith (Sch)
MID – Paolo Retre (Aus), Alex Rufer, Kazuki Nagasawa (Imp), Mohamed Al-Taay (Aus), Fin Conchie
FWD – Kosta Barbarouses, Marco Rojas, Hideki Ishige (Imp), David Ball (Imp), Oskar van Hattum, Luke Supyk, Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues (Sch), Luke Brooke-Smith (Sch)
The Tauihi season got underway over the weekend and the main ponderance I had was how the minutes would look like for the kiwi players. Lots of imports but also lots of Tall Ferns quality. How would that balance out? The answer goes like this...
Penina Davidson (Northern) – 37.1 min (6)
Stella Beck (Tokomanawa) – 36.3 min (8)
McKenna Dale (Tauranga) – 34.1 min (11)
Tahlia Tupaea (Northern) – 31.8 min (16)
Esra McGoldrick (Mainland) – 30 min (20)
Zoe Richards (Southern) – 28.2 min (21)
Jade Kirisome (Tauranga) – 27.3 min (22)
Jacinta Beckley (Tokomanawa) – 24.6 min (23)
Grace Hunter (Tokomanawa) – 24.4 min (24)
Krystal Leger-Walker (Northern) – 21.8 min (25)
Those are the top ten kiwis for minutes played across round one (note that Southern Hoiho played twice so Richards is there as an average over the two games), with their overall mins per game ranking in brackets. Only four in the top nineteen are from NZ but then it becomes 10/25... with Awatea Leach (Tokomanawa), Kaylee Smiler (Tauranga), Sharne Robati (Mainland), Eva Langton (Tauranga), and Samara Gallagher (Southern) also going over the ten mins per game mark. I still reckon that there’s one too many imports but hopefully the league thrives and expands and things can be adjusted naturally over time.
Tahlia Tupaea was the top-scoring NZer, hitting six three-pointers on her way to 23 points and 4 assists in a Northern win against Southern. Penina Davidson also had 20p/10r/4a in the same game. Esra McGoldrick hitting 19 points with 7 rebounds for Mainland in a loss against the Tauranga Whai was also up there.
The Steven Adams spotlight has been spectacular over the last week. He’s landed in Houston and is ready to get back into serious basketball after a year and a half on the sidelines (no thanks to the Memphis Grizzlies medical staff). From his media day yarns to the mattress on the floor to slapping down the mascot to his peerless leadership to some magnificent posting it has been a glorious return to public prominence.
I’m going to try and scribble up a season preview for him later in the week if there’s time. Preseason actually starts tomorrow for the Rockets but coach Ime Udoka has already said he’ll rest a few blokes so the guy coming back from knee surgery probably qualifies for that treatment. He’s already said they’ll have to manage the final stages of his recovery just to make sure there’s no overload. Adams will be getting bench minutes for the Rockets behind outstanding young Turkish centre Alperen Sengun... but Sengun’s shooting should mean some Two Towers line-ups plus 15-20 mins per night of Adams against back-up bigs is going to provide some absolutely elite efficiency (without blasting his knee out again).
Adams was asked recently about whether there’s been a change in his personal view of himself as a player now that he’s coming off the bench. I saw that clip being framed around the journalist having asked a stupid question but actually I think it’s a fascinating question. Because for most NBA players that would be exactly what happens. There’s a line in the sand between starters and bench players that guys don’t want to cross. Ask them that question and you’d either get fake humble guys talking about being willing to do the bench role like they’re doing everyone a favour or you’d get some weird mental gymnastics about still being starter-quality even though they’re not. Or whatever else it takes to soften the blow.
Steven Adams once played with a diminishing Carmelo Anthony in Oklahoma City, who was asked after a playoff elimination whether he’d be willing to come off the bench the following season and this was his reply:
“I'm not sacrificing no bench role. So that's out of the question. I think everybody knows I've sacrificed damn near everything and was willing to sacrifice nearly everything for this situation to work out.”
Sacrificed damn near everything except his own ego. Meanwhile when Steven Adams was asked about whether he still sees himself as a starter there was no ego, no malice, no frustration, just pure honesty and reality and team-first loyalty.
“Well, no. I’m not starting. Mate, I’m a basketball player. There’s no, like, starter or fuckin’ bench... it’s just whoever [coach] thinks is best, that’s who plays.”
WNL Team of the Week #2
GK – Angelique TuiSamoa (Western Springs) – She may have conceded a few times but most goalies would have shipped twice that with West Coast Rangers dominating the first half as they did. Without TuiSamoa making diving stops, closing down runners, and sweeping outside her area it would have been game over long before Springs scored their 90+5th minute equaliser.
RB – Kailey Short (West Coast Rangers) – Set up what should have been the winner right at the end of the draw with Springs and it was fine reward for an enterprising shift out wide on the right. Until they conceded in the fifth minute of stoppage time but that wasn’t her fault.
CB – Hannah Cooper (Wellington United) – Just good solid centre-back stuff, y’know? Passed the ball nicely. Lunged into a few tackles. Did what needed to be done.
CB – Sarah Morton (Waterside Karori) – Barely a week goes by without a Morton in these selections. This time it’s Sarah’s turn after quite ruthlessly teaching the WeeNix a lesson. Aggressively winning the ball. Composed in possession. Even pocketed an assist for her troubles.
LB – Arisa Takeda (Western Springs) – Nothing new about this. Western Springs managed to just hold on against a rampant WCR side, with Takeda by far their most experienced defender, then she scored a beautiful goal after setting up another. Standard Arisa Takeda activities.
CDM – Yume Harashima (Auckland United) – Brilliant mahi in the 2-0 win against Eastern Suburbs. Basically, she won every contestable ball in the defensive half while Chloe Knott won every contestible ball in the attacking half and they each got an assist on the way to a comprehensively routine victory.
CM - Anna McPhie (Canterbury United) – Scored a magnificent direct free kick for the second week in a row, which always helps. But it went deeper than that. McPhie’s tenacious workrate was also the spark for several of CU’s best moments in the second half, growing in energy while everyone else around her seemed to be stuck in stalemate mode.
CM – Emily Starr (Waterside Karori) – The latest American to pop up at the Wharfies and she was a Starr by name and nature. Others got the goals and assists but Emily Starr - who has played professionally in England (Crystal Palace), Ireland (Shelbourne), and beyond - was highly impressive keeping the wheel turning in midfield and keeping everybody around her fed.
CAM – Chloe Knott (Auckland United) – It’s Chloe Knott we’re talking about here, what did you expect?
FW – Charlotte Roche (Auckand United) – Harsh on the goal-scoring forwards of West Coast Rangers but they were a little too wasteful to get the nod. So Charlotte Roche sneaks in instead. Scored a smashing goal and went close a couple of other times. Love how she impacts games and she continues to find ways to score National League goals.
FW – Renee Bacon (Waterside Karori) - Which Wharfies forward deserved it most? Tessa McPherson got things going with two assists. Kendall Pollock brought that import quality to the centre-forward position with two goals. But Renee Bacon also scored twice and they were both great finishes so the spot is hers.
Musical Jam...