The Beast
The Beast
Blackcaps and the Beast, heaps of Kiwi-NRL pathways, Aotearoa at the 3x3 Asia Cup basketball, Finn Delany, Israel Adesanya, & Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
Kia ora and welcome to The Niche Cache. There are many ways to support our mahi. Patreon has an extra podcast each week. Word of mouth works great too. Engagement is fabulous and if you’re on our website, dwell on those ads. Love ya self.
Podcast
Reading Menu
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Marata Niukore Loves Rugby League (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Inspiration With Fa'amanu Brown (Rugby League)
Reliving The Trauma of the All Whites Loss To Costa Rica (Football)
The Quotable Steven Adams: 2021-22 Edition (Basketball)
Flying Kiwis – July 5 (Football)
27fm Album Jukebox – June 2022 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
Don’t stress about Israel Adesanya. The idea of Adesanya niggling UFC fans and folk has deepened over the past week, which is now following the theme of Adesanya vs Aotearoa. I noted this last week and since then the niggle has escalated. Adesanya explains everything fairly nicely in his latest Youtube video and gets more views doing so than any kiwi media thing, or interview with UFC media.
Adesanya is bigger than Aotearoa, so he doesn’t need Aotearoa. This creates tension as kiwis want to connect with Adesanya but seem to be punished for being from Aotearoa. Adesanya’s now built his own media platform and he can speak for himself, without media. Adesanya does not need UFC media which can generate tension, but more to the point: Adesanya is telling media and fans that they don’t know what’s happening, thus they’re kinda silly. No one likes being told they are silly, right?
I view the niggle Adesanya vs Aotearoa and Adesanya vs UFC World as the same battle. Adesanya seems to like these battles and that’s all good as he is a global sports star. There will be many more Adesanya battles that will draw various headlines and create drama. Along with his sporting excellence and UFC dominance, Adesanya’s niggle has featured throughout his career. This is Adesanya and the rebel within kinda likes this vibe.
Aotearoa is known for humble excellence, yet Aotearoa also shakes shit up. Both exist and both are part of sporting/creative excellence. I’m curious of what happens if I embrace this angle with Adesanya and view him through that lens, learning about this side. I don’t think Adesanya is a villain, I do think Adesanya is here to shake shit up.
All that matters for Blackcaps is winning ODI games. As we discussed in our weekly cricket podcasts for the Patreon whanau, Blackcaps did well to hold positions of strength in the Test series vs England but kept losing. That saw any slither of World Test Championship hope vanish and with similar context via the ODI Super League, Aotearoa needs to stack up wins against Ireland to ensure they slide right into the next World Cup.
A penultimate-ball, last wicket win over Ireland doesn't feel like Blackcaps at their best but who cares? Wins are most important and regardless of what happened in the last Test series, no one should be surprised that Michael Bracewell stood up to drag Aotearoa to victory in the first ODI. Bracewell's mana as a leader in Aotearoa cricket revolves around this and his knock of 127* @ 154.87sr not only continued his leadership trend, it gave Aotearoa the W.
Aotearoa cricket is low key complex and Bracewell is a fine example. I don't view Bracewell as a better spin all-rounder than Mitchell Santner or Rachin Ravindra in Test cricket and nor is his spin bowling in the same realm as Ajaz Patel in the frontline spinner pocket. Bracewell is among Aotearoa's best cricketers though and his niche may be a middle order slugging spot; where Bracewell feels better than Santner.
Ponder the spin bowling situation in Test cricket, then plop back into this ODI team. Ish Sodhi took 2w @ 6.20rpo in 10ov, Bracewell bowled 8ov @ 5.25rpo and Glenn Phillips took 1w @ 4.50rpo in 2ov on ODI debut. 20 overs of spin bowling between Sodhi, Bracewell and Phillips for a Blackcaps ODI team didn't feel realistic a year ago. Hence this phase of Blackcaps cricket is enticing as so many weird combinations are being deployed - many are forced by circumstance.
Any time Lockie Ferguson plays, he's a monster. 2w @ 4.40rpo in his 10ov and Ferguson is at least on the field, while the other often-injured fast bowler Adam Milne is… again out injured. Blair Tickner also took 2w and I'm curious as to how this bowling attack builds on this first up effort after conceding 300/9 @ 6rpo. Ireland are at home and can score runs like any other international team so don't trip up on the 300-run mark, instead track how these bowlers work their way through the series.
Martin Guptill hit 51 @ 83sr and along with lads like Ferguson or Neil Wagner, there is a group of kiwi cricketers who don't play much cricket but are certified international troopers. Guptill played 11+ ODI games in eight consecutive years since his 2009 ODI debut, then playing nine games in 2017 before 10 in 2018 and 20 in 2019.
Since the start of 2020, Guptill has played a total of 11 games. Guptill still has the runs...
2020: 4inns, 217 runs @ 54.25avg, 2 x 50.
2021: 3inns, 84 runs @ 28avg.
2022: 4inns, 165 runs @ 41.25avg, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.
Next game is tomorrow evening and Aotearoa's win takes them up to 7th on the Super League ladder. Aotearoa is 7-0 with 70 points and they are now level with Australia (7-5). Another win could take them up to 5th, overtaking India and West Indies. Two more wins could take Aotearoa even further up the ladder and their Super League campaign will get tougher, so now is the time to rack up some points.
Shit always gets weird when All Blacks lose. Observe how insecure Aotearoa is about the All Blacks as media looks to other nations for their reactions - what did they say about the All Blacks?? This insecurity is also evident in the hype around All Blacks losses as no matter the context around a loss, it's treated as the biggest issue in Aotearoa. There is a lot to learn about a person's psyche in their NZ Warriors fandom and I reckon similar learnings are present in All Blacks coverage.
NSW Women's Premiership rugby league had semi-finals over the weekend and the two teams with funky Aotearoa connections lost. Roosters NRLWahine champion Leianne Tufuga made the final with Sharks and she will face Tigers in the final, giving Tufuga a crack at two championships in a few months.
Tigers defeated Bears who had Kiwi Ferns Nita Maynard, Page and Raecene McGregor. I was hoping that Mounties would defeat Sharks as Gayle Broughton has been playing fullback for Mounties ahead of her first NRLWahine campaign since switching from Sevens. There are no stats or footage from these games and Broughton is now the most intriguing player for this upcoming NRLWahine season with Eels.
All of which bolsters Kiwi Ferns depth. Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly started at fullback for Kiwi Ferns against Tonga with Apii Nicholls taking a break from NRLWahine. Nicholls is now signed to Titans and Broughton seems as though she will command further opportunities, both of whom could be better than Stephens-Daly.
NRLWahine rosters are still being built and many from Aotearoa are yet to be snapped up. More players and the same number of teams makes it tricky for players from Aotearoa to pick up gigs, so expansion will be crucial. A bunch of NRLWahine are playing club footy in Auckland now, most notably Katelyn Vaha'akolo and Charlotte Scanlan for Pt Chev. I went and watched Ponsonby vs Richmond this weekend to catch the vibe and I'm fairly confident wahine rugby league will explode to a similar level as recent Kiwi-NRL stuff.
Brisbane Broncos have one of the best groups of young Kiwi-NRL talent, as well as funky battler Kiwi-NRL talent. In their win over Dragons, Broncos had Delouise Hoeter (Marist Saints) and Jordan Pereira (Upper Hutt) on either wing. Hoeter made his debut back in 2015 with Tigers and has played Queensland Cup footy since 2016 before starting at centre for Broncos in round 6 this year; just over six seasons of reserve grade between NRL games
Pereira took a longer route to NRL, leaving Wellington for Perth and then popping up with Macky Cutters in Q Cup back in 2015. Pereira earned an NRL gig with Dragons and played 39 games for Dragons between 2018-21 before joining Broncos. Pereira started the season with Souths Logan in Q Cup before playing NRL in round 14.
Both earned NRL gigs via reserve grade mahi. Hoeter battled away with Wynnum to enter the wider Broncos squad, Pereira was spotted playing for Mackay. There is a link here with Te Maire Martin as Broncos gave Martin a crack after his Waikato hibernation, meaning Broncos bolstered their NRL squad with three Aotearoa lads who weren't consistent NRL players last year. Martin also has a Wynnum connection with Hoeter, Deine Mariner (Marist) and TC Robati (Porirua).
Mariner was 18th-man vs Dragons and is a better pure talent than Hoeter or Pereira. In a young Broncos group, veterans like Hoeter and Pereira deserve their opportunities and this throws up another funky Broncos wrinkle. Martin may now be surplus to Broncos stocks with Reece Walsh joining Tesi Niu as fullback options plus the Adam Reynolds/Ezra Mam halves combo is slick. Mariner will soon overtake Hoeter/Pereira as well, adding to Broncos depth and hopefully Martin/Hoeter/Pereira can find a role or benefit from boosted value.
Xavier Tito-Harris popped up in some 1st 15 highlights and we have another example of the rugby union/league abundance. Tito-Harris is one of many students at Kelston Boys High School who shine in 1st 15 and rugby league, they are encouraged to thrive in both sports. All the 1st 15 coverage revolves around Tito-Harris the union player and whether it's Francis Manuleleua (Kings College #12) or many others, there is ample competition for their professional careers.
I've yarned about Manuleleua many times in emails and while he has spent time in Future Warriors stuff, this is less comprehensive than Tito-Harris. Both appeared in the U16s Future Warriors camp early in 2020 alongside notable names like Demitric Sifakula, Tamakaimoana Whareaorere, Jacob Laban, William Piliu and Selu Halasima. Manuleleua seemed to be too young for Warriors SG Ball - his Kings College 1st 15 homies Eric Va'afusuaga and Ali Leiataua both combined 1st 15 with SG Ball.
Manuleleua appears to be zoned in on 1st 15 footy while Tito-Harris has kept popping up in Future Warriors matters. Tito-Harris was listed as traveling to Redcliffe with that crew late last year but appears to have stayed in Auckland with Kelston Boys. Tito-Harris was then named in the halves for Future Warriors Selection who played Wests Tigers last weekend. Manuleleua may be chilling before making his decision, while there is record/mention of Tito-Harris with NZ Warriors in each of the last three years.
From that Future Warriors Selection, Leiataua and Sefanaia Cowley-Lupo returned to Redcliffe to play U21s this weekend. They joined Kina and Lingi Kepu, Taniela Otukolo and Zyon Maiu'u. Edward Kosi, Rocco Berry, Daejarn Asi and Eliesa Katoa played Q Cup for Redcliffe.
Wildcard’s Notebook
A few numbers from The Beast’s single-handed destruction of the Irish bowling attack...
Michael Bracewell came to the crease at 120/5, chasing 301 to win. The equation as he faced his first delivery was 181 runs required from 170 deliveries and he was the last recognised genuine batter
Bracewell was then involved in partnerships of 33 runs (49 balls) with Glenn Phillips and 61 (66) with Ish Sodhi. But when Sodhi was run out it left the Blackcaps needing 87 runs off 55 balls with only three wickets in the tank
The remaining three batsmen (Henry, Ferguson, Tickner) scored a combined 8 runs off 21 balls. Add in Sodhi’s very handy knock of 25 and the four guys who came in after Bracewell totalled 33 (56)
And yet they were involved in partnerships of 61 off 66 (Sodhi), 3 off 11 (Henry), 64 off 38 (Fergo) and 24* off 5 (Tickner)
Bracewell was 12 (18) when GP was dismissed. He was 48 (49) when Sodhi was dismissed. He was 51 (52) at the fall of Henry’s wicket. He was 103 (77) when Ferguson got out. And at the conclusion of the innings he had 127 (82)
The Blackcaps needed 77 runs off the last six overs, 61 runs off the last five overs, 53 runs off the last four overs, 40 off the last three overs, 24 off the last two overs, and 20 off the final over
No team in the history of men’s ODI cricket had previously won needing 20 runs off the 50th over... and incredibly Michael Bracewell did it with a ball to spare. The previous record was 18 to win by England vs Australia way back in 1987 – although the Blackcaps did chase down 20 in the final over of a 23-ov rain affected game against Sri Lanka in 2013
Bracewell after the loss of Matt Henry’s wicket: 4 2 0 0 0 1 4 0 4 6 0 6 1 2 2 2 4 1 2 1 6 2 0 1 1 4 4 6 4 6
This was the ninth instance in history of the Blackcaps winning an ODI by one wicket. The others have seen tenth wicket partnerships of 4, 15, 5, 11, 13, 22, 5 & 6 – six of those games did also go into the final over though, with the best of them undoubtedly being this one
Good times at the 3x3 Asia Cup over the past week. The Aotearoa men’s and women’s teams only just came back from the World Cup a couple weeks ago in Belgium but the world keeps turning and the tournaments keep on coming. There’ll be a Commonwealth Games event in a couple more weeks from now. Very busy 3x3 days.
The Asia Cup was held in Singapore and did feature a few changes from the Worlds. With the fellas, Tai Wynyard has returned to perform more NBL activities so he was replaced by Zach Easthope for the only swap. Meanwhile the women made two swaps as Mary Goulding and Tayla Dalton came in for Tiarna Clarke and Kalani Purcell – should say that the Comm Games squads have already been named though and will be identical to those from the world champs.
Righto, so both kiwi teams worked their way through the preliminaries with no dramas but the wahine drew an absolute disaster of a group with China and Australia on the cards. They smashed Palestine (21-5) and India (17-9) on their way to that point but didn’t have an answer to the sheer size of the Chinese team in a 21-12 loss and then were ouskilled 21-11 by the Aussies. Not ideal and due to those heavy losses they finished with the worst points difference of the 12 teams in the main draw, ah well. Hey, guess which two teams made the final? Yup, Australia and China... with China grinding out a 14-10 victory to take the gold medal.
Scoring was a big issue for that team. Gabriella Fotu being an exception with three two-pointers from six shot attempts but the rest of the team was 2/16 from deep across those two games. Useful enough at the rim except they couldn’t get to those spots very easily which was more the problem. None of the quartet reached 10 combined points in those games. But yeah they were up against the two best teams in the confederation so gotta keep that in mind.
As for the blokes, they also played Australia in the group stage after a walkover win versus Syria and a 21-11 cruise past Saudi Arabia booked them into the main competition. Australia were too good, winning 21-14, however a couple hours later the Tall Blacks returned to beat Qatar 22-16 for a win that sent them into the quarters.
There they met Japan two days later and despite falling behind early and never leading until more than halfway through the match the kiwis rode their physical prowess and some excellent defence to grind out a low-scoring 16-14 win. Some clutch buckets in there from Jayden Bezzant and Nikau McCullough as well as top tier defence (and rebounding) from Dom Kelman-Poto and Zach Easthope.
Thus the lads moved into the semis where they faced the Philippines... and produced a banger of a performance to win 21-13 on the back of three doubles from McCullough. Again they were just too big. Easthope and DKP both had more individual rebounds than the Philippines had as an entire team. Superb from them dudes and it booked them a place in the gold medal match... against Australia again.
That one went about as expected. Good battling effort against a tall and experienced Aussie team, briefly led 3-2 early on and it was 9-9 after a McCullough two-for. Australia just had this pesky tendency for hitting doubles right as the kiwis threatened to go on runs. 21-17 final score. Silver medals for the hombres... and Nikau McCullough worked his way right onto the tournament’s all-star trio.
Speaking of basketball matters, Finn Delany was widely reported to be leaning towards a gig in Europe having come off contract at the Breakers. The Breakers then dutifully filled out all their local roster spots without including him so you pretty much knew what was coming from there. Now we’re hearing that Finn Diesel is taking his talents to Germany...
Telekom Baskets Bonn are the team in question. Not a EuroLeague club though they have played EuroCup in the past as well as the FIBA-organised Champions League (effectively the second and third tier of continental stuff, respectively). Last season they finished third in the Bundesliga (German top division) which was their best domestic effort since being runners-up in 2008-09. Looks like a team with a pretty hefty foreign contingent. Decent gig for Delany where he should get much more room to spread his wings than Yanni Wetzell was offered at the higher standard with Baskonia.
Haven’t seen this reported anywhere else yet, gotta say. Sounds legit enough but keep that grain of salt handy just in case the twitter fingers have been a tad too hasty.
Also feast upon an extremely green Tall Blacks squad for the upcoming Asia Cup. As expected, very much a development side with a couple guys who’d ordinarily be fringe squad members elevated into enticing leadership roles…
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
There was a yarn from Stuff’s Phillip Rollo claiming that Grace Jale is expected to make the switch to Canberra United next season after being the leading scorer in the Welly Nix’s inaugural season. The Nix have yet to re-sign anyone other than coach Gemma Lewis so it does look like Canberra have swooped in for the interception. Note that Jale has been playing Victoria NPL with Heidelberg United this winter rather than the A-League Off-Season Programme back in Aotearoa.
Big loss for the Nix, no doubt. And a slightly odd one for Jale as it kinda feels like a sideways move. Canberra was the team that the WahiNix beat for their maiden victory – a game in which Jale scored. But there’s more to this move than it first seems.
Part of the negotiations for Wellington Phoenix entry into the ALW was that they have to have a certain amount of Australian nationals. Seven of them, to be specific... although one was dual-national Brianna Edwards who has since represented the NZ U20s.
Trying to get seven good Aussies was tough enough last season after the Nix were left to wait until last to put their squad together. They’ll have more time to work with in year two but with the additional hurdle of having to convince those Australians to move to Wellington for the duration. Those flash-as new facilities they’ve got will be a selling point. As will the strong reputation the club is building as a development force (for both men and women).
But this probably still means targeting youngsters again who aren’t deemed quite ready by other ALW teams so losing the team’s top scorer and a legit senior international in Grace Jale is troublesome. Although only from that team perspective. For overall Aotearoa footy it’s a great development.
Remember also that another part of those negotiations was that every other club can sign a New Zealander with their contract subsidised by the league. Canberra did not have a kiwi last term and now that’s changing (they did have Paige Satchell the season prior). And if Grace Jale is playing for Canberra then the Nix will be giving another kiwi player an opportunity in her place. It means more professionals from Aotearoa and that’s the bigger picture excitement.
This is another expansion season with Western United entering the league (and Central Coast to follow the season after). Five of the nine Aussie clubs had kiwis in their squads last time - including Melbourne City who had three - but most of those teams put the bulk of those squads together before the Phoenix got greenlit so wouldn’t have taken full advantage of the Free Kiwi clause. There are no excuses this time around. Hopefully this is the start of a league-wide trend.
Also it appears that Kingsley Sinclair, a regular for Eastern Suburbs over the last few Premiership seasons, and had more recently been playing for Auckland United, has signed with Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in the German fourth tier. He’s been over there trialling since January and was officially offered a contract in May. A contract which as of the start of this month has kicked into reality, so that’s cool.
This is the same level as Bayern Munich’s reserves are at, albeit in different conferences. Bayern II won the third tier with Sarpreet Singh in his first season at the club but couldn’t be promoted because that’d take them too close to their senior team on the pyramid. Then they got relegated the next term as a number of those players, Singh included, left on loan to progress their careers.
Elsewhere... not much happening. The Women’s Euros are going on right now which hasn’t stopped the transfer wheel but it’s certainly slowed it down. Most men’s clubs in Europe are beginning to get back into preseason now, some are quite deep in preseason, yet there aren’t that many kiwi blokes out of contract at that level right now. Most folks are happy with where they’re at... either that or they’re injured.
Stay patient though, bound to be plenty of good news by Friday’s email.