The High Press
Manly Sea Eagles x Kiwi Vibe, Footy Ferns vs Aussie preview (plus U20s), NRLWahine Grand Final, Shea Ili & more
Podcast
TNC Variety Show 58
The Niche Cast: Double Banger Mop
Reading Menu
Football Ferns vs The ‘Tildas: Squad Yarns (Football)
Flying Kiwis – April 5 (Football)
Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: Chasing Consistency (NRL)
27fm Album Jukebox – March 2022 (Music)
Appreciating Hannah Wilkinson’s Goal-Stacked A-League Season (Football)
The Wellington Phoenix’s Inaugural A-League Women’s Season In Review (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Manly Sea Eagles Kiwi-NRL vibe…
Manly defeated Newcastle last night and have now won three games in a row with a simmering Kiwi-NRL crew. Fresh wrinkles were laid out against Knights as Christian Tuipulotu played his first game of the season while Josh Aloiai played his second game of the season. These two joined Morgan Harper in the Sea Eagles outfit and Harper has stayed solid after a niggly start, along with veterans Kieran Foran and Martin Taupau.
Toafofoa Sipley (City Newton) has only played one game this season for Manly. Hopefully Sipley can wiggle back into the mix, joining one of my favourite Kiwi-NRL pockets. Tuipulotu could feature for Tonga with the World Cup looming, Harper is chasing Aotearoa selection and Aloiai seems likely to enter the Aotearoa mixer too. Aloiai gapped Wests Tigers asap to join Manly for 2021 and may have an issue with Michael Maguire, which would push him to Samoa selection. Aloiai is low key one of the most efficient middle forwards in the NRL and while the absence of Tom Trbojevic whips Aussies into a frenzy, pay attention to Manly with Aloiai in the top-17.
Aloiai is averaging 174m/game (just two games) after averaging below 100m/game for his first four seasons. Aloiai averaged 136m/game in 2020, then 124m/game last year. Aloiai had 300+ tackles made and 20+ missed tackles in his first three seasons, now chasing his fourth season in a row with 350+ tackles made and <20 missed tackles.
Sea Eagles have an underground Kiwi-NRL crew in their lower grades. There’s too much footy to really dive into this idea but I am pondering the transition from Aotearoa footy to the corresponding grades in Australia. Eiden Ackland was playing for Mt Albert blokes last year and is now starting halfback for Manly’s reserve grade team (Blacktown) while Alfred Smalley has slid between Otahuhu and Manly during the pandemic. The strength of Aotearoa rugby league is evident in this type of transitions and others like Sam Fa’apito (Mackay), Setu Tu (Redcliffe) have made similar moves from Auckland club footy to reserve grade in NSW/QLD.
Manly also have Lorenzo Mulitalo (Ellerslie), Raymon Vaega (Marist) and Lewis Afeaki (Mt Albert) named in NSW Cup this round. Toroa Rapana (Foxton) and Sanele Aukusitinio (St Pat’s College) pop out from the U21s team named for this round.
Moala Graham-Taufa to Eels…
Moala Graham-Taufa (Marist) made his NRL debut for Roosters last year and appears to now be with Parramatta Eels where he’s named on the wing for their U21s team. This opens up a couple Kiwi-NRL themes…
Twin bro Lani has returned to Aotearoa from Roosters, now playing U20s for Akarana. Carlos Tarawhiti (Pakuranga) was also listed as joining Cronulla Sharks and has featured for Counties U20s, along with Jarney Proctor-Harwood who was with Tigers last season. More footy in Aotearoa helps these lads return to Aotearoa and keep grinding.
Roosters have shuffled a Kiwi-NRL wave out of their club: Tuipulotu (Sea Eagles), Asu Kepaoa (Tigers) and Graham-Taufa (Eels) were all recruited then developed by Roosters before leaving. Similar to Adam Pompey (Warriors). Cheers Roosters for investing in Kiwi-NRL talent and the next Roosters Kiwi-NRL wave is brewing.
Eels on the other hand just sign Kiwi-NRL talent from other clubs, kinda like Tigers and Sea Eagles. Isaiah Papali’i, Marata Niukore and Hayze Perham were all signed from Warriors. Wiremu Greig was signed from Cowboys. Makahesi Makatoa played in NSW Cup and England before joining Eels. Bailey Simonsson was signed from Raiders. I believe Haze Dunster moved from Rotorua to Sydney as a youngin, while Dylan Brown was recruited by Eels from Northland.
NRLWahine Grand-Final…
Big preview coming tomorrow morning. Here are the season stats for the Kiwi-NRL wahine named to play in the GF.
(Dragons) Madison Bartlett: 5 games, 5 tries, 8 TB, 5 LB, 24 tackles @ 82.8%, 81m/game.
(Dragons) Page McGregor: 6 games, 1 try, 4 TA, 5 TB, 3 LB, 68 tackles @ 90.7%, 60m/game.
(Roosters) Leianne Tufuga: 6 games, 2 tries, 13 TB, 3 LB, 30 tackles @ 85.7%, 88m/game.
(Roosters) Raecene McGregor: 6 games, 2 FDO, 3 TA, 4 TB, 1 LB, 74 tackles @ 77.9%, 60m/game.
(Roosters) Mya Hill-Moana: 5 games, 1 try, 3 TB, 92 tackles @ 91.1%, 85m/game.
This made me sad…
Checking in with IPL Blackcaps…
Devon Conway: 1inns, 1 run @ 50sr
Adam Milne: 2.3ov, 0w @ 7.60rpo
Tim Seifert: 2inns, 24 runs @ 126sr
Lockie Ferguson: 8ov, 4w @ 6.5rpo/12sr
Tim Southee: 8ov, 5w @ 7rpo/9.6sr
Trent Boult: 12ov, 5w @ 7.16rpo/14.4sr
Kane Williamson: 2inns, 18 runs @ 78sr
County Championship cricket is already here!?
Matt Quinn: Kent - playing now.
Matt Henry: Kent - from July 10.
Will Young: Northamptonshire - soon?
Lydia Ko stats…
Fresh Lydia Ko mixtape coming this weekend. Here are Ko’s LPGA stats, compared to last year…
Average Driving Distance
2021: 259.21m - 64th
2022: 259m - 72nd
Driving Accuracy
2021: 65.52% - 129th
2022: 57.50% - 135th
Greens in Regulation
2021: 73.06% - 34th
2022: 71.94% - 46th
Putts per GIR
2021: 1.72 - 1st
2022: 1.75 - 20th
Putting Average
2021: 28.79 - 2nd
2022: 28.80 - 16th
Sand Saves
2021: 59.34% - 3rd
2022: 80.95% - 1st
Scoring Average
2021: 69.33 -3rd
2022: 70.10 - 19th
Rounds under Par
2021: 54 - 5th
2022: 13 - 35th
Aotearoa jams…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Footy Ferns vs Matildas
There’s an international footy game on tonight at 9.45pm (directly after the Warriors, make sure you’ve got beers and snacks handy). It’s Aotearoa versus Australia. The first of a pair of games between the co-hosts of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and therefore a pretty convenient marketing opportunity for the organisers. I’ll repeat a stat from my write-up last week: these two games will make it 15 times that the Ferns have played the ‘Tildas since 2010. The two respective men’s teams, meanwhile, have played twice in that time and not since 2011. Scandalous.
This is the fourth tour under new coach Jitka Klimková, the second with a full-strength squad (inasmuch as that’s ever possible), and another chance to see further growth and development within this new style of play that JK is trying to coax from them.
There have been promising signs so far. Hasn’t quite turned into results because, well, there’s still a lot of work to do in attack in particular. Didn’t score a goal at the SheBelieves Cup... but shrug off the USA defeat and they lost 1-0 to Iceland conceding in the opening minutes and otherwise giving a competitive performance and also drawing 0-0 with Czech Republic in a match that was there for the winning if they were just a little more potent up top.
A lack of goals is a long term drama for this team but Klimková’s ideals of a higher press and more possession building up from deep should help as the team gets more effective with it. That’s what we’ve gotta watch for in these two games. Forget about the results still, we haven’t beaten the Aussies since 1994 so that’s probably not gonna happen on their own turf (you never know, though), focus on those incremental improvements.
The best performance of each of JK’s first three tours has been the last one which stacks up with this idea of a team that is getting better with more time together. This is a relatively significant shift that the team is going through and it requires time, you know? But for this tour specifically, here are some specifics I’ll be keeping an eye on:
Where are the goals coming from? The team has had a predilection towards long range shots lately which feels like a panic move, better off keeping the ball and working something better. Paige Satchell had a breakthrough SBC and offers something fresh. Liv Chance has been the team’s best creative player since the 2019 World Cup. Ria Percival’s high pressing is huge. Hannah Wilkinson is back. Lots of good set piece takers. They have options, let’s see what clicks.
Who plays right back? CJ Bott is the no doubter starter but is missing this one with injury and before her it was Ria Percival who is now embedded in the midfield. Katie Bowen is probably the top choice as she’s played a lot of RB for club in recent years. Maybe Ali Riley on the other side. Rebekah Stott and Meikayla Moore are deeper options.
How do they integrate Hannah Wilkinson? Wilkie played the SBC but wasn’t quite at her best in her first tour with Klimková, understandable given her position is arguably most affected by the change in style. That was the adjustment tour, this one hopefully we see her linking up more and playing on the same page as her mates. That link with Paige Satchell showed some promise last time. Whatever it takes to capitalise on Wilkinson’s ALW goal-scoring form.
What’s the starting midfield trio? If Bowen has to play RB then it gets easier, probably a matter of Percy/Hassett/Cleverley. Though Stotty is putting up a case and perhaps the defensive minded presence of Malia Steinmetz could be a tactical key.
How are the goalkeeping ranks? Anna Leat is surely the top choice now given she’s playing at the highest level and offers the most well-rounded skill set thanks to her distribution. But she’s not here. Erin Nayler is finally getting regular club games and has been the incumbent however Vic Esson has played two Ferns games out of the last 19 matches and in them kept the only two clean sheets the Ferns have managed in that time. Hmm.
U20s Things
As that’s all going on, there is also a two-game Under-20 series between the same two nations, both of whom have already qualified for the U20 World Cup in Costa Rica later in the year – the last U20 cycle was canned due to the pandemic but NZ had already qualified so Oceania just passed that along to the next cycle, pretty much.
The Wellington Phoenix come back into stark focus with this series. Remember how the talk was of a really young squad as it was being put together? Well ten of the twenty players from that squad are involved in these matches. Initially Hannah Jones was the only one in the Australian team but then they got some covid cases so Isabel Gomez and Cushla Rue were added to the group. And seven Nixers were in the kiwi squad. What’s more is that Jordan Jasnos and Grace Wisnewski are both eligible too but Jasnos wasn’t selected and Wisnewski was presumably unavailable and will hopefully come into contention later in the journey.
First of all, it’s absolutely nuts that the SheNix had 12/20 players (60%) eligible for U20 football. It’s arguably even nuttier that the overwhelming bulk of them were selected for those teams too. Oh and should probably mention that the coach of the NZ team is... Welly Nix Wahine coach Gemma Lewis. So they were intertwined from the beginning. Also worth mentioning that Grace Jale and Lily Alfeld are with the senior Ferns squad right now too.
The first of these two games was played on Wednesday night with the Aussies winning 5-1. The kiwi team did actually move the ball quite well and with good purpose, keeping some decent possession at times, but they were full of errors and the Australian attack was just way more potent. You could tell that a lot of them were short on recent footy. Kate Taylor, so dependable for the Nix (albeit someone who doesn’t hold back if there’s a challenge to be made) conceded two penalties. Plus they went behind inside two minutes from a shot after a half-cleared corner and conceded from another corner in the second half.
Nobody should really care about the results at this early stage of the cycle though (pretty sure this was the first youth international from an NZ team since pre-pandemic). What’s way more interesting is getting an idea of how the team want to play and seeing some of the players in the mix. The former is pure Gemma Lewis x Welly Nix. Looking to build from the back, defending aggressively on the front foot, trying to press from the front, etc. That same 4-3-3 formation with the dual pivots and an attacking mid.
Not sure it was quite the full strength team though. Hard to say if that was rotation or if there were unavailable players (covid cases in the Junior ‘Tildas, remember). Should get an idea of that on Sunday when they play the second match. But the fact that there were four changes at HT (as well as an early one for an injury to Rene Wasi and another mid-2H) does suggest that Lewis wanted to spread out the minutes. Here’s the XI that started the game (white) and the XI that ended the game (black)...
Players who didn’t feature at all: both backup goalies Rylee Godbold & Murphy Sheaff, as well as Aniela Jensen, Macey Fraser, Te Reremoana Walker, and Emma Pijnenburg. Would imagine that Jensen, Fraser, and Walker will all play key roles for this team moving forward though. Three excellent players. Especially Fraser and Jensen with their midfield creativity.
Charlotte Wilford-Carroll is a player I’m always impressed by and she was probably the team’s best in this match. Never lets an opportunity to launch into a slide-tackle get away from her and has a nice left foot for moving that ball. Her fellow Charlotte, the Lancaster edition, also scored a wicked good goal late in the first half and had a decent night playing both left wing and left back. Also I hadn’t seen Milly Clegg play before but she looks a very handy striker prospect which is always great to see. Game two is on Sunday afternoon and will be streamed on the MyFootball channel (where most of those A-League highlights end up).
Shea Ili Styles
If you wanna see an underrated kiwi baller doing their thing, check out Shea Ili any time that Melbourne United take the court. He’s all heart and hustle off the bench, exactly what any team loves to have, and over the last two seasons he’s shooting better than 40% from deep which has fully unlocked his game. With a consistent three-point shot to go with his ability to drive to the hoop and his genuinely excellent defensive skills it feels like he’s now the runaway favourite for Sixth Man of the Year. Already won Most Improved a few years back so might as well join Reuben Te Rangi in having won both of those awards, why not?