The Podium Game
Libby Cacace vs Juventus, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, White Ferns Vibe, NRL Wahine Yarns + Steven Adams Glory
Podcast
Monday Patreon Podcast:
Reading Menu
Football Ferns at the SheBelieves Cup: Notes & Reaction (Football)
Updating Aotearoa Warriors Juniors With Redcliffe Dolphins (Benjamin Kosi & Tome Poona) (NRL)
2021/22 Ford Trophy: Auckland Aces Are Champions (Again) (Cricket)
Amelia Kerr Is Now Aotearoa's Best Batter (And Among The World's Elite) (Cricket)
Exploring Gael Sandoval’s Impact On The Wellington Phoenix (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck starts Blues journey…
Like you, I was eager to see Roger Tuivasa-Sheck play Super Rugby. I was fizzing to try and catch RTS play for Auckland in the NPC, which wasn’t meant to be and thus his Super Rugby debut required some attention. Throughout the game I was zoned in on RTS and pondering how I could frame his performance - his role, style of play, skillset, stats to lay this out etc.
Everything was fairly similar to the RTS NRL experience. Having tracked Kiwi-NRL mahi since RTS made his NRL debut and then zoning in even further via the Aotearoa Warriors Diary, I’m pretty well versed in all things RTS. Playing #12 for Blues RTS made blokes miss by a metre, showed his unique burst of power that helps generate an offload and was always eager to get in the mix.
RTS didn’t do much NRL tackling on the wing, then at fullback. Neither position requires much one on one tackling and RTS’ defensive highlights are either making a special effort (rushing to a corner to cover) or coming into a tackle to ensure the ball doesn’t hit the turf. This is more Billy Slater vibes - less frontline defence and more cover defence.
Hence the winning Hurricanes try came from a RTS miss in the defensive line. That’s a learning experience for RTS, although it points to my overall vibe from RTS’ Super Rugby debut; it felt like the Warriors experience.
My Warriors experience with RTS was 200m per game, 20+ runs, a billion tackle busts and captivating performances … in a team that lost most games. Somehow the Blues found a way to lose to Hurricanes in the same way Aotearoa Warriors could always flip a win to a loss quickly. Most notably though was the vibe that no matter what RTS did, his team lost.
No matter what stats and highlights RTS delivered, or what awards he won - Warriors kept losing. RTS is the best trainer I’ve heard about in Aotearoa, a leader by nature and yet the Warriors kept on losing. I don’t know how or why, RTS couldn’t change anything for Warriors and his play never led to consistent wins.
Keep this in mind throughout the Blues experience. The presence of RTS and his legit bonkers NRL stats didn’t amount to wins.
White Ferns Vibe…
RTS played for Aotearoa Kiwis in the 2017 World Cup that was co-hosted by Aotearoa. This was a horrible phase for Aotearoa rugby league and it started a year or so prior under David Kidwell’s coaching as Kiwis were losing games, Kidwell created an environment that seemed to alienate some players who then flipped their eligibility (very different under coach Michael Maguire) and weird selection decisions fluffed the lead up to an epic World Cup in Aotearoa.
The whole vibe was icky and far from ideal for such a big moment for Aotearoa rugby league. Losing to Tonga was merely the tip of an iceberg that was building for at least a year and I’m getting similar vibes from the White Ferns; losing lots of games under Bob Carter, weird selections and a vibe that is either a bit arrogant or completely naive.
Weird selections were recently escalated…
Don’t select Aotearoa’s best ODI bowler of the past five-seven years (Leigh Kasperek).
Don’t select the joker who has been top-3 for HBJ Shield runs in her past four seasons, averaging 60+ in all of them. Also won last two HBJ Shields with different teams (Kate Ebrahim).
Select an 18-year-old with a one-day batting average of 15.46, T20 average of 10.53 (Georgia Plimmer).
With Lauren Down ruled out via injury, Plimmer was promoted. Plimmer is an exceptional young batter, someone who I highlighted in Wellington’s Super Smash success as she played her role nicely; strike-rate over 100 opening the batting. Alongside Amelia Kerr, Sophie Devine and Maddy Green, Plimmer could play her strokes freely and look delightful.
Plimmer has not received a NZC Development Contract in the last two years which means that NZC have identified at least five other young batters who are more deserving. Most of those players with Dev Contracts haven’t got better (major issue) and Plimmer joins Brooke Halliday, Claudia Green and Molly Penfold in earning a WF call up before getting (or not) a Dev Contract - so what’s the point of the Dev Contracts?
I’m just trying to understand the process and as a lover of development systems, NZC’s wahine development/identification stinks. Northern’s Kate Anderson and Nensi Patel both earned Dev Contracts last year, before enjoying productive HBJ Shield campaigns…
Kate Anderson: 2nd - 306 runs @ 51avg, 4 x 50 (List-A Career: 31avg).
Nensi Patel: 8th - 236 runs @ 78.6avg, 1 x 50 (LA Career: 26.64avg).
Georgia Plimmer: 27th - 95 runs @ 23.75avg (LA Career: 15.46avg).
The players NZC identify for Dev Contracts either don’t improve or are overlooked for promotions. It’s all rather confusing and somehow this WF gets more icky with every decision made. The fact that Plimmer is selected ahead of other young batters who simply score more runs, let alone Ebrahim who genuinely dominates HBJ Shield is a bit bonkers.
WF lost to Pakistan in a official World Cup warm up game yesterday. WF rotated all their players in and gave everyone a bowl so they weren’t too fussed with this game. WF play Australia tomorrow in another warm up game and this will only be relevant if Australia dominate, then putting the WF in a 0-2 losing zone after that India series. Otherwise all that matters is winning World Cup games and whether the WF emulate the 2017 Aotearoa Kiwis or prove all their decision making to be wise.
NRLWahine…
First round of NRLW footy went down yesterday with Madison Bartlett's Dragons getting a win, Amber Hall’s Broncos dominating again (best NRLW team for years) and the Kiwi-NRLWahine Knights falling short against Eels.
Knights are the best Kiwi-NRLWahine team to follow closely as they have the most wahine, plus a funky range of talent. I’m always drawn to Hall with Broncos as well given her powerful runs and offloading ability in a winning environment. All my preview stuff is still applicable to catch the vibe, learn about these players and I’ll whip another preview up before round rua.
Kiwi-NRL Cassius’…
Two young halves from Aotearoa named Cassius are nicely poised in Australia. Cassius Cowley (Pacific Sharks/Pikiao) is from Tokoroa and started out linked to Warriors via their Rotorua connection, before the pandemic decimated Warriors junior teams and Cowley then moved to Queensland. Last year Cowley played Under 18s for Wynnum and he is now named in Wynnum’s Under 21s squad - aligned with Broncos.
Cassius Tia is from Auckland (Marist) and is starting halfback for Roosters SG Ball. A bunch of games were postponed this weekend but the Rooster SG Ball team named also featured Salesi Foketi (Manurewa) and Benaiah Ioelu (Howick/Mt Albert).
Two halves from Aotearoa named Cassius in NRL systems. Kinda funky.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Liberato On Debut
Let’s talk about this bloke, aye?
On Sunday morning NZT, Liberato Cacace was given his first Serie A start (and his third appearance) for Empoli and it came in a match-up against Juventus. They easily coulda protected their fresh young fullback signing but nah they already trust him enough to throw him in against the likes of Dusan Vlahovic, Moise Kean, and Juan Cuadrado. Okay, not as strong a Juve team as we’ve seen in recent years, there’s a reason they lost their Serie A title streak last season, but still a legit Champions League calibre team... and one which a year ago tried to sign Cacace for their U23 team.
Yeah yeah, so how’d he go? Well that’s a funky one, actually. Because if you watch the highlights you’ll see him out of position for at least two of the goals that Empoli conceded in a 3-2 defeat. Arguably the first one too as Moise Kean got between him and his CB to win a relatively unchallenged header that he convincingly buried. But definitely the other two.
Empoli played quite well, Juventus were kinda average. Yet after Empoli, who have struggled for creativity for most of the season, managed to find a scrappy equaliser that seemed to have them poised for a 1-1 HT scoreline… they went and leaked sloppy one in stoppage time. Coach killer territory. Cacace was too far forward to recover as Juve hit them in transition, with his man Juan Cuadrado producing a brilliant inside feed for January super-signing Dusan Vlahovic who sent both a defender and the keeper sliding with a dummy before scoring.
Then after holding in at 2-1 for a solid chunk of the second half, they leaked a third from a counter attack as Juve dashed forward via some lovely passing interplay which ended with Vlahovic running onto an Alvaro Morata ball. Cacace was again trapped on attack but he still might have caught up with Vlahovic had it not been for an absolutely perfect first touch on the run from DV. Seriously, if you don’t know that dude yet then you soon will. He’s the real deal. Scored for fun at Fiorentina so his tallies for Juventus are gonna be off the charts.
Here’s the thing though... it looks like Cacace is at least partly at fault for goals two and three but he wasn’t really. The second he played a mean one-two to get his team into the midfield only for his CDM Kristjan Asllani to force a dumb pass (remember we were in stoppage time of the first half, Empoli having recently levelled up the score) which left Cacace in no-man’s-land when it was picked off. Didn’t have a chance to get back. Complete stitch-up, brah.
And this image was moments before the third goal, Cacace making an overlapping run which was ignored so that Nedim Bajrami could whip in a cross... which ended up with Juventus attacking from the other side. Vlahovic’s movement was superb, drifting right knowing that Cacace was out of place, and then his touch was magical. But the reason Cacace was out of place was because they got caught on the break. Not because he was being naive or loose. (Also, like, there were moments of utter class involved in both goals which most teams cannot replicate).
So, you know, fair play. It happens – especially against a team like Juve. Overall Cacace was impressively solid. Didn’t do much above and beyond but the fact that he didn’t look like he was swimming beyond his depth is kinda crazy when you think about how quickly his career has unfolded.
He had the fewest touches across the backline (albeit in twenty fewer mins) but he completed his passes at 89.2%. A couple strong tackles. Only committed one foul. A quiet game where you probably wouldn’t notice him if you weren’t looking for him... but again we’re talking about his first Serie A start.
And to be honest he should have gotten the ball a lot more than he did but his left centre-back (Sebastiano Luperto, who is on loan from Napoli) is very left-footed and wasn’t as comfortable passing in that direction as he should’ve been. It’d mean turning his shoulder to where he can’t see the field in front of him as much... which was annoying. A couple times you could see Cacace waving his hands for an earlier ball in his direction. Also he didn’t link a whole lot with his wingers. That’s a work in progress, as you’d expect.
However the thing that stands out most of all from watching him, next to his instantly comfortable physicality, is how he’s not trying to play it safe out there. His first instinct is to try and pass forward and advance the ball. If it’s not on, it’s not on. No dramas. But he’s seeking to be positive.
Then with twenty to play he was replaced by Fabiano Parisi, the fella that he’s subbed in for at a similar time in games in each of his earlier two appearances. Flipping the script. Parisi gave them a handy bit of energy out wide and was able to whip in a few tasty crosses including one which led to them pulling a goal back. Made the game scratchy towards the end although they weren’t able to find a third goal, so it goes.
Promising signs from Cacace though - maybe the most promising of all being that he was entrusted in a game like this so soon. After a while he’ll need to have more of an impact if he’s gonna keep starting but that shouldn’t be a worry. As I say, his teammates have gotta adapt to him as much as he to them and if they’d involved him a tad more then those slick one-twos could have been more common.
And now for a treat… because I whipped together a compo of all of Cacace’s touches from this game with the intention of chucking it up on YouTube but the fuckers blocked it on copyright reasons (which, okay, sure, I’ll cop that but still a disappointing lack of ambition). It’s also too big for Streamable and I don’t wanna make an account on anything which’d require a paid account… so have a peek at the thing on Google Drive instead.
Steven Adams Podium Game
Yer boy was in outstanding form on and off the court yesterday. Gotta let the world know…
