The Wizard
Kiwi Ferns excellence, valiant Blackcaps, Welly Nix academy debuts, Joseph Parker keeps busy, MNL Team of the Week & more
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The Kiwi-NRL Juniors Who Helped Australian Teams Make Finals In 2023 (Rugby League)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Learning From Josh Curran's Departure (Rugby League)
2023 Aotearoa Kiwis Squad Breakdown (Rugby League)
2023 Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns Squad Breakdown (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Aotearoa A vs Tonga A Breakdown (Rugby League)
The Rise Of William O'Rourke & Canterbury's Funky Seamers (Cricket)
Flying Kiwis – October 25 (Football)
Five Takewaways From The Wellington Phoenix Blokes' Season Opener (Football)
Scotty’s Word
Ooohwee another fabulous weekend of Aotearoa sport. Aotearoa faced Australia in men's and women's league, plus the Cricket World Cup. Every game was important, although Kiwis and Blackcaps didn't need to win. Blackcaps have a few more World Cup games and Kiwis will have a rematch against Australia in Hamilton this coming weekend which is the official Pacific Championship final. Kiwi Ferns were the one team who desperately needed a win and they delivered.
Kiwi Ferns results vs Australia since 2010:
Win 14-6
Loss 12-22
Win 12-8
Loss 14-22
Win 26-16
Loss 4-14
Loss 16-23
Loss 24-26
Loss 8-28
Loss 8-10
Loss 4-54
Loss 10-16
Win 12-6
Kiwi Ferns endured tricky adversity in this win to help frame their efforts. Halfback Raecene McGregor spent 15 minutes off the field for an HIA and Mele Hufanga missed the last 15mins due to her HIA. This follows similar adversity in the loss to Australia a few weeks ago in a performance that required it's own debrief and after laying out hearty mahi in that loss, Kiwi Ferns elevated to seal the win. Kiwi Ferns have kept Australia scoreless in the second half of their last two games and their defence deep in their own territory is now an exciting staple of Kiwi Ferns footy.
When they needed points, Kiwi Ferns were able to execute their shapes. There have been a few variations to put Hufanga in advantageous positions and all it took was a basic decoy run from Otesa Pule with fullback Apii Nicholls sweeping around the back with a delightful pass to Leianne Tufuga for the winning try. Kiwi Ferns also had the best kicking of this game led by the crafty McGregor with Tyla Nathan-Wong sprinkling her class on top.
Kiwi Ferns deal with adversity thanks to the talent of their players. When Hufanga departed, the initial move was Annessa Biddle switching from right edge to left centre. This was soon changed with Shanice Parker switched from right wing to left centre and Jasmine Fogavini switched from middle forward to right wing, which kept Biddle on her right edge. Ash Quinlan covered McGregor's absence and when McGregor came back on the field, Quinlan moved into hooker with Brooke Anderson staying on the field as a middle forward.
Ponder these positional wrinkles...
Tufuga, Hufanga, Parker, Biddle and Abigail Roache all played centre in NRLW. Nathan-Wong and Quinlan were strictly halves in NRLW before covering hooker for Kiwi Ferns. Fogavini has played wing, edge and middle this year. Tiana Davison plays middle and edge.
Kiwi Ferns coach Ricky Henry and the leaders of this team brewed a culture that extracts the best out of these wahine regardless of what position they are asked to play. Playing out of position is usually a recipe for losing and yet this team came together perfectly for a fabulous few weeks of Kiwi Ferns footy.
My favourite player is Roache. She missed the first game against Australia and her addition at right centre was crucial in taking Kiwi Ferns to a win. Roache is a smooth runner, with speed and balance that the best movers have. Anyone who runs into Roache would know how brutal she is in defence though and she routinely whacks bigger players to help generate momentum for her team.
The balance of Kiwi Ferns middles is another wrinkle. Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa is one of the most powerful middles in the women's game and then there is Georgia Hale, who has made 130 tackles with fived missed tackles in three Tests for Aotearoa this month. Hale is also the best passing middle forward in the world, allowing Kiwi Ferns to shift the footy and this fits snug alongside the skillset of Anderson, who I knew little about prior to these Tests.
Anderson is a slick passer and she loves defence. Alongside Hale there are two tackling machines who are mobile enough to keep chasing the footy. Anderson's grit is evident in her playing as a middle forward for Sharks this season, then in a crucial phase as Kiwi Ferns chased the win.
I loved the NRLW season as so many young wahine dominated in their first seasons and the classy veterans rolled out career-best mahi. I love Kiwi Ferns footy and after being smoked in the World Cup final last year (4-54), Kiwi Ferns won a Test against Australia through their defence. Beautiful.
Surely there is a better way to film haka? Sky Sports once again fumbled their filming for the Eden Park games and it’s crazy that a New Zealand broadcaster sucks at filming haka. Aussie broadcasters weren’t much better. It should always be expected that league teams will move forward during haka and they don’t care about the microphones or the camera operators…
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Blackcaps were valiant in a loss vs Australia. The Aussies love to beat up Aotearoa and Blackcaps were smacked around, conceding 175 runs before taking the first wicket in the 20th over. Somehow Blackcaps stayed grounded and pulled themselves back into the contest, mainly thanks to bowling wizard Glenn Phillips (3w @ 3.7rpo). Blackcaps ended up bowling Australia out for 388 and while that's a massive total, it's far lower than what was cooking earlier in the innings.
Blackcaps managed 383/9 in response with Rachin Ravindra's continuing his impressive mahi (116 runs @ 130sr). Daryl Mitchell (54 runs @ 105sr) and Jimmy Neesham (58 runs @ 148sr) offered support. Blackcaps weren't good enough to win but they showcased their own team culture and mana in grinding through Aussie aggression without losing grip on the contest (unlike England or other teams).
Here is a fairly impressive breakdown of Phillips the bowler...
First-Class: 41.4avg/3.4rpo
List-A: 35.29avg/5.8rpo
T20: 30.76avg/8rpo
2022 ODIs: 27.66avg/6.9rpo
2023 ODIs: 28.66avg/5.4rpo
All of this feels new for Ravindra but there are many yarns about him spending time in India as a youngster to develop his cricket and he made his Test debut in 2021, in India. Everything about Ravindra's journey suggests that he was building towards this type of moment and considering how Phillips has increased his bowling workload in recent years, the two youngest members of the Blackcaps squad share development paths leading to epic performances.
Blackcaps next games…
vs South Africa, Wednesday 1st November
vs Pakistan, Saturday 4th November
vs Sri Lanka, Thursday 9th November
World Cup table as of Monday 30th October…
Blackcaps World Cup stats…
Rachin Ravindra: 406 runs @ 81avg/107sr | 3w @ 98avg/6rpo
Daryl Mitchell: 322 runs @ 80avg/107sr
Devon Conway: 277 runs @ 55avg/105sr
Will Young: 173 runs @ 34avg/82sr
Tom Latham: 147 runs @ 36avg/98sr
Glenn Phillips: 126 runs @ 31avg/92sr | 6w @ 17avg/4.6rpo
Kane Williamson: 78 runs @ 73sr
Mitchell Santner: 61 runs @ 30avg/169sr | 14w @ 20avg/4.9rpo
Jimmy Neesham: 58 runs @ 58avg/148sr | 1w @ 88avg/9.7rpo
Mark Chapman: 36 runs @ 18avg/109sr
Matt Henry: 19 runs @ 9avg/146sr | 11w @ 25avg/5.8rpo
Trent Boult: 10 runs @ 111sr | 9w @ 31avg/5rpo
Lockie Ferguson: 1 run @ 16sr | 8w @ 25avg/5.5rpo
Kiwis in WBBL stats...
Suzie Bates: 24 runs @ 6avg/58sr
Jess Kerr: 11 runs @ 3.6avg/122sr | 2w @ 40avg/8.1rpo
Sophie Devine: 133 runs @ 44ag/151sr | 4w @ 22avg/8rpo
Plunket Shield round two continues. Here are some clips from the best performers this weekend…
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Wellington Phoenix academy resurgence took a big step forwards with a 2-1 win over Perth Glory on Saturday. Nestled into a chock-full evening of kiwi sports, goals from Oskar Zawada and Bozhidar Kraev got the job done, thanks also to a very late penalty save from Alex Paulsen to hammer home his brilliant start to the season.
Finn Surman was also excellent at the back again. Ben Old had a lively cameo off the bench including winning possession for what turned out to be the winning goal (the best example yet of the Nix’s soon-to-be-trademarked transition offence, to borrow a term from the yanks). Lukas Kelly-Heald’s form at left back is good enough that it’s now worth wondering whether Sam Sutton might revert to his old midfield ways when he returns to fitness.
Plus there was even time for Isaac Hughes and Fergus Gillion to make A-League debuts off the bench towards the end. Hughes on at CB as they switched to a defensive trio to see things out, Gillion in his standard central midfield spot. Both of them then backed it up with starts for the reserves the following day – a 5-3 loss to Eastern Suburbs in which ex-Nixer Luis Toomey was the difference. But Oskar van Hattum did score a penalty off the bench to mark his return to fitness.
Last season there were zero fresh academy debutants in the ALM. This year there have already been four in two games: L.Kelly-Heald, Hughes, Gillion, and also Fin Conchie off the bench in week one. Josh Rudland has been an unused sub in both games (he also scored in that reserves game on Sunday). Charlie Beale made the first matchday squad. Both of them would’ve been in line for debuts. Plus Luke Supyk is on a senior contract (at 17 years of age), he’s out injured right now but will surely add to that list before the season is through. Those guys all got minutes in the Aussie Cup games, as did Kaelin Nguyen and Ben Wallace.
Uffie Talay’s best season of academy debuts was six in 2020-21. There’s no doubt that we’re surpassing that this term... although that was a given from the moment they went full development club mode. It’s not just the debutants though. So far a shade under 30% of their total minutes have gone to academy lads, including Surman, Paulsen, and Kelly-Heald who have each started both games.
Welly Nix Academy A-League Debutants By Season
2023-24: Lukas Kelly-Heald, Fin Conchie, Isaac Hughes, Fergus Gillion
2022-23: N/A
2021-22: Finn Surman, Alex Paulsen, Oskar van Hattum, Jackson Manuel, Riley Bidois, George Ott
2020-21: Ben Old
2019-20: Sam Sutton
2018-19: Gianni Stensness, Ben Waine, Callan Elliot
Joseph Parker won his latest fight, with a third round knockout of Canadian Simon Kean on Sunday morning NZT. That was on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou fight - a main event that should have been a farce but ended up being quite a good battle as an off-form Fury got dropped early and only just managed to save face with a split decision points victory. His struggles might even put his December unification bout against Oleksandr Usyk into some doubt given the extra recovery time he could need. That matters quite a bit considering that Joseph Parker’s plan seems to be to book another fight night featuring his brother from another mother for that card.
The recovery won’t be so drastic for Parker given how smoothly he dispatched of his opponent – who had been 22-1 heading into this bout. The pair even had a couple of opponents in common. Kean knocked out Brazil’s Marcelo Nascimento in 2018, just as Parker did the same in 2014 (in what was JP’s first pro fight overseas). Starting with that Parker bout, Nascimento has lost 17/18 fights and the last ten of those losses have been knockouts so hopefully he’s got some other career opportunities lined up. Kean also got a ninth round KO of Shawndell Winters in February 2022, which is four rounds more than it took Parker to dispatch of the same bloke in 2020.
Kean was a funky opponent with his very wide stance, however Parker caught him clean on the jaw within seconds of the opening bell to set the tone. By the end of the first round he was hitting him regularly with his lead jab and as soon as that’s happening you know the overhand right is on the way. Parker looked controlled. He countered well. And as is often the case in his victories it was the quickness of his hands that really set things up... leading to a few mean upper cuts that ended the bout with a minute to go in the third round.
JP did what he had to do. This was a keep-busy fight and he got in and out with a highlight KO and another notch in his win column to make it three in a row since his brutal Joe Joyce defeat. Joyce who, by the way, has been knocked out twice by Zhilei Zhang since that bout... not reflecting too well on Joe, granted Zhang is one of the best kept secrets in heavyweight boxing. Just a shame he’s wasted the bulk of his career first as an amateur and then not getting into the toughest fights soon enough. Zhang is 40 years old. He didn’t turn pro until he was the age that Parker is now. And it’s only in the last two years that he’s begun taking on the best in the business. But that’s his problem. Key points here are that Joseph Parker won, he won emphatically, and he plans to be back in the ring in December.
Men’s National League Team of the Week #6
GK – Oscar Boyce (Petone) – Not sure about the Liverpool cap he was playing in but other than that another superb effort from the Petone gloveman making save after save to keep his team in range and looking completely immune to the high press. They’ve got a real one here.
RB – Jackson Jarvie (Eastern Suburbs) – Operating as a left wing-back this week, Jarvie offered something very different to Francis De Vries with his overlapping pace and that turned out to be just what they needed. Two assists for JJ. That’s what we wanna see.
CB - Justin Gulley (Wellington Olympic) – If the ball was in sight, then Gulls was winning it. Some of those sliding or lunging blocks he produced were massive as Olympic’s defence were able to scramble home for a 2-1 win against Petone. This was that international calibre on display.
CB – Aaron O’Driscoll (Christchurch United) – There just isn’t a more talented defender in the National League than CU’s blonde-headed Irish import. Sorry but there’s not.
LB – Sammy Khan (Manurewa) – Always a tower of force in defence but it was Khan as an attacking left back that turned the game around for Rewa. 2-0 down against Cashy Tech and SK sets up two goals then scores another on the way to victory. How about that?
CM – Hideto Takahashi (Auckland United) – Given a different role in midfield this week, the 7-cap Japanese international was as good as ever. Got himself an assist as United gave City a decent test in the Dominion Road Derby. Looked unflustered whenever the ball was at his feet, consistently making good decisions. You can always tell the great ones by how much time they have on the ball compared to others and Takahashi could’ve hosted a tea ceremony in the centre-circle if he’d wanted to.
CM – Boon Ozawa (Manurewa) – Somehow Rewa have won three games in a row. They were two goals down and won 5-3 against Tech and there were times in that second half as they were running up the score where they played some utterly gorgeous football. Ozawa was right in amongst it with a brace.
CM – Luis Toomey (Eastern Suburbs) – Challenge to Luis Toomey to make this team in the next three weeks as well. Tooms had a lovely time against his old mates in the WeeNix, scoring a pair of goals and playing a significant role in a couple others. He’s too good for this league.
FW – Ben Wallace (Wellington Phoenix) – Big fan of this lad. He was the bolter selection for the U20 World Cup and has shown that valuable knack for making things happen at all levels. One assist this week plus plenty of involvement. It was a disjointed WeeNix performance but the stuff that worked usually included Ben Wallace in some capacity.
FW – Angus Kilkolly (Auckland City) – With a double against AUFC, Kilkolly’s up to five for the season now... second only to Gianni Bouzoukis. He’s done such a nice job for City in the absence of Ryan De Vries. He thought he had a hatty against United but the third was disallowed. Did also get an assist though.
FW – Jack O’Connor (Petone) – The 19yo winger scored one goal and hit the crossbar another time. Plus he almost set up a late equaliser but it was disallowed for offside. Really bright performance from JOC, who in week six finally became the first non-Brazier to score a National League goal for Petone.