Tricky Vistas
The Warriors juniors mixer, Blackcaps & Extras, Plunket Shield looming, All Whites through history, National League facts, WNL Team of the Week & more
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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)
Previewing the Wellington Phoenix Women's 2023-24 Season (Football)
2023 Men’s National League – Week 3 (Football)
2023 Women’s National League – Week 3 (Football)
Flying Kiwis - October 12 (Football)
All Whites vs Congo DR/Australia: Squad Yarns & Preview (Football)
White Ferns vs South Africa ODI Series Debrief/T20I Series Preview (Cricket)
2023 ODI World Cup: Blackcaps Grinding (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
There was a dose of NZ Warriors news this week with Josh Curran possibly departing, at the same time as a bunch of NZW youngsters were named in New Zealand Kiwis A and Tonga A squads. Curran is a solid edge forward who has been with NZW through niggly years and while he would still offer value to the roster next season, NZW have cheaper young forwards who offer more value.
Curran hasn't been able to settle at edge forward under different coaches, plus NZW signed Jackson Ford and Marata Niukore to play edge for 2023. Ford plays 80 minutes on the left edge and Curran usually got game time filling in for Niukore who was often injured or needed a break during games. Curran hasn't commanded consistent selection and the re-jigged NZW talent pipeline under the two Andys provides a more efficient solution.
Ponder Steven Adams for a moment. Adams finished his tenure with Oklahoma City Thunder on a contract that grew each year from $22 million to almost $26 million, then in the final year of this contract he was playing for New Orleans Pelicans with a salary cap hit of $29 million. Adams shifted to Memphis Grizzles and had two years on a contract worth $17mil, now he enters a two year contract worth $12.6mil for each season.
Adams' salary decreases as the NBA salary cap rises. Most of the angst about Adams stemmed from the value of his contract and this season Adams is likely to out-play his contract value. Swing back to NZW and they have multiple players who are on the first NRL contracts, let alone a pipeline full of players who will replenish these stocks.
Jacob Laban is an easy example as he has developed as an edge forward and was selected for NZ Kiwis A. Laban is tall, powerful and athletic. He is likely to make his debut next season.
Demitric Sifakula has already made his NRL debut and while most of his limited minutes this season came through the middle, he did cover edge. Sifakula also spent plenty of time at edge forward in NSW Cup earlier in the year, along with Kalani Going who has scope to develop into a Dylan Walker role but has primarily played edge forward.
Leka Halasima was selected for Tonga A and regular readers know that he was one of the youngest players in NSW Cup this season. Halasima covered middle, edge and centre this season. This is similar versatility to Sifakula and Going, although Halasima is the best athlete of all NZW youngsters.
Three NZW SG Ball (U19) players were selected in the A squads. Laban and Halasima are joined by Christchurch's Tanner Stowers-Smith who is a middle forward. Two of the edge forward youngsters mentioned here started in U19s, spent most of the season in NSW Cup and are now selected in both A squads. These kids are good at footy.
Let's dive deeper. Eddie Ieremia and Kayliss Fatialofa both played edge forward for NZW SG Ball this season, then they settled into Fox Memorial with Otara and Howick. Presley Seumanu also played edge forward for NZW SG Ball and he won Fox Memorial with Pt Chevalier, before playing NZRL National Premiership.
Ieremia, Fatialofa and Seumanu all share the same talent levels as Laban, Sifakula etc. Next year this depth will only increase as two more NZW junior teams are added to the stable. As noted in the summer preview for NZW, this applies across every position and the selection of Stowers-Smith in the NZ A squad delivers another wrinkle; NZW have better middle forward in their system.
Don't worry about why Stowers-Smith was selected ahead of any other player - we don't know who was available etc. NZW had Zyon Maiu'u (my favourite NZW junior) and Isaiah Vagana as young middle forwards in NSW Cup all season. Harry Durbin went from SG Ball to men's footy with Pt Chevalier. Sifakula, Halasima and Ieremia are just as good through the middle as they are on an edge.
Whoever rises into the NZW NRL mixer next season, they will take up at least half the salary cap hit as Curran. Given that Curran usually played 20-odd minutes off the bench, Going or Sifakula can do that. This is why a pipeline of talent is so important for salary cap management as NZW can elevate fresh youngsters each season to replace those who play limited roles and/or have higher salaries (development or first NRL contract vs third/fourth NRL contract).
NZ Kiwis coach Michael Maguire has picked up a job as New South Wales coach. It seems as though Maguire will dip out of his Raiders assistant coach gig to and we will have to wait and see if he can keep his Kiwis job. This is a tricky vista but Maguire can juggle two 'part-time' jobs with Kiwis and NSW, especially because he seems to have embraced how representative footy is all about bringing folks together.
Maguire has helped make NZ Kiwis an attractive representative option after the David Kidwell saga. He has coaching support to help map out gameplans and what not, which will probably be replicated for NSW. Maguire drives the culture along with hearty leaders like James Fisher-Harris, Moses Leota, Joseph Tapine, Jahrome Hughes, Joseph Manu, Nelson Asofa-Solomona. There is more than enough support in both roles for this to work.
Something funky is how Maguire selected Jack Howarth and Benjamin Te Kura in the NZ Kiwis A squad. Both are from Queensland and seem destined to play Origin for Queensland. I'm not sure how realistic it is for them to play for Aotearoa, but they are in the A squad. Maguire also selected Trey Mooney who played NSW U19s against Howarth and Te Kura to balance this out.
In a week where Maguire selected three U19 State of Origin players for NZ Kiwis A, he has picked up a State of Origin coaching job. It's weird, confusing and kinda cool.
Plunket Shield cricket starts next Friday. There is a warm-uppy game between Canterbury and Otago being played at the moment. Jamal Todd is a funky inclusion for Otago as he came up through Auckland and made a move south. Prior to seeing this I was pondering some leading domestic cricket topics to cover over the next week with Canterbury offering the most intrigue.
This features their epic seam attack led by Kyle Jamieson, Henry Shipley and Will O'Rourke. Jamieson is with Blackcaps as World Cup cover so he won't be in the mix, although Canterbury have ample seam depth. Canterbury also have two of the best young batters in Aotearoa with Mitch Hay rising into the Aotearoa A squad and Rhys Mariu averaging 57.85 after four Plunket Shield games.
Zak Foulkes is the sneaky youngster to track though. Foulkes appears to have spent the last two winters in Brisbane playing T20 Max for Wynnum, also averaging under 20 with the ball in all formats to start his domestic career with Canterbury. Foulkes is a capable batter who opened for Canterbury in this warm-up game vs Otago, getting a first-ball duck followed by 51 retired.
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
First off, I’m gonna take a second to tell you to go buy a book. It’s called ‘Boots and Bombs: How New Zealand football grew up in the 1960s and 70s’ and was written by Craig Stephen. It’s a very entertaining and well-researched history of NZ footy - the All Whites in particular - prior to the 1982 World Cup. The land before time. When the national teams struggled to find adequate fixtures, when administrators couldn’t seem to get out of their own way, when there were constant debates about how the top domestic competition should be structured... okay put that it way it sounds like nothing has changed.
But that’s where the context of history is so valuable because not even during the wildest days of modern era shenanigans would there ever have been a tour sanctioned to an active war-zone. But it happened in 1967 when the NZ men’s team took an absolutely bonkers trip to Vietnam – a tour which is at the heart of Boots and Bombs (it has to be read to be believed, frankly). There are also enjoyable yarns about the visit of George Best’s Manchester United team, an absolutely shambolic 1964 world tour, the ex-Barcelona/Juventus/PSV coach who had two stints as All Whites boss, and plenty more where all that came from.
Craig was kind enough to allow yours truly to have an early read of the book, so I’m returning the favour and doing whatever small part I can to help promote it. The history of sports in Aotearoa is stacked with incredible stories, no matter what sport or era, and they always seem to reflect the same endearing sense of hearty passion mixed with shrugging humility. There’s not a stone unturned when it comes to rugby books. Cricket has some of the best tales and characters going around. However football has often felt underserved in that area, making Boots and Bombs a very welcome addition to the national bookshelf.
Relevant links:
Boots and Bombs on Facebook
Purchase on TradeMe
We had a good Blackcaps/cricket chat on the podcast yesterday about extras (stemming from a question from one of our Patreon whanau – cheers to Brother Baxter). Well, further research has been done and you will be shocked – shocked! - to learn that with every team having now played twice the Blackcaps have conceded the fewest extras at the 2023 ODI World Cup. Just 10. Combined. One leg bye, 8 wides, and 1 no ball.
Rachin Ravindra was the naughty bloke to bowl that no ball... and it wasn’t even for overstepping. In fact it wasn’t even his fault. He bowled a deliberate wide seeing the bloke charging early at him and Tom Latham stumped Sybrand Engelbrecht as a result. Clever cricket until it was deemed that Latham’s gloves were in front of the stumps and therefore the stumping was illegal (as the delivery hadn’t been completed. The evidence was not entirely conclusive, let’s just say...
But yeah 10 extras conceded in two games. One (debatable) no ball from 579 legitimate deliveries. Bangladesh and England are the only teams not to have bowled a NB so far, they’re also the only other teams with fewer than 20 extras (both on 15). No byes allowed by the New Zealanders yet. The crown for the most total extras after two games belongs to Sri Lanka with a whopping 49... of which 46 of them were wides. Gotta give the keeper a chance, right?
Overall numbers can be misleading because not all innings are completed as totals get chased down or teams get bowled out. So just know that the Blackcaps are also best in terms of extras as a percentage of total runs against them: 1.9%. South Africa are worst at 7.9%. Second is Bangladesh on 2.8%.
Not all extras are made alike. There’s not much a bowler can do about leg byes for example. Or byes for that matter – neither of which count against a bowler’s stats. And you have to allow for a certain amount of wides just because of the demands of bowling in different situations and conditions.
Last World Cup the Blackcaps tied the final after allowing 17 total extras compared to the 30 from England’s bowling effort. Granted, the difference there was mostly leg byes… although England did concede more wides and Chris Woakes bowled the only no ball of the match. Actually Woakes’ no ball was the only one bowled by England all tournament. New Zealand only bowled two and they were both in their opening game: one from Lockie Ferguson and one from Jimmy Neesham. South Africa also only bowled two all tourney but that was from 250+ fewer deliveries so the ‘Caps win the no ball countback. Meaning the final was between the two teams that bowled the fewest no balls.
NZ were only mid-table in terms of extras in 2019. 5.3% of total runs against them came from sundries, with 8/10 games seeing them concede 7+ wides. At least with wides there are no free hits though. They were at 4.8% in the 2015 edition, with only one no ball bowled.
Just gonna write this stuff down so I don’t forget...
The Blackcaps play Bangladesh tonight from 9.30pm (the return of Tim & Kane - Oh Captains Our Captains!)
The All Whites face DR Congo tomorrow morning at 5am, don’t forget that'll be on FIFA+ (Aussie vs England at Wembley is on Sky Sport about an hour after that one ends in case you wanna get some scouting in for our second opponent this window)
The Wellington Phoenix Women begin their season at home against Melbourne City on Sunday, while all but one game has the potential to feature a New Zealander or several
Obviously there’s a full round of National League fixtures being played too, most of them on Saturday for once
There may or not be an All Blacks vs Ireland Rugby World Cup quarter-final at some stage too, not sure about that because I haven’t seen/read/heard any media coverage about it
Kiwi Ferns play the Jillaroos on Saturday evening as the international rugby league phase of the year gets going
There’s Constellation Cup netball for those of you that celebrate
Steven Adams is going through preseason basketball activities once again, while there’ll be plenty of kiwis in action in the NBL (not the Breakers though because they preferred to go lose by 40 points to one of the worst NBA teams in a promotional game that wasn’t even broadcast properly in NZ – dunno about the upcoming one against the Utah Jazz because honestly who really cares) – note that Aron Baynes just got a five-game suspension which should mean big minutes for Tyrell Harrison at the Brisbane Bullets
That’s a lot of kiwi sports to watch. Prayers to your sleeping patterns, same as mine.
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10 NZ National League Facts (Prior To Week Four)
After three weeks, all twenty teams across both competitions have scored at least two goals and conceded at least two goals. Manurewa (MNL) and Ellerslie (WNL) are the only teams yet to earn a point – both were the fourth placed qualifiers from the Northern region.
Auckland United’s women’s team have scored nine goals in first halves and zero goals in second halves... in fact all of their goals have come within 33 minutes of kickoff. They’ve scored within the first five mins of all three matches.
Deri Corfe (Napier City Rovers) and Pepi Olliver-Bell (Wellington United) are the two players to have scored in every game to date – one in the men’s and one in the women’s comp.
Last week’s 3-3 draw vs Cashmere Tech was the fifth time this year that Wellington Olympic have found themselves down 2-0 in a game yet from those five they’ve only lost once: two wins, two draws, and one defeat. To be fair, one of those draws did end up as a penalty shootout defeat against Eastern Suburbs in the Chatham Cup quarter-final.
The only two teams with perfect records after three weeks are the two defending champions: Auckland City (MNL) and Eastern Suburbs (WNL). City have scored 6 and conceded 2. Subs have scored 7 and conceded 2. Each has had two clean sheet wins plus a comeback win in which they scored the winner in the 85th minute or later.
Five of the NZ U16s squad that won the Oceania Championships last month have already played National League this season: Alyssha Eglinton & Emily Humphrey of Wellington Phoenix, Ela Jerez of Western Springs, Hannah Saxon of Eastern Suburbs, and Pia Vlok of Auckland United. Would expect a few more in the coming weeks too.
The WNL has seen 40 goals in first halves and 25 in second halves. The MNL has seen 22 goals in first halves and 40 in second halves. There have been 16 goals in the opening 15 mins of women’s games and only seven goals in the same time-frame of men’s games. Compare that to only five WNL goals in the first 15 mins of second halves versus 14 goals between 46’-60’ mins of MNL matches.
Jack-Henry Sinclair has 4 goals (tied-first) and 5 assists (first) for Wellington Olympic, for 9 total goal contributions. Garbhan Coughlan and Lyle Matthysen have 4 goal contributions each which is the equal second best.
As it stands, in neither competition is the team with the best goal difference first (Welly Olympic & Western Springs), nor the worst goal difference last (Petone & Central).
Players with multiple TNC Team of the Week selections already: Yousif Al-Kalisy (Auckland United MNL), Sarah Morton (Waterside Karori), Kendrah Smith (Southern United), Charlotte Wilford-Carroll (Eastern Suburbs WNL), and Aaron O’Driscoll (Christchurch United). YAK has been in all three. Pressure’s on to make it four…
Women’s National League Team of the Week #3
GK – Aimee Hall (Auckland United) – Aussie import who spent some time as a training player with the Welly Nix when they were in their covid season (Chloe Knott & Marisa van der Meer also played for the Nix during the winter). Made a bunch of saves in AU’s win over WK. Looks the goods.
RB – Toni Power (Southern United) – In an excellent team defensive performance, SU were able to sub off Hannah Mackay-Wright who was on a booking and it didn’t matter because the rest of the backline was delivering just as strongly as their talisman CB. Including Power who also helped set up the first goal. Usually a fullback for this team... Power’s been superb as the RCB in a trio these past two games.
CB – Marissa Porteous (Southern United) – See above. Porteous is one of a trio of West Coast Rangers players who made the move down south after that club narrowly missed out on qualification. MP scrapped away all day against Western Springs, brilliant mahi. Porteous scored an own goal in a 2-1 loss to Springs for WCR, while it was Springs’ last round loss to Ellerslie that meant Ellerslie got fourth ahead of Rangers. So this one was personal.
CB – Aimee MacNee (Central) – Credit also to Sarah Swinbanks, the other CB for Central as they did so well all game to limit the Cantabs chances. Even though they ultimately did concede a late equaliser, a 2-2 draw was still a big improvement. MacNee gets the edge over SS because she made a goal-line clearance at one stage.
LB – Jemma Catherwood (Wellington United) – Magnificent work on that left flank from JC, whose speed and directness was huge on the counter and her crossing was pretty great too. Won a penalty with a seventy metre run. Effectively created one of their other goals too… in the same week she was nominated for Young Player of the Year at the Capital Football Awards.
CM – Kendrah Smith (Southern United) – The signing of the season so far. Check out the free kick that she scored from the carpark against Springs and know that she scored a banger last week too. On top of some commanding central midfield efforts.
CM – Maisy Dewell (Auckland United) – Auckland United get their business done early and one of the reasons for their quick starts has been the energy of Maisy Dewell (and also Yume Harashima) pressing out of midfield and then making smart decisions with the ball. Dewell is clearly one of the top creative passers in the WNL. She’s making that abundantly clear every week.
CM – Abby Rankin (Southern United) – Another Southern player? You’re goddamn right. A change in formation has pushed Rankin further forward and now she’s out there setting up goals and creating chances on top of everything else.
FW – Lara Colpi (Western Springs) – Getting the chance to play more centrally than usual, Colpi was full of creative touches at the heart of most of her team’s best work. She scored an outrageously good goal in a game that was chock-full of them. The 18 year old is fast emerging as one of NZ’s best attacking prospects.
FW – Britney-Lee Nicholson (Canterbury United) – Most of what the Pride got right against Central had to do with the charging runs of BLN, who set up one goal and then scored the 90th minute leveller. It was a rough game for her team overall but Nicholson almost single-handedly saved the day.
FW – Maddi Hughes (Central) – It takes some talent to go head to head with Lara Wall and come out of it stronger. Hughes was a force of nature on the right wing for Central, scoring a goal and running hard all afternoon. Central tend to have to earn every point they get the hard way but luckily they players willing to accept the mission.
There we go. Enjoy your weekend, make use of the time, and if there’s any left over here’s something to make you laugh…