Tucked Away

Kahu Capper/NZ Warriors, rugby league pathways, Black Sticks Men, kiwi football debutants & Eastern Suburbs 2019 Premiership champs

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Podcast

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Reading Menu

• 27fm Album Jukebox – April 2024 (Music)

• Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Battling With 16 Players (Rugby League)

• Notes From The Wellington Phoenix Blokes’ A-League Regular Season Finale (Football)

• Flying Kiwis – May 7 (Football)

• Previewing The Wellington Phoenix’s A-League Semi-Final vs Melbourne Victory (Football)

• Breaking Down The Blackcaps 2024 T20 World Cup Squad (Cricket)

• New Zealand's 10 Best Young Cricketers After The Summer Of 2023/24 (Cricket)

• 27fm Weekly Playlist: May 10 (Music)

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Scotty’s Word

In our Subscriber Pod (available to the lovely folks funding The Niche Cache) yesterday I talked bout some alternative views about Kiwi-NRL juniors playing 1st 15 and how NRLWahine is already taking over Aotearoa - without NZ Warriors.

The NZW angle has been a bit weird though as they dropped a list of their juniors who are playing 1st 15 or come from 1st 15. No need for that other than niggling rugby union folk and it completely overlooked the fact that most NZW youngsters played 1st 15. Here's a quick round up of the NRL/NSW Cup range...

• Rocco Berry: St Pat's Silverstream College

• Tom Ale: Mt Roskill Grammar

• Adam Pompey: Wesley College

• Ali Leiataua: Kings College

• Demitric Sifakula: De La Salle College

• Jacob Laban: St Bernard's College/Kelston Boys HS

• Zyon Maiu'u: Kelston Boys HS

• Tanner Stowers-Smith: St Bede's College

• Eddie Ieremia: De La Salle College

• Sio Kali: St Paul's College

• Motu Pasikala: Liston College

Fun fact: Pasikala, Viliami Vailea (Aorere College) and Eliesa Katoa (Tamaki College) all left Tonga to play 1st 15 in Auckland for low decile public schools before shifting to rugby league.

NZW also announced the signing of Kahu Capper and that's a great move. Capper left Taranaki to join Roosters where he played league and 1st 15 in Sydney, before returning to Aotearoa at some point late last year/early this year. NZW have done well to recruit a bunch of Kiwi-NRL juniors who want to be in Aotearoa and Capper is the latest.

Are there any other announcements about 18-year-old NZW juniors?

Well, there was the announcement about Jett Cleary ... but not the other four young Australia halves who were already in the NZW system.

It's like NZW want you to know about some of the stuff that's happening, yet their announcements are tip of the iceberg type of insights. On top of that, NZW were very specific in stating that 'Young Kiwi signed from Roosters for two years' and the website url for this announcement includes 'kiwi-signed-from-roosters' in it. They really want you to know that they signed a guy from Roosters - when there are three NZW vs Roosters games this weekend.

Roosters are losing some of their Kiwi-NRL junior recruitment juice. Naufahu Whyte is an excellence youngster (who played 1st 15 for KBHS) and they have Salesi Foketi (Manurewa) plus Benaiah Ioelu (who played 1st 15 for Tangaroa College as well as rolling through a few junior rugby league clubs).

Along with Capper, the Graham-Taufa twins dipped out of the Roosters system with Moala now playing NSW Cup for NZW ... not that any announcement was made. Cassius Tia left Roosters for Bulldogs this year and Roosters specifically recruited Tavita Henare-Schuster from Manawatu rugby union and he was last spotted play for Burleigh in Queensland Cup.

Christian Tuipulotu generated headlines when Roosters recruited him away from NZW, and he moved to Sea Eagles and then to Dragons. Asu Kepaoa went from Roosters to Tigers and the Rabbitohs injury crisis is giving Northland's Bayleigh Bentley-Hape a sneaky opportunity after he left Aotearoa to enter the Roosters system a few years ago.

There has been a bit of noise about the impact of NZW returning to NRLW as well. The NRLWahine signings tracker dropped in these newsletters shows how many wahine are already in NRLW and almost half of this year's crew played Black Ferns/Black Ferns Sevens/Aupiki/Farah Palmer Cup.

Interestingly, Bulldogs will enter NRLW next season as well. Bulldogs just won the NSW U17 competition and eight of the 17 players in the 36-0 final victory are from Aotearoa. Bulldogs have invested heavily in Aotearoa talent and while this zones in on the U17 champion team, the Bulldogs NRLW team will feature lots of young wahine who have been developed by Bulldogs.

Bulldogs Lisa Fiaola Cup (NSW U17)

• Lahnayah Daniel: Waitakere College/St Peter's School

• Asha Taumoepeau-Williams: Howick

• Evelyn Roberts: Mangere East

• Seriah Palepale: Mangere East

• Mary-Jane Taito: Mangere East

• Paige Tauaneai: Wainuiomata

• Trinity Tauaneai: Wainuiomata

• Josinah Filisi Tauiliili: Mangere East

You will see more about the NZW wahine threat to Black Ferns, but Bulldogs have already snapped up lots of NRLWahine juniors. Remember that Bulldogs have a partnership with Canterbury Rugby League and yet none of the players listed above come from Canterbury, so there is a whole South Island area where Bulldogs can make the most of their connections.

Also interesting here is that Manly Sea Eagles just announced a partnership with Mangere East rugby league. As you can see above there is an impressive crew of Mangere East juniors in that Bulldogs U17s team and the Sea Eagles/Mangere East partnership was only announced in the past week. Regardless, both partnerships highlighted here are as much about the women's pathway as the men's and none of these involve NZW.

Back to 1st 15 and remember that all the Kiwi-NRL juniors in Redcliffe's U19 team played 1st 15 and it doesn't include Auckland Grammar's John Fineanganofo...

Mal Meninga Cup Finals (QLD U19)

• Redcliffe: Tevita Naufahu (St Kents College), Elijah Rasmussen (Westlake Boys HS), Patrick Kailahi (Hamilton Boys HS)

• Burleigh: Disharne Tohini (Shirley)

• Tweed: Ryder Williams (Marist), Mason Barber (Hokianga)

Black Sticks Men are in Malaysia at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. Given the demise of Black Sticks hockey (men and women) there is a wave of melancholy when covering these teams, but the atmosphere in Malaysia is epic and any hockey fan should be tapped in to enjoy their enthusiasm for hockey. Here are the results so far...

• 7-1 win vs Canada

• 1-4 loss vs Japan

• 4-6 loss Malaysia

• 4-1 win vs Korea

Next game is against Pakistan at 8pm tonight. Pakistan are top of the table with the same record as Japan...

• NZ: 4th | 2-2 | 6 points

• Pakistan: 1st | 3-0-1 | 10 points

Lydia Ko is in action at the Founders Cup in New Jersey. Ko went -2 in the first round and is ranked tied-18th heading into round two.

Musical jam…

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Wildcard’s Notebook

There was a segment in the Flying Kiwis yarn this week about the Ole Academy graduates at Torslanda in Sweden. They’ve been promoted back up to the third tier, finally, and Owen Parker-Price scored a wicked goal in their first Ettan Södra victory. What’s more is that, just this morning, OPP set up Dominic Woolridge for a goal, albeit this time in a losing cause. It’s been awhile since those fellas were heard from in the kiwi footballer roundups having been tucked away in lower-league Sweden these past few years... which in turn got me thinking about the 2019 NZ Premiership champion Eastern Suburbs side that they were a part of.

Coached by Danny Hay, with a mix of existing Lilywhites plus an influx of Ole Academy lads (with Declan Edge as assistant coach), that was a very young side but an immensely talented one – as they proved with a 3-0 victory over Team Wellington in the final. Callum McCowatt a hat-trick on his way to the Steve Sumner Trophy on top of a Golden Boot campaign. Bit like when Deven Jackson delivered a solo masterclass when the Eastern Suburbs women won the National League in 2022. That club clearly enjoys some North Harbour Stadium.

It’s been a little over five years since then. Five years is a long time in football. The NZ Premiership is now the NZ National League, having reverted to a fully club-based system. Danny Hay’s had a whole stint as All Whites manager and has been coaching state leagues in Perth more recently – rumour is he’ll be an assistant for Auckland FC. Declan Edge took his mercurial ways to Torslanda where he remains. And here’s what the players have been up to...

GK – Andrew Withers – One of the more experienced fellas in that side, he’d reunited with his Ole bros at Suburbs after returning from university in the USA. Withers went on to have a quick stint with Torslanda before establishing himself in the Aussie NPL. Currently with Bentleigh Greens.

RB – Kelvin Kalua – The only one of these eleven players who stayed with the Lilywhites into the following season... and he’s still with the Lilywhites to this day. Did get capped for the All Whites while Danny Hay was in charge. Spent some time trialling unsuccessfully in Europe. Remains an excellent National League player.

CB – Tim Payne – Already a capped international prior to this final having bounced all around the place from the Blackburn Rovers academy to the Portland Timbers reserves to Auckland City... but the Suburbs season was the one that set T-Payne up by establishing him as a powerful defensive player leading directly to an opportunity at the Wellington Phoenix where he remains to this day.

CB – Nando Pijnaker – Nando was part of the initial Torslanda intake but he didn’t stay long, moving onwards to GC Zurich in Switzerland, thus beginning a period of club-hopping as he also passed through Rio Ave and FC Helsingor (loan) without ever getting much first team footy. Until in 2022 he joined Sligo Rovers in Ireland, where he remains, and finally the games began to flow. Granted, he’s probably now at the stage where he needs another upwards move to keep his career progressing (especially at a time when there are suddenly a few more All Whites centre-back options emerging).

LB – Dalton Wilkins – Two of these fellas left Suburbs to join FC Helsingor in Denmark (initially a second tier club, then they got relegated, then they got promoted back again). Eli Just was the other one. Wilkins was going alright there until a serious injury slowed him down and he never really regained his place. So he dropped down to the third tier on loan, then permanently, with Kolding where he got things well and truly back on track. Helped them to promotion. DW recently made the divisional switch to Sønderjyske who are on the brink of promotion to the Danish top flight.

CM – Harry Moss-Edge – Very tidy, possession-based defensive midfielder... Edge (the son of Declan) was another of the original Torslanda crew and he’s still there now. There was briefly some talk about HME potentially representing Malaysia, though he subsequently turned that down.

CM – Dominic Woolridge – Capable of playing midfield or defence, with good technique and plenty of size and strength, back around the time of this final DM wasn’t far behind the likes of McCowatt and Just in the prospect rankings. He hasn’t shown the same ambition as those blokes though, joining Torslanda and staying there the whole time. Now 25yo, there’s no reason to think that door is closed though. Will be very curious to see how this year progresses for him and his team.

CM – Owen Parker-Price – See above, basically. OPP is the same age as Woolridge and in the season prior to winning the title with Subs, he’d been handpicked alongside Callum McCowatt to join Auckland City’s Premiership squad (not playing nearly as often as CM but still winning the title). Technically gifted, huge promise. Five years of lower league Swedish football. It is what it is.

FW – Elijah Just – It was Eastern Suburbs to Helsingor for RJ, same as Wilkins. And it was Just who got the hang of things first for that side, quickly translating his knack for assists from the Suburbs days to this higher level in a way that Wilkins and McCowatt took longer to achieve. Hence it was Just who first earned a transfer to the Danish top flight to join AC Horsens for a six-figure fee (McCowatt had to wait another year for his move, although his fee was higher). Unfortunately ACH crumbled after the winter break and were relegated back down to the second tier again. Just was close to moving to a Swedish top division club a few months ago but Horsens wouldn’t let him go as it was outside their transfer window hence they had no way to replace him. Watch this space next month though.

FW – Andre De Jong – Second only to McCowatt for goals that season, as well as several strong campaigns in the Australian NPL during the kiwi winters, ADJ traded that status into a move to South Africa where he’s played for AmaZulu, Royal AM, and is currently with Stellenbosch. He’s had a couple of injuries. He’s had some flashes of great footy during that time. But it’s only this year with Stellies that he’s become a regular starter making consistent contributions. Career-best form. Won the secondary cup title a few months ago.

FW – Callum McCowatt – The most exciting prospect of the bunch at the time, McCowatt had the chance to join Helsingor with Just and Wilkins but chose to have a year with the Wellington Phoenix first. Then did a few trials before ending up at Helsingor after all, and stuck around for three years as the club kept falling just short of promotion. So McCowatt moved to Silkeborg, drawing a transfer fee, and has settled in nicely for that top-half Superliga squad. Just this morning he came off the bench as SIF won the Danish Cup for their first trophy for 23 years. Cowabunga.

Seven of these players are senior-capped internationals and at least four of those are All Whites regulars. That’s a rate that would beat most Auckland City title winners, you know. On the other hand, here was the Team Wellington eleven that they beat in the final...

Scott Basalaj; Bill Robertson, Taylor Schrijvers, Mario Ilich; Alex Palezevic, Aaron Clapham; Joel Stevens, Andy Bevin, Jack-Henry Sinclair; Angus Kilkolly, Nati Hailemariam

NZ Football International Debutants By Calendar Year

2019

All Whites – Elliot Collier, Joe Bell, Elijah Just, Callum McCowatt, Max Mata, Nando Pijnaker, James McGarry

Football Ferns – Nicole Stratford, Jana Radosavljevic, Claudia Bunge

2020

All Whites - N/A

Football Ferns - N/A

2021

All Whites – Niko Kirwan, Kelvin Kalua, Marko Stamenic, Matthew Garbett, Joey Champness, Francis de Vries

Football Ferns – Gabi Rennie, Amelia Abbott, Ava Collins, Jacqui Hand, Ashleigh Ward

2022

All Whites – Alex Greive, Dalton Wilkins, Ben Old, Ben Waine, Oli Sail, Jamie Searle

Football Ferns – Kate Taylor, Ally Green, Indiah-Paige Riley, Mackenzie Barry

2023

All Whites – Callan Elliot, Kyle Adams, Tyler Bindon, Finn Surman

Football Ferns – Grace Neville, Grace Wisnewski, Tayla O’Brien, Deven Jackson, Michaela Foster, Milly Clegg, Katie Kitching, Ruby Nathan

2024

All Whites – N/A

Football Ferns – Macey Fraser, Brianna Edwards

Weekend jazz jam...