Under The Surface
Warriors lose Peter O'Sullivan, Breakers complete their roster, Welly Nix Women's squad things, plus Sonny Bill Williams and Joe Bell
Podcast
TNC Variety Show: Episode 38
The Niche Cast: Stink Face
Reading Menu
2021 City Kickboxing Tracker: Dan Hooker Fights Anyone (Now It's Islam Makhachev) (UFC)
2021 T20 World Cup: Lockie Ferguson's Injured, Jimmy Neesham the Star and More... (Cricket)
2021/22 Plunket Shield: Luke Georgeson's Kinda Good (Cricket)
2021/22 Plunket Shield: Who Are Bayley Wiggins and Troy Johnson? (Cricket)
Two Kiwis In WBBL07 and Two Centuries (Rachel Priest/Sophie Devine) (Cricket)
Football Ferns vs Canada: Game Tahi, Don't Overthink It (Football)
Footy Ferns in Canada: Game Rua, The Build Begins (Football)
Flying Kiwis – October 26 (Football)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #1: Welcome To Grind City (Basketball)
Will This Be The Season That The Breakers Actually Live Up To The Hype? (Basketball)
Scotty’s Word
Sonny Bill Williams…
Have to share this interview. Share this with your kids, homies or anyone who needs some love.
NZ Warriors lose Peter O’Sullivan…
Earlier this year I celebrated NZ Warriors having Phil Gould and Peter O’Sullivan on their staff. O’Sullivan joined NZ Warriors a few years ago and the arrival of Gould for a brief stint with NZ Warriors resulted in the two best recruiters of Aotearoa NRL talent working together for NZ Warriors. Both have now departed NZ Warriors.
I don’t think it’s bad. Just weird how the Warriors curse hits these funky little wrinkles. O’Sullivan will join the Dolphins expansion team and here we double down on the weird vibes as the Warriors connection with Redcliffe has wound up in Redcliffe sealing that NRL expansion slot and snapping up recruitment guru O’Sullivan.
My Warriors insights tend to be deeper than the NRL team. O’Sullivan’s influence on Warriors matters was most evident in assembling the 2020 SG Ball team, headlined by Viliami Vailea and Taniela Otukolo playing NRL this year. One would assume that NZ Warriors have systems and people in place to ensure there are no backwards steps without O’Sullivan. The Warriors curse makes that a more hopeful statement, although I do believe progress is being made.
For example there was recently an announcement of NZ Warriors and Auckland Rugby League teaming up for greater alignment in local systems. Both parties will combine forces for training camps over summer, then Under 18 (Dean Bell Cup) and Under 16 (Shaun Johnson Shield) competitions played in March next year. Then two rep teams will be selected to tour Australia with the U18s falling under ‘Future Warriors’ and an Auckland U16 team.
The mere collaboration here is notable as there has been minimal alignment between Warriors, ARL and NZRL in my lifetime. These systems and pipelines are where folks such as O’Sullivan and Gould have had the most influence which makes forward progress less about having such people involved, more about establishing better systems that aren’t dependent on individuals.
Much of our Niche Cache vibe revolves around providing information and insights to better equip the reader for yarns around the bbq, etc. All my Warriors coverage is about educating myself and readers about everything below the NRL team, which has me wanting to remind you that the really fun Warriors stuff is not exactly NRL related. Since Stephen Kearney came in as coach, these systems have undergone immense change and despite all the pandemic mayhem - Warriors and Aotearoa rugby league continues to make nifty progress in building more effective systems.
Hence that 2020 NZ Warriors SG Ball team existed. Hence there were 18 Kiwi-NRL debutants this year and most of them played junior footy in Aotearoa before being recruited by NRL clubs. I operate as a Warriors and Kiwi-NRL ‘expert’ but I view them as mutually exclusive - I chuck on a Warriors or Kiwi-NRL cap when it’s time to enter that mode.
This makes it easier for me to see the similarities and I am reminded of something I heard earlier this week: connect, don’t combat. That’s a great note to ponder and apply to your day to day life, while Warriors fans combat the Kiwi-NRL excellence because they view it as taking away from Warriors joy. When I connect with Warriors and Kiwi-NRL, I find two different entities that have both improved their systems to the point where Aotearoa rugby league feels rather healthy.
Believe me when I say that Kiwi-NRL numbers will explode in the coming years. The cool thing is that the Kiwi-NRL wave is building momentum while Warriors are improving their systems. Both are happening during cross-Tasman-pandemic adversity. To me that hammers home the health of rugby league in Aotearoa and whether it’s a lack of Aotearoa Kiwis footy (haven’t played since November 2019 - now a longer absence than All Whites) or Australia having no idea about any of this; surface level vibes don’t suggest rapid growth.
Take this rugby league idea and apply it to other sports you’re interested in. Spend time learning about how the younger/junior age bracket is engaging with different sports and I’m fairly sure you will find that Aotearoa sports can reach even greater heights than we’re currently experiencing. At the very least you will find that rugby union and netball aren’t as important as mainstream media makes them appear.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Breakers Are Go...
In a rare non-meme Breakers tweet, this news filtered through yesterday...
And to be completely honest I’m confused about it. Isaac Davidson getting the team’s final roster spot ahead of the new season. A one year contract with a team option for next season. Filling out the depth chart with another kiwi baller... which on the surface sounds excellent. Like, just what the doctor ordered. Until you remember that Isaac Davidson was already a rostered member of the Breakers as a development player – with that same team option for a fully rostered spot next season.
When I last wrote about the Breakers (over here, still relevant), one of the main things I focussed on was this risk that the Breaks have taken with the two young French fellas. Both playing for a chance to get drafted in the NBA, two hugely talented prospects, but the RJ Hampton experience didn’t exactly suggest that Next Stars will win you games in the short term no matter how good they may be. Given how their depth let them down last season amidst injuries to the main men, the Breakers need those two to contribute positively if they’re gonna go well this term.
Matty Walsh loves his Next Stars and the NBL offices love them even more. They’re great for the exposure and reputation of the league – which in turn is great for marketing and profits. Shamir kinda admitted that signing them was not entirely a basketball decision in the quotes I used in that previous piece... and that’s the risk. If Ousmane Dieng and Hugo Besson are great then the Breakers get to have their cake and eat it too. If not then they’ve unnecessarily handicapped themselves. Besson is using up their last import spot, remember. He’s only a Next Star from a moral point of view.
However one thing that Shamir did mention is how Next Star players don’t count towards the roster. So one of his favourite things about Dieng, along with getting to work with a guy likely to be drafted first round in the next NBA intake, is that he’s an extra body. A bonus player. Which brings us back to the team then using their final roster spot on a DP who was already gonna be with the team, aka kinda wasting that roster spot that they’d opened up. Even Davidson himself was shocked (this is a great quote from the press release)...
Isaac Davidson: “I thought they were going to fine me for being late. A fine would’ve been a tenth of my salary, so when they told me what they were offering, my head spun. I couldn’t believe they were giving me the opportunity.”
Why exactly have they done this then? My best guess is that they’ve run out of time. Auckland’s been in lockdown for several weeks and the Breakers fly out to Australia on Monday. It’s still weird because surely you can use that spot on an Aussie (or Aussie-based kiwi) once you get over there but whatever.
Davidson’s been rewarded for his hard yakka on the training court. It has to have been the training court too because Shamir almost never used him last season as a DP. Davidson may have featured in 11 games but he only played 17 total minutes. This for a team that was losing two games for every one win so it’s not like they didn’t have have the option. Hopefully Davidson’s won over the coach with his development since then.
Dan Shamir: “He’s doing a great job for us, and people don’t really see it because we don’t have many minutes for him, but he’s doing a fantastic job in practice, and he deserves the contract 100 percent. He’s very professional, he’s very positive, plays every position, got good IQ, and he’s just a tremendous teammate.”
Final Breakers Roster:
PG – Peyton Siva (I), William McDowell-White
SG – Jeremiah Martin (I), Hugo Besson (I), Rasmus Bach
SF – Tom Abercrombie, Ousmane Dieng (NS), Isaac Davidson
PF – Finn Delany, Kyrin Galloway
C – Yanni Wetzell, Rob Loe, Sam Timmins (DP)
Big man depth is a considerable worry there, especially with Rob Loe still not a hundy percent after getting hurt last season. They do have nice flexibility among their guards and wings at least. Can’t wait to see how some of those rotations turn out. Anyway, the team’s off to Aussie on Monday.
Funny story there via Marc Hinton’s latest where Shamir is quoted as saying they didn’t even have a travel plan as of a couple days ago. Sounds like a bit of a mess... although tbf it’s been moving goalposts from day one both from the NBL and also from Aussie covid governance. But they’ve managed to hitch a ride on the Wellington Phoenix’s chartered plane to solve those problems (“with the Phoenix being so prepared and organised, they had this plane in place, so we were able to get on there”). Two Welly Nix squads and a Breakers team all on the same flight. Team work makes the dream work.
Speaking Of The Welly Nix...
The Breakers are shrinking their development player pool (halved it in fact, though there’s still Sam Timmins) but the Wellington Phoenix are all about the academy these days. This was some clever work to get around the 11-kiwi limit imposed on them by the A-League, adding two more prospects with Alyssa Whinham and Charlotte Lancaster joining the crew on scholarship deals... same as Kurtis Mogg and George Ott are doing with the men’s team.
Both are still teenagers. Whinham a clever (and slight) attacking midfielder from Canterbury while Lancaster is a left back with good attacking instincts who played for Central last season. Two more exciting and extremely youthful additions to the group.
A curious trend from all the Nix Ladies signings: no Wellington players. I’d thought all along that Anna Green and Mickey Robertson were absolute locks for the squad and was very keen to see Charlotte Wilford-Carroll in there too but nope. The team isn’t actually gonna be based in Wellington this season (though fingers crossed they can pop back for a home game or two later on) but that’s still surprising to see. Gonna assume that having to move to Australia for several months may have been an issue there for some players.
Anyway, of the 13 kiwis on the books they’ve got five players from Auckland, two from the Waikato, one from the Hawke’s Bay, three from Canterbury, and one who has been based in Australia the last couple years. None from Wellington. So it goes.
Another one to ponder is how young this squad is. Lily Alfeld is the oldest player so far at age 26 and she’s one of only two to have played in the A-League before (the other being Aussie Isabel Gomez). 11 out of 15 contracted players are aged 20 or younger. Even the two Aussies that have signed so far are really young.
There was no U17 World Cup in 2020 because of the pandemic but quite a few of the current SheNixers would have been there if it had gone ahead, with six named to the squad that would have competed in the Oceania qualifying tournament had that one not also been canned for covid: Kate Taylor, Charlotte Lancaster, Zoe McMeeken, Alyssa Whinham, Te Reremoana Walker & Ava Pritchard. Then you’ve also got three players from the previous U17s group (which came third at the 2018 World Cup) in Mackenzie Barry, Kelli Brown & Grace Wisnewski.
This is that squad for the OFC qualifiers that never happened…
Bellinho...
Joe Bell’s Viking FK won again this morning. They were up against relegation threatened Brann in some absolutely horrendous conditions but were able to grind out a 2-0 win. That win means that they’re now up to third on the ladder with six games remaining. Not even entirely out of the title race either. This from a club that last finished third in 2007 and hasn’t finished any higher since winning the whole thing in 1991.
It’s been one of my most enjoyable beats to follow lately. Joe Bell delivering quality performance after quality performance. He’s dishing out assists which catch the highlights and his defensive midfield prowess is considered amongst the best in the Norwegian Eliteserien. But it’s important to keep the team’s situation in perspective too and that’s what this little missive is about.
A couple months ago, Viking had a potential nightmare run of fixtures up against all these top clubs in a short space of time. But they beat Molde. They beat Rosenborg. They did lose to Bodø/Glimt in there but responded by knocking Rosenborg out of the cup and then drawing with Molde away. And with that they cleared the runway for the rest of the campaign, setting themselves up beautifully with a smooth run of fixtures to the finish line. The trickiest game they had left was against Lillestrøm and they whupped them 5-1 last weekend. Here’s how those last six games look...
VFK vs Sarpsborg (10th)
Mjøndalen (15th) vs VFK
Viking vs Haugesund (8th)
Kristansund (5th) vs VFK
Viking vs Odd (13th)
Tromso (12th) vs VFK
Rosenborg drew their midweek game, dropping points against Haugesund in a 0-0 daw. Elsewhere there was a major title implication duel between first and second on the ladder with Bodø/Glimt winning 2-0 away against Molde to go four points clear. It’s also a result that leaves Viking only three points off second. VFK have won four straight. They’ll be backing themselves to win the next six. Wouldn’t expect Bodø/Glimt to drop too many more points to allow them into the title race but you never know, those fellas do have a couple tricky games remaining and they’re balancing that with a Europa Conference League campaign.
Whether Joe Bell is still there after the season, that’s doubtful. The end of the Norwegian season aligns nicely with the January transfer window and there was confirmed interest in him from the English Championship in particular. But damn what a way to sign off if he can help guide them to their best finish for thirty years.
