Unfinished Business
Unfinished Business
Warriors future building, Welly Nix's new import, Blackcaps wicket-keepers, Tall Blacks x Asia Cup, All Blacks culture learnings & more
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Reading Menu
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Central Auckland Healing With Sitili Tupouniua (Rugby League)
Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: A Guide Through The End (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Greymouth Mahi With Griffin Neame (Rugby League)
Here’s How Indiah-Paige Riley Fits Into A Football Ferns Team In Need Of Creativity (Football)
Flying Kiwis – July 19 (Football)
Exploring The Cluster of Flying Kiwis Activities in Denmark (Football)
Don’t Look Now But Maybe, Just Maybe, The Breakers Are Starting To Turn Things Around (Football)
2022 Blackcaps Tracker: Finn Allen Enters T20I Mode (Cricket)
2022 Blackcaps Tracker: Michael Bracewell The T2OI Prospect (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
One of the more undercover sporting tales in this corner of the world has been the connection between Melbourne Storm and Aotearoa All Blacks. I wrote about this after Storm won the 2020 NRL Grand Final and both organisations have leaned on each to share information, which tends to revolve around culture. Both organisations have also lost games in recent weeks, leading to dramatic headlines about the state of both organisations and their teams.
First, it's fairly funky how the success is connected and now their losing is connected. The fact that both Storm and All Blacks are losing at a time when things feel strange could be a coincidence, or part of the wider strange antics. While it's clear that crime and such shenanigans are at a peak, this Storm/All Blacks situation feels more in tune with the financial landscape as we're kinda in a recession and there are ample signs of this, yet folks are splashing cash. Inflation is booming and folks are heading out for dinner, going to events etc.
Storm and All Blacks are losing, with signs to suggest that there is reason for dramatic concern. Storm and All Blacks also have wins sprinkled among these losses, with the best organisational cultures in the world.
I’m curious about the culture of both organisations and how they roll through adversity with learning and growth. The cultures of Storm and All Blacks exist because of losing, they made their environment a priority because of losing. Storm/All Blacks both endured tricky patches between 2000-10 which led to revamps of their culture.
Storm are in a fascinating wee spot. They have plenty of injuries which impacts their immediate footy and they will lose both Bromwich brothers to Redcliffe next season, along with Brandon Smith to Roosters. Storm have a few Kiwi-NRL deep cuts in their system (Sione Nau is an example often mentioned in these emails), although their steady flow of Kiwi-NRL recruitment and development has slowed down.
Storm are also 5th on the NRL ladder with a winning record (11-6) and will probably play finals footy despite any niggle. That would involve immense mahi from Manurewa's finest (Jesse & Kenny) along with the Waiheke Ram himself; none of those lads, nor their Kiwi-NRL homies and hearty Storm squad, will want to send them out as losers.
All Blacks have lost a few games against the best rugby team in the world right now, which feels similar to Storm sitting 5th on the ladder and getting niggly headlines thrown against them. All this All Blacks drama exists as if All Blacks culture does not exist and as I've learned plenty from All Blacks culture, along with seeing how folks around the world put All Blacks culture on a pedestal; what role does All Blacks culture play in their situation?
Given that the NZRU bossman wanted to share his opinion, I doubt officials from outside the All Blacks bubble know much about that culture. Folks from the outside will want to make changes in the same way that public companies are constantly tinkering to please shareholders.
I want to see All Blacks culture in action. All Blacks culture is driven by the players and I want to see this group of players, primarily the leaders take this group beyond adversity. We rarely experience All Blacks adversity, so we tend not to learn much about All Blacks culture as it's never under the pump to that extent. We have everything we need in place to learn what All Blacks culture is all about right now.
Folks want changes because that's what they can understand. Folks don't know the inner workings of All Blacks culture apart from carrying suitcases and cleaning the changing room, so advice from plebs always revolves around firing this bloke, changing that selection. Learning is all about being curious about what you don't know and now is a time of All Blacks learning.
We also know that we have been here before, right? I've seen the Storm lose games and one constant thread throughout my sporting fandom has been 'what happens when player X leaves Storm?'. Storm won that 2020 Premiership without Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater, they have been one of the best NRL teams without their 'big three'.
All Blacks have lost games before. All Blacks have lost games tinkering with their squad prior to a World Cup. When the All Blacks lose with their strongest possible team on the park, wake me up. I kinda reckon Richie Mo'unga is the best #10 in Aotearoa and he started no games vs Ireland. Will Jordan started one game and I kinda reckon he's the best winger in the world.
Maybe it's all the random jokers who I only learned about in this recent Test window. Maybe it's the pandemic niggle. Maybe it's that dude who is on his Japan sabbatical, or this other chap who is injured.
The thing I've learned about All Blacks footy is to roll with the flow of their estuary. This is because the All Blacks squad can look a certain way at one point of the year and completely different at a different stage of the year. Sure, I’d like to see Mo’unga start or Jordan play all the time. I also trust that this isn’t the time for an All Blacks peak and these international windows tend to throw different lads into the cauldron, different combinations etc before a fine-tuning phase.
Then again, people low key hate the All Blacks. This was evident during Black Ferns drama last year as this yarn dominated mainstream media because folks want to see NZRU stumble. Folks don't want to learn about All Blacks culture or how a group develops from adversity, they want to see NZRU stumble. We all know folks want to see Melbourne Storm slide into woes, that's been a staple of NRL coverage since 2008.
I want to learn.
I want to learn how the best sporting cultures of my lifetime deal with adversity. I want to learn how those folks within those organisations grow from this niggly patch.
Same, but different with NZ Warriors and Reece Walsh. Walsh is a fine young player who many folks in the mainstream media view as the Warriors superstar, the young gun and his dropping has been given headline status. Walsh has an interesting situation ahead of him when he returns to Broncos where Tesi Niu has replaced Te Maire Martin at fullback and Ezra Mam has emerged in the halves alongside Adam Reynolds; Niu and Mam are Broncos youngsters who seem better than Walsh right now.
Walsh can be a winning player but he's not a winning player right now. There is plenty of flash in Walsh's mahi and this makes him easy to highlight, however Walsh makes lots of errors and can barely tackle. Walsh also lacks the consistent polish of many NRL fullbacks, plus he carried constant rumours of his return to Brisbane as soon as he joined Warriors. After all of that, Warriors are building to next season and none of that development needs to include Walsh.
Here's a comparison between seasons for Walsh. Similar amount of games played makes this a timely check in...
2020: 16 games, 9 tries, 11 try assists, 14 linebreaks, 119m/game, 72.32% tackling.
2021: 15 games, 1 try, 7 try assists, 7 linebreaks, 136m/game, 65.38% tackling.
Walsh is 5th for total errors in the NRL, averaging 1.8 errors per game. Walsh has the most errors of all fullbacks which, when packaged with 68 tackles made vs 36 tackles missed, is not want you want from a fullback. Tackling fullbacks are low key important as they sit in the defensive line when defending their try line, often lining up around the ruck before wrapping behind the defence to cover out wide. Walsh is not good at tackling and that limits his ability defending in the line.
Dylan Edwards is not viewed as superstar fullback, but he's elite. The Panthers fullback tackles at 89.1% and with 16 errors from 17 games (less than 1 error per game).
Many would view Walsh as a better player than Edwards yet Edwards is a winning fullback. Edwards plays in a better team for sure and also does basic fullback mahi at the highest level, providing winning value to his team.
Chanel Harris-Tavita is getting fullback reps and he's going walkabouts next season, so who will be the future Warriors fullback?
Luke Metcalf joins Warriors from Sharks next season and he's played every game in the halves for Newtown Jets this season. The narrative around Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad's return to Warriors was about whanau, sweeping over the fact that Xavier Savage is a better fullback for Raiders than Nicoll-Klokstad; CNK is starting fullback in NSW Cup this round.
Nicoll-Klokstad can't be selected ahead of Auckland comrade Matthew Timoko at centre, because Timoko is better. I reckon Nicoll-Klokstad forecasts as a centre for Warriors, leaving a possible move from Te Maire Martin who impressed at fullback for Broncos. The undercover brother from within the system is Rocco Berry, who might be better suited to fullback than centre.
I also enjoy the mahi of Daejarn Asi and he does not have a contract for next season, after a mid-season move from Cowboys to Warriors. Asi starts in the halves alongside Shaun Johnson to face Raiders and he has four wins, one draw with Redcliffe as a starting half. Asi started four games in the halves with Mackay (Cowboys feeder team) before joining Warriors, combining for a 6-2-1 record in Queensland Cup…
Mackay: 4 games, 1 try, 2 try assists, 1 linebreak, 91.11% tackling, 83m/game.
Redcliffe: 5 games, 2 tries, 6 try assists, 2 linebreaks, 91.67% tackling, 76m/game.
Fresh off our podcast yarns about Dane Cleaver and Blackcaps wicket-keepers yesterday is a breakdown of the main wicket-keepers in the Blackcaps mix. One insight from this is that Cleaver has the best FC average and Cameron Fletcher has the best T20 record, yet Cleaver is the current T20I lad and Fletcher is the Test lad...
First-Class
Dane Cleaver: 41.14avg/56.33sr.
Tom Blundell: 36.79avg/52.71sr.
Cameron Fletcher: 35.32avg/45.83sr.
Tim Seifert: 33.93avg/48.95sr.
List-A
Dane Cleaver: 31.19avg/90.53sr.
Tom Blundell: 28.60avg/82.23sr.
Cameron Fletcher: 29.50avg/83.68sr.
Tim Seifert: 23.51avg/86.02sr.
T20
Dane Cleaver: 24.07avg/134.82sr.
Tom Blundell: 23.69avg/124.28sr.
Cameron Fletcher: 35.70avg/133.70sr.
Tim Seifert: 25.40avg/128.94sr.
Quick check in with the best Blackcaps in five games since the T20 World Cup (three games vs India, two vs Ireland)
Batting
Martin Guptill: 5inns, 187 runs @ 37.40avg/153.27sr.
Glenn Phillips: 5inns, 126 runs @ 31.50avg/131.25sr.
Bowling
Lockie Ferguson: 13.2ov, 6w @ 15.50avg/6.97rpo.
Mitchell Santner: 20ov, 6w @ 23.33avg/7rpo.
Ish Sodhi: 13ov, 5w @ 20.20avg/7.76rpo.
Then we have the White Ferns squad for Colonizer Games T20 cricket. I'm starting with positive vibes and optimism for White Ferns, which is always a personal exercise to deploy. Start with optimism and let that flow to reflect performances....
Sophie Devine: 300 games, 36.12avg (bat) | 19.29avg (ball).
Suzie Bates: 344 games, 32.06avg (bat) | 23.50avg (ball).
Eden Carson: 37 games, 6avg (bat) | 18.87avg (ball).
Izzy Gaze: 14 games, 11.57avg (bat).
Maddy Green: 188 games, 18.81avg (bat) | 23.25avg (ball).
Claudia Green: 35 games, 5.83avg (bat) | 37.12avg (ball).
Brooke Halliday: 64 games, 14.73avg (bat) | 19.50avg (ball).
Hayley Jensen: 142 games, 13.11avg (bat) | 23avg (ball).
Amelia Kerr: 152 games, 24.49avg (bat) | 16.84avg (ball).
Rosemary Mair: 71 games, 11.67avg (bat) | 21.87vg (ball).
Jess McFadyen: 49 games, 10avg (bat).
Georgia Plimmer: 22 games, 10.53avg (bat).
Hannah Rowe: 97 games, 15.91avg (bat) | 33.75avg (ball).
Lea Tahuhu: 214 games, 11.06avg (bat) | 23.02avg (ball).
Wildcard’s Notebook
How good was this from the Tall Blacks?
An 88-78 win over South Korea and the lads are into the semi-finals of the Asia Cup, doing so despite picking a really young and inexperienced squad. Once again Flynn Cameron was a major factor. The son of the coach is putting up a hell of a case for tournament all-star status with the way he’s been going.
Cameron bagged 22 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists against South Korea and was especially massive in the fourth quarter as the Tall Blacks took control of a see-saw battle. Taki Fahrenson also chipped in with 16 points while Sam Timmins led the way in a dominant rebounding effort from the kiwis.
After a hefty and expected win over India first up, there was a hiccup in the group stage as they lost to Lebanon. That left the Tall Blacks needing a win over the Philippines to progress… which they dutifully produced by a 92-75 scoreline, taking an early lead with a 30-point first quarter and rolling from there. Flynn Cameron scored 18 and Taine Murray scored 16. Two of the top tier college players out of Aotearoa right now.
The consequence of that was a playoff against Syria for a place in the quarters and this one was never close. The TB’s led 25-6 after the first and claimed it 97-58 in the end. Murray scored 16 again. Cameron had 14p/8r/4a in only 14 mins of action. All eleven players used got at least 11 mins each thanks to the blowout.
It only gets tougher from here as the bracket has served up Australia in the semi-finals. That game tips off at 10.30pm on Saturday night NZT and will be broadcast on Maori Television. The Aussies also have an experimental squad, though they’ve been getting great numbers from the likes of Thon Makur, Mitch McCarron, Sam Froling... and Breakers guard Will McDowell-White.
Lebanon and Jordan go head to head in the other semi-final. There will be a third/fourth playoff on Sunday night as well. The Tall Blacks finished fourth at the 2017 Asia Cup, the first time they Oceania was incorporated into that event.
Check it out, the Wellington Phoenix lads have signed a new import. His name is Bozhidar Kraev and he’s a Bulgarian international with 24 caps to his name since debuting in 2017. Kraev is 25 years old and has spent the past several seasons on the books of FC Midtjylland in Denmark. He’s an attacking midfielder who can play as a second striker. Not really an abundant goal scorer looking at his past stats but he does have a good assist rate. He refers to himself as a “creative number ten”.
It was an annoying spell for Kraev with Midtjylland though. Never really got a consistent run of games at any point and spent large chunks of a couple recent seasons out on loan at a couple Portuguese top flight clubs – Gil Vicente & Famalicão. Didn’t get a loan last season, the final one on his contract. Instead he just kinda rotted there. Got 27 mins off the bench in a third round cup tie and that was literally it. He was only even in the matchday squad for one Europa League match, nothing at all in the Superliga. A couple reserve games and a couple internationals were the sum of the rest of it.
So there’s motivation to move to Wellington where he’ll actually get to be a first choice player. Probably on the right wing/ten though he does seem to have the versatility to play pretty much anywhere in attack. He’s also quite tall at 1.86m and Uffie Talay also called him “deceptively quick”. That’ll be a contrast to the previous two imports in this role: Gael Sandoval and Ulises Davila.
Kraev is the first new import signed for the upcoming season, to go with David Ball and Scott Wootton who were already under contract. Potentially two more to come. At least one as they’ll surely sign an import striker (particularly with news that Roy Krishna has agreed a new deal in India).
All up the Phoenix Men have 19 players contracted so there’s probably only a couple more dudes to follow, barring anyone else leaving. Steven Ugarkovic, Kosta Barbarouses, Lucas Mauragis, and Bozhidar Kraev are the new faces so far.
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
What a few days we’ve had on this beat, tell ya what. Let’s start with Paige Satchell who has signed on for a third year of A-League footy with a third different club. Following stints with Canberra United and Sydney FC, Satchell’s next gig will be with... the Wellington Phoenix. A one-year deal for the 24 year old which comes as little surprise given she’s spent her recent months working with NZ Football’s A-League Off Season Programme (which is mostly just the available Welly Nix players).
This is a curious move from Satchell because as cool as it will be to play professionally in her own country, this is clearly a step back in standard from Sydney FC whom she came off the bench for in the last grand final – as well as scoring the goal that secured their premiers status. From first on the ladder to last on the ladder, effectively.
But there’s no doubt that the 2023 World Cup played a factor. Satchell only got 503 mins for Sydney FC playing mostly as a substitute. With the Nix she’ll be a first choice player, likely to triple that minutes tally in an expanded campaign. Satchell has recently become the national team’s top choice right winger... yet the emergence of Indi Riley is a big threat to that. Important for Satchell to keep up her momentum. She’s decided that the Welly Nix is the best place to do that.
The Phoenix have also confirmed the return of captain Lily Alfeld. She’s the fourth player locked in by the club for year two. A key one too, having been starting goalie in all but one game last season – which she missed for international duty (the ALW is going to start respecting international windows now so that won’t be a drama moving forwards).
Not only was Alfeld one of the top performers but she was also a crucial leader in the squad. Like many of the inaugural squad, the only reason not to bring Alfeld back would have been if a bigger team had poached her. Sitter of a signing. Good yarns.
Meanwhile moving away from the A-League is Rebekah Stott and this move is genuinely beautiful. Stotty signed with English WSL club Brighton & Hove back in 2020 but only lasted half a season before returning to her home in Melbourne after her cancer diagnosis. Scary times but she did the treatment, she went into remission, she did an absolute bundle for charity and awareness in the process, and she’s since had a successful return season with Melbourne City as well as a few emotional Footy Ferns caps. It’s been an incredible comeback and now the circle has been closed as she’s re-signed with Brighton on a 2-year deal. Talk about unfinished business. This is that.
Brighton finished seventh out of 12 teams last term. Right in the midst of that mid-table mix. Good solid team who won’t be in the hunt for the top three Champions League places but also shouldn’t have any dramas about relegation. They’ve got the same manager that they had when Stotty was there originally, former England boss Hope Powell. Happy days. Stott is the fourth NZer on lock for the next WSL campaign after Ria Percival (Spurs), CJ Bott (Leicester), and Anna Leat (Aston Villa).
North of the border, Vic Esson has signed with Rangers in Scotland. This is kinda crazy because last year Liv Chance was battling away brilliantly with Celtic, who won both cup trophies but finished third behind Rangers and Glasgow City. Now Esson has signed for Rangers and Meikayla Moore has signed with Glasgow City. Ideally that’ll be a triple-pronged title race with a kiwi on each team... although will just say that Celtic have had a preseason training camp and a few friendlies and Liv Chance is yet to be involved. Dunno if she’s off contract. Could just be her extended break after international duty.
Anyway, Rangers are defending champs and will be in Champions League qualifiers. Great gig for Vic Esson even if it does look like she’ll have to fight for the starting gig with Scottish international Jenna Fife at the club. Fife and Esson split the halves in a 3-0 preseason win over Spartans a day after Esson’s signing was announced. Fife in the first half, Esson in the second. Esson’s used to fighting for starting gigs though… and usually successfully.