Unrelinquished
Blackcaps vs Aussie T20s, HBJ/Ford Trophy finals, Tall Blacks in action, Wellington Phoenix/Ben Old, Bulldogs love Aotearoa & more
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Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Taking Stock Of NRL & NSW Cup Depth (Rugby League)
The Football Ferns Have Qualified For The Paris Olympics, No Dramas (Football)
The Wellington Phoenix Blokes Are Nine Games Unbeaten And Truckin’ Along (Football)
Admiring The Wellington Phoenix’s Blossoming Academy Pathways (Football)
2023/24 HBJ Shield: Five Best Youngsters (Cricket)
Recapping The Tall Ferns Efforts At The 2024 Olympic Qualifiers (Basketball)
Scotty’s Word
Assessing the Blackcaps vs Australia T20 series is tricky when balancing the entertainment factor and performances. As an entertainment product whipping kiwi cricket fans into the frenzy, it was awesome. As a measurement of Blackcaps T20 cricket and forecasting forward to the T20 World Cup, not as funky.
Lockie Ferguson was the best player for NZ. Ferguson snared 5w @ 7avg/4.4rpo in a series where no other Blackcaps bowler went for less than 8rpo. In five games this year, Ferguson has 10w @ 11.4avg/5.7rpo and he is the most efficient kiwi bowler this year...
T20 Blackcaps in 2024…
Batting (50+ runs)
Finn Allen: 326 runs @ 40avg/188sr
Glenn Phillips: 248 runs @ 49avg/139sr
Daryl Mitchell: 158 runs @ 52avg/183sr
Devon Conway: 90 runs @ 22avg/128sr
Kane Williamson: 83 runs @ 83avg/145sr
Mark Chapman: 69 runs @ 13avg/123sr
Rachin Ravindra: 69 runs @ 34avg/186sr
Tim Seifert: 52 runs @ 13avg/88sr
Bowling
Adam Milne: 11w @ 22avg/11.1rpo
Lockie Ferguson: 10w @ 11avg/5.7rpo
Tim Southee: 10w @ 19avg/8.1rpo
Ben Sears: 7w @ 17avg/8.6rpo
Mitchell Santner: 6w @ 36avg/8.4rpo
Ish Sodhi: 6w @ 31avg/9.1rpo
Matt Henry: 5w @ 26avg/8.8rpo
Santner and Sodhi will be key figures in the Caribbean. Their performances against Australia and so far this year need to be weighed against bigger picture mahi. Along with Tim Southee they are the only kiwis with 40+ wickets since the start of 2022 and all three are averaging below 25, conceding less than 8rpo.
Add in Ferguson and Milne for five lads who have 20+ wickets while averaging below 25 in this period. Milne's 9.3rpo makes him the only one over 8rpo.
Meanwhile Trent Boult returned to Blackcaps cricket with 6 overs @ 12.16rpo against Australia which makes him the most expensive Blackcaps T20 bowler in 2024. Since the start of 2022, Boult has 12w @ 31.2avg/7.5rpo which is the highest average of Blackcaps with 10+ wickets in this period. Ben Lister is the only other kiwi with 10+ wickets averaging 30+ since the start of 2022.
Which batting quartet do you prefer...
Mature: Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Jimmy Neesham
Youngers: Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Josh Clarkson
Those four mature lads weren't playing against Australia either and I still think Bracewell and Neesham are 1st 11 T20 World Cup lads. Expecting a batting line up featuring those four younger lads to perform against Australia is tricky, hence Blackcaps didn't win.
Mark Chapman has also dipped in his T20 production. Chapman has a record of 34.7avgg/143sr since the start of 2022 which flips to 13.8avg/123sr in 2024. This is similar for Tim Seifert who has a record of 28.3avg/142sr since the start of 2022 that drops to 13avg/88sr this year.
There are lots of holes in this Blackcaps T20 group to start 2024. The best players haven't played a lot though (they never really do and while folks stress about ages, Blackcaps develop youngsters through T20 series) and they will tighten their rotation for the World Cup.
Canterbury are Ford Trophy champions and Otago are HBJ Shield champions.
Canterbury can't win the Super Smash but they have won two of the last four FT campaigns.
Otago have won two of the last three HBJ Shield competitions. That's snuck under the radar of Wellington's Super Smash dynasty and Canterbury's double in 2020/21, then Super Smash title in 2022/23.
Rob O'Donnell is the FT big donnie though after his fabulous mahi for Auckland. O'Donnell scored 635 runs @ 70avg/82sr and no other batter scored 400+ runs. O'Donnell had two centuries and four 50+ scores, while no other batter had more than three 50+ scores. He also averages 35+ in all three formats which is rather difficult to do - his 36avg in T20 cricket is legendary.
Most notably though, O'Donnell was in sizzling form when it mattered most...
vs Wellington: 115 runs
vs CD: 51 runs
Elimination final vs Otago: 104 runs
Final vs Canterbury: 74*
Zak Foulkes and Mitch Hay were covered in the Ford Trophy's Best Five Youngsters. Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and Cole McConchie form a trio of Canterbury excellence. Add in Leo Carter and Chad Bowes a Canterbury batting unit that would be a nightmare to face in domestic cricket finals…
Chad Bowes: 334 runs @ 33avg/94sr
Henry Nicholls: 301 runs @ 75avg/93sr
Leo Carter: 266 runs @ 66avg/76sr
Cole McConchie: 187 runs @ 26avg/86sr
Tom Latham: 64 runs @ 64avg/78sr
McConchie is similar to O'Donnell (Tom Bruce etc) as he is a monster in finals. McConchie hit 59* @ 107s in the final and took 1w @ 3.8rpo. These lads are the foundations of domestic cricket who are leaders, good lads and top notch cricketers.
I was a bit iffy about selecting Jess McFadyen and Polly Inglis in the HBJ Shield All Stars for Friday's newsletter as they are both wicket-keepers. In the final McFadyen scored 64 runs as Wellington's leading batter and Inglis steered Otago to victory with 35* which saw them finish as the two best batters in HBJ Shield.
Big donnies for Otago are Inglis and Emma Black. Black was covered in the Best Five Youngsters for HBJ Shield here and Inglis finished second for runs behind McFadyen. This is the first season since her debut in 2012/13 where Inglis has scored 250+ runs let alone 300+ runs and she hasn't averaged 35+ in an HBJ Shield campaign prior to this one.
The most important thing for Otago has and will be scoring runs around Suzie Bates. They are HBJ Shield champions after 30+ scores from Inglis, Caitlin Blakely (50), Felicity Robertson (38) and Olivia Gain (42) in the final. Here are the Otago batting stats in HBJ Shield...
Polly Inglis: 324 runs @ 54avg/78sr
Felicity Robertson: 310 runs @ 44avg/64sr
Caitlin Blakely: 272 runs @ 27avg/69sr
Saffron Wilson: 183 runs @ 20avg/85sr
Olivia Gain: 180 runs @ 30avg/73sr
Suzie Bates: 132 runs @ 44avg/86sr
Bella James: 101 runs @ 10avg/51sr
There is a fresh NZ Warriors yarn done after the trial vs Dolphins and Bulldogs love Aotearoa...
Bulldogs U21 Jersey Flegg squad includes Cassius Tia who moved from Roosters. Tia played SG Ball, Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup for Roosters last year, now he's with Bulldogs. Tia also went to Mt Albert Grammar School before moving to Australia and he joins Juelz Baker who played 1st 15 for MAGS then league for Pt Chevalier last year.
Roy Tatupu was highlighted last week - he is fullback for Bulldogs SG Ball after playing 1st 15 for MAGS. Bulldogs have a partnership with Canterbury Rugby League and there are lost of Canterbury youngsters in the Bulldogs system now, but they are also busy in all Kiwi-NRL recruitment. The MAGS connection isn't official and Baker was in the wider NZW SG Ball squad last year, but it's an example of how Bulldogs are embracing Kiwi-NRL talent.
The Bulldogs U21 squad also has Callum Donaldson from West Coast Rugby League (Greymouth), Cooper Te Hau (Halswell), and Fahmy Toilalo (Otahuhu). The Bulldogs U19 team this weekend had Tatupu, Cheldon Hayward (Linwood), Shaye Faa'aoga (Pt Chev), Sosaia Alatini (Hornby) and Sione Siulua (Manurewa).
Bulldogs are rebuilding their pipeline using Aotearoa resources.
Musical jam...
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Tall Blacks had an enjoyable afternoon in Auckland yesterday as they beat Hong Kong 88-49 in their second Asia Cup qualifier of the FIBA window. A 19-0 run in the first quarter propelled them onwards to a lead they never came close to relinquishing. Not a perfect performance by any means, leaving a lot of points begging by shooting 6/31 from three-pointers and 10/16 from the free throw line. But they had a massive size advantage which they cashed in to the tune of a 61-31 rebounding nudge and the defensive effort was always there.
All 12 players who kitted up got at least ten minutes and they also made at least one field goal. That included a few changes from the previous game in Chinese Taipei, most notable being Flynn Cameron of Melbourne United popping up. Additionally, teenagers Julius Halaifonua and Hayden Jones were also included for debuts (with Jordan Ngatai, Tom Vodanovich, and the injured Alex McNaught stepping aside). Halaifonua was named in the original squad but Cameron and Jones were fresh call-ups.
That meant two Cameron Bros in the same line-up, with Tobias Cameron having made his debut in the previous game, while Jones just so happens to be the son of the great Phill Jones, who was of course a teammate of Pero Cameron’s in many a Tall Blacks game – most notably at the 2002 World Cup. Now their sons are playing for the national team together.
Hayden Jones has bossed it at age grade level and has been playing for the Nelson Giants (of course) since he was 16 years old. His older sister Maia Jones is at St Mary’s College in San Francisco where she recently exploded with 31 points in a game against Pepperdine, including six three-pointers – one of the best ever individual scoring games by a kiwi in NCAA Division 1 basketball. Apparently younger sister Ava goes alright too, and lest we forget that mother Kat Jones won a couple of domestic titles herself and is renowned on the local coaching scene.
Tyrell Harrison top-scored with 18 points from 7/8 shooting, also adding 8 rebounds. Couple of blocks too. He bossed it, superb from him. Dan Fotu also scored 13 points while Tobias Cameron added 9. They spread it all out. Team effort. Starting five was: Taylor Britt, Dion Prewster, Ethan Rusbatch, Dan Fotu, Sam Timmins. Good to see blokes like Max Darling, Walter Brown, and Timmins getting minutes considering how little they’ve been able to play during the NBL season for their respective teams, though the main focus was definitely on Hayden Jones and Julius Halaifonua. Jones is a combo-guard with a slick well-rounded set of skills. Halaifonua is a big man (standing seven-feet at 17 years of age) who knows how to use that size but also moves really nicely. Expect to see a lot of Steven Adams comparison as he develops his game.
Lots of Ben Old buzz right now as the Wellington Phoenix midfielder continued his strong season with another big effort in the 0-0 draw with Perth Glory on Saturday night... well, Sunday morning to be more specific. Old had to deal with some ongoing injury stuff early in the season (and again later on), which kept him playing off the bench for the first seven matches and he’s still only made eight starts. Add it up and he’s played 57.6% of available minutes.
And yet whenever he’s out there he immediately becomes one of the most exciting folks on the pitch. The way he spins out of pressure and bursts forward is never not a thrill... and as teams have adjusted to the Phoenix's counter-attacking prowess he’s become increasingly important at keeping that avenue open. He’s a dude you turn on the telly specifically to watch.
We’ve seen glimpses of this in past seasons, and also in his work with the reserves (always impressive when players can maintain their strengths as they rise up the levels). He’s always had a wicked dribbling ability as well as a clever way of using his low centre of gravity to either draw fouls or hold off pressure. He gets fouled roughly once every thirty minutes this term – Ben Old is the fourth-most fouled player in the ALM this season despite missing as much time as he has.
The critique is about his end product. The goals and assists. He’s not a great finisher, although he does seem to have a habit of rattling the woodwork. In his previous seasons, he’d gotten just 4/35 shots on target which is kinda terrible. This season he’s at 6/21 with a couple of goals so it’s getting better. He’s also supplied three assists. Key thing here is that he’s now being deployed as a midfielder rather than a winger, where he’s more involved at starting moves rather than finishing them... clearly ideal for a guy who’s main problem is at finishing moves. Another example of Chiefy putting players in their best positions to succeed.
Wellington Phoenix Blokes Expected Goals:
Kosta Barbarouses – 7.1 xG | 10 goals | +2.9
Bozhidar Kraev – 4.9 xG | 5 goals | +0.1
Oskar Zawada – 3.3 xG | 5 goals | +1.7
Alex Rufer – 2.2 xG | 3 goals | +0.8
David Ball – 2.2 xG | 0 goals | -2.2
Nico Pennington – 2.0 xG | 1 goal | -1.0
Ben Old – 1.6 xG | 2 goals | +0.4
Tim Payne – 0.8 xG | 2 goals | +1.2
Weird stat: Every single one of Barbarouses’ goals this season have been scored without Zawada on the pitch.
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Meanwhile the Phoenix Women didn’t play because of the international window... which, you know, occurred one week after the Oceania Olympic Qualifiers. But what they did do was they had an intrasquad friendly against their reserves side. Big old team photo here-skees...
Could spend a good hour matching faces to names here to see which new players might have popped up but I shan’t do that because time is precious however I will just point out that this is the second time that Ela Jerez (originally from Whangarei, more recently with Western Springs, also NZ U16s) has been pictured at training with the Nix so it’s looking very much like she’s made that switch ahead of the U17 World Cup later in the year.
Jerez scored the winning goal in the Kate Sheppard Cup final last year as a 15 year old, going on to impress in her first National League campaign with three goals and two assists in seven appearances. She didn’t quite sneak into my Teams of the Season but probably would have if she’d played a couple more games. By the end of the term, she and Lara Colpi were running the show for Springs on attack which is incredibly encouraging for two current age grade internationals (Colpi will be at the U20 WC this year). Jerez is speedy and can beat a player for skill. She’s a tidy finisher. Switched on and direct.
Basically she’s one of Aotearoa’s best prospects and she’s found her way to the Wellington Phoenix like most of the rest of them. There are a few clubs doing great things on this side but they can’t offer what the Phoenix can offer which is a direct pathway to the pros. There are a few recent professionals who didn’t go through the Nix or the ALW or the USA college system (Emma Pijnenburg, Kiara Bercelli, Suya Haering)... but not a huge lot.
Hopefully the Auckland A-League side builds out a women’s academy that can compete, because the best players are going to go where the best environment is and right now that’s the Wellington Phoenix. Fair play. Of course, the next step is to start seeing some of these first teamers graduate onwards into Europe/American clubs. Milly Clegg has done so indirectly. Paige Satchell too, albeit she’d already played in Europe prior to the Nix so that doesn’t really count for this purpose. We shall see.
The blessed return of Trent Boult to the Blackcaps was very quickly blasphemed by them pesky Aussie top order hitters as his six overs across two T20Is at Eden Park combined for 0 wickets and 73 runs allowed (RPO of 12.17). Not exactly what we’d hoped for from a bloke who has kinda specifically focused on T20s over the last two years (ODI World Cup aside). But then that’s Eden Park for ya. A bunch of those boundaries were edges that flew away and he did still beat the bat several times.
Trent Boult Overall T20Is:
74 wickets at 23.24 average, 17.4 strike-rate, and 7.98 economy
Trent Boult in T20Is at Eden Park:
8 wickets at 42.50 average, 26.8 strike-rate, and 9.48 economy
Looking at the overall numbers for bowlers at Eden Park, Mitchell Santner (30.08 ave/8.08 econ) and Ish Sodhi (33.18 ave/8.79 econ) are also notably worse than their career averages in Auckland. But Lockie Feruson has taken 14 wickets in five games there, with an average of 7.00 and an economy rate of 5.82. He was brilliant in the second T20 before taking a rest in the third. Ben Sears also bowled really well in his opportunities. Sheer pace, apparently. That’s the trick.
Blackcaps vs Australia All-Time Records
Test Matches: 60 matches | 8 wins | 18 draws | 34 losses
Most Recent Test Win: Hobart in 2011 (1 draw, 7 defeats since)
One-Day Internationals: 142 matches | 39 wins | 96 losses | 7 no-results
Most Recent ODI Win: Hamilton in 2017 (6 defeats, 1 no-result since)
T20 Internationals: 19 matches | 5 wins | 13 losses | 1 tie
Most Recent T20I Win: Sydney in 2022 (3 defeats since)
Time for some tunes, and they don’t come much better…