Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarriooooooors
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarriooooooors
Warriors vs Sea Eagles, NRLW, Blackcaps in UAE, World Athletics Champs, Chatham Cup semis, World Cup crowds & more
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Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Patient & Tough vs Sea Eagles (Rugby League)
Thoughts And Reflections From The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (Football)
Here Are Six Future Football Ferns To Help Solve Our Goal Scoring Issues (Football)
First Impressions Of The Wellington Phoenix In Their Giancarlo Italiano Era (Football)
Forecasting The Blackcaps 2023 ODI World Cup Squad (Cricket)
10 Of The Best Emerging Wahine Cricketers In Aotearoa After The 2022/23 Season (Cricket)
2022/23 Ford Trophy: The Josh Clarkson Takeover And More Notes From The Final (Cricket)
2022/23 Plunket Shield: Central Districts Are Champions (Cricket)
27fm Weekly Playlist: August 21 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
There were a few thoughts that lingered from the NZ Warriors win vs Sea Eagles on Friday night. First is the 'Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarriooooooors' chant. Easily the best crowd chant New Zealand has and the organic nature of how it arises during a game is far funkier that ground announcers trying to generate noise.
Against Sea Eagles, the crowd started the ominous chant as Warriors began a defensive set deep in Sea Eagles territory. Beautiful. Sea Eagles were taking tough runs and with the crowd in full voice, it felt inevitable that every runner would be smashed by Warriors defence. Hopefully this continues and builds the mana of big home games at Mt Smart.
Throughout this run of wins, I've pondered the battle between simply getting wins vs playing impressive footy. For the third win in a row, Warriors struggled to find a groove and couldn't blow their opponent away as other top-tier teams have done. In previewing the Sea Eagles game, I highlighted that Sea Eagles are just as quirky and unpredictable as Titans and Tigers, so the niggly nature of Friday's game was expected.
Three wins in a row against Titans, Tigers and Sea Eagles don't smell like big games. Many assumed Warriors should cruise through this run into finals. They were all big games though and the atmosphere for all three games was palpable.
Defeating Titans in Gold Coast featured the second biggest crowd for Titans this season. 20,877 folks attended that game and any time the Titans announcer tried to generated noise, Warriors fans were louder. Titans vs Broncos got 26,563 earlier in the season and both these games featured Warriors/Broncos fans raising the attendance for Titans.
Defeating Tigers in Hamilton featured 25,118 folks in attendance. That is bigger than any crowd at Mt Smart this season. Let it simmer.
The biggest crowd at Mt Smart this season was the Sea Eagles game with 24,112 folks in attendance. Such hefty crowds raise expectation and Warriors have responded with gritty wins in Hamilton and Auckland especially. The quality of footy may not have been finals standard for these three games, but the atmosphere and buzz definitely has been. Warriors have been winning in such environments and this skews my approach towards good finals preparation (as opposed to playing stink footy and slipping up ahead of finals).
When Sea Eagles re-signed Josh Schuster a few months ago, his reported salary was put on a leaderboard alongside Marata Niukore by Australian media. As always, no one knows NRL salaries and media can make up these numbers without any fact checking. I remembered that as Schuster did nothing against Warriors and Niukore did plenty…
Josh Schuster: 25mins, 8 tackles @ 89%
Marata Niukore: 62mins, 1 try, 10 runs - 99m @ 9.9m/run, 3 tackle breaks, 27 tackles @ 96%
Schuster didn't register a run against Warriors and had two touches of the footy. Warriors folks know exactly what to expect from Niukore every week and this is amplified by his utility value as he can cover centre mid-game, even sliding into middle forward if required.
Warriors lost their NSW Cup game but three SG Ball players won the Fox Memorial Grand Final with Pt Chevalier. Harry Durbin (Pikiao) played middle forward and is less powerful than the other Warriors juniors, but he’s a big lad who looked comfy in a rugged grassroots final. Former St Peter's College 1st 15 players Etuate Fukofuka and Presley Seumanu played hooker and edge forward for Pt Chev.
Fukofuka continues to catch my eye with powerful running and excellent kicking. Seumanu is cut from the same cloth as Demitric Sifakula, Zyon Maiu'u, Leka Halasima and all young Warriors forwards as he is big, mobile and aggressive. All year we have tracked Warriors juniors in these newsletters and these young forwards are fabulous monsters to get excited about.
The Auckland Vulcans squad named for NZRL National Premiership features NZ Warriors SG Ball players Durbin, Seumanu, Makaia Tafua, William Piliu, Sefanaia Cowley-Lupo,
Warriors will also have Phranklyn Mano-Le-Mamea in the Counties Manukau squad for the NZRL National Premiership.
Knights have won seven games in a row and Leo Thompson is a consistent presence...
vs Bulldogs: 42mins
vs Tigers: 39mins
vs Storm: 49mins
vs Raiders: 48mins
vs Dolphins: 51mins
vs Bulldogs: 52mins
vs Rabbitohs: 50mins
Roosters have won three games in a row and Joseph Manu is on fire...
vs Sea Eagles: 1 try, 10 tackle breaks, 3 offloads, 155m
vs Dolphins: 1 try, 5 tackle breaks, 170m
vs Eels: 1 try assist, 6 tackle breaks, 3 offloads, 158m
Dylan Brown couldn't help Eels defeat Roosters but he rolled out an impressive performance: 13 runs - 163m @ 12.5m/run, 1 linebreak, 1 try assist, 4 tackle breaks, 1 offload, 32 tackles @ 89%. Here is how Brown's 2023 season compares to last year when Eels went to the GF with a small increase in try assists and a big increase in running metres..
2022: 0.5 tries (per game), 0.7 try assists, 0.5 linebreaks, 2.9 tackle breaks, 119m, 24.1 tackles, 1.6 missed tackles, 63.6 kicking metres
2023: 0.2 tries, 0.9 try assists, 0.5 linebreaks, 2.3 tackle breaks, 145m, 24.5 tackles, 1.8 missed tackles, 66.6 kicking metres
Will Warbrick and Greg Marzhew scored hat-tricks this round. Kawerau's Warbrick returned to the wing for Storm and played his 21st game of the season, his debut campaign. Mangere East junior Marzhew continues to shine after leaving Titans for Knights. Both have established themselves as starting wingers this year.
Greg Marzhew: 18 tries, 23 linebreaks, 154 tackle breaks, 200m/game
Will Warbrick: 15 tries, 1 try assist, 18 linebreaks, 50 tackle breaks, 132m/game
Wins for Roosters, Knights and Raiders take them to the top of the NRLW ladder. Dragons also had an epic comeback win over Tigers with another bonkers performance from Alexis Tauaneai. Dragons were down 16-6 to Tigers and it was tied at 16-16 with a minute to play, Dragons scored the winning try and Tauaneau played every minute, for the second game in a row. Tauaneai is already one of the best forwards in NRLW at 18-years-old in her first season...
52mins, 31 tackles, 124m
46mins, 30 tackles, 117m,
67mins, 34 tackles, 189m
74mins, 43 tackles, 175m
70mins, 33 tackles, 205m
Mya Hill-Moana returned for Roosters in their 30-8 win over Titans with 30mins, 11 runs - 95m @ 8.6m/run, 11 tackles @ 92%. Kiwi Fern Otesa Pule was immense once again with a try, 9 runs - 102m @ 11.3m/run, 2 linebreaks, 6 tackle breaks, 17 tackles @ 77%.
Teuila Fotu-Moala only had 2 runs - 18m @ 9m/run in 28mins, but held down the middle with 13 tackles @ 100%. Roosters don't lack powerful runners and there is scope for Fotu-Moala to zone in on her defence as the season builds.
Raiders defeated Eels 28-22 and Cheyelle Robins-Reti is my favourite low key NRLWahine, especially of the group who moved from rugby union to league. Robins-Reti scored her third try in five games with three try assists, four linebreaks and she has had at least four tackle breaks in every game. Robins-Reti is smooth with the footy and after missing three tackles in her first game, she hasn't missed more than one tackle in the next four games ... all while averaging 137m/game.
Full Raiders stat lines...
Apii Nicholls: 19 runs - 170m @ 8.9m/run, 1 try assist, 2 tackle breaks, 2 offloads, 3 tackle @ 60%
Madison Bartlett: 16 runs - 179m @ 11.1m/run, 1 try, 1 linebreak, 2 tackle breaks, 1 offload, 4 tackles @ 100%
Cheyelle Robins-Reti: 14 runs - 126m @ 9m/run, 1 try, 1 linebreak, 1 try assist, 6 tackle breaks, 10 tackles @ 83%
Kerehitina Matua: 8 runs - 65m @ 8.1m/run, 3 tackle breaks, 17 tackles @ 89%
Annessa Biddle and Harata Butler had a win with Sharks over Cowboys (40-12) while Knights defeated Broncos 22-20 with all sorts of NRLWahine flavour. Mele Hufanga was excellent again for Broncos but the centre spots for the Team of the Week go to Shanice Parker (Knights) and Robins-Reti. Annetta Nu'uausala made a powerful return for Broncos and earns TOTW selection ahead of Georgia Hale.
NRLWahine Team of the Week
Fullback: Apii Nicholls
Wingers: Madison Bartlett, Annessa Biddle
Centres: Cheyelle Robins-Reti, Shanice Parker
Halves: Raecene McGregor, Tyla Nathan-Wong
Middles: Alexis Tauaneai, Mya Hill-Moana, Annetta Nu'uausala
Edges: Otesa Pule, Kerehitina Matua
Hooker: Nita Maynard
Blackcaps won their T20I series against UAE with a win in the decider this morning. Don't stress about the loss in the second game as we keep saying that this is a 2.5 - maybe 3rd 11 group taking on UAE. Blackcaps won the series with that depth in action and it was interesting to see the debutants rolled out for a series decider, further building the pool of Blackcaps depth.
Here are the best Blackcaps from this series...
Best Batters
Mark Chapman: 129 runs @ 43avg/134sr
Tim Seifert: 75 runs @ 25avg/147sr
Will Young: 56 runs @ 56avg/122sr
James Neesham: 46 runs @ 23avg/118sr
Cole McConchie: 40 runs @ 40avg/105sr
Best Bowlers
Tim Southee: 6w @ 13.5avg/6.9rpo
Mitchell Santner: 4w @ 17.2avg/6.2rpo
Kyle Jamieson: 3w @ 24.3avg/7.5rpo
Ben Lister: 3w @ 25.3vg/8.4rpo
James Neesham: 2w @ 19.5avg/6.5rpo
Blackcaps context is all about ODI cricket heading into the World Cup. Assessing these performances requires that context and there is no better place to start than Mark Chapman. Chapman whipped up hype in a T20I series against Pakistan earlier this year and he is the best Blackcaps T20I batter in 2023 with 482 runs @ 53.5avg/145sr.
While Chapman has played 14 T20I games this year, he has just five ODI games with 118 runs @ 23.6avg/113sr. Good strike-rate that matches his T20I mahi, but I still find it hard to put Chapman in the World Cup mix based on his T20I role. Compare Chapman to Will Young, who only played the third T20I vs UAE and has an ODI record of 352 runs @ 58.6avg/90sr this year. Young's T20I record this year is far worse than Chapman's (94 runs @ 15.6avg/102sr).
Chapman is in the T20I squad to face England but not in the ODI squad. Young is in the ODI squad but not the T20I squad. Both are high quality batters and I still lean towards Young as a World Cup batter. I reckon Young is a better ODI batter than Chapman as well as suiting the needs of this Blackcaps group; Young can fill Kane Williamson's spot in the top-four and Glenn Phillips owns the middle order spot.
If Chapman kept bowling, that would boost his case with Michael Bracewell's injury. Chapman has never bowled in an ODI and his T20I bowling has slowly decreased with 10 overs in 2016, 3ov in 2021 and 1ov this year. This is aligned with Chapman's domestic cricket bowling where he didn't bowl in Ford Trophy and had 4ov in Super Smash last summer.
The bowler I'm pondering is Kyle Jamieson, who needs overs to seal a World Cup spot. Jamieson played all three games vs UAE and has not played an ODI this year. Jamieson is a far better ODI bowler (26.9avg) than T20Is (50.5avg) and snared a wicket in each of these games vs UAE, taking at least a wicket in five consecutive games. Tim Southee and Mitchell Santner were the only lads to bowl more than Jamieson and hopefully Jamieson continues to build on his current mahi, as well as his ODI career arc...
2020: 3w @ 31.6avg/4.7rpo
2021: 2w @ 45.5avg/3.5rpo
2022: 6w @ 18.3avg/4.8rpo
I'm working on women's domestic cricket power rankings. Below is a draft of the rankings that will be published this week with a deeper yarn. Each team is listed with their HBJ Shield/Super Smash placings from last summer...
Wellington (1st - Champions/1st)
Canterbury (2nd/3rd - Champions)
Otago (5th/2nd)
Auckland (4th/4th)
Northern Districts (6th/5th)
Central Districts (3rd/6th)
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
There’s a World Athletics Championships going on right now. Best of the best doing their thing one year out from the Olympics, hosted in Budapest, Hungary. We’re only a couple of days into the action so not too many of the 19 Aotearoa athletes in attendance have had their chance yet. Those that have... it hasn’t been amazing so far, gotta be honest.
Tiaan Whelpton ran a 10.26 second 100m in his heat and didn’t advance. Sam Tanner’s 1500m efforts took him past the first round but he topped out with an eighth place in his semi, missing the cut for the final. Georgie Beamish has progressed to the 3000m steeplechase with a second placed finish in his heat so that went swell. Hamish Kerr could have been a medal chance on recent form but he had a bad day in the high jump, failing to qualify for the final falling nine centimetres short of his outdoors personal best. Connor Bell missed the cut for the discus finals as well.
And while Tom Walsh and Jacko Gill cruised into the shot put final... they ended up fourth and sixth respectively. Walsh thus failed to add a third World Champs medal to his haul. That bloody Ryan Crouser did it again, overcoming blood clots in his leg to throw 1.2 metres beyond anyone else in the field. That man is unreal. Walsh’s best was his fifth effort of 22.05m. Seven centimetres short of a bronze medal.
None of the women’s field athletes have competed yet. Three ladies in the pole vault is defs one to keep an eye on. Zoe Hobbs made it through her 100m heat so that was cool. Rosie Elliot couldn’t do the same in the 400m though.
Last year saw the delayed 2021 event take place and Aotearoa got zero medals from 20 competitors with the best being a Tom Walsh fourth place... so this is about par for the course. We’ve had eight WAC medals in history, six golds and one each of the other two. Valerie Adams has five of those medals (4 goals, 1 silver) and Tom Walsh has two (1 gold, 1 bronze). The other was Beatrice Faumuina back in 1997.
Some World Cup crowd number stats from the Aotearoa games...
Funky note from the A-League offseason: Melbourne Victory just re-signed their women’s captain Kayla Morrison on a two-year deal, the first re-signing of their offseason. And in that announcement they confirmed that four players from last year’s squad remain under contract: Beattie Goad, Jessika Nash, Miranda Templeton... and Claudia Bunge.
So there you go, another kiwi locked in for the next ALW. Was kinda hoping that Bunge would be off to Europe next having more than established herself at this level already. And to be fair that could still happen. Transfer fees take care of contracts in a hurry and the English clubs in particular can certainly afford it (the biggest transfer fee in history is less than half a million British pounds – that was Keira Walsh’s move to Barcelona). But as it stands that’s one more Football Fern whose immediate future is sorted.
Remaining Football Ferns World Cup squad free agents...
Malia Steinmetz, formerly of Western Sydney Wanderers
Annalie Longo, free agent
Katie Bowen, formerly of Melbourne City
Hannah Wilkinson, formerly of Melbourne City
Indiah-Paige Riley, formerly of Brisbane Roar
Keep in mind that some of these players might be under contract like Bunge was and they just haven’t told anyone yet. Also still waiting to see Daisy Cleverley (HB Køge) and Olivia Chance (Celtic) pop back up at those clubs post-World Cup just for confirmation. But the signs do seem to suggest that they’ll be back.
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Weekly Domestic Football Roundup...
We have our Chatham Cup finalists. Christchurch United will face Melville United in the decider, with Chch Utd gunning for their seventh CC trophy overall – which would tie them for the most ever alongside University-Mount Wellington – however it’s the first time they’ve made the final since 1990. Melville have one prior win under the previous incarnation of Hamilton Technical Old Boys but did make the final as recently as 2019 when they were defeated 3-2 by Napier City. The Kate Sheppard Cup final will be between Western Springs and Wellington United.
Christchurch United scored twice inside 25 minutes of their semi-final against Eastern Suburbs. Matt Todd-Smith with a long ranger that might have been intended as a cross (13’). Then the prolific Sam Philip polishing off a Dan MacLennan assist at close range from a smooth counter attack (24’). Two early goals to get the home crowd rarked up. Eastern Suburbs have a hugely impressive team this year but if there’s one weakness it’s a lack of a gun striker. It took them until an own goal with ten minutes to play to hit back and then they ran out of time for a 2-1 defeat. Brilliant and committed effort from the Rams defence though. And still, even as we near the end of August, Christchurch United have yet to lose a game this year.
In the other game we got another home victor. Melville United vs Waterside Karori. Leo Villa put the visitors in front after only five minutes and that scoreline lingered for a very long time. But then Melville surged home under the Waikato lights in the last half hour with Jerson Lagos bagging a double and Jack McGovern popping up with another in between. Lagos’ first goal was a banger of a free kick from the edge of the box. He then got booked for running over to the crowd, grabbing someone’s hoodie, and putting it on. Full credit for originality. It was a more subdued celebration from him after his second goal, understandably. 3-1 to Melville the final score.
There were some fascinating Northern League results this week as well. Mostly down the bottom end. Manukau United were reduced to ten men away against Birkenhead in the midweek and conceded a 90th minute equaliser... only to score an even later winner in a 3-2 victory. Then we had Takapuna up 2-0 against Bay Olympic only to concede twice between the 80-82 minute marks... then they also produced a stoppage time winner in a 3-2 victory. Thrilling stuff. Manukau then lost 1-0 to Manurewa, Monty Patterson with the goal, on the weekend which means that Bay Olympic (-21 GD), Takapuna (-27 GD), and Manukau Utd (-32 GD) are all tied on 12 points with two games remaining and two of them to be relegated. Doesn’t get much closer than that.
Remaining games:
Bay Olympic: Hamilton Wanderers (A) & Manurewa (H)
Takapuna: Birkenhead (H) & West Coast Rangers (A)
Manukau Utd: Western Springs (H) & Auckland City (A)
Western Springs also slugged a 4-1 win against Auckland United on Friday night as both teams rolled out a bunch of academy players. That kept Springs alive in their hopes to join AUFC in the National League... but only until Manurewa’s win. Yep, National League footy is returning to South Auckland after many years (and many competition formats). Amazing run from Rewa immediately after getting promoted. To book their spot with two weeks to spare, even.
Meanwhile Auckland City won 2-0 against Hamilton Wands to edge closer to retaining their championship. Gerard Garriga with two goals, both in the last twenty minutes, to keep the Navy Blues in the box seat now five points clear of Eastern Suburbs who play their game in hand against Birko on Wednesday night. Guts to the Lilywhites who were beaten semi-finalists in both the Chatham and Kate Shep Cups.
There were no Central League games this week, but Cashmere Tech did win 3-1 against Nomads in the Southern League (and Green Island drew 1-1 with Dunedin City Royals) to at least keep come pressure on Christchurch United... but the Rams are still only one win away from defending their championship.
We also had some remarkable results in the NRFL Women’s Prem. The one that mattered most was Ellerslie riding a Britney Cunningham-Lee double to a 2-0 win away to Western Springs. Massive result for Ellerslie to keep them ahead of West Coast Rangers who beat Hibiscus Coast 5-1. It’ll come down to the final week of the season to determine who gets the final National League spot. Ellerslie are one point ahead of WCR so a win against Hibiscus Coast will get the job done. WCR play cellar dwellers Northern Rovers.
Speaking of which... commiserations to Rovers. As if this relegation season hadn’t been bad enough, having lost a coach and pretty much their entire first team since winning this league a year ago, they just got fustigated 19-1 by Eastern Suburbs over the weekend. At least they got the 1, right? Annie Byrne scored four times for Subs, Zoe Benson and Sophia Dyer each bagged three. There were doubles for Nicole Mettam, Deven Jackson, and Hayley Miller. In more reasonable action, Auckland United remain three points clear of Suburbs after a 2-1 win away to Hamilton Wanderers. They only need a draw next week against Western Springs to lift the title... although if they lose then Eastern Suburbs do now have the superior goal difference.
Pay attention to the Cashmere Technical vs Coastal Spirit derby next week in the Women’s South Island League because anything other than a Spirit win will clinch the inaugural title for Tech. Both those teams had big wins this week. Tech beat Universities 6-1 (doubles for Lisa Evans & Ella McKay) while Spirit won 8-0 vs Nelson Suburbs with Britney-Lee Nicholson scoring five.
And it’s even better in the Women’s Central League where the only game last week was a midweeker in which Wellington United were 2-0 up at half-time only to lose 3-2 at home to Petone. What that means is that Welly Utd face Waterside Karori in the final round and if they win then they lift the trophy. If they lose or draw then Waterside Karori get the treats.
Sweet mother of mercy, feast your earbuds upon this recent Osees concert from France…