Whipped Into A Frenzy
Aotearoa hockey vibes, Welly Nix Australia Cup lessons, White Ferns evolution (or lack thereof), Joseph Parker's next bout, plus Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
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Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Alfred Smalley's Sea Eagles Debut (Rugby League)
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Deine Mariner's Broncos Debut (Rugby League)
How’s That Wellington Phoenix Wahine Squad Coming Together For Season Two? (Football)
Flying Kiwis – August 2 (Football)
Best Pay Attention To This Aotearoa U20 Women’s World Cup Team (Football)
The Quotable Steven Adams: 2021-22 Edition (Basketball)
Don’t Look Now But Maybe, Just Maybe, The Breakers Are Starting To Turn Things Around (Basketball)
Recapping Some Quality Tall Blacks Shenanigans at the 2022 Asia Cup (Basketball)
2022 Domestic Cricket Contracts: Wellington Firebirds (Cricket)
2022 Blackcaps Tracker: Another Michael Bracewell Yarn (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
All Aotearoa hockey drama has revolved around Black Sticks women in recent years and as weird as that phase of drama was, the wahine are far more solid than the blokes right now. Black Sticks women won their last pool game 4-1 against South Africa at the Commonwealth Games and now have a fabulous semi-final lined up against England early Saturday morning. Black Sticks men on the other hand had a 3-4 loss to South Africa to knock them out of the medal mix and they face Wales to suss out 5th/6th.
The blokes have been struggling for a while and I keep sliding back to the Mark Hager dramas from a few years ago that were conveniently whipped up by hockey-adjacent media. The women's team have struggled to reach Commonwealth Games gold medal heights since that 2018 event, but they have maintained a steady level of performance across major tournaments and the FIH Pro League. Both teams struggled at the Olympics last year and, as much of this went down in the pandemic, I was curious how both teams would emerge back into the international hockey schedule.
While all the attention was on the women's team, their results stayed steady and have been better than the blokes. No one seems to care about a lacklustre men's hockey team though and after finishing 8th (last) in their first two Pro League campaigns, they finished 9th at the Olympics and now have their worst Commonwealth Games tournament since finishing 5th at the 2006 event.
There were warning signs in the game against Scotland, which finished as a draw but the kiwis needed a second half comeback for their 5-5 result. According to the Hockey NZ archives, Aotearoa last lost to South Africa in 2003 and that was a 2-2 draw before SA won via penalty strokes. These are the only losses to SA on record.
Against Scotland and South Africa, Aotearoa men conceded 9 goals. Never heard of that before in kiwi hockey and obviously signals poor defence.
Black Sticks women never gave off a stinky vibe during their dramas. Whatever issues they had didn't have an obvious impact on performance and issues came from players from outside the main playing core. There's a stinky vibe with the blokes team right now as basic skills are lacking, as well as Aotearoa's best hockey players. This is similar to White Ferns stuff below as it's hard to hold any expectations for Black Sticks when the best hockey players are not in the squad and there is little incentive for those players to pursue international hockey for Aotearoa.
So many factors play their part in the decline of Black Sticks men and it's baffling that they won't be competing for a medal. Hockey's international growth is an exciting wrinkle and things could get messier for Black Sticks men if they continue to struggle, while a bunch of teams rise up.
However that plays out, it's interesting how the public drama around Black Sticks women whipped folks into a frenzy while the decline of Black Sticks men has crept under the radar.
Black Sticks women defeated England at the World Cup and now face them in the semi, on English turf. This makes for an enticing contest and the basic premise of a gritty Aotearoa defensive unit combined with speed/flair in attack will be on display for the wahine. If Aotearoa can defeat England, they could face Australia (vs India in the other semi-final) and while Aotearoa haven't defeated Australia in a bunch of games over the past few years, they have many draws and losses by one goal. Get past England and present a super niggly challenge to Australia.
I can share optimistic vibes about Black Sticks women vs England and Australia. Optimism is lovely, however it's irrational to suggest that White Ferns would sneak past England and be niggly opponents for Australia. Black Sticks have proven themselves to at least challenge England and Australia, White Ferns have done nothing to suggest they can compete at that level.
The chasm of class between Aotearoa and England was on display this morning as the White Ferns managed 71/9 batting first, while England chased that target down in 11.4 overs losing only 3 wickets.
Again, this is not a collection of Aotearoa's best wahine cricketers. Hence such a result is to be expected against some of the best players in the world and any cricket fan would be baffled at some of the White Ferns stats from their elongated woes. Australia are cricketing monsters and the only way Aotearoa can win against Australia is via Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr excellence.
That's been the White Ferns problem throughout their woes though. The best teams in the world have sharper plans to deal with the batting/bowling prowess of those three. The likes of England and Australia know that there aren't many runs in the rest of the batting line up (all of whom average below 20 in T20 cricket), while they can sit on Kerr's leggies or Devine's seam and smack the other bowlers around.
Australia don't get upset by underdogs too often, hopefully Aotearoa performs better than they did this morning. The White Ferns vibe is all about a new era and young players so keep that in mind. I am pondering how that looks this summer when young White Ferns are being dominated in domestic cricket by players overlooked for selection.
Blackcaps defeated Netherlands in the first T20I with another game coming tomorrow morning. Lots of runs and wickets are flowing against a weaker opponent, with a more interesting series against West Indies set to start next Thursday. That leaves space to reflect on individual mahi from the entire European tour for 1st 11 T20I lads and those further down the depth chart, while the squad to tour West Indies is sharpened towards the T20 World Cup.
If you haven't cared much about Blackcaps cricket in recent weeks, all good - now is the time to tap back in. Commonwealth Games will be finished and a phase of cricket where roughly 30 blokes have played for Blackcaps across the various formats will come to an end. This West Indies tour will provide more insights about team combos etc for the T20 World Cup and for blokes like Michael Bracewell this will be a crucial series to compete for 1st 11 spots.
A low key nugget that I haven't seen elsewhere...
Josh Aloiai was one of the Sea Eagles players who rejected the rainbow jersey and his brother Ethan was the guy who wore a MAGA hat to the Auckland racism protests back in 2020.
Kiwi-NRL Hookers from Auckland named in Queensland/NSW Under 21s this round...
Wynnum: Braydon Seu-Easthope (Otahuhu)
Burleigh: Vaka Sikahele (Manurewa)
Roosters: Benaiah Ioelu (named on bench - Howick)
Dragons: Navajo Doyle (bench - Papatoetoe)
Raiders: Sione Moala (Manurewa)
Kiwi-NRL Hookers who are also smaller middle forwards named in NRL this round...
Storm: Brandon Smith (bench - Waiheke Island)
Titans: Erin Clark (Manurewa)
Rabbitohs: Siliva Havili (bench - Manurewa)
Warriors: Taniela Otukolo (bench - Otahuhu)
Bulldogs: Jeremy Marshall-King (Whakatane), Zach Dockar-Clay (bench - Bell Block Marist)
Tigers: Fa'amanu Brown (Hornby)
Wildcard’s Notebook
Good yarns in the Australia Cup (formerly known as the FFA Cup) for the Wellington Phoenix. In the traditional first game of the season - which happens closer to the start of preseason than the actual A-League season - they rolled out to a 4-0 win over NPL team Devonport City Strikers. There were some slippery moments early on as they were fortunate not to concede first but once Ben Waine struck in the ninth minute they settled down and bossed things.
It was quite awhile before they scored a second goal, yet the Nix were dominant. 77% possession and 21 total shots (with 12 on target). Eventually Oskar van Hattum flicked one in off his head from a lovely Clayton Lewis cross on 61’. Then three mins later Waine-o bagged another and then debutant import Bozhidar Kraev popped one in from a corner kick with quarter of an hour to go. Four goals, sweet as.
That comfort allowed them to run some subs towards the end. Riley Bidois came on for a dozen minutes, carrying on his momentum from the end of last season. Then very late on we saw debuts for both Marco Lorenz (at right back) and Noah Karunaratne (left wing). Two blokes who weren’t a part of the first team last season but have been going good in the Central League by all accounts, the best academy system in the A-League continuing to churn out the talent.
Didn’t get a major glimpse of what Kraev can offer here. He looks like a dude willing to take a creative risk. A bit more technical than guys like Piscopo or Sandoval were but also without the same pace and directness of those guys. Different sort of player. We’ll get a better understanding of his game when we see him play against a stronger opponent for a longer period of time... lovely to see him on the scoresheet nice and early though. Always helps when settling in.
Kosta Barbarouses didn’t score but he was excellent. One of the best on the park for the Nix (along with Sam Sutton IMO), beautifully setting up Ben Waine’s first goal. His movement is so good and he seemed to link well with Waine up front. The more understanding that Kosta gets alongside his new teammates the more effective he’s gonna be so don’t bother with any worries about him flopping like he arguably did last time he came back to the club. Fun fact: Ben Waine has more Welly Nix appearances than Kosta Barbarouses and twice as many goals.
Pretty strong team that Ufuk Talay picked. Weirdly he was without new signings Steven Ugarkovic and Lucas Mauragis as they were cup tied from playoff games that took place at the end of last season when they were still with other clubs. Strange scheduling there. David Ball and Ben Old also missed this game with injury. Alex Rufer too, of course, who is out for the long term.
So with that in mind, it was more or less full strength. Here’s the line-up...
Oli Sail | Callan Elliot (Marco Lorenz 89’), Tim Payne, Scott Wootton, Sam Sutton | Josh Laws (Bozhidar Kraev 68’), Nick Pennington | Clayton Lewis, Oskar van Hattum (Noah Karunaratne 89’) | Kosta Barbarouses, Ben Waine (Riley Bidois 77’)
Unused Subs: Alex Paulsen, Finn Surman, Jackson Manuel
Callan Elliot got first shout at right back. Tim Payne played the bulk of games there last season with Elliot missing a decent chunk of things through injury and illness and therefore not really getting any momentum. Louis Fenton also fell out of favour and has since retired (from ALM level at least). Payne and Wootton is the best CB combo available right now yet that does leave the RB role pretty skint outside of Elliot.
Note that Jack-Henry Sinclair trialled with the Nix for a while there but they chose not to sign him. Does make you wonder if Payne will end up back at RB come the regulars. I did like what Callan did here though, especially showing an intention to take defenders on and get in behind.
Finn Surman started the final eight games in a row of last season but he was an unused sub here with Payne sliding into the middle. Also Josh Laws missed the second half of last season having been a top choice CB until then... he was chosen in the midfield here. Good to see him get a chance in what’s probably his best position albeit I’m not sure that he and Nick Pennington is a duo to persevere with. Each is a little too error prone, maybe not quite assertive enough.
Not that I expect either to be first choice, to be fair. Clayton Lewis started as the right sided ten here while Ugarkovic was unavailable (and Rufer too). They’re the main men in the middle. If we end up with Laws and Pennington starting together then the injury crisis must have reared its ugly head again.
Lewis was decent at RAM but when Kraev came on for Laws with about a quarter of the game remaining that saw Lewis drop back into midfield. Immediately there was a ramp up in Nix control. Wouldn’t have thought it when he first signed with the club but clearly that’s his best position.
Interesting to see what happens with the front four between now and the start of the season. Waine and Barbarouses had a tidy combination going. Barbarouses is surely gonna be a starter while Waine will hope he’s put a solid case forward with a brace here – at this stage of his career he’ll want to be starting a lot more than not.
But also David Ball has to get in there somewhere (ideally as a right winger) and chances are there’s a Gary Hooper replacement to follow. That’ll be Waine’s main competition. Not sure you can start Barbarouses, Ball, Kraev, etc. all together without a true goal scorer to complement their creativity - otherwise it’s too many second options and no firsts. Probably gonna be an import on the way to help solve that issue though and that’s where Waine’s up against it.
Joseph Parker’s finally announced a date for his bout with Joe Joyce. It’s been a fight that both dudes have been circling for a long time and finally it’s been confirmed for Saturday September 24 in Manchester... which will be late Sunday morning NZT. Joyce is the number one contender for the WBO and Parker is the second ranked contender for that belt so there’s a more than useful chance that the winner of this could put themselves in the frame to fight the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua rematch next up.
On that note, cool story about Usyk recently. He wanted the people of his native Ukraine to be able to watch the fight free of charge so he tried to buy the television rights with his own money. When that happened, the Saudi Arabian organisers instead simply gave them to him. Hence it’ll be free to air in Ukraine.
Curious to see that Parker’s being promoted by BOXXER now, a British up-and-comer agency whose other heavyweight reps include Hughie Fury and Frazer Clarke. Parker split with Eddie Hearn via mutual desire after his last fight (Chisora II) and has now ended up with an objectively less powerful representative... but the main difference is that he’s the main man at BOXXER. He’s the top heavyweight on their books by a long distance whereas with Hearn’s Matchroom it never felt like his career was the priority for them. Matchroom being all about Anthony Joshua, with a bit of Dillian Whyte and Oleksandr Usyk also in the mix.
Joyce is a 36 year old Englishman. Stands at 6’6 and has a 14-0 professional record (13 KOs) after having won silver at the 2016 Olympics. His first pro fight was in October 2017 so he’s going to have had fifteen fights in five years after the Parker bout and that’s despite the pandemic.
Joyce has got some real momentum lately having beaten a bunch of relatively well known names. His last four wins were against Michael Wallisch, Daniel Dubois, Carlos Takam, and Christian Hammer all by knockout, having won a unanimous decision against Bryant Jennings prior to that. Takam is the one foe that he and Parker have in common although there were five years between those bouts and Takam was 40yo when he took on Joyce (a sixth round knockout).
Martin Guptill is on the verge of becoming the all-time leading run scorer in T20 internationals. With a cheeky (and kinda patient) 45 against the Netherlands this morning he’s now only 10 runs behind Rohit Sharma – who had been playing recently himself as India tour the West Indies, however he had to retire hurt with back spasms in the third T20.
Rohit Sharma – 3454 RUNS | 123 INNS | 32.28 AVE | 139.83 SR
Martin Guptill – 3444 RUNS | 113 INNS | 23.49 AVE | 136.23 SR
Virat Kohli – 3308 RUNS | 91 INNS | 50.12 AVE (!) | 137.66 SR
Paul Stirling – 2912 RUNS | 107 INNS | 29.41 AVE | 135.12 SR
Aaron Finch – 2855 RUNS | 92 INNS | 35.24 AVE | 145.29 SR
Guptill has the chance to surpass Sharma in the second T20I, and it he doesn’t then he’ll soon have three T20s in the West Indies to take care of that record instead. However with a T20 World Cup to be held in a few months every team is playing a heap of matches in the format. Sharma will have the Asia Cup later in August to do his darnedest in response. Chances are this is a record that seesaws a couple times over the rest of the year.
Then eventually Babar Azam is just gonna go past all of them.
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
Elijah Just’s move to Horsens has been confirmed. He leaves FC Helsingør after 73 appearances across the bulk of three seasons. Just has signed a four year contract with Horsens through until June 2026, presumably with a transfer fee going the other way given he only signed a new deal with FCH a year ago.
This got more of a write-up in Flying Kiwis this week. Basically it feels like Just has gotten out at a good time and that this is a timely and progressive step in his career. However it does leave you wondering whether Callum McCowatt might find his way out the Helsingør door soon himself... although CMC did score in a cup victory during the midweek, his first game after the bro Eli was sold.
Elsewhere gotta shout out a contract extension for Abby Erceg at North Carolina Courage. A two-year addition with an option for a third year, which should take her through until she turns 35yo. Erceg captains NCC and has been there since day one bossing that defensive line. Heaps of their best players have left over the last two years but Erceg has continually reasserted her commitment to the club and now here that is in writing. Erceg is at home in North Carolina. She’s gonna keep playing there as long as she can. Before this season is done she’ll surely become the first New Zealander to play 150 games in the NWSL (playoffs inclusive).
Had been trying to avoid presumptions about Olivia Chance at Celtic this season. With Meikayla Moore signing with Glasgow City and Vic Esson with Rangers there was the possibility of a triple-pronged title race with each team featuring a New Zealander... but couldn’t jump aboard that train until it was clear that Liv Chance was coming back for year two with the Hoops. She hadn’t been part of any of their preseason stuff and contract details are often impossible to find with women’s footy. An extended offseason break after international duty? Or a free agent looking elsewhere? Well, happy to report that as of this week she’s popped back up in training with Celtic ahead of the start of the new season. The triple-pronged title race is going full steam ahead.
And that’s about all there is for today. The Transfer Tracker seems to be losing a bit of momentum but there are still a few folks on the holdout. Heard nothing of Winston Reid for a while. He’s now closing in on a full year without a club. Joey Champness is another whose been on the lookout for a new gig and at some point Ryan Thomas will be fit enough to move on to his next gig. Claudia Bunge was linked with a WSL move a month ago and now that the Euros are over hopefully that’s something that could move forward.
Of the rest of the kiwis in the A-League Women’s last season we’re also yet to hear about new deals for Hannah Wilkinson, Marisa van der Meer, Malia Steinmetz, Kelli Brown, Ava Pritchard, Saskia Vosper, Grace Wisnewski, Zoe McMeeken, Te Reremoana Walker, and Charlotte Lancaster. Also Rosie White is another whose been out of the club game for a wee while. She had that illness last year which disrupted her career. She also has a few impressive things going on outside of football so dunno where she’s at.