Wonky Coverage
Finn Allen sluggery, Wellington Phoenix hype, Black Sticks plummet, Tall Ferns Olympic qualifiers, Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker & more
Podcast
Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Youtube
Reading Menu
2023/24 Super Smash Scout: Best Blackcaps & White Ferns (Cricket)
Digging Into the Wellington Phoenix Women’s Clunky Away Form (Football)
Flying Kiwis – January 16 (Football)
The Glorious Revival of Kosta Barbarouses at the Wellington Phoenix (Football)
Looking Back At New Zealand’s U17 World Cup Bronze Medallists, Five Years Later (Football)
27fm Weekly Playlist: January 19 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
Black Sticks Women failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics this week, despite dipping out of the FIH Pro League to focus on Olympic qualification.
While the men can still qualify, and play Great Britain on Sunday morning, they didn't have a choice about the Pro League as they were already relegated for 2024 (after results of 8th, 8th, 9th). Recent events have amplified the demise of New Zealand hockey and this is something I have been tracking closely since Aotearoa didn't win a Commonwealth Games medal in 2022 - the first time this has happened.
One thing that has stuck with me over the past few years of covering White Ferns and Black Sticks has been the wonky coverage of these teams compared to Football Ferns. Prior to the Women's World Cup, everyone was complaining about the Football Ferns for a variety of reasons and yet the FF were performing exactly how their standing in global football suggested they would. Somehow the best coach of these three teams (Jitka Klimkova) had more negative headlines about her than Bob Carter and Ben Sawyer for White Ferns, or Graham Shaw and Phil Burrows for BSW.
At this stage it's hard to ignore how the stink women’s teams are coached by blokes and the team punching above their weight is coach by a lady.
FF are no where near WF or Black Sticks Women (BSW) in my concern scale. FF never actually under-performed or 'failed' like WF did for ODI and T20 World Cups. BSW won a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2018 after finishing fourth in consecutive Olympics (2012 and 2016)… before no medal in the 2022 Com Games and not even qualifying for Paris Olympics.
Unlike FF, WF and BSW were among the best teams in the world for their respective sports. Remember the BSW/Mark Hager drama? The Hager era looks a lot better than how BSW have played under Phil Burrows - BSW are tough to watch let alone whether they win games.
Now there is a comprehensive map of how Black Sticks Hockey has fallen away and this reflects the state of hockey in Aotearoa. I'll keep my opinions to myself about hockey in NZ and instead let these results speak for themselves...
2018 Commonwealth Games: Men 2nd, Women 1st
2021 Tokyo Olympics: Men 9th, Women 8th
2022 Commonwealth Games: Men 5th, Women 4th (first time ever with no medals)
End of 2023: Men relegated from FIH Pro League, Women pull out to focus on Olympic qualification
2024 Junior World Cups: Men 0-3, Women 0-3
2024 Olympic Qualification: Women 1-2 and fail to qualify
Support The Niche Cache
Join the Patreon whanau or jam a paid Substack subscription for an extra podcast each week.
Make a sporadic donation through Buy Me A Coffee.
Tell a friend.
Lots of Blackcaps T20I stats below that are all prior to the fourth T20I vs Pakistan. First up is an overview of Devon Conway's form slump and while his ODI stats are good in 2023, they are split into two sections (up until his World Cup knock vs England and scores after that).
Devon Conway batting breakdown...
Test
2021: 63.16avg
2022: 49.92avg
2023: 32.46avg
ODI
2021: 75avg/88.23sr
2022: 28.57avg/66.22sr
2023: 45.61avg/98.79sr
2023 ODI Scores: 0, 101, 52, 10, 7, 138, 111*, 14, 9, 7, 152*, 32, 45, 20, 0, 28, 2, 35, 45, 13
T20I
2020: 58avg/151.3sr
2021: 47.55avg/135sr
2022: 47.33avg/122.41sr
2023: 13vg/108.95sr
2024: 9avg/112.5sr
Finn Allen is touching rare T20 strike-rate zones. Allen has the highest T20I strike-rate for all NZ batters with 100+ runs and he also has the highest T20 strike-rate for batters around the world with 3,000+ T20 runs. This is what makes Allen funky and when strike-rates are as high as Allen's, the number of deliveries doesn't matter as much because he's going to whack it around...
Highest T20I Batting Strike-Rates For NZ (100+ runs)
Finn Allen: 165sr
Craig McMillan: 159sr
Jimmy Neesham: 157sr
Colin Munro: 156sr
Aaron Redmond: 150sr
Glenn Phillips: 144sr
Hamish Rutherford: 143sr
Tim Southee: 141sr
Mark Chapman: 141sr
Highest T20 Batting Strike-Rates (3,000+ T20 runs)
Finn Allen: 3,122 runs @ 169sr
Andre Russell: 7,799 runs @ 167sr
Tim David: 4,057 runs @ 161sr
Will Jacks: 3,791 runs @ 157sr
Colin de Grandhomme: 4,110 runs @ 155sr
Glenn Maxwell: 9,458 runs @ 153sr
Suryakumar Yadav: 6,969 runs @ 152sr
A T20 bowling marker that I enjoy is the 20-20 pocket: averaging below 20 or at least hovering just above 20, with strike-rates below 20. Afghanistan's T20 wizard Rashid Khan has a T20I combo of 14.8avg/14.4sr and T20 combo of 18.3avg/17sr as a gauge of where the very best lads sit. The best Blackcaps T20 bowlers and lads who will probably form the T20 World Cup squad are all well positioned in the 20-20 stat measurement (in order of T20I wickets)…
Tim Southee 22.7avg/16.8sr
Ish Sodhi: 22.78avg/17sr
Mitchell Santner: 21.8avg/18.5sr
Trent Boult: 22.25avg/16.9sr
Adam Milne: 24.32avg/17.8sr
Lockie Ferguson: 20.66avg/15.9sr
Jimmy Neesham: 28.25avg/18.5sr
Michael Bracewell: 10.42avg/11.6sr
Doug Bracewell: 23.5avg/15.5sr
Here are the best Blackcaps T20I batters and bowlers since January 1st 2023...
Batting
Mark Chapman: 607 runs @ 37.9avg/141sr
Finn Allen: 458 runs @ 35.2avg/167sr
Tim Seifert: 432 runs @ 33.2avg/152sr
Daryl Mitchell: 402 runs @ 22.3avg/134sr
Glenn Phillips: 259 runs @ 21.5avg/125sr
Bowling
Tim Southee: 21w @ 16.6avg/7.6rpo
Adam Milne: 20w @ 20.7avg/9rpo
Ish Sodhi: 19w @ 26avg/7.8rpo
Mitchell Santner: 17w @ 21avg/6.7rpo
Jimmy Neesham: 11w @ 24avg/9.1rpo
Jimmy Neesham's updated mahi in SA20
Bat: 45 runs @ 15avg/118sr
Ball: 3w @ 20avg/8.5rpo
This is a calm phase before the rugby league storm with many junior squads yet to be announced. I've covered all sorts of NZ Warriors and Kiwi-NRL angles which is all laid out below in the mean time...
Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Aotearoa A vs Tonga A Breakdown
The Kiwi-NRL Juniors Who Helped Australian Teams Make Finals In 2023
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Learning From Josh Curran's Departure
How Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns Defeated Australia And Continue The Resurgence Of Wahine Rugby League
Some Of Best Kiwi-NRL Junior Big Boppers To Watch Out For In 2024
2023/24 Kiwi-NRL Train And Trial Breakdown
Aotearoa Kiwis & Kiwi-NRL Development Bumps For Naufahu Whyte, Wiremu Greig, Keano Kini
Onwards & Upwards For New Zealand Rugby League
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Six Sneaky Juniors To Learn About
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Signing Kurt Capewell & Depth Chart
Six Of The Best Kiwi-NRL Junior Halves In Australia For 2024
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Releasing Ronald Volkman & Updated Depth Chart
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Three Staples Of Warriors Footy For 2024
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Tall Ferns did something brilliant at the Asia Cup last year by making the semi-finals for the first time despite integrating a bunch of new players in the process. Here’s a round-up of all that. That top four finish was important for its own merit but it also had a further reward: a place in the Olympic qualifying tournaments. The Ferns last played at the Olympics in 2008... Suzie Bates was in that squad.
In a couple of weeks they’ll have the chance to get back there for 2024. They’re into the last sixteen remaining teams and to make it all the way they’ll need to finish in the top three of a group that also features France, China, and Puerto Rico. No easy task there as Aotearoa will be the lowest ranked team of that quartet. Although, France have already qualified as hosts so they’re just going through the motions. USA are the other team already booked for Paris 2024 on account of being the World Champs, so they’re also competing in this thing for no good reason (except game opportunities).
NZ’s mini-tournament is being held in China starting on Feb 8 local time. Effectively, they need to win one of three games to advance and it’ll probably have to be against Puerto Rico in the second game since China smashed up 80-46 in that Asia Cup and France aren’t much worse.
Back in November, coach Guy Molloy named a 16-player extended squad leading into these qualifiers:
Stella Beck, McKenna Dale, Tayla Dalton, Penina Davidson, Kendell Heremaia, Lauryn Hippolite, Charlisse Leger-Walker, Krystal Leger-Walker, Esra McGoldrick, Tera Reed, Zoe Richards, Sharne Robati, Ritorya Tamilo, Kalani Purcell, Tahlia Tupaea and Lauren Whittaker
Unfortunately there was news yesterday from the Melbourne Boomers that Penina Davidson, one of the few kiwis playing professionally, has picked up a groin strain that’ll rule her out until at least that FIBA window. Their words were that “she will be assessed for return to play” after that break. Which makes the prospect of her playing for the national team during that break rather slim, you’d imagine. If so, that’d be a massive loss for the Ferns, with Davidson’s size and rebounding so essential to what they do. She was part of the All Star Five for that Asia Cup quest.
There’s only one player whose absence would hurt more than Nina Davidson’s and that player, of course, is Charlisse Leger-Walker... but don’t panic because she’s already confirmed that Washington State Uni will release her for these games. Tayla Dalton is the other college student in that extended squad and Molloy told kiwi media a few weeks ago that she (and CLW) would be involved. St Mary’s Uni have also answered the call, shots to them. Alas, Tahlia Tupaea’s ongoing injury issues are unlikely to clear up in time while Kalani Purcell is still working her way back after giving birth.
It’s a 12-player squad that’ll travel to China and it seems like it’s basically already been picked. Three (potentially) unavailable players from that 16... unlucky to the one other person who misses out. You’d have assumed that 17yo Canterbury prospect Lauren Whittaker might have been that person but given her size (6’2) and the lack of depth behind Davidson in the centre position it looks like we’ll have a pretty exciting bolter in that group.
NZers in WNBL in 2023-24, Ranked By Minutes Played
Tera Reed (Melbourne Boomers) – 418 mins
Penina Davidson (Melbourne Boomers) – 225 mins
Esra McGoldrick (Bendigo Spirit) - 81 mins
Jade Kirisome (UC Capitals) - 25 mins
McKenna Dale (Bendigo Spirit) - 10 mins
Ritorya Tamilo (Bendigo Spirit) - 7 mins
It’s only really the two Boomers who are doing regular things, though that’s normal for kiwis in this league. In fact having six comrades in amongst it all is pretty unprecedented. Kirisome was born and raised in Oz and represented them at youth level, but both her parents are from New Zealand and her brother played for the Tall Blacks while she herself played Tauihi last season. She was a late addition to the UC Capitals roster, possibly as an injury replacement for another Aussie-raised NZ prospect: Tahlia Tupaea. That happened after that Tall Ferns squad was named, not sure if Kirisome has actually committed to playing for the Tall Ferns but FIBA’s website classes her under the NZ flag while Basketball NZ seem to be claiming her too.
An update on Tera Reed’s three-point shooting: she’s settled into a solid 46% range, making 18/38 overall as it stands. Now only the second-best percentage in the league (of anyone with at least 10 attempts) with Cassandra Brown hitting 23/44 for 52.3%. Still pretty outstanding though. Especially for a player whose main scoring tends to come from her cuts to the rim. She’ll be a crucial player in the Olympic qualifiers, same as she was at the Asia Cup. Also gonna need McKenna Dale to fill the Tupaea void as that additional scorer.
The Wellington Phoenix hombres take on Melbourne Victory tonight in a top of the table clash. Big deal areas, massive game. Nix GM David Dome is out there on a tirade about the lack of media coverage, going with the angle of: well, y’all did it for the Warriors so what about us?
All I can say is that our Welly Nix content gets great views comparative to other topics. If you build it they will come. The HeNix are twelve games into a sudden and incredible revival and a good result against the Victory will gather even more momentum. But remember the Warriors bandwagon was based on their run into the finals and the Welly Nix are not even halfway through their ALM season. You can’t manufacture hype. It has to grow naturally, the modern audience has been exposed to way too much artificial stuff so we’ve all got finely tuned cringe-meters.
Also might just add that the Warriors regularly got 20-25k home crowds last season. I’m not sure the football community is as good at rallying around our folks, outside of national team games. The Nix are averaging 6,624 attendance this season with a peak of 8327 against Melbourne City and that, ironically, was at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland where the Warriors play. Like, we love the Nix but there isn’t as much scope for full-on national bandwagon status here as with the Warriors. But ticket sales have been great for tonight’s game so fingers-cross for 10k+ because this team deserves it.
Macey Fraser has taken 37 shots this season, fourth most in the entire A-League Women’s. She’s gotten 19 of those on target with two goals to show for it. Great accuracy but I’m guessing a lot of those were straight at the keeper. Fraser is superb at creating space to shoot, but in her first season as a pro she’s still learning how to get that consistency – though we’ve seen what she’s capable of with the two that she scored.
Thing is, those 37 shots have added up to just 1.5 expected goals. She’s actually ahead of expectations with two goals from 37 attempts. The average distance from goal of those shots is 26.5 yards which is top ten overall in the ALW and a full five yards further back of anyone else with multiple goals. She shoots a lot and she shoots from outside the penalty area. Low-percentage attempts that perhaps her team are leaning on a little too much at the moment. Not that we want Fraser to stop shooting, just that we need to see more variety around her. One of the notes I made in my Away Day Malaise article yesterday was how Mariana Speckmaier shoots considerably less in away games (probably due to poorer service rather than hesitancy).
The Blackcaps are also on tonight, clashing with the Phoenix, and here’s something to pay attention to:
Most Runs in a 5-Match T20I Series (All Countries)
Phil Salt (ENG vs WI 2023) - 331 runs
Mark Chapman (NZ vs PAK 2023) – 290 runs
Rameesh Satheesan (ROM vs MAL 2023) – 256 runs
Quinton de Cock (SA vs WI 2021) – 255 runs
Paul Stirling (IRE vs ZIM 2021) – 234 runs
Shout out to Mark Chapman for that tour to Pakistan last April in which he was utterly incredible but because it was an away series nobody seems to remember it. He was the Blackcaps top scorer in T20s last season! Also an acknowledgement that five-game T20I series aren’t all that common. But here’s the kicker: Finn Allen has 245 runs after three games. He could not play the next two and still crack the top five. But this jerry better be gunning for tahi... 87 runs required from two innings. Fifteen more sixes will do the trick.
One other interesting aspect of Finn Allen’s T20I stuff:
Batting First: 28 INN | 844 RUNS | 5 50+ | 30.14 AVE | 174 SR
Batting Second: 10 INN | 181 RUNS | 1 50+ | 18.10 AVE | 133 SR
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
It turns out we didn’t give Stoke City enough credit because not only did they announce the Scott Morris transfer after all (albeit after he’d already featured in a matchday squad with the reserves) but they threw a few nuggets into the announcement too. First was that the deal was listed in the First Team section of their website. Second is that the deal is until the end of the 2024-25 season.
Those are crucial points because he’s already 22 years old so he can’t just hang around the U21s forever... but apparently they have bigger plans for him. And you can believe that because on the day this was announce they also chucked up a training compo vid on their YouTube which you can spot Morris several times (especially in the last few minutes where they play a small sided game and then do some finishing). He makes a couple of ripping saves in amongst. What initially looked like a great wee development opportunity for the best goalie in the National League last year now turns out to be one of the biggest moves of this entire transfer window. That’s what we love to see.
Follow ups here on a couple of players to watch as mentioned on Monday. Jamie Searle’s potentially a loan possibility after Forest Green Rovers brought in Tommy Simkin on loan from Stoke City (helping clear the path for Scott Morris, coincidentally... note that Morris is also now managed by Ben Waine’s old Plymouth boss Steven Schumacher who got headhunted by the Potters). It might be that nothing happens on this front. We shall see. But FGR did sack manager Troy Deeney this morning... after less than a month in charge. Probably didn’t help his cause when he ripped into his players, including a few of them by name, in a post-game interview. Lost the dressing room and his job within 29 days. That’s quite an effort.
The other one is Tyler Bindon and if that FGR situation sounds like a mess then take a peek at Reading Football Club, ladies and gentlemen. Their last fixture was abandoned after hundreds of fans protested on the pitch mid-game. Their absentee foreign ownership has left the club in massive debt, which has led to multiple points deductions across the past season and a half. They needed a loan from sponsors to pay the November salaries. They can only train for limited time with the underground heating on at their own complex. The upper level of their training ground clubrooms don’t have heating at all, which some suspect is deliberate. Their caterers now only work on matchdays so medical staff are sourcing/supplying food during the week. And that might be a good thing because the women’s team got food poisoning at their last aftermatch function and have had to postpone their next game.
Bottom line of that is: Reading are in a position where they need to sell players. Luckily they’ve cultivated a solid crop of exciting youngsters who should be able to draw in fees. Already Tom Holmes and Nelson Abbey have had bids accepted from Luton Town who are currently a Premier League club, though likely to be relegated. The Holmes deal has been confirmed while Abbey has yet to make up his mind about the deal (Abbey shares an agent with Bindon). Holmes was immediately loaned back to Reading for the rest of the term.
Both of them are defenders, which specifically affects Bindon’s game time... but Bindon is also one of those who could be sold. Very intriguing to see that a Prem club is lurking around, that gives some idea as to what the ceiling for a Bindon transfer could be. Also likely to be sold is Welsh midfielder Charlie Savage (son of Robbie) who has exclusively played off the bench since November because one more league start will trigger a £2k/month payrise for the 20yo. Suffice it to say that this is a sinking ship that we’d kinda like to see Tyler Bindon escape (while acknowledging that these shenanigans are also what allowed him his opportunity in the first place).
Nobody hits the trial circuit more diligently than Kees Sims. Last offseason he spent time with Lilleström SK (Norwegian top tier), Leicester City (English top tier, at the time), Nottingham Forest (English top tier), and Coventry City (English second tier). This offseason he’s had a go with GAIS (Swedish top tier) and Hobro IK (Norwegian second tier) and is now on trial with Örgryte IS (Swedish top tier). Sims is still under contract with Ljungskile SK (Swedish third tier) where he has been their number one keeper for two years already despite not turning 21 until March.
Not all of those trials were necessarily with an intention of earning a transfer. The Premier League ones in particular felt more like professional development experiences, though it’s all still good networking. These latest ones have more of a sense of tangible transfer possibility. He’s one of several players from lower divisions that OIS currently have training with them in the hopes of earning a move. This is their coach having a yarn about the strategy...
Andreas Holmberg: “We get as many tips as we can and then go in and see what they look like. Those who are most interesting may then come here and trial – that’s the way we do it.”
It’s also been stated publically that Ljungskile are cutting their budget this year and wish to sell players. Sims signed a three-year contract in September 2022 so that presumably expires either this year or next year. Either way, he’s probably not signing another one so now is a decent time to cash in. LSK had three kiwis on the books last season. Oli Fay and Otto Ingham didn’t play nearly as much as Sims but they had their moments. Alas, Oli Fay is now back at Auckland United. Ingham had one more year on his contract but seems to have been released anyway – possibly a club option that got declined.
Still waiting on any decent USA college grad news... though it seems Maggie Jenkins is going back to UC Florida for one last season so she won’t be part of any of that wave. She’s done four years already but the start of that was covid-affected so she’s allowed another year of eligibility. Her last season was by far her best, playing more minutes than her previous three years combined, so it makes sense that she’d want to build upon that.
Elliot Collier has signed with Indy Eleven, keeping him in the American USL (effectively their second tier). Collier played at Indy Eleven a few years ago on loan from Chicago Fire while he was still in the MLS. Collier has bounced around a bunch of USL clubs since then, including winning the championship with San Antonio in 2022 where he played off the bench in the final. He’s also played for Memphis 901 and San Diego Loyal. All up we’re talking 13 goals & 4 assists in 83 USL appearances. He’s probably not getting back into All Whites squads from this level but he deserves to find a club that’ll actually back him as a regular starter rather than being in and out all the time, as has been the case for the last several seasons.
As things stand, James Musa (Colorado Springs), Moses Dyer (FC Tulsa), and Kyle Adams (Louisville City) are the other NZers locked on for the USL Championship 2024 edition. But Auckland United announced a bunch of first team departures this morning and one of those was Xavier Green who is heading back to the USA (where he previously did the NCAA thing) to trial with some USL clubs.
AUFC’s other departures are Mack Waite (unknown), Josh Redfearn (Aussie NPL), Nico Zambrano (moved to Queenstown), Noah Billingsley (gone back to Christchurch), Yousif Al-Kalisy (moved to Dubai mid-National League), Sione Fa’apoi (Aussie NPL2), Dre Vollenhoven (Aussie NPL2), Fumiya Ito (gone back to Japan), Everton O’Leary (returning to Birkenhead after his NL loan). Lots of turnover there but it looks like they’ve signed Ryan De Vries to make up for it so... yeah.
Now here’s a tune that’s been stuck in my head literally all week, it’s brilliant, hope youz all have a spiritually profitable weekend…