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Kiwis dominating NRL Finals & NRLW, Aotearoa in the Diamond League, Welly Nix Women depth chart, Blackcaps notes & wicket-takers, and more
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Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Floating On A Mt Smart Vibe (Rugby League)
2023 Men’s National League Season Preview (Football)
2023 Women’s National League Season Preview (Football)
Christchurch United Are Chatham Cup Champions For 2023 (Football)
Western Springs Are Kate Sheppard Cup Champions For 2023 (Football)
Flying Kiwis – September 13 (Football)
Scotty’s Word
When NZ Warriors were struggling in the pandemic era, I pondered how Warriors did not represent the state of rugby league in Aotearoa. Warriors are now thriving and I'm keeping to this tune. The buzz around Warriors footy is palpable and the bandwagon continues to gain momentum, yet this is merely a piece of the rugby league puzzle. Rugby league fans in Aotearoa are hungry and like Ali Leiataua said before his debut for Warriors - "let's eat".
The Niche Cache documents this on our website and through these newsletters. Fresh additions feature Will Warbick's game-winning try for Storm against Roosters. This is Warbrick's first year of NRL footy and his unique background of dabbling in AFL footy while in NZ was on show as he leaped up to snatch the footy away from Fetalaiga Pauga.
Two of the most important players for Storm are from Wellington. The Storm forward pack needs Nelson Asofa-Solomona on the field to dominate the middle and while they defeated Roosters without Jahrome Hughes, they won't win without him against Panthers. All four teams left in NRL Finals have at least three Aotearoa Kiwis/Kiwi-NRL players and Warriors success stems from kiwi lads...
Aotearoa Kiwis/Kiwi-NRL Players Remaining in NRL Finals
Panthers: James Fisher-Harris, Moses Leota, Scott Sorenson
Broncos: Jordan Riki, Jesse Arthars, Xavier Willison, Deine Mariner
Storm: Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Jahrome Hughes, Will Warbrick, Reimis Smith, Alec MacDonald
NZ Warriors: Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Adam Pompey, Rocco Berry, Te Maire Martin, Shaun Johnson, Marata Niukore, Tohu Harris, Jazz Tevaga, Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale, Ed Kosi, Ali Leiataua, Demitric Sifakula, Kalani Going, Paul Roache
Meanwhile in NRLW there are players dominating in their first NRL season like Warbrick, many of whom have recently left Black Ferns/Sevens. Mele Hufanga's move to league saw her shine as one of the best players at the World Cup last year, in her first dose of international rugby league. Hufanga is now second for tries, first for linebreaks and third for tackle breaks in her first season of NRLW.
Annessa Biddle is second for post contact metres in her first season of NRLW. Biddle is joined by Shannon Mato as the only players with 600+ PCM and Mato is a prop. I've yarned about Alexis Tauaneai all year and the 18-year-old averaged 148m/game with 96% tackling in her first NRLW season. Tauaneai finishes as the busiest tackler for Dragons despite missing the last two games.
Kerehitina Matua finished second to Madison Bartlett for Raiders tackle breaks. Matua and Mackenzie Wiki were both fantastic in their first NRL seasons, both are Cook Island internationals. Knights are in finals footy with Abigail Roache and Laishon Albert-Jones playing their first seasons. Amelia Pasikala has flashed her powerful running in her first campaign with Roosters.
Meanwhile all the rugby union players are thriving in NRLW. Niall Williams-Guthrie is already a top-tier centre for Titans and Tafito Lafaele adds plenty of oomph to the Broncos middle. Both are playing finals footy. Gayle Broughton's move to NRLW put her in a NRLW GF last year, NSW Women's Premiership GF this year and now thriving with Broncos. Cheyelle Robins-Reti oozed class at centre for Raiders and Tyla Nathan-Wong has potential to be a Kiwi Ferns halfback if her Dragons comrade Raecene McGregor is unavailable.
What about the regular NRLW Kiwi Ferns? Georgia Hale is the best tackler in the competition, starting and playing 55+ minutes as a middle forward every game this season ... for Titans who are playing finals footy. Annetta Nu'uausala is starting prop for Broncos most games and Mya Hill-Moana has sneaky veteran status with Roosters, both playing finals footy. Apii Nicholls is still the best fullback from Aotearoa and her move to Raiders resulted in her best season, averaging 100+ metres per game (146m/game).
Rugby league in Aotearoa goes far beyond NZ Warriors. Aotearoa Kiwis have an abundance of talent and Kiwi-NRL lads come from all regions. NRLWahine has been bolstered by expansion, attracting quality players who have had immediate impact in rugby league. NZ Warriors have had nothing to do with the rise of rugby league in Aotearoa, that was already simmering beneath the mainstream's radar.
NRLW Stat Leaders
Tries
Mele Hufanga: 2nd
Madison Bartlett: 4th
Abigail Roache: 7th
Linebreaks
Mele Hufanga: 1st
Madison Bartlett: 7th
Leianne Tufuga: 10th
Post Contact Metres
Annessa Biddle: 2nd
Tackle Breaks
Mele Hufanga: 3rd
Madison Bartlett: 8th
Kerehitina Matua: 10th
Try Assists
Raecene McGregor: 3rd
Offloads
Alexis Tauaneai: 9th
Tackles
Georgia Hale: 1st
Kiwi Fern/NRLWahine Players in NRLW Finals
Knights: Shanice Parker, Abigail Roache, Laishon Albert-Jones
Roosters: Mya Hill-Moana, Teuila Fotu-Moala, Otesa Pule, Amelia Pasikala, Alexandra Kiriwi
Titans: Georgia Hale, Niall Williams-Guthrie, Hailee-Jay Ormond-Maunsell
Broncos: Annetta Nu'uausala, Mele Hufanga, Gayle Broughton, Tafito Lafaele, Lavinia Gould
NZ Warriors lost their NSW Cup finals game, their third loss to North Sydney Bears this season. Roosters defeated Eels in NSW Jersey Flegg finals with Tavita Henare-Schuster (Kia Toa), Cassius Tia (Marist), Lafi Tuinauvai (Waitemata) and Salesi Foketi (Manurewa) in their team. Benaiah Ioelu (Tangaroa College) was 18th lad for Roosters while Eels had Te Hurinui Twidle (Turangawaewae) at fullback.
Tia was a late call up for Roosters and like all the Kiwi-NRL juniors in the Roosters system, he is making great progress. Tia played halfback with passes and kicks for Roosters tries, as well as a droppie to seal the win. He featured in Roosters SG Ball with Foketi and Ioelu. Remember that Henare-Schuster was a summer recruit from Hurricanes/Manawatu rugby union and he's played U21s as well as NSW Cup in his first season with Roosters.
Jeremiah Matautia (Otara) and Henry Teutau (Marist) helped Townsville defeat Brisbane 40-0 in the Queensland Hastings Deering Colts (U21) final. Brisbane defeated Burleigh in the Queensland Cup final but Keano Kini (Northcote) continues his impressive rise through the Titans system as the Burleigh fullback. Kini is electric - similar to Reece Walsh.
Some notes for the Blackcaps ODI vista...
17 ODIs played this year. Blackcaps are 6-11. 27 different players have been used. Kane Williamson has played three games averaging 54.6 and Trent Boult's played two averaging 11 with the ball. Southee is the busiest of the Northern trio with six games. Daryl Mitchell, Will Young, Devon Conway have batted in 10+ innings, all three average 40+. Matt Henry is the only Blackcap to bowl in 10 innings. Henry Shipley (of all lads) is the best Blackcap bowler this year with 15w @ 23.9avg.
Over the past week or so, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillis and Dean Foxcroft have been the busiest kiwi spinners. Ravindra's 26 overs vs England was second only to Henry's 27ov. Phillips chimed in with 17ov - more than Boult, Mitchell, Ben Lister, Mitchell Santner. An injury to Adithya Ashok made Foxcroft the leading spinner for NZ A and he rolled through 13ov in Aussie conditions.
Two things stand out. The best players in Williamson and Boult haven't played much during a losing run so I'm not too fussed by results right now. That's amplified by the best kiwi spinners kicking back. Santner may have a niggly injury ahead of the World Cup, Ashok's grinding through various tours and Sodhi's chillin' in NZ.
Musical jam...
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Wildcard’s Notebook
They had the Diamond League finals for 2023 held over the weekend in Eugene, Oregon (USA). Always a significant deal for the track and field athletes of the world, with the entire Diamond League season basically operating as qualifiers for this specific event... and guess what? We got three New Zealand medallists.
Tom Walsh did what he does with a bronze in the men’s Shot Put. That event has been extremely competitive lately and Walshy has not been at his best this year which has often seem him stuck off the podium. It doesn’t help that Ryan Crouser is basically a guaranteed gold if he gets a good throw, such is his dominance these days. Except that Crouser only got second in Eugene with a peak of 22.91m which allowed his American compatriot Joe Kovacs to pip him by two centimetres. Meanwhile back in third was Tom Walsh at 22.69m – which is actually the second best throw of his entire career. His PB is 22.90m set back in 2019 at the World Champs... which was only good for third that day too. But you can’t complain about a bro hitting his deepest mark for four years and still being beaten. Lovely to see Tom Walsh getting back in top shape with the Olympics next year.
Geordie Beamish is going to be one to watch at the Olympics as well. His 3000m Steeplechase results have been superb lately and he also pocketed himself a bronze medal in Eugene thanks to a time of 8:14.01 in the final. True to the stereotype, he was beaten by a Kenyan and an Ethiopian. Meanwhile Tori Peeters delivered the goods with a 61.30m effort in the women’s Javelin final. That was good enough for silver, coming just three weeks after she missed the final altogether at the World Champs. That was an anomaly and probably a lesson learnt for Peeters, who has otherwise been fantastic this year with the 29yo setting a national record of 63.26m back in March. A couple of breakthrough athletes less than a year out from the Olympics. That’s what we wanna see.
On top of that, Sam Tanner ran 3:49.51 in the final of the men’s Mile. That’s basically the 1500 metres except because of the metric system it’s actually 1600 metres. Hence they don’t often run that distance in the top events but this was in America so they did and while Tanner’s time only placed him 11th overall that was still the fastest any kiwi has run that distance for 41 years. Only John Walker has bettered it. That race was one of the fastest miles in history, by the way. The wonderboy Jakob Ingebrigtsen set a European record to win it, which was obviously also a Norwegian record, which was one of 11 national records broken in the same race (not including Tanner who was only the second fastest from his nation).
Elsewhere there was a fourth place effort for Hamish Kerr in the men’s High Jump peaking at 2.29m, which is good but he’s done better. Always frustrating to be fourth although Kerr did win one of the earlier Diamond League meets. And sprinter Zoe Hobbs came ninth in the women’s 100m with a time of 11.18 seconds in the final. All in all a pretty commendable set of results after what was, to be honest, a kinda disappointing World Champs not so long ago. Bodes well for the Olympics next year.
There should be an All Whites squad out in the next week or two, with games coming up in the October international window. There’s also been news that Tony Readings has been hired as full-time assistant coach for the All Whites to work under Darren Bazeley. With Michael Mayne doing the same thing for Jitka Klimkova’s Football Ferns there are now full-time assistants for full-time head coaches for both national teams which seems like it’s probably a good thing, right?
Readings was of course the Ferns head coach from 2011-2017. Simon Elliott will also continue on as an assistant in a part-time capacity – splitting it with his day job as Director of Coaching at Davis Legacy Soccer Club in the USA. Which, pretty sure, is predominantly an academy although they do have a team in USL League Two.
Those upcoming All Whites games are...
All Whites vs DR Congo, 14 October at 5am NZT, in Murcia, Spain
All Whites vs Australia, 18 October at 7.45am NZT, in London, England
All Whites vs Greece, 18 November at 6am NZT, in Athens, Greece
All Whites vs Ireland, 21 November at 8.45am NZT, in Dublin, Ireland
The Aussie game is being played at Brentford’s home ground so Chris Wood will know it well enough. Winston Reid spent half a year at Brentford too although he’s obviously now retired from internationals. That one is for the rediscovered ‘Soccer Ashes’ which seems like a tacky thing but if it means semi-regular games against the Socceroos then sweet as. It’s a chance for revenge after losing to them twice last year.
Curiously that Congo game is being played in Murcia in Spain... the same city in which the All Whites played Canada back in 2018, while the Football Ferns played neutral ground friendlies in Murcia against Scotland in 2018 (a two-game series) and also Norway in the lead up to the 2019 World Cup. Additionally, the All Whites played Ireland in Dublin in Danny Hay’s first game in charge. Seems like they’ve cashed in on some old relationships - as well as adding a new one in the form of Greece. That’ll be a lovely familial experience for Kosta Barbarouses... assuming he gets picked which at this point he probably wouldn’t.
Purely speculative, and this is the time when Darren Bazeley may want to ease in a few U23s players to boost up their development ahead of next year’s Olympic Games, but here’s the squad that I’d pick if it were up to me...
Goalkeepers: Max Crocombe, Oli Sail, Nik Tzanev
Defenders: Tim Payne, Michael Boxall, Nando Pijnaker, Liberato Cacace, Bill Tuiloma, Tommy Smith, James McGarry
Midfielders: Marko Stamenic, Joe Bell, Matt Garbett, Sarpreet Singh, Clayton Lewis
Forwards: Chris Wood, Ben Waine, Max Mata, Callum McCowatt, Elijah Just, Marco Rojas, Alex Greive
That’s 22 players with room for one bolter... possibly Finn Surman, maybe Matt Dibley-Dias or even Tyler Bindon if Baze can get a hold of them in time (he’s promised to visit both while he’s in London). Wouldn’t hate it if that third goalie spot went to Searle/Sims/Paulsen instead of Tzanev either, though I think Tzanev is the best of that quartet at this moment in time.
I’ve also assumed that Ryan Thomas is out injured since, well, he’s currently out injured (and nothing in his past decisions suggests he’d risk his fitness for international friendlies). Others under injury clouds include Bill Tuiloma and Matt Garbett. If Tui is out then Niko Kirwan comes in for him (guts to Callan Elliot but the bro needs to find a club first). If Garbs is out then Willem Ebbinge could be a sneaky one from the U23s, although Logan Rogerson or Kosta Barbarouses are more likely shouts.
Most Wickets For NZ in ODI Cricket
Daniel Vettori – 297 (31.96 ave)
Kyle Mills – 240 (27.02 ave)
Tim Southee – 214 (33.60 ave)
Chris Harris – 203 (37.50 ave)
Chris Cairns – 200 (32.78 ave)
Trent Boult – 195 (23.44 ave)
Jacob Oram – 173 (29.17 ave)
Richard Hadlee – 158 (21.56 ave)
Shane Bond – 147 (20.88 ave)
Ewan Chatfield – 140 (25.84 ave)
That’s just been something on my mind lately, with Trent Boult nearing 200 career wickets in what is potentially his last stretch of One Day International cricket for Aotearoa. By the end of the World Cup he should be sitting fourth all-time for NZ... while Matt Henry is currently on 130 wickets so should crack the top ten as well. Mitchell Santner (91) and Lockie Ferguson (87) are each nearing that triple-figure milestone.
Interestingly, six of the top ten in ODIs are also in the top ten in Tests. Tim Southee is top three in every format including number one in T20s – not just for NZ but for any country. He’s been going back and forth with Shakib Al-Hasan for that title (Ish Sodhi is also fourth all-time). Trent Boult is fourth for NZ in Tests and T20s. Soon to be fourth in ODIs too, it seems. Daniel Vettori is top ten in all three but didn’t play enough T20s to match the other two formats.
Kelli Brown won the New South Wales NPL title with Macarthur Rams on Sunday. Started the final as they beat Macarthur Bulls 2-1, though didn’t score a goal which meant she only finished second in the Golden Boot standings. A measly 23 goals compared to Ashlie Crofts with 24 (APIA Leichart). Ah well, so it goes. Brown did however use that outstanding season to boost herself back into another Wellington Phoenix contract.
Never quite sat well how she was let go after year one considering how injuries had prevented her from really showing anything but a fraction of what she was capable of. But often those setbacks end up being motivating and maturing factors for athletes, and those that respond positively tend to be better for it. Looking forward to seeing what Kelli Brown can do for what should be a much more competitive Welly Nix side this year. There haven’t been many kiwi women in the last decade with an eye for goal like KB has shown throughout the grades.
Wellington Phoenix Women’s Depth Chart
GK – Brianna Edwards | (Rylee Foster)
RB – Hailey Davidson | Marisa van der Meer | Zoe McMeeken
CB – Mackenzie Barry | Marisa van der Meer
CB – Kate Taylor | Rebecca Lake
LB – Michaela Foster | Marisa van der Meer | Zoe McMeeken
CDM – Grace Wisnewski | Daisy Brazendale | Kate Taylor
CM – Chloe Knott | Annalie Longo | Macey Fraser
CAM – Annalie Longo | Alyssa Whinham | Emma Main
RW – Hope Breslin | Kelli Brown | Manaia Elliott
CF – Mariana Speckmaier | Kelli Brown | Chloe Knott
LW – Michaela Robertson | Emma Main | Olivia Ingham
Something like that, anyway. That’s an attempt to predict who the three most likely candidates are for each position – though keep in mind the CBs and the wingers are interchangeable. I’ll refrain from doing a similar exercise for the fellas until they sign a couple more players because otherwise it might be too frightening.