Tiresome Extremes
Wellington Phoenix victories, Test Cricket chillin', Super Smash champs, Tall Ferns Olympic qualifying squad, Flying Kiwis transfers & more
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Blackcaps vs South Africa Test Series: State Of Affairs & Squad Breakdown (Cricket)
2023/24 Super Smash Scout: Best Youngsters Before Finals (Cricket)
Reviewing The Aotearoa Tall Blacks At The 2023 FIBA World Cup (Basketball)
The NZ Breakers Have Plummeted Again... What’s Going On? (Basketball)
Analysing Chris Wood’s Resurgent Burst Of Form Under Nuno Espirito Santo (Football)
Digging Into the Wellington Phoenix Women’s Clunky Away Form (Football)
Looking Back At New Zealand’s U17 World Cup Bronze Medallists, Five Years Later (Football)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Three Staples Of Warriors Footy For 2024 (Rugby League)
Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Six Sneaky Juniors To Learn About (Rugby League)
Some Of Best Kiwi-NRL Junior Big Boppers To Watch Out For In 2024 (Rugby League)
Scotty’s Word
Niggly playoff loss for Lydia Ko at the Drive On Championship but her hot start to 2024 continues nonetheless. I'm not able to dive deeper into this today and will explore her stats for the Friday newsletter, but here is an update to last Monday's break down of how she has started the year..
2021: T2nd, T8, T26, 2nd, 1st
2022: T10, 1st, T23, T12, T25
2023: T6, T31, T34, Cut T42
2024: 1st, 2nd
Keeping up with the state of Test cricket is hectic. It seems like once or twice a year, Test cricket moves between being in danger of no longer existing and being the best thing about cricket. The latest cycle featured doom and gloom about the South African Test squad before Test wins for England in India and West Indies in Australia flipped the storyline back to Test cricket being awesome.
Especially in these weird times, moving between extremes is tiresome. Stay in the middle and enjoy the things you love. Two things that have stuck with me as I fight off the extreme perspectives...
Most of the Test doom and gloom stuff comes from English, Australian and Indian media. They play the most Test cricket (too much), and are also responsible for holding back Test expansion, yet they share the most anxiety about the state of cricket.
South Africa's situation is unique to South Africa. As explored in the Blackcaps squad breakdown CSA needs money and investment so they had to welcome IPL ownership into their domestic scene. South Africa doesn't appear to have the strongest economy right now either creating a storm which has impacted their Test squad. Even despite their woes, this storm only impacts a couple of months so it's not as bad as it seems.
For anyone like me who can't deal with the extremes of cricket anxiety, just chill and enjoy what is in front of us. Maybe you stay of social media to help with that, so you might have missed this Logan van Beek clip. Allow LVB's glow of positivity to take you forward…
Wellington Blaze continued their Super Smash dynasty with another championship. The other major dynasties in Aotearoa sport are Canterbury in Super Rugby and Auckland City FC in National League. The Blaze have been so fun to watch throughout this Super Smash dynasty and while they have flexed their fantastic development pipeline with youngsters chiming in for multiple championships, most of their dynasty has been led by Sophie Devine.
This summer Devine played two Super Smash game. In those two games she scored 16 runs @ 59sr, with 2 wickets @ 4.2rpo. Devine almost handed the championship to Central Districts Hinds as well with two wides in her final over, a dropped catch and fumbled run-out. Devine's mana ensured that she got the job done in the last two deliveries.
The latest Blaze championship was driven by Amelia Kerr. There are not many wahine athletes above Kerr right now in Aotearoa sport and I've got Kerr as the best. This is my quartet of female greatness right now: A-Kerr, Georgia Hale, Lydia Ko, Charlisse Leger-Walker.
Wellington had Georgia Plimmer wiggling through her best summer of domestic batting, Jess Kerr emerging as a dynamic hitter (the best in Super Smash) plus Rebecca Burns and Jess McFadyen scoring gritty runs when required.
With the ball Wellington showed White Ferns what is possible when embracing spin bowling. The Blaze consistently had four spinners in their unit with A-Kerr, Leigh Kasperek, Xara Jetly and Nicole Baird playing every game. J-Kerr is a classy seamer who held down the seamers with Codyre before Devine came back into the mix.
Jetly is the bowler I want to highlight. Jetly has now won three Super Smash championships with Wellington as a 22-year-old and she (16.34avg) has a slightly better T20 bowling record than Eden Carson (17.84avg). One has a slightly better record and multiple Super Smash championships, the other is the White Fern.
Speaking of White Ferns: Rosemary Mair should be in the next White Ferns squads.
Mair took 4w @ 1.2rpo in the final and 14w @ 15avg/5.8rpo overall is her best season of T20 bowling. All the Mair chat throughout Super Smash was about her pace and she steadily found nibble to go with that pace - pace which did permeate through the telly.
There is a curious crossover between Mair and Molly Penfold with Mair dropping out of the mix when White Ferns started to select Penfold. Mair is better than Penfold and she is only three years older than Penfold at 25yrs, so there is no reason why Mair can't enjoy the same faith that Penfold's received.
The White Ferns mixer...
Solid 10
Sophie Devine, Suzie Bates, Amelia Kerr, Maddy Green, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Jess Kerr, Lea Tahuhu, Eden Carson, Fran Jonas
Competing For Squad Nods
Kate Anderson, Brooke Halliday, Leigh Kasperek, Hayley Jensen, Rosemary Mair, Molly Penfold, Claudia Green, Jess McFadyen (wk), Izzy Gaze (wk), Bernadine Bezuidenhout (wk)
Development Slots
Xara Jetly, Prue Catton, Bella James, Marama Downes, Emma Black, Gabby Sullivan, Skye Bowden
Auckland won the men's Super Smash final after rain washed out the contest against Canterbury. Bummer for the Cantabs who keep making finals but can't win. Tom Latham was on 58* @ 175sr to finish with 243 runs @ 40avg/135sr this season. Latham has a sneaky good T20 record of 29.6avg/131sr and after dropping behind Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Devon Conway in my Blackcaps batter rankings; I am intrigued by Latham's Test mahi coming up.
Canterbury beat Wellington in the elimination final on Friday and so much funky stuff happened - at least we got that game on the men's side because it was bonkers. Two youngsters stood out for Canterbury though…
Zak Foulkes was Canterbury's best bowler in that game with 3w @ 7.7rpo and he was Canterbury's best Super Smash bowler all season (14w @ 16avg/6.6rpo). Not only did Foulkes continue Ravindra's dip in form, he hit the winning runs with a six. Foulkes scored 54 runs @ 150sr this season and remember that Foulkes opened the batting for Cantebrury in Plunket Shield to plug a hole. While he didn't score runs as an opener, Foulkes returned to the middle order with a couple 50+ scores.
Foulkes is just as good as O'Rourke, as naturally smooth as Ravindra. Mitch Hay is also in this tier of youngsters and he took Canterbury deep into their run-chase against Wellington with 38 runs @ 135sr. Hay finished with 170 runs @ 28avg/165sr - he is 23yrs with a First-Class average of 42 and T20 strike-rate of 148.
A couple Auckland nuggets...
Rob O'Donnell's T20 average of 36.04 is 54th for all batters around the world. O'Donnell is the third best NZ batter behind Dean Foxcroft (41.51avg) and Devon Conway (41.8avg) who are 13th and 14th.
Auckland's best bowlers (with their T20 career averages)…
Danru Ferns: 18w @ 14avg/7.5rpo (23.5avg)
Ben Lister: 14w @ 13avg/6.2rpo (24.2avg)
Louis Delport: 14w @ 17avg/7rpo (22.1avg)
Add Jock McKenzie to the long list of talented young kiwis making waves. Like older brother Angus, Jock has a lovely bowling rhythm which helps him get swing and seam movement. McKenzie only batted once but hit 8 runs @ 160sr and he is likely to be a 1st 11 player as domestic cricket returns to the Ford Trophy/HBJ Shield cycle.
Also notable that Auckland won without Adithya Ashok. Ashok got a Blackcaps T20 call up last year after building a strong T20 record of 22avg/7rpo with his leggies. Ashok didn't play a game of Super Smash and is averaging 35.9 in Plunket Shield this season, along with 48.2 in Ford Trophy.
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Junior rugby league team lists will drop on Tuesday and aside from assessing key themes in Kiwi-NRL Spotlights, I’ll keep serving up junior insights in these newsletters. NZ Warriors still haven't named their squads at the time of writing but they have named captains and there is plenty of funk on offer...
Harold Matthews Cup captains are Boston Krone and Kaawyn Patterson.
Krone has a touch background and played 1st 15 for Auckland Grammar School as a #10. There isn't much rugby league information about Krone so it seems like he is another 1st 15 lad to slide into rugby league. Krone will probably be a half given his skillset and he seems like a lovely chap...
This yarn has Patterson hailing from Dargaville before moving to Westlake Boys High School. Patterson has been a high pedigree rugby league junior for a while, winning various awards and rep honours in league. In 2022 he played for the NZ Warriors Under 18 Sevens team and he will probably be the starting hooker for HMC.
The dummy half depth is pretty impressive for NZW right now with Jaydee Auloa named as a captain alongside Kayliss Fatialofa for SG Ball Cup. Auloa was an SGB squad member last season but didn't play and like Fatialofa, he featured in Fox Memorial playing against men later in the year.
Auloa is from St Paul's College and came off the bench for Pt Chevalier in the Fox final. With Patterson the leading HMC hooker and Auloa the leading SGB hooker, NZW also have Makaia Tafua (Linwood) who is likely to play Jersey Flegg and Etuate Fukofuka (St Peter's College) who could start the season in NSW Cup.
Fatialofa is a powerful centre/edge forward from De La Salle College who started the Fox Memorial season with Otara before shifting to Howick to keep playing in the top tier. Originally a Manurewa junior, Fatialofa has a high NZRL pedigree and is part of a De La Salle wave in NZW along with Demitric Sifakula, Eddie Ieremia, Patrick Moimoi and Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea (assuming he is still with NZW - excellent junior).
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
Double victory Wellington Phoenix weekend. The blokes won 2-1 against Newcastle Jets away, scoring bright and early through an Alex Rufer penalty (incredibly the third week in a row that he’s scored) and then Oskar Zawada made his return off the bench and swiftly scored to cancel out the hard-earned equaliser that the Jets had just pocketed. Another of those ones where they defended their hearts out against the run of play yet still found that clinical edge when they needed it. I though Scott Wootton was superb. Turns out Nico Pennington does a fine job on the right side of defence as well.
My main thought from that game: The formation. I don’t keep a tally of the in-game switches that they make but pretty sure they have finished in a back three a few times this term. It’s also something they used to do a lot under Ufuk Talay. But this was the first time that Chiefy has gone with a back three from kickoff... a decision made presumably as a specific way of combating Newcastle. It feels like the Jets have been a bit of a bogey team for the Nix in recent seasons – certainly that 3-0 loss at home a wee while back would have been weighing heavy.
So Lukas Kelly-Heald tucked into LCB with Sam Sutton starting at LWB in a 5-3-2 shape. Doubt we see this tweak becoming anything regular but it definitely worked for the occasion against a Jets team that likes to give it plenty of width. Nix being hte Nix, they did a lot of defending their own penalty area yet didn’t actually allow many clear cut chances. In fact, for the second week in a row the only goal they conceded was a deflection off an attacking player, semi-accidentally diverting an off-target shot into the net. This team may bend but they do not break.
The women won 2-0 against Canberra United despite playing the last quarter of the match with ten women after a phantom red card to keeper Rylee Foster. But no dramas, because they had that defensive steel too. Brianna Edwards came on and saved a penalty with her first involvement. Couple of powerful punches later on too. Paul Temple was confident enough to chuck on academy players Daisy Brazendale and Ella McMillan for senior debuts as they held onto that lead despite the disadvantage (both are accomplished defenders, to be fair – Brazendale a hard-tackling CDM and McMillan a sturdy defender/midfielder with great awareness and leadership).
Main thought from that game: The ongoing home/away split. Here they ground out a desperately needed victory at home despite having a couple of key players missing (Mackenzie Barry and Michaela Foster both injured). Just like they’ve been doing in home games all season. They didn’t play poorly in any of those away defeats, though admittedly they did fade in a few second halves, but there’s something that just clicks for them at home where the little things go more in their favour. Gonna need to change that and churn out some away points if they want to make the finals but yeah nah this win was exactly what the doctor ordered. And also entirely consistent with how they’ve been tracking.
WahiNix in Aotearoa:
7 GP | 5 W | 1 D | 1 L | 12 GF | 6 GA | +6 GD | 16 PTS
WahiNix in Australia
7 GP | 1 W | 0 D | 6 L | 7 GF | 10 GA | -3 GD | 3 PTS
Washington State Uni got their best win of the NCAA season this morning in upsetting 2-seeded UCLA... but that result has been tempered by what sounds like a bad injury to Charlisse Leger-Walker. CLW had been superb in the first half with 15 points to set up a big lead. Hit a couple of triples and was on course for a huge scoring night (in a season where her playmaking and defence have been the bigger focus)… until she limped off early in the third quarter and did not return.
The injury was a non-contact one suffered to her knee (though sustained as she drove to the basket and earned a foul). She’s now off for an MRI. None of that is encouraging and nor are the words offered by her head coach after the game...
Kamie Ethridge: “I don’t think it looks good. We’ll wait and see what the picture looks like. But, you know, it generally doesn’t ever end up well. You’ve just got to be patient and then figure out the next plans for her.”
If it is indeed a serious knee injury then it could hardly have happened at a worse time. The WNBA Draft is in April and CLW is in line to be a possible first-round pick. She’s probably got enough clout in the bank to still be selected but she’d miss out on her last National Championship appearance with WSU who are seeking their first ever victory in March Madness. What’s worse is that she’s now almost certain to be unavailable for the Tall Ferns in Olympic Qualifiers in a week’s time, and if it’s a serious thing then she’d miss the Olympics themselves even if we do make it through without her.
This is quite depressing to think about. But it does lead us into a confirmed Tall Ferns squad for those Olympic Qualifiers. Seeking to get to the Games for the first time since 2008 and likely to be without several key players. Here’s the squad...
Obviously this was announced too soon after the CLW injury for that to be reflected here. Thus no mention of whether there’s anyone going to be on standby as they await scan results. Eva Langton is going along as a training player – she’s 24 years old and has been with the Tokomanawa Queens for the last two seasons. She played a total of 20 minutes in 2023 so this doesn’t really fit as a development selection. Maybe she’s just an excellent trainer, there to keep everyone honest. Doesn’t feel like her status was down to being the next woman up in case of emergency though.
Remember that Penina Davidson was also under a major injury cloud. Now we’ve got confirmation that she won’t be there. Tahlia Tupaea has been out injured for some time already. We knew that Kalani Purcell isn’t there yet after giving birth last year. There was a 15-player extended squad picked awhile back and that’s three players right there who can’t be there. Makes the squad easy to pick, right? Except that Krystal Leger-Walker is also unavailable for personal reasons.
That’s led to Amy West being picked from outside that original group. She’s 6’4 and recently graduated from St Mary’s (where she was a teammate of Tayla Dalton). Another young big with serious size, alongside Ritorya Tamilo who also stands at 6’4 and is only 18 years old, while Lauren Whittaker is 17yo and 6’2.
If there are two players who are more important than anyone else to the Tall Ferns fortunes, it’s Charlisse Leger-Walker and Penina Davidson. Also take out Krystal Leger-Walker and Tahlia Tupaea and that’s the bulk of their Asia Cup success missing. We’re firmly in “yikes” territory here... but then it wouldn’t be kiwi basketball without some extra adversity.
Flying Kiwis Transfer Tracker
Still got a few deals and rumoured deals popping up, as we near Deadline Day of the European transfer window. For starters, there’s been a reshuffle for Christchurch striker Kian Donkers, who was part of the U20 World Cup side last year. He’s spent roughly the last 12 months with NEC Nijmegen, a Dutch top tier side, hanging out with their U21s team... but hadn’t been getting many opportunities. Usually an unused sub or a very late cameo. The only time he’s gotten a decent run around was just prior to the winter break when an injury to a teammate saw him chucked on twenty minutes into a 5-3 win against VVV-Venlo’s U21s.
He didn’t score that day (or at any point with NEC) but he must have done alright because now he’s playing for that very same VVV-Venlo side. That means Donkers has made the switch from a first tier Dutch club to a second tier one (currently mid-table in the Eerste Divisie, one point behind Matt Garbett’s NAC Breda), though more specifically it’s a direct swap from U21s to U21s. Almost certainly a matter of chasing minutes. Fair enough. There’s probably also a clearer pathway to the first team at VVV due to their lower status. Gotta find that place where you fit, that’s the most important thing for young professionals.
Another move for ya: If you’ve been wondering why Rebecca Burrows had dropped off the radar for Newcastle Jets after the first month of the A-League season, it’s probably because she had this other deal in the work. After a few weeks of rumours, Burrows has now officially signed with newly-promoted Chinese Super League club Hainan Qiongzhong. She is their first ever foreign player, apparently… though was quickly followed by her ex-Jets teammate Emily Roach.
When we last checked in with the folks at FC Haka, Ollie Whyte had been training despite not having a contract for this season. New coach and several new signings had mixed things up after a poor season from the club. But Whyte actually started their first League Cup group stage game on the weekend. The League Cup in Finland is glorified pre-season. Gianni Bouzoukis played in it last year while he was on trial with Salon Palloilijat. Whyte was one of three trial players in the team for that match, a 0-0 draw against Oulu, lasting up until he was subbed off in second-half injury time. Seems like a positive development.
Finally, here’s one that slipped under the radar: Jana Radosavljevic is back in the Bundesliga. The reason I missed it at first was that she’d only signed with Fenerbahçe a few months ago. Was not expecting anything so sudden. But Rado wasn’t getting too many minutes there so she’s left Turkey after half a season and returned to Germany where the bulk of her pro career has taken place. Much of that has been in the second tier, though she had one really nice season with Werder Bremen prior to suffering a long-term injury that curtailed things for her.
Happily she’s now signed with MSV Duisburg (a former club of Meikayla Moore, Hannah Wilkinson, and Emma Rolston) for the rest of this season with an option for next. She made her debut as a half-time sub this morning in a 2-1 loss to Nurnburg... which was actually a rather devastating defeat as it leaves them further adrift in last place with only 2 points from 11 matches. To be fair, they were 2-0 down after three minutes and won the second half 1-0 while Rado was out there.