The best transfers are the ones that appear like a lightning bolt from the ether and significantly change the entire scene. Macey Fraser moving from the Wellington Phoenix to the Utah Royals for an A-League Women’s record transfer fee is absolutely one of those
New Zealand Warriors have played some of their best footy this season in Australia and after battling to a draw with Sea Eagles at Mt Smart, they will now be eager to improve against Dragons on Friday night.
New Zealand Warriors played three games against Sea Eagles on Saturday at Mt Smart and came away with one point, from two losses and a draw.
New Zealand Warriors return to Mt Smart where they host Sea Eagles who haven't won a game away from their Brookvale fortress this season.
At a time when there are lots of highly decorated Kiwi-NRL juniors from Aotearoa generating buzz on their climb to NRL footy, the Jacob Laban debut for New Zealand Warriors has been highly anticipated.
Any hearty fan understands the fragile nature of New Zealand Warriors confidence and an away trip to take on Rabbitohs offers a lovely check in with how legit the confidence is.
After the festival vs Raiders in Christchurch, New Zealand Warriors return to Mt Smart where the faithful will have their chance to respond to the Christchurch crowd against Knights on Sunday afternoon.
Matthew Timoko couldn't get the win with Raiders in Aotearoa but he scored a typically powerful try and his upward trend continues.
NZ Warriors did their job in getting a win over Raiders and hearty South Islanders did their job in whipping up a glorious atmosphere in Christchurch.
It isn't just a slow start for New Zealand Warriors in the NRL as they are 1-5 across the top three grades after two rounds and the NRL crew now face a niggly challenge against Raiders in Christchurch.
Deine Mariner has started the first two games of the 2024 NRL season on the wing for Broncos and if Mariner's playing consistently, tries will be scored.
After a pesky home loss vs Sharks to start the season, New Zealand Warriors take on Storm in Melbourne and this serves as key learning moment for all.
New Zealand Warriors start the 2024 NRL season at Mt Smart on Friday night against the Sharks and while that game will be what most folks focus on, there will also be first round games in NSW Cup and Under 21 Jersey Flegg.
As the two Andys (Webster and McFadden) enter their second season overseeing the New Zealand Warriors pipelines, they have lured three young Australian halves over the ditch.
As soon as Roger Tuivasa-Sheck's return to Aotearoa Warriors was made official, minds were spinning about what role he would play and how he would fit into a top-four team.
Aotearoa has plenty big boppers on the rise towards NRL, but Xavier Willison leads a pack of forwards who have already dabbled in NRL mahi and are chasing a breakout 2024 campaign.
New Zealand Warriors restored their Mt Smart mana for 2024 against Dolphins and while a win over Dolphins was nice, this pre-season window is laying out key information across the NRL and NSW Cup squads.
New Zealand Warriors return to Mt Smart for their second Pre-Season Challenge game against Dolphins and coach Andrew Webster has tightened his rotation with the top-tier lads selected to play.
New Zealand Warriors lost their first NRL Pre-Season Challenge game against Tigers but a hearty performance from their long line of youngsters after Zyon Maiu'u's red card has set the tone for this season.
Kiwi-NRL jokers are scattered throughout the NRL Pre-Season Challenge team lists with an enticing crop of youngers getting opportunities in second tier squads.
New Zealand Warriors have named their first squad of 2024 and there are a few surprise inclusions sprinkled into an incredibly funky group of youngsters.
Under 19 footy has started in New South Wales and is starting this weekend in Queensland with a typically fantastic crop of Kiwi-NRL juniors involved.
Under the guidance of the two Andys, Aotearoa Warriors laid down foundations in 2023 from which the can build on top of.
Aotearoa Warriors made another tweak to their roster by releasing Ronald Volkman to join Dragons.
The 2023 Kiwi-NRL Power Rankings are led by the Bash Bros in James Fisher-Harris and Moses Leota, while NZ Warriors made a big leap this year with Broncos and Knights. There are a few NRL teams who need more talent from Aotearoa slumping down the bottom of the rankings.
The growth of rugby league in Aotearoa is most evident in the number of quality halves entering the Kiwi-NRL mixer.
Aotearoa Warriors have officially signed Kurt Capewell for next season and beyond, adding a veteran presence at edge forward while also reminding folks of how easy it is to wiggle out of an NRL contract.
Like all sports in Aotearoa, rugby league is enjoying an abundance of talent and while this is evident in all our Kiwi-NRL content, Aotearoa Warriors are also building a hearty stable of local juniors.
The Michael Maguire coaching era is over for Aotearoa Kiwis and after it all got a bit too niggly, we now embark onwards and upwards.
New Zealand Kiwis coach Michael Maguire brought Keano Kini, Naufahu Whyte and Wiremu Greig into the Aotearoa Kiwis squad for the Pacific Championship and despite not playing, all three were able to tap in with Kiwis mana after strong NRL seasons.
Train and trial information dropped last week, again highlighting how much Kiwi-NRL talent is competing for NRL opportunities.
The best transfers are the ones that appear like a lightning bolt from the ether and significantly change the entire scene. Macey Fraser moving from the Wellington Phoenix to the Utah Royals for an A-League Women’s record transfer fee is absolutely one of those
Many Football Ferns were handled with care by their clubs after returning from the international window. But not CJ Bott. She had an FA Cup semi-final to play and 180 minutes for the national team plus a couple of long-haul flights weren’t going to keep her out of that one.
There was wind, there was rain, and there was the Wellington Phoenix. There were defensive blocks, there were more defensive blocks, there was a begrudging acceptance that a draw was probably a fair result on the basis of the game... and then there was Finn Surman
The Wellington Phoenix Wahine have been a team of constant progress and development since they joined the A-League, though perhaps it’s been slower progress and development than hoped for
What did we need to see from the Football Ferns in these games? Goals, victories, and a confident/ruthless attitude against a weaker opponent. Did we see those things? Yeah, we did... in the first game
It was Cacace who instigated the move with that one-two. He then stuck with it after the defender had seemed to get goalside of him. Never gave up on the lost cause and then crept around the edge to keep the ball in play at the byline.
In potentially the biggest regular season game that the Wellington Phoenix have ever played, they were dealt gut punch as Mikael Doka cut inside and buried a stoppage time winner for Central Coast Mariners. A brilliant goal, to be fair, though that didn’t make it any less brutal of a loss
Once again, it was Christopher Wood for Nottingham Forest. A niggly injury combined with Forest’s precarious Premier League position meant he had to miss the All Whites games, but…
After that pesky loss against Egypt on Saturday morning NZT, the All Whites knew they’d have a much more achievable mission ahead of them against Tunisia four days later.
Leat had already deputised for DVD on several occasions, whilst also playing all of the cup games that she was available for. Last week we covered her performance in the 2-1 win against Everton in the WSL. Prior to that she’d played in the 4-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Conti Cup semi-final
There’s something increasingly familiar about an All Whites game in which the lads play some really silky football, passing smoothly through the midfield, battling hard at the back, bringing all of the energy, only to still lose anyway
The famous line is the attack wins games but defence wins championships. The Wellington Phoenix blokes must be out there trying to win a championship because they just so happen to have the best defence in the A-League Men’s
Eight months after the World Cup, the Football Ferns are returning to Aotearoa with a pair of games against Thailand. Both games will be hosted in Christchurch, which didn’t get any World Cup matched yet after this series will have hosted as many home games as any other city over the past five years
The Woodsman’s return from injury turned out to be a timely one because as soon as he did, Nottm Forest’s other main striker Taiwo Awoniyi was immediately ruled out for what’s expected to be a number of weeks
What exactly is a W Cup, you ask? It’s not really anything. The ‘W’ stands for ‘Winsunited’ which sort of sounds like someone asked ChatGPT to design a football competition but this these are still just glorified friendlies
They said he would miss 7-8 weeks. Instead Chris Wood was back playing for Nottingham Forest within six, returning just in time to also sneak into the latest All Whites squad
Following the Wellington Phoenix’s 3-2 win over Adelaide, in which Ben Old scored twice and helped create the other goal, Nix head coach Giancarlo Italiano spoke on how the onus is on the kiwi media to build up the hype around his double goal-scorer
Lurking at the far post, poking a toe ahead of his marker, Myer Bevan made a bit of history this week. That goal was the first by a Cavalry player in the Concacaf Champions Cup and it was also just the second goal ever scored by a New Zealander in this competition
Every year the local footy swings back around way before anybody’s ready for it. 2024 has been no different, with the first competitive game of the new campaign pitting National League champions Wellington Olympic against Chatham Cup champions Christchurch United in the freshly revived Charity Cup
The MLS is underway for 2024, featuring all of your favourite players from Lionel Messi to Michael Boxall. Messi scored a brilliant late equaliser for Inter Miami but, far more importantly. Minnesota United got going with a 2-1 win away to Austin FC
If you managed to stay up until 2am NZT watching the Wellington Phoenix lads draw nil-all away to Perth Glory then congratulations, you’ve unlocked the Hearty Fan badge
The Football Ferns are going to the Olympics. As expected, they burst through the Oceania qualifying tournament winning every game and scoring a bunch of goals. They got progressively more efficient from game to game
On the brink of the new League of Ireland season came an unexpected, but understandable, bit of breaking news: Max Mata was loaned back to Sligo Rovers
We knew that the Wellington Phoenix lads were going to lean heavily on their academy players this season. We knew that because they told us they would. It wasn’t a secret. It was spoken loud and proud.
For the first time since December, Empoli are out of the relegation zone. They’ve been experiencing a funky uptick of results since Davide Nicola took over as manager, with the latest being a 3-1 win over last-placed Salernitana
Happy days as CJ Bott retuned to the starting line-up for Leicester City this week. Her first start since December, when she’d gotten injured early in a 2-2 draw against Brighton
There are few aspects of the New Zealand football experience more unique than going to Samoa, winning a few double-digit victories, and thus qualifying for a major tournament that only 12 nations on the planet get to participate in
All of that considered, it was time to throw Meikayla Moore back into the starting eleven. That’s exactly what happened, and what’s more it took a mere 15 seconds for that decision to pay dividends. Fifteen seconds.
Let us begin at the top of the table where Melbourne City are being boosted by pair of Football Ferns icons who share a couple hundred caps between them. Rebekah Stott also happens to be an A-League legend having played more than a century of games and won four championships
Managerial changes happen all the time in the ruthless world of professional football. The average job-span of a Premier League manager is roughly two years and that’s clearly skewed by the few successful fellas at the top of the ladder
Gotta love a bit of Aotearoa’s National Basketball League. It’s a rapidly growing competition that regularly attracts most of the country’s best players whilst also attracting a decent level of import and still finding room to boost up the next generation
In a topsy-turvy, up-and-down season... the Breakers finished about where they should have: right in the middle. They made the play-ins but not the playoffs, winning one knockout game but losing the other
The Tall Ferns will not be going to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. A narrow defeat against Puerto Rico in their qualifying tournament made sure of that, as a very inexperienced and injury-ravaged Aotearoa side fell agonisingly short of their goal
The news came through at 12:41pm on Friday in the same way that all NBA news comes through: via a tweet from Adrian Wojnarowski.
It’s been a long time since Aotearoa last had a basketballing presence at the Olympics. You’ve got to go all the way back to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing for the last appearance.
It’s just not the same without Steven Adams. Even since he first got injured diving for a loose ball late in a game back in January, the NBA has been missing its heartbeat
There is a possibility, something we need to at least consider, that perhaps maybe potentially we might have given the New Zealand Breakers too much credit. When they turned everything around so suddenly last season it was natural to feel as though…
After several years of mediocrity, some pandemic-influenced and some not, the Breakers surged back into Australian National Basketball League prominence last season under the inspirational guidance of new head coach Mody Maor
There’s one thing you can never doubt about any Tall Blacks team: no matter who’s got that black singlet on, they’re going to bring the passion, the commitment, the mana that has become a prerequisite for this team
There hasn’t been a kiwi in the NFL since Paul Lasike’s short but memorable stint and as the 2023 season edges close to its kickoff there isn’t going to be one this year either. But there is a bloke who comes close.
The Tall Blacks always bring a certain level of mana with them no matter who’s reppin’ the jersey. There’s going to be passion and cohesion and defensive grit. Regardless. That’s just how this team operates
The Tall Ferns hit up this Asia Cup with a clear target in mind: a top four finish. Make the semi-finals of this tournament for the first ever time, see if they can’t win a medal while they’re at it, and most importantly stay in the hunt for Olympic qualification
It was a season like none other for Aotearoa’s finest basketballing export. For half of it he was an unstoppable rebounding machine even by his own high standards. Then he got injured.
The FIBA Women’s Asia Cup is taking place in Sydney, Australia next week and the Tall Ferns have a task ahead of them. Winning this thing may not be realistic but that’s fine, the real task is getting into the top four
New Zealanders are steadily infiltrating the Australian NBL and folks are slowly starting to notice… although those on this side of the Tasman Sea understand that this is not a new trend
The first thing that needed doing this offseason was consolidating the playing roster. They’d had a brilliant campaign, come up narrowly short in the finals where they were beaten in the decisive game five, but pretty much their entire main rotation were off contract
The Memphis Grizzlies came to an inglorious conclusion as they were bounced in the first round by a seventh seed. Steven Adams didn’t play a single game after the month of January and that whole situation has been kept annoyingly murky
The whole Next Star journey has been a strange one for the Breakers but as their latest foreign prospect officially declares for the NBA Draft it seems as though they’ve finally figured it out
Breakers recruitment this season was top notch and for once they’ve actually got the structure, the success, and the coach to be able to do something they have not yet done since the change in ownership: retain an import signing.
They said it’d be 3-5 weeks before Steven Adams could return from his knee strain. The All Star break fell at roughly the four week mark but he wasn’t quite ready to go at the end of it. The fifth week also went by. Then a sixth and then a seventh.
As the final buzzer sounded in the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball championship final, it was fitting that the ball happened to be in the hands of Charlisse Leger-Walker. Almost like it was scripted by destiny
It’s not supposed to happen that a team finishes dead last one season then surges into triumphant championship contention the next. Standard convention says that it takes time to traverse that distance
It happened on the final play of a two-point loss to the Phoenix Suns. The Memphis Grizzlies were trying to avoid a second straight defeat having had their 11-game winning streak broken a few days earlier
And so ends a thrilling, controversial, chaotic, and baffling era in the NBA. Back in July 2019, Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks made a massive franchise-altering decision to ditch the humble but successful grassroots rebuild he’d embarked upon to that point…
There were 16.1 seconds remaining in the game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Cleveland Cavaliers when Steven Adams supplied with the game-winning field goal. Cometh the moment, cometh the Funaki.
The Memphis Grizzlies hit the skids recently and it was not a pretty sight to see. A spell of seven consecutive wins flittered away in a hurry with four defeats from five games from in the back half of December
Steven Adams is a clutch-time basketballer. Probably not to the level where he’s gonna be in contention to win the new The Jerry West Trophy awarded to the Kia NBA Clutch Player of the Year, but…
Scream it from the bell towers: the Breakers are back. We’re halfway through the NBL season and this is not a drill. The New Zealand Breakers are winning games and playing lockdown defence
Something very consequential happened between the first Kiwi Steve write-up and this second one: Jaren Jackson Jr returned to the basketball court. JJJ missed the first 14 games of the season as he recovered from offseason foot surgery…
We are now a couple of weeks into the new NBA season. The dust has settled. The trends are emerging. The cream is already rising to the top. The sample sizes aren’t quite so small.
Nathan Smith is leading the Kiwi County Tour with runs and wickets for Worcestershire as he continues to flex as one of Aotearoa's best emerging cricketers.
A few tweaks have been made to the Blackcaps T20 squad who will play five games in Pakistan starting next week with Tom Blundell and Zak Foulkes stepping in for Finn Allen and Adam Milne.
County Championship cricket has started in England which means that a selection of Aotearoa cricketers will be highlighted throughout the Kiwi County Tour.
The Blackcaps will play five T20Is in Pakistan with a fun squad that includes a cluster of lads competing for T20 World Cup game time and a bunch of New Zealand's best emerging cricketers.
The summer of domestic cricket is over in Aotearoa and before swinging into Kiwi County Tour mode where we follow kiwis in County Championship, here are the 10 best young players from New Zealand.
New Zealand went down 1-4 to England in the T20 series and aside from a flurry of runs from Izzy Gaze in the fifth T20, the White Ferns have slumped to a new low in Aotearoa.
Wellington are Plunket Shield champions and their championship campaign features the best young cricketers in Aotearoa.
Thankfully the White Ferns vs England T20 series is a five-gamer and New Zealand still has a chance at building on their 1-2 start, otherwise the last three games would fall into the status-quo of White Ferns melancholy.
The 2023/24 Plunket Shield campaign is heading towards a climax in Hamilton with Northern Districts hosting Wellington in a battle for the championship.
Michael Bracewell's 8-wicket haul has propelled Wellington to victory over Otago and maybe a late push towards Plunket Shield glory.
New Zealand's White Ferns start their series against England on Tuesday with the first of five T20Is which will be followed by three ODIs.
Two rounds of Plunket Shield are left for the summer and Northern Districts head into the final stage on top of the ladder.
After defying the odds in blunting and then dominating Deontay Wilder in December, Parker has defied the odds in blunting (sort of) and then dominating (on the cards, at least) Zhilei Zhang less than three months later
The sharp pain of losing to Australia gets a whole lot nigglier when Aotearoa is in a position, or multiple positions to win and instead of celebrating historical mahi, the status-quo of losing to Australia continues.
The Aotearoa Test cricket summer needs its annual check in with who is using what bats.
The next month will be an intriguing phase for White Ferns as Aotearoa's wahine play lots of cricket against a touring England crew.
After rolling through some of the best youngsters in Plunket Shield, now we tap in with the hearty domestic troopers who hold things down as the best players in domestic cricket.
The latest round of Plunket Shield involved lots of cricketing funk from a growing group of youngsters.
Nothing tickles Blackcaps frustration like a capitulation on home soil and regardless of who the opposition is, the Test loss in Wellington felt like it was straight out of prior decades.
Neil Wagner charged in the same way as he always did. Jimmy Anderson was on strike for England with two runs required for victory but only one wicket remaining…
The Blackcaps will defend their top spot in the World Test Championship with the Test series against Australia starting on Thursday at the Basin Reserve.
Otago grabbed the HBJ Shield championship by defeating Wellington and the best youngster in wahine cricket Emma Black added a few more wickets to her season's tally.
On the day of the Ford Trophy final between Canterbury and Auckland we come together in harmony to celebrate the five best youngsters.
Wellington are hunting a double dose of HBJ Shield and Super Smash glory as they head to Dunedin for the HBJ Shield final against Otago.
Kane Williamson just keeps on scoring runs. Usually in bulks of one hundred at a time. When he did his knee last year, he’d just come off a double ton against Sri Lanka, his third in his previous four Test innings. Folks were freaking out about whether he’d ever be the same batsman again...
Ford Trophy enters finals mode with Otago hosting Auckland in Dunedin tomorrow and the winner will go on to face Canterbury in Christchurch on Saturday.
The New Zealand vs South Africa Test series ended with a sigh of relief and dose of gratitude for Kane Williamson.
Otago and Central Districts snared wins in the latest round of Ford Trophy, while the top of the table battle between Canterbury and Northern Districts was rained off.
New Zealand's Blackcaps offered professional Test cricket mahi to defeat South Africa and have snuck into the top spot for the 2023/25 World Test Championship.
In the latest round of Ford Trophy there were wins for Canterbury, Wellington and Otago as Wellington and Otago grabbed their second wins of the season.