There was still a small glimmer of hope that Racing Louisville might make the playoffs entering the final round of the regular season, despite their inability to ever find a consistent run of form.
The annual check in with Kiwi-NRL Juniors Who Helped Australian Teams Make Finals is slightly different this year as there was no Under 21 Hastings Deering Colts competition in Queensland.
Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns are in the Pacific Championship final where they will play against Australia on Sunday and the Kiwis have a crucial game against Papua New Guinea to keep their spot in the upper echelon of the Pacific Championships.
New Zealand Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns put on an admirable show in Christchurch but weren't good enough to get a win against Australia.
New Zealand Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns play against Australia in Christchurch on Sunday, with both teams coming off wins over the Aussies in their last outings.
The New Zealand Kiwi Ferns defeated Australia in their last outing and while there are a few tweaks to the squad named this year, they are all improvements to showcase the excellence of women's rugby league in Aotearoa.
The New Zealand Kiwis squad has been named to defend their Pacific Championships crown with a combination of a hearty core, clear development channels and the regular dose of funky eligibility wins for Aotearoa.
All four teams in the NRL/NRLW Grand Finals have at least two players from or representing Aotearoa and that delivers lots of enticing wrinkles relating to New Zealand rugby league.
New Zealand Warriors enter the kiwi summer with three important trends framing their recruitment and development.
New Zealand Women Warriors continue to build their NRLW squad by signing Laishon Albert-Jones, Emmanita Paki, Lavinia Tauhalaliku, Matekino Gray, Shakira Baker and Tyra Wetere.
The last time we checked in with Naufahu Whyte for a Kiwi-NRL Spotlight was after he churned out 68 minutes vs Raiders and while his mahi dipped for Roosters soon after round 12, the Bay Roskill junior was back near his best in the loss to Panthers last week.
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are showing their investment in rugby league talent from Aotearoa with a bunch of NRLWahine locked in for their first NRLW season as well as a pipeline full of young ladies from Aotearoa.
The New Zealand Women Warriors have started to build their 2025 NRLW squad by signing Apii Nicholls, Mya Hill-Moana, Harata Butler and Capri Paekau, who have all played for Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns.
Leo Thompson and Griffin Neame are two young middle forwards from regional Aotearoa who helped New Zealand Kiwis roll over Australia, now they line up against each other in the first round of NRL Finals.
The NRLWahine wave continues to build momentum after the debuts of Tatiana Finau for Raiders and Sarina Masaga for Titans.
The 2024 Aotearoa Kiwis mixer needs an update after injuries to Brandon Smith and Dylan Brown, both of whom were penciled in as top-17 players for New Zealand.
Alexis Tauaneai was already shining in Aotearoa as a teenager playing for Wellington in the Farah Palmer Cup and since committing to rugby league, the 19-year-old has dominated every level except for international footy.
Despite not playing consistently in NRL or NSW Cup this season, Ali Leiataua was quietly simmering away in both grades before exploding with dominant mahi for New Zealand Warriors in their win over Cronulla Sharks.
There continues to be a flood of NRLWahine moving from Aotearoa and into NRLW with Tongan international Lavinia Tauhalaliku making her debut for North Queensland Cowboys in their loss to Brisbane Broncos.
For the second season in a row, New Zealand Warriors have a good NSW Cup team and they will be eager to make a deep finals run while the NRL team is kicking back.
Former Black Fern Tafito Lafaele hasn't generated the same headlines as Brisbane Broncos comrade Stacey Waaka and yet she is another wahine from rugby union in Aotearoa who is thriving in NRLW.
Sebastian Su'a made his NRL debut with Newcastle Knights in their win over Rabbitohs as the 18th man and almost spent more time in the sin bin than he did playing footy.
New Zealand Warriors have already flashed their production line of young talent with a bunch of debutants and emerging talent rolling into NRL footy during the two Andys era.
The 2024 NRL season has been a journey through the sludge of Aotearoa's mangroves for New Zealand Warriors and with Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs heading over the Tasman to play Jersey Flegg, NSW Cup and NRL games against the Warriors, it could get even more niggly.
Mackenzie Wiki has found a consistent groove with Canberra Raiders where she is churning out powerful mahi for the second NRLW season in a row.
Demitric Sifakula hasn't won an NRL game yet but he's impacted every game he's played in for New Zealand Warriors and could be the bully that Mt Smart needs moving forward.
As youngsters from Aotearoa roll through every NRL/NRLW pipeline and the group of top-tier rugby league players from Aotearoa continues to grow, remember that New Zealand Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns finished last year with wins over Australia.
As Aotearoa finished the Paris Olympics with a bunch of gold medals, Stacey Waaka was already lining up for her NRLW debut with Brisbane Broncos having won a gold medal to start the Olympics.
Recent events have increased the pressure and focus on the young halves working their way through the New Zealand Warriors pipeline, although no one should be too worried under the current regime of Andrew Webster and Andrew McFadden.
Georgia Hale has already been a legendary figure for women's rugby league in Aotearoa and now she is in the midst of her best NRLW season as Gold Coast Titans make a winning start.
In Aotearoa Keano Kini was a low key star at Rosmini College, Northcote Tigers Rugby League, Aotearoa Maori Rugby League and everything else from athletics to tag.
There was still a small glimmer of hope that Racing Louisville might make the playoffs entering the final round of the regular season, despite their inability to ever find a consistent run of form.
Big time footy over here. Wellington United suffered their first loss last week and more dropped points this week would take them out of the running for top two... and their opponents were Auckland United who haven’t lost a game all year
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon at Linfield Park... ripe for some footy. Coastal Spirit have been a surprise package this year, continuing their magnificent year of achievements by nestling into a final contention in the Nats
Every game he plays is an opportunity for Chris Wood to score goals. The form he has been in lately, the opposition doesn’t even matter. Chelsea. Tahiti. Malaysia. Crystal Palace. No dramas in sight.
David Ball was left out of the Wellington Phoenix’s A-League squad for the trip to Perth this weekend and Giancarlo Italiano said the reason for that was to get him some minutes for the reserves. Instead of Perth he got to go to Auckland’s North Shore
Someone may have forgotten to alert the groundskeepers about the weekday footy because four minutes into the match they had to hit the pause button when the automated sprinklers went on. Look, we’ve all been there.
Phil Neville promised that he’d get Finn Surman some game time before the year was through. He went on record stating his intent. It was looking dicey there for a while but, folks, it turns out Phil Neville is a man of his word
Ah yes, the Southern Derby. Logan Park in Dunedin was the venue. For years the Canterbury United dynasty owned this league with Southern hovering around the very bottom of the table and the results reflected that chasm. But in recent years the results have flipped.
At the beginning of this round, Western Suburbs were last with comfortably the worst defence while Auckland City were first with the equal-best defence. Winless versus undefeated.
What we witnessed on Saturday afternoon at Mt Smart Stadium was a capital-e Event... but it was also just another game of football. Auckland FC versus Brisbane Roar. Three points on offer.
Heading into this international window, the All Whites had a rare opportunity. They’d managed to bag a 1-1 draw against the USA in their previous match and now they had two immensely winnable fixtures on the calendar
Wellington Olympic vs Eastern Suburbs shaped to be a doozy but not like Auckland City vs Cashmere Technical at Kiwitea Street. Auckland City had been far from flawless but they don’t need to be flawless in order to win games, they usually find a way.
Central Football were back at the lovely Massey University field for week three, having already lost 5-0 at this scene against West Coast Rangers and then having their week two trip to Dunedin postponed due to the extreme weather.
The Woodsman scores goals wherever he goes. After rustling the net against Chelsea, he’s now got four goals in seven matches this Premier League season. Comfortably on track to hit double-figures for the sixth time in his career
A Mediterranean Derby in only the second round of matches? We sure are spoiled. Wellington Olympic hosted this one at Martin Luckie Park having been blanked by Coastal Spirit in a week one draw
After both Wellington United and Canterbury United bathed in the afterglow of excellent week one victories, they also found themselves in the tricky spot where a bad result in the next round would potentially undo all that graft
What do we want to see out of the All Whites in a pair of October matches against Tahiti (in Vanuatu) and Malaysia (in Auckland)? That’s simple: Wins.
Another week and another Football Fern signing in the English Championship. Last time it was Michaela Foster joining Durham, this time it’s Jacqui Hand re-emerging from the wilderness with Sheffield United
The first weekend of National League is always special but much love to Mr Chris Greenacre for making it even more so by giving us a present with his team line-up.
A brand new season of glorious National League football in Aotearoa got underway with a couple of concurrent kickoffs in the Women’s competition. More on Central vs West Coast Rangers soon but first...
The new Women’s Super League season is underway in England but nothing has changed as far as CJ Bott is concerned. If she sees the ball, she’s still going to win the ball
Both of the NZ National Leagues are doing a stellar job of producing professional and international players. A-League clubs are scooping up prospects - not just the New Zealand teams either - and national age grade selectors are all over everything
Brighten up folks because a new National League season stands proudly out ahead of us. The cream of the winter season crop has qualified to take on the rest of the motu. Only six of last year’s MNL qualifiers are back again for the 2024 edition, with two of the newcomers having made it this far for the first time ever
All goals are good goals but some goals just hit on a whole different level, leaving you to wonder how exactly the net managed to stay hooked on when faced with the force of a ballistic missile
Following a disappointing performance in a 3-0 loss to Mexico, there were many valid questions bouncing around about the All Whites. Then came a 1-1 draw against the United States and suddenly the forecast is sunny again.
New Zealand teams don’t go to these youth World Cups to make up the numbers. Ever-expanding professional opportunities in Aotearoa and beyond mean more top level players are having their talent nurtured from a younger age
The Women’s Champions League is a beacon on the horizon every season and at a minimum the qualifying stages usually serve up a few kiwi interests. Vic Esson and Rangers were one of those interests this year... but the draw was not kind to them
An undeniable rivalry has emerged between Wellington Olympic and Auckland City these past few years and the funkiest thing about it is that they only ever play for high stakes
There was no question who the favourite was in this year’s Kate Sheppard Cup final. Auckland United bossed their way to the NRFL Premiership title going undefeated through the entire campaign and that sort of form wins trophies
It’s starting to become real. Auckland FC are signing players, they’re initiating league-wide rule changes, and they’ve even popped over to Australia for a few preseason games
The moment is near. Steven Adams is on the verge of making his NBA return after 21 long and boring months without his basketballing presence.
It may have snuck under the radar but the Tall Ferns were in Mexico last week playing some games. They had a Pre-Qualifying Tournament for the next FIBA World Cup. Very similar to the format they went through with Olympic Qualifiers earlier in the year...
Last season the Breakers gave fewer minutes to NZers than ever before (a record that they’re going to crush again in NBL25) and yet it was still the most prosperous season we’ve ever witnessed for kiwi players in that league.
These are glorious times for basketball in Aotearoa. Already established as the fastest growing sport in the country, we recently saw the New Zealand team finish fourth at the FIBA Men’s U17 World Championships, with Oscar Goodman crowned as part of the tournament’s All Star Five…
A record was broken last Thursday afternoon when, at the 2024 NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards selected Alexandre Sarr with the second overall pick. Sarr just so happened to have spent the past season with the Perth Wildcats as part of the Australian NBL’s Next Star programme
As we traversed what was already shaping up to be a concerning offseason, the feeling was that the Breakers would be alright as long as Head Coach Mody Maor was around. But now he’s leaving.
A few months ago, the Tall Ferns set out to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. They did not make it. So can the Tall Blacks end the drought instead?
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
The first stanza of Ford Trophy has finished with Auckland at the top of the ladder, one point ahead of Canterbury.
The smallest Test playing nation in the world won the first World Test Championship and now we can now add a 3-0 series sweep in India to New Zealand's glorious achievements in Test cricket since the pandemic started this decade.
New Zealand's White Ferns had to quickly switch into ODI mode after their T20 World Cup success and went down 1-2 to India in the Women's Championship.
Auckland are top of the Ford Trophy ladder after their win over Canterbury and a big hundy from 21-year-old Curtis Heaphy led Central Districts to their first win of the season.
Canterbury is the only undefeated team in Ford Trophy after Chad Bowes' crazy double hundy last week and despite the rain impacting two games on the weekend, Auckland had a win over Otago to snap up second spot on the ladder.
Last month New Zealand's Blackcaps lost two Tests in Sri Lanka and now they have won two Tests in India.
New Zealand defeated India in the World Test Championship, doing what very few kiwi cricket teams have done over the past century by winning in one of the trickiest countries to tour.
Aotearoa's White Ferns are in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa after defeating West Indies in the semi-final, so here are a bunch of last minute notes to set the table.
It kinda feels like the stars are aligning for New Zealand's White Ferns at the T20 World Cup as they return to the semi-final stage for the first time since 2016.
New Zealand are 2-1 in the T20 World Cup after defeating Sri Lanka with Georgia Plimmer finding a groove at the perfect time.
New Zealand heads to India for three Tests in the World Test Championship and while that's always a recipe for kiwi underdog status, expectations for this Test series should be low.
The White Ferns started their T20 World Cup campaign with a fabulous win over India, their second T20I win in 14 games this year.
The Aotearoa summer of cricket will start with Ford Trophy instead of Plunket Shield and while the best lads still need to pile up runs or wickets, this does provide a few intriguing wrinkles framing the start of the season.
New Zealand's loss to Sri Lanka in the second Test of their World Test Championship excursion brings together many concerning threads for New Zealand Cricket.
The White Ferns lost all three T20Is against Australia and they are now preparing to start their T20 World Cup campaign in a couple weeks.
There are two storylines that make things a wee bit more complicated than just another disappointing loss for the Blackcaps after their loss in the first Test against Sri Lanka.
New Zealand continue on their solid World Test Championship campaign with two Tests in Sri Lanka starting this Wednesday, where they will need to quickly adjust and adapt after no cricket was played against Afghanistan.
The biggest issue in New Zealand cricket isn't the Blackcaps contract 'crisis', it is an under-performing White Ferns team who must now flip their trajectory around for the T20 World Cup.
As the White Ferns try to flip their mundane form around for the T20 World Cup, the women's domestic cricket circuit holds plenty of intrigue ahead of the summer.
New Zealand's Blackcaps will play Afghanistan in India early in September and while this may appear like a warm up for World Test Championship fixtures in Sri Lanka then India, Afghanistan present an intriguing challenge for a Blackcap group who need to win some games.
The second round of domestic cricket contracts have been sorted and each region has 16 contracted lads locked in.
New Zealand will soon embark on their Asia Adventure of Test cricket with one Test vs Afghanistan in India, two Tests in Sri Lanka and three Tests against India in India.
The New Zealand Women's cricket team have executed a rare tour sweep in England where they lost all five T20 games, after being rolled in all three ODIs before that.
Five funky moves were made in the first round of Aotearoa's domestic cricket contracts, led by two veterans in Rob O'Donnell and Leo Carter each making a move south.
The New Zealand Women's cricket team were swept aside 0-3 by England in their ODI series which takes them to a 1-5 tally vs England in ODIs this year.
New Zealand's Blackcaps have stunk up the T20 World Cup with back to back losses against Afghanistan and West Indies exposing all sorts of cracks in a once hearty aura.
The White Ferns PR machine has once again whipped up a positive tinge to their latest squad announcement ahead of their travels to England, despite White Ferns struggling to make any progress under coach Ben Sawyer.
Michael Rae made his first appearance in County Championship cricket with Warwickshire and of course the headband king took some wickets.
