2023 Taini Jamison Trophy – NZ v England (Sep)

MVP guesses – Karaka, or maybe Heffernan (third choice Gordon)

Well Walmsley proved me wrong. I thought the hits on her would get to her.
Karaka MVP, I think she might have read Brendon Eagans stuff article and decided to prove him wrong. You guys can go find it as I cant share it on here but he called her out in her comments before the first game and then on her performance.

So glad Karaka got MVP – not just because she deserved it, but because sometimes they award it to a debutant which seems to be more related to emotion rather than performance (I defo think Glasgow deserved it on Sunday).

For those not watching at home Walmsley did a good job of taking a few awkward balls, and she shot at 88% (35/40), she sometimes fended off the physical pressure (but not always), but in terms of nullifying her opposition throughout the match and providing a point of difference or inspiration, nah, not really. She did her job well, in a team that was fired up. I think Ekenasio and Gordon did a great job, and MRB was fine. I think the pass placement wasn’t that great, but England wasn’t switched on like Sunday. I don’t have the stats sorry.

We know from eg World Cup grand final that you can use a lineup that has worked before and then just a couple of smart changes turns the match on its head. I reckon this one was Gordon at centre, and Walmsley at GS because she didn’t have too many fancy tactics in her head – “dodge, move, catch shoot”. Wilson wasn’t providing solid front options in the first test.

NZ in the first test simply weren’t dictating in attack or defence.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by Andrew Kennedy.

I think NZs whole game plan (attack) relies heavily on having a tall target shooter. Wilson does not cut it, unfortunately.
It’s not a surprising thing either, as for years we relied on IVD.

A massive positive is both Nweke and Walmsley are very young. They’ll be around for a long time.

I’m still pushing for Toeava to be in the team. Our middies played solid today, but none of them come near to feeding a tall shooter like her.

Can someone please tell me the heights of the Silver Ferns shooters? One commentator said 184 for Walmsley which seems wrong, or perhaps I misheard it.

Something which is 98% of the time missed in live commentary with “height” is REACH. African (that includes Jamaican players and Nweke and Aryang and Mkloma and so many others) athletes have both longer arms and longer fingers. If you compare the body of Fowler and Aiken-George, the former is tall but shorter arms (and better positioning), the latter is tall but longer reach. This is one part of why Jamaican defenders are so effective.

I still believe in Wilson. Remember her first constellation cup against Australia, She was outstanding. For some reason once Nweke was introduced in the side she lots her magic.

You don’t just drop a player for one bad game or one bad month, but you’re defo within rights to put them on the bench or even temporarily out of the team, and coach them and advise them on the key things they need to improve. It would be pretty shortsighted to dump someone like Wilson – I can’t see her being belligerent or uncoachable.

We don’t even know what the player-coach dynamic is. Did Aunty Noels tell Wilson to play that way (eg draw the defender attention then roll and drop to make space for Ekenasio, which many have criticised, but I think the problem was they didn’t rotate properly), but did Wilson not adjust fast enough? Or did Wilson not even play how she was supposed to? Your GS doesn’t actually have to be the main path to goal, in certain game plans they can be a great foil/accomplice for the powerful GA. Who knows?

For the record I think TPSR is one of those players that doesn’t APPEAR flash, but actually delivers.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by Andrew Kennedy.

Wilson has started the last 5 games at GS (SA, Jam, Eng, Jam & Eng)and we got no wins! Walmsley debuts and we win.

I really thought coming up against a “B” side team (I actually feel bad calling them that now, since they beat us in the first game – but that’s for another post) she would have found her dominating form again. I know you can’t blame one player, but as an attacking unit it doesn’t work with Wilson.

I do agree with @Mcleod that she will have to really work on her GA game.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by TB.