Doing something different this week as we drop the first episode of our new Almost Daily series, with regular reaction poddies coming your way during this Blackcaps tour of England. Only catch is that after this ep it's gonna be a Patreon exclusive so... for a minimum of $1/month (cheap as chips) you can get in on the buzz as the Cappies quest for a Test Championship reaches its boss level.

In this one we talk about not overreacting to tour games, playing cricket in England, some overseas stat splits, an understrength English squad, which areas the Blackcaps might target, and listening to Test Match Special. Good yarns... get amongst the Patreon and keep up with 'em

https://www.patreon.com/elnichecache

Got a few Warriors/NRL notes for you here ahead of a game away to the Cowboys (4:53). Then some Blackcaps talk involving openers and squad rotation with the series against England beginning in less than a week (22:40). The Wellington Phoenix are still in that playoff hunt so we get all over the state of things for them, the win over Western Sydney, and the (fingers crossed) return of Uli Davila (43:42). And of course there's a sporting-influenced Compost Bin Of Mindfulness before all that (1:41). Gotta get amongst.

Rightio, got a Baggie of Mindfulness first courtesy of Birthday Bob (1:31) and then the Wellington Phoenix dominate the 1332 Hot Takes (6:23) in a couple different ways. Ufuk Talay also gets an appearance in the Vitamin Stats category alongside Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (12:35) plus Deep in the Mangroves takes us to Minor League Baseball with Kyle Glogoski and then back to Aotearoa for City Kickboxing (17:40). Then it's questions on Clayton Lewis, Sean Marks, and the Blackcaps in England (24:00) before some musical Jams (37:35) and bingo there we go.

Consider this your warning that it's Welly Nix Season for the next week (hopefully longer) as the big homecoming in Wellington corresponds with Must-Win-Territory in their quest to make the finals. No need for timestampts today because it's all Phoenix chat: from the state of their campaign, to thoughts on the Western Utd game, to playing without Ulises Davila, to the emergence of Clayton Lewis & Ben Waine, to comparisons to the Warriors in the NRL... plus some Sarpreet Singh/Libby Cacace stuff at the end. Come on you Nix.

It's the Variety Show so we're varying the variety today. There's no stopping the Backpack of Mindfulness (2:31) of course, but after that we switch things up with the Falling Leaves Award (9:38) and the Participation Award (12:41)... won't spoil what those are. Gotta listen first. After which it's a series of Buy/Sell (18:49) touching upon Shaun Johnson's future, Will Young's Test match stakes, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck's union career, the Warriors' 2021 season, and Steven Adams as a Pelican. Then a couple Overrated/Underrated (43:08) ponderings involving Mitchell Santner as Blackcaps Test all-rounder and Reece Walsh's NRL career. Heaps of goodness therein.

BJ Watling announced his impending retirement and you know we've gotta talk that over, from all the many reasons for his greatness to the smooth transition that the Blackcaps have beyond him. Before that there's some Gladwrapped Mindfulness (1:51), a few NRL matters (3:06), Flying Kiwis yarns for Bill Tuiloma and Joe Bell (9:12), and then it's all in on the BJW chat (17:06)... with a bit of Test Championship karmic destiny at the end (47:15). Howzat one.

Mondays mean Variety Show chat and after a Satchel of Mindfulness (1:33) it's into some 1332 Hot Takes regarding Steven Adams & the Pelicans plus the Warriors & the concept of Fear (4:21). Vitamin Stats deal up some kiwi sporting excellence with Chris Wood and Lydia Ko on the cards (13:27) then it's time to go Deep In The Mangroves on NZers trying to qualify for the Champions League as well as Tim Seifert's compounding misfortunes (24:29) and of course then it's Question Time with current favourites and Olympic athlete hypotheticals coming up (36:45). Musical offerings follow with The Jams (48:44) and there you go.

Heaps of NRL talk today, from the sneaky sub-first grade ways that the Gold Coast Titans are getting in on the Kiwi NRL bandwagon to a look at a few Warriors ideas ahead of their weekend's game vs Manly (16:09). Then with the IPL being called off all of a sudden we also chat a few Blackcaps logistics and look at the winter workloads of our top male cricketers (40:42). Before that it's a compost bin of mindfulness (1:10), some thoughts on the NZ Rugby/Silver Lake thing (3:43), and a lesson from Joseph Parker's latest effort (8:42). Good yarns, do 'em up.

Mean little weekend of kiwi sport, that one, and we're here to wrap it all up. First there's a Mindfulness Speaker via an old German novelist (1:49) and then it's straight into the 1332 Hot Takes from some boxing shenanigans that Joe Parker had to deal with to some sweet Warriors recruitment (3:58). Vitamin Stats go deep on Rocco Berry's dad's humble All Blacks career and some Lydia Ko form (11:03) and then it's time to go Deep In The Mangroves with an IPL theme to both trips (17:14). Question Time sees Reece Walsh and Joseph Parker back on the agenda (24:48) and then it's time for some musical Jams to take us to the final whistle (34:39)

It's one of those big picture pods today, working through a whole heap of examples of the art of player recruitment in sports. From the balancing scales of the Warriors to the sneaky variety of the Wellington Phoenix to the swings and misses of the NZ Breakers. We're talking how good recruitment leads to success, why some formulas work for some and not others, the business aspects, and heaps more. Put on your philosophical hat and have a dig.