Previewing The Tall Ferns at the 2025 Asia Cup
While most of the kiwi basketball focus is rightfully on the FIBA Men’s U19 World Cup, not to mention the latter stages of the NBL season, it just so happens that we’re only the start of a busy spell of international hoops which also includes both men’s and women’s Asia Cups. The Tall Blacks don’t have theirs until August but the Tall Ferns crack into action very shortly with the Women’s Asia Cup running from 13-20 July over in China.
The Asia Cup has been kind to the Tall Ferns in the past. Their fourth-placed finish in 2023 was a big deal in which an inexperienced kiwi side, led by the emerging Charlisse Leger-Walker, produced our best ever performance at the event. Anchored by CLW along with the likes of Penina Davidson, Krystal Leger-Walker, and Stella Beck, that tournament also heralded Tera Reed and Tahlia Tupaea as key players moving forward while the likes of Tayla Dalton, Esra McGoldrick, and Ritorya Tamilo showed heaps of promise as emerging presences. They had wins against South Korea, Lebanon, and the Philippines along the way (while losing to China, Japan, and Australia... who were the top three).
That Asia Cup performance felt like the beginning of a few era for the women’s national team, even if untimely injuries spoiled their opportunity to try and build on it at the Olympic Qualifiers the following year. That squad might yet form the spine of Tall Ferns squads for the next several years to come... but we won’t be seeing it at the 2025 Asia Cup. There are only three players in common between that edition and this edition (Dalton, McGoldrick, and Tamilo).
After new coach Nat Hurst included seven debutants for the series against Australia, following a couple of previous tours which already seemed to bring a focus on youth and expanding the depth, it would have been nice to see a few more of the renowned players rejoin the squad for a continental event. Particularly those who did so well at the previous Asia Cup. But yeah nah that’s not what’s happened. The press release doesn’t go into any detail about absent players and hardly any other media outlets bothered to cover the squad announcement and those that did only parroted that original BBNZ press release. So we’re feeding off scraps here... however, there is one important bit of context to be known.
To put it simply: this tournament just isn’t as consequential as the last Asia Cup. That 2023 Asia Cup doubled as Olympic qualification whereas this one aligns with the World Cup. More teams progress in World Cup Qualification. Back in 2023, we needed to finish in the top four in order to stay alive in Olympic quals. This time top six will do the trick as far as the next phase of World Cup qualifying is concerned. In an eight-team competition (there’s also a Division B section for the lesser teams), you wouldn’t imagine that’ll be too hard. One win oughta do it. Hence for a wider group of players where most, if not all, of them probably aren’t full-time athletes, there’s not the same necessity to skip out on work/studies. Nor did BBNZ see the need to pressure them. And that’s fair enough.
This is the squad that’s been picked...
McKenna Dale (Tauranga Whai & Mandurah Magic)
Tayla Dalton (Townsville Flames)
Bailey Flavell (Northern Kāhu & Launceston Tornadoes)
Pahlyss Hokianga (Tauranga Whai)
Esra McGoldrick (Mainland Pouākai & Casey Cavaliers)
Rebecca Pizzey (Eltham Wildcats)
Emme Shearer (Mackay Meteorettes)
Ashlee Strawbridge (Mainland Pouākai & West Adelaide Bearcats)
Ritorya Tamilo (University of Hawai’i)
Ella Tofaeono (Melbourne Tigers)
Charlotte Whittaker (Toulouse Metropole Basket)
Olivia Williams (University of California – Irvine)
Also, Ella Brow (Baylor University) and Maia Jones (Santa Clara University) have been included as reserves.
The press release highlighted how “the squad maintains a solid-core group of players from May’s Trans-Tasman Throwdown” but remember that they picked seven debutants for that series and were beaten heavily in all three games. Continuity is great but continuity with a rotated squad maybe isn’t quite the brag that it sounds like. Nevertheless, this remains a funky group of talented kiwi players in keeping with the surge in quality in Aotearoa over the last few years.
2023 Asia Cup Squad:
Charlisse Leger-Walker, Stella Beck, Tera Reed, Krystal Leger-Walker, Penina Davidson, Tahlia Tupaea, Tayla Dalton, Esra McGoldrick, Ritorya Tamilo, Josephine Stockill, Grace Hunter, Parris Mason
2025 Trans-Tasman Showdown Squad:
Esra McGoldrick, Waiata Jennings, Pahlyss Hokianga, Bailey Flavell, McKenna Dale, Ella Bradley, Ella Brow, Ella Tofaeono, Kaylee Smiler, Ashlee Strawbridge, Emme Shearer, Tylah Hooper, Keriana Hippolite, Tegan Graham, Sharne Robati
(Bold text means they’re in the current squad... note that Ella Brow is a reserve for this tour as well)
McKenna Dale and Esra McGoldrick have emerged as important glue players for this team, with McGoldrick the only player who has been part of all five Tall Ferns squads since the previous Asia Cup. Tayla Dalton will offer similar leadership after wrapping up her five year college career with St Mary’s and Gonzaga. Not to mention Charlotte Whittaker fresh from a stint in France with Toulouse and the Aussie-raised duo of Ella Tofaeono and Rebecca Pizzey - who at 27 and 26 respectively are the two oldest players in the squad (as usual, the youngest is Pahlyss Hokianga).
Pizzey is one of two debutants in the group and by far the most surprising of the pair. She’s a 6’3 centre who has played plenty of WNBL stuff – including winning a championship in 2021 with Southside Flyers – and more recently has been putting up numbers in NBL1 (13.2p/8.9r/2.9a) that rival what Penina Davidson’s been doing at the same level (15.4p/11.2r/3.6a). With Davidson unavailable, Pizzey shapes as a pretty useful addition. It’s just that there was no hint of any dual-eligibility beforehand with RP having played for Australia at the U16, U17, and U19 levels. Oh well, their loss.
As for Olivia Williams, that one was inevitable. She’s been a standout at various age-grades for Aotearoa and has one more year left at UC Irvine where she started every game in her junior year and led the team in three point makes and three point percentage (which is always an area that the TFs need help in). Williams was born and raised in the USA but her mother is a kiwi and in fact her great-grandfather was an All Black – Jack Sullivan, who played six tests in the 1930s and later coached the ABs on a tour to South Africa in 1960. Williams might have played for the Tall Ferns already if it weren’t for a year spent on the sidelines with a knee injury suffered early in 2023.
It’s cool to see Ritorya Tamilo back in black after missing the previous tour presumably for college commitments. She was the Big West Freshman of the Year playing for the University of Hawai’i last season... where she’s soon to be joined by Bailey Flavell for the next NCAA season. Might make it two kiwis in a row, who knows. Tamilo is the tallest player in this squad and also offers a sneaky midrange shooter’s touch that’s developing nicely. Don’t sleep on Maia Jones as a reserve either. She’s a 39.3% three-point shooter after two years at St Mary’s and it’d only take one injury for her to get promoted to the main roster.
There’s a strong NBL1 presence among this group of players. That’s to be expected given the time of year. Many of them will move onto Tauihi rosters when that season wraps up while a couple others will try their luck in the WNBL in Australia. Last year they moved the Tauihi season later which made it clash with the WNBL hence fewer NZers are involved these days... but there will be at least a couple. Sharne Robati is one of the many unavailable players for the Asia Cup but was hugely impressive against the Opals in the Trans-Tasman Series. She recently signed a WNBL contract with the Adelaide Lightning to link up with Tall Ferns assistant coach Kerryn Mitchell. Ella Tofaeono was also just confirmed with the Adelaide Lightning so Kerryn Mitchell is doing fine work there. We’ll see who else joins them down the line.
Getting back to the unavailabilities, Tupaea (Inner West Bulls) and Davidson (Keilor Thunder) have been doing NBL1 things in Oz while Reed recently linked up with the Gold Coast Rollers. They’re not going on this tour but they’re healthy and active and playing well. The same hasn’t been able to be said about Charlisse Leger-Walker for a long time but those dark days are almost over. CLW hasn’t played since her ACL tear in January 2024. She redshirted last season in order to have a full campaign with UCLA in her final year of eligibility before hopefully launching into the WNBA. It was either that or rush back early for a partial season and then try get drafted without being able to put her best foot forward. This was the best path. And by her own admission she’s ready to rock and roll again.
CLW on 3 June 2025: “Yes, I’m fully back. 100% cleared. Been back for probably two months. I was actually training towards the end of last season, obviously I wasn’t going to play, but yeah my knee feels great. Don’t really think about it at all which is amazing. Feel really strong. Back to hooping, it’s been really fun.”
That lot should all return for the national team soon enough. Lauren Whittaker, Tegan Graham, Stella Beck, and of course Sharne Robati are others who’ve impressed on recent tours. No doubt that there’s plenty of depth emerging... and we’ll get to see some more of it at the Asia Cup. As we’ve learned from countless Tall Blacks tours, it’s extremely tough to get all the stars to align on a full-strength national team squad even for major tournaments. Remember how the lads were riddled by injuries/non-availabilities even at the last World Cup? It’s essential to have a deep base of players to choose from. You could make a genuine argument that none of the top choice Tall Ferns starting five are here (although Esra McGoldrick would be entitled to argue back) yet there’s still plenty of exciting talent involved. That’s what we like to see.
In Nat Hurst’s own words: “Success looks like getting ourselves through to the next round”. That’s settling for less than last time but we’re working with less than last time and less than last time is still more than enough. The Tall Ferns are in a squad alongside China (the hosts and defending champs), South Korea, and Indonesia. Don’t hold out any hope for the China game. We did beat South Korea during the 2023 campaign, though it’s going to be tricky to repeat that without Nina Davidson bossing things down low. That’s okay because all it’ll take to get that top six ticket to advance in the quest to win the game against Indonesia and this squad is more than good enough to get that done. The rest is all bonus.
Tall Ferns vs South Korea – 5.30pm on Monday 14 July
Tall Ferns vs Indonesia – 5.30pm on Tuesday 15 July
Tall Ferns vs China – 11.30pm on Wednesday 16 July
Qualification Semis – 8.30pm or 11.30pm on Friday 18 July
The Tall Ferns have only ever competed at one World Cup and that was way back in 1994. In order to get to the next one in Germany 2026, we either need to win the Asia Cup for automatic entry (not gonna happen) or we need that top six berth for the Qualification Tournaments. 24 teams will be split into four groups of six to contest those events in March 2026.
The actual World Cup will have 16 participants including hosts Germany and the four continental champs of Europe (Belgium), Asia (TBD), Africa (TBD), and the Americas (TBD). They don’t actually say how the qualifying tourneys work but Germany and the four champs will take part despite already being guaranteed their spots. Thus it’s merely a matter of cutting 24 teams down to 16 teams. This is slightly different to how they did it last time where only 12 teams competed at the final event. We didn’t even make it to the qualifying tournament on that occasion. This time should be different.
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