Legend

Kae Riki's signing to Tauranga Academy is the kind of story that doesn't happen very often. A center back out of the Bay of Plenty, where rugby posters outnumber football ones about ten to one, showing up with the kind of composure on the ball that usually takes a decade in a proper academy system to coach into a player. Riki apparently just has it already.

He's a Ball Playing Centerback, which is a polite way of saying he'd rather solve a problem with a solid through ball than a last ditch sli…

Watch Aberdeen Academy's newest striker for five minutes and you'll spend most of it looking for him in the wrong spot. Shea O'Connall isn't your classic number 9 volleying in the crosses or making darting runs behind the back line. He's a False Nine, which basically means half his job is convincing the center back marking him to chase him around the pitch, while his teammates become the main threat.

He grew up around Aberdeen and came up through the Academy's youth pathway the same way most No…