Kilkolly says Bazeley's main reason for dropping him a week before the Central League season started was because he had scored only one goal for Wanderers Soccer Club in the ASB Premiership campaign during summer - against Southern United a week before Christmas.
In his defence, he had broken a collarbone before the premiership kicked off and the game against Southern was his first.
"I had had chances to score in summer but they weren't clear-cut ones," he says, after the Wanderers finished seventh on the premiership table.
The Wanderers were the shadow NZ Under-20 squad entered into the national league last summer to build and monitor towards the Fifa tourney.
Kilkolly says he had only three starts for Wanderers and came off the bench in several other games.
He points out fellow Under-20 strikers Judd Baker (East Coast Bays, Auckland) had played about a dozen games and found the net three times while Noah Billingsley (Western Suburbs, Wellington) had about eight starts and didn't score any goals.
He is relying on injuries to strikers to worm his way back into the equation before the Fifa tourney kicks off.
"I don't want any one of them to be injured or anything but I'm still talking to a few boys there."
The Central League is a drop in standard from the premiership but Kilkolly is relishing his time so far.
He has scored two hattricks, away against Miramar Rangers and Tawa at Park Island, and one goal against Stop Out at home.
"I play like a right wing so I have the licence to stay high and go into the box with a free role and find chances to score.
"It's working so far and it's a pretty good start to the season."
Acting player/coach Chris Greatholder says Kilkolly's tally is an "unbelievable spell".
"He's in the right position at the right time to score goals as a winger," says Greatholder, who is deputising for coach Bill Robertson who is at the Oceania League in Suva, Fiji, as co-captain of Team Wellington who face Auckland City in the final tomorrow.
He says the Rovers will face the Greeks today from 1.30pm at Wakefield Park, Wellington, mindful they were the only side to have beaten second-placed Western Suburbs. "They have had an up-and-down time with two wins and two losses," he says of Olympic, who sit mid-table in sixth position in the 10-team league.
Three points isn't a given.
The Rovers left at 6am today and are mindful the artificial turf requires adjusting to with just 15 minutes of warm-up time on it.
Greatholder says the venue is booked throughout the day with school matches from 10.30am to the last senior match under floodlights at 7pm so there is no luxury of arriving at the field to ease into the conditions.
"We have no privileges as a Central League side ... because there's like 15 minutes of break between games."
With a shadow premiership look about the Rovers, are the opposition teams in the league looking somewhat anaemic?
Greatholder doesn't think so believing Miramar may be the only side to fit that mould after losing three pivotal players to Team Wellington.
Wairarapa, who they will host at Bluewater Stadium next weekend, are much stronger than last year, he believes.
"Our ambition is to win things this year so we have a chance to become the best Rovers side.
"We don't want to worry about others too much. We've made other teams look ordinary."
ROUND 5 DETAILS
WHO: Wellington Olympic v Napier City Rovers.
WHEN: Today, 1.30pm kickoff.
WHERE: Wakefield Park No 2, Wellington.
REFEREE: John Rowbury.
AR1/AR2: Pat Zhang/Benson Oosterbaan.
OLYMPIC: James McPeake (GK), 2 Asher O'Brien, 3 Aleem Sheik, 4 Tom Serepisos, 5 Simon Dowsett, 6 Hugo Reeve, 7 Mikey Halikias, 8 Kwane Norku, 9 Luis Corrales, 10 Jimmy Haidakis, 11 Sam Blackburn, 12 Luciano Colluci, 13 Chas Lawrence, 14 Dan Minshull, 15 Stu Lawrie, 16 Alex Palezevic, 17 John Gerondis, 18 Charlie Attard, 19 Dimitri Apostolakis, 20 Mario Barcia, Jack Kemp (RGK).
Coach: Besim Balicevac.
ROVERS: Ruben Parker (GK), 2 Dan Ball, 3 Phil Dol, 4 Logan Bensemann, 5 Fin Milne, 6 Miles John, 7 Stephen Hoyle, 8 Ryan Tinsley, 9 Angus Kilkolly, 10 Saul Halpin, 11 Tom Biss, 12 Oli Chapman, 14 Josh Stevenson, 15 James Hoyle, 16 Danny Wilson (c), 17 Fergus Neil, 18 Chris Greatholder, 20 Fane Morgan, Kyle Baxter (RGK).
Acting coach: Bill Robertson.
Other games today:
2.30pm: Palmerston North Marist v Western Suburbs at Memorial Park.
3pm: Petone FC v Miramar Rangers at Petone Memorial Park.
3pm: Tawa AFC v Lower Hutt City at Redwood Park.
5.30pm: Wairarapa United v Stop Out at Masterton Memorial Turf.
GOLDEN BOOT
7: Angus Kilkolly (Rovers).
4: Magno Viera (Wairarapa).
3: Saul Halpin (Rovers), Ahmad Mohammadi (Suburbs), Juan Chang Urrea (Suburbs), Martin Packer (Stop Out), Paul Ifill (Wairarapa), Tinashe Marowa (Suburbs).
2: Callum Mccowatt (Suburbs), Miralav Malivuk (Stop Out).
STANDINGS
P W D L F A GD Pts
Rovers 4 4 0 0 18 3 15 12
Suburbs 4 3 0 1 13 6 7 9
Wairarapa 4 3 0 1 11 5 6 9
Petone 4 2 0 2 9 6 3 6
Stop Out 4 2 0 2 7 5 2 6
Olympic 4 2 0 2 6 8 -2 6
PN Marist 4 2 0 2 5 10 -5 6
Miramar 4 1 0 3 3 7 -4 3
LH City 4 1 0 3 3 9 -6 3
Tawa 4 0 0 4 2 18 -16 0
