Your team for 2018

If we can get past the first 6-8 games without injury, serious, to the spine then we will be ok and wins should then come, expect to score as many wins in last third of season as first two thirds. We lack depth more than anything, especially centre so injury is critical.
 
I expect to see a bit of rotation among a few positions. Incl centre. Sione should be rested and others given a chance to impress. Watson could make a fist of centre with his skillset.
 
Reserve grade will be fantastic.

Meaney
Hughes
Naden
Robson
Sio or Ross
Lamb
Cogger
King
Tom Starling
Saulo
Fitzgibbon
Pat Mat
Yates

Hazard
Brodie Jones
Amey
Sam Stone
Braidie Smith
Hosking
Jack Johns
Musgrove

That team should start favourites for the title.
 
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Im acting like its the same team? Wrong! Im acting like its a team that is going to take time to learn to play together. That wont happen rd 1. Will be lucky if it happens by mid season.
I mean sure we can scrape into the 8 but im not holding my breath on it. Im expecting about 12th and would consider that a pass. Any thing over that is a bonus really. To say anything outside a top 8 finish is a fail is a massive call given we havent seen how this team plays together yet.

Have you seen the amount of player movement around the league? Lots of teams will be “learning to play together”. That’s no excuse for us or where we should be aiming for by seasons end.

I also never said if we don’t finish top 8 it’s a failure, I said we need to be pushing for the 8. I wouldn’t consider 12th close enough, nor would I deem that an acceptable season given the talent we have. On paper, there’s not 11 squads better than us. No way.

Brown needs to live up to his reputation and start getting results. Being a borderline top 8 team isn’t really shooting for the stars either, I’m just not willing to settle for mediocrity now that we’ve actually got some talent. A 12th place finish is well below mediocre. That’s a bottom feeder team. That’s Souths last year. Surely 2018 Knights will be better than 2017 Souths.
 
I will be happy to scrape into the 8 and probably content if we just miss it on f/a or by a few points. Anything more is a bonus for me

It will take a while to get some consistent wins, I think. We definitely have the biggest roster overhaul in the comp. It's a whole new side and most importantly, a new look spine.

On paper we have a top 8 side but I expect us to take a little while to hit our straps. I have to admit, anywhere worse than 10th I would be pretty disappointed though
 
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To be fair I wouldn't even say on paper it's a top 8 side right now or possibly by the end of the season.

It's a side on paper with plenty of potential but as it stands now there are clearly at least 8 other side's that have a top 8 roster right now on proven talent in the NRL.

If I was a Knights fan I'd be happy with anything above 12th and take anything higher as a bonus. 2019 is when you should be expecting Brown to finish top 8 with that potential being turned into performance.
 
Brown has just put a side together with a few experienced players and a lot of young players with massive potential but those guys are not yet regular 1st graders even the few that did play 1st grade last season he had to put in far too early .
Most of the team haven't played together yet and you think they are a top 8 side your kidding yourself , it takes game time to learn how your team mates play and to gel as a team .
Brown is a competitive person he would go in wanting to make the 8 but he knows that wont happen this season .
Potential is 1 thing but Game time and experience is what wins games and we haven't had any of that yet ...
 
Brown has just put a side together with a few experienced players and a lot of young players with massive potential but those guys are not yet regular 1st graders even the few that did play 1st grade last season he had to put in far too early .
Most of the team haven't played together yet and you think they are a top 8 side your kidding yourself , it takes game time to learn how your team mates play and to gel as a team .
Brown is a competitive person he would go in wanting to make the 8 but he knows that wont happen this season .
Potential is 1 thing but Game time and experience is what wins games and we haven't had any of that yet ...

I wouldn’t say won’t but it will be a challenge for sure I still think we will be about 10th. But you never know if we stay fit I think we have a lot of points in us with Watson Moga and Ponga in the team.


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No matter what happens its still bloody exciting hey i cant wait ..
This. Our squad has improved dramatically and we’ve signed a good mix of youth and experience. The fact that they’ve mostly come from good systems and winning cultures is a big bonus too.

If we get the same effort as we did most weeks in 2017 anything is possible. We should’ve won 9 or 10 last year but lacked the class to come up with the big play to ice the game. We have that in our squad now. If we can win say 5 out of our first 10 with all the away games, I’d say we’re a safe bet for the 8.
 
12th or above this season and I'm a happy Knights fan , above 12th this season and i reckon were a shoe in for top 8 in 2019...
 
Brown is a competitive person he would go in wanting to make the 8 but he knows that wont happen this season

If that's what he thinks, then he might as well quit now. There's no way Brown is going into this season thinking we can't make the 8, he's got some experienced, successful players now & a star halfback to surround the young, improving kids coming into their 3rd season. Brown will be going all out from this point on. We'll probably fall short, but I have no doubt everyone in the club right now, truly believes that we can make it in 2018.
 
It will take a while to get some consistent wins, I think. We definitely have the biggest roster overhaul in the comp. It's a whole new side and most importantly, a new look spine.

On paper we have a top 8 side but I expect us to take a little while to hit our straps

They're not learning how to play footy.. I dont buy into this 'itll take some time' stuff

I reckon they'll run out in rnd 1 and look pretty slick. Ponga will look awesome straight away and combinations wont be a problem.

Imo we're putting waaay too much into this line of thinking. Every year there are a hanful of teams with completely fresh combos. Its very rarely a noticable problem
 
They're not learning how to play footy.. I dont buy into this 'itll take some time' stuff

I reckon they'll run out in rnd 1 and look pretty slick. Ponga will look awesome straight away and combinations wont be a problem.

Imo we're putting waaay too much into this line of thinking. Every year there are a hanful of teams with completely fresh combos. Its very rarely a noticable problem
We’ll have 10 or so new players including a new fullback, 5/8 and halfback. That’s a bigger turnover than any team in recent history.

That’s not to say that we won’t come out firing straightaway but I’m willing to give them a month or so to get it to click.
 
If I were Brown i'd basically throw out all the plays the team worked on last year and get Pearce to teach the whole squad all the plays he ran at the roosters. Lamb is a fast learner and should be able to step in and run the same plays if Pearce got injured.
 
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