Auckland Nines Discussion

Despite feeling gutted over Mullen's injury & disappointed in the way we played in our last game, gotta say it was a great weekend of footy. The pace was amazing, it looked more like AFL in some instances. Everyone, crowd & players really enjoying themselves. Congrats to the NRL & all involved.

As others have said, we did play some good footy thru out the weekend. We can look forward to seeing more of that soon & our young stars shine this year.
 
Bennett pleased with Knights' effort at Nines

By Matt Logue

Sunday 16 February 2014 5:38 PM

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Newcastle may not have won the Auckland Nines, but Knights coach Wayne Bennett still left Eden Park satisfied with his side’s effort.

While the Knights’ bowed out in the quarter-final stage against the Brisbane Broncos, Bennett says he was happy with the Club's overall performance at the inaugural tournament.

The veteran mentor nominated five-eighth Jarrod Mullen as the Knights' best player, while he also praised the players for their never-say-die attitude in a luckless final match against the Broncos.

"I wasn’t disappointed with us," Bennett about the Knights' campaign at the nines.

"It’s just in that last game, it didn’t run for us at all.

"But I thought their effort was still good and they kept turning up trying to turn something around that was pretty hard to turn around.


"The Broncos had all the momentum and any luck out there was kind of going with them."

Bennett believes all 16 NRL teams can take valuable lessons from this weekend's Auckland Nines.

"I think we all learnt a lot," he says frankly.

"All the coaches would have learnt a lot here.

"We won’t worry about the competition until next year now, but I think the quality of the games got better and the things being done by teams."

Asked if he thought the exciting new concept had a future, Bennett was adamant the tournament could become a regular event on the league calendar.

"Oh absolutely," he says.

"I think it was a great advertisement for rugby league.

"The fans have been outstanding and the atmosphere at the ground was just great.

"I think everybody enjoyed being here, it was well managed and we never had a hiccup."

The Knights return to Newcastle on Monday and will prepare for their final trial match against the Canberra Raiders in Tamworth next Saturday.


http://www.newcastleknights.com.au/news-display/Bennett-pleased-with-Knights-effort-at-Nines/90573
 
Aku'd said:
cowboyman said:
Roberts still can't step up without Mullen holding his hand. I still have my doubts on him. Every time his position is in question he pulls out a good 4-6 weeks of form but then does nothing. Hope he proves me wrong.[/QUOTE

It's no secret he's not a dominant half. That's obvious isn't it? How dominant is the Cowgirls half when JT is on the sideline?
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Yes that is obvious with Roberts not being a dominant half but I thought it was obvious for a half to step up when his partner goes down injured/not playing/in bad form. Like I said I am yet to see Roberts do that over a longer period then 4 weeks at any one time and he has been in 1st grade for a couple seasons now.

He does have the talent there is no denying that but he just hasn't found the consistency yet and imo its taking a little to long. He better hurry up before a couple of the U18's are ready physically because they look the goods.

Not sure what the point is on bringing up the Cowboys but if you watched Lui today I'm sure you will have your answer. Started off slowly last year with the year off and an injury but started finding some form last year and by all reports has had a very good pre-season and killed it in the first trial and 9's.

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Joshhh said:
The Warriors have choked... what a surprise, haha i wonder if everyone's gonna stick around for the final with the majority being Warriors fans.
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I think you gotta give the scrambling defence of the Cowboys a bit more credit. No doubt the Warriors didn't play at their best but some of the try savers by the Cowboys were tries for the Warriors throughout the whole tournament they were in shock more then anything imo.

I have said a couple of times this side would be a lot more mentally stronger under Green knowing what sort of coach he is but wasn't expecting it to show up this early and in a 9's tournament. They certainly wasn't showing it earlier on in the tournament in a couple of the group games.

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Hamish171 said:
And to think this morning @cowboyman was hoping Manly would've of gotten in the finals over his blokes haha.
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Bloody Manly, always knocking us out of the finals and letting me down today...

Still may of picked up a injury during the finals. Feldt may of done his hammy as well.

On a sidenote I'm surprised there weren't more soft tissue injuries in the tournament especially late in the day today.
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cowboyman said:
Aku'd said:
Yes that is obvious with Roberts not being a dominant half but I thought it was obvious for a half to step up when his partner goes down injured/not playing/in bad form. Like I said I am yet to see Roberts do that over a longer period then 4 weeks at any one time and he has been in 1st grade for a couple seasons now.

He does have the talent there is no denying that but he just hasn't found the consistency yet and imo its taking a little to long. He better hurry up before a couple of the U18's are ready physically because they look the goods.

Not sure what the point is on bringing up the Cowboys but if you watched Lui today I'm sure you will have your answer. Started off slowly last year with the year off and an injury but started finding some form last year and by all reports has had a very good pre-season and killed it in the first trial and 9's.

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I think you gotta give the scrambling defence of the Cowboys a bit more credit. No doubt the Warriors didn't play at their best but some of the try savers by the Cowboys were tries for the Warriors throughout the whole tournament they were in shock more then anything imo.

I have said a couple of times this side would be a lot more mentally stronger under Green knowing what sort of coach he is but wasn't expecting it to show up this early and in a 9's tournament. They certainly wasn't showing it earlier on in the tournament in a couple of the group games.

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Bloody Manly, always knocking us out of the finals and letting me down today...

Still may of picked up a injury during the finals. Feldt may of done his hammy as well.

On a sidenote I'm surprised there weren't more soft tissue injuries in the tournament especially late in the day today.
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The point is one half is always more dominant then the other with his confidence and leadership. That does not appear straight away when the dominant half goes off! Especially at 21/22 years old. Regardless I disagree with your view on Roberts and also find Lui as an average and inconsistent player. That's my view young Pal. The door is open for you to conclude this with the last word.
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Yeah and my point is that you need to know that the other one can step up when one goes down and Roberts hasn't shown this consistently.

At 22 and being in first grade for 2 years he needs to be consistent now. I think the inexperience excuse will start to be running thin with the coaches.

Like I said he does have the talent but he will have a couple breathing down his neck soon if he doesn't have a big year this year.

Can agree to disagree with Lui, I see no point in arguing that on a Knights forum.
 
Not too concern about Uate's form. He was playing all over the place.
Few times he was playing in the centres, didn't look too comfortable.
 
Yeah I'll wait until he's playing NRL again to judge Uate's form. I don't think anyone can say he didn't look threatening every time he had the ball, he had some great runs, set up some tries/breaks, I thought his defence was surprisingly very good. He didn't set games alight like I thought he would but I don't see any reason not to be excited about his 2014 season. The back end of last year he found great form and he was strong for Fiji, the Nines was completely new to everyone and while some players stood out more than others, it means little compared to NRL form.
 
Re Roberts: he was consistently brilliant last year & is showing the same form this year. Can't be too slack if he gets the nod from Joey Johns! Ppl tend to forget that he's had to step into Gidleys shoes & that must have been somewhat intimidating. The guy has grown in confidence under Wayne (as have a lot of our team). Everyone including myself, is singing Mullo's praises but look how many years it's taken him to peak. Without the Mullen & Roberts combo, we wouldn't hv made it as far as we did in 2013 & I'm confident they'll be our MVPs this year too.
 
First gripe of the year.

Before the competition starts, someone please explain to Mr Maxwell what constitutes a knock on,
 
cowboyman said:
Yeah and my point is that you need to know that the other one can step up when one goes down and Roberts hasn't shown this consistently.

At 22 and being in first grade for 2 years he needs to be consistent now. I think the inexperience excuse will start to be running thin with the coaches.

Like I said he does have the talent but he will have a couple breathing down his neck soon if he doesn't have a big year this year.

Can agree to disagree with Lui, I see no point in arguing that on a Knights forum.
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Definitely has had consistency problems in his FG career, but he had a really good period of footy at the back end of last year and stepped it up in the finals. I think he'll have a more consistent year due to the confidence he'd have got from last year and the guys below him (Dobson, Minto) to keep him on his toes. I agree though, if he has a dry patch like in the last few years it will be disappointing.

Would of been good if he steered us a win yesterday without Mullen, but it is a 9s game and I'm not too concerned there. Hard for him to take control of the game where structure is a bit all over the shop and he only had 9 minutes to do it.
 
Brandy Alexander tipped the Cowboys to win at the start of the tournament. Though I think he might be a little biased towards the cowboys now that Cam King is at the club.
 
Haha it was so funny seeing everyone try and catch Faifai Loa, the whole crowd cheering and then all of a sudden you just see Uate strolling over pick him up and carry him over the sideline like it was nothing to him even though it was a brilliant try saver.

He definitely had some very good moments, people seem to overlook the work he does and the defenders he draws in which leads to tries and opportunities elsewhere. And he's still one of the best try scorers in the comp. The fact he can still zip from one side of the field to the other before the defenders can even react shows he isn't "fat and slow" and he proved last year he can still score full field tries. He is probably heavier than what he used to be but I don't see any of us complaining about that when he's bumping off players to score and powering over the try line from dummy half. He's a different player I agree but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. I don't see any reason to doubt him having another great year.
 
I don't think we can judge Uate on how he played in the 9's. His role in the 9's was very different to his role in the full 13 a side game.
 
The interesting thing for me about the Uate highlights was how often and how well he offloaded.
3 years ago he wouldn't pass the ball in a fit, and if he did it was a lame little pass that could go anywhere, but mostly went to ground.
As a winger he didn't really need to pass much, and i'm not sure if it's something he will do much in real games, but it's interesting to see that he now can.
 
Alicia said:
Just posted the vid because that was the general reaction whilst everyone watched the 9s commenting on his pace, weight and form.

Pretty unwarranted.
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Yeah, watching your video made me realise how often we scored tries on the back of a Uate run, either from an offload by him or the next play after a quick play the ball. He clearly attracted a number of defenders each time he got the ball which allowed others around him to take advantage.
 
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