2018 halves combination

Billy said:
I have a realistic view of Watson.
all the "grass is greener" brigade who buy into hype about every signing will spend all next season talking about how this one or that one isn't living up to their expectations, and i'll be thinking, just like every signing, ever.
People focus on every nitpicking fault they can see in the players we are very familiar with, and judge them far too harshly, and players who are coming in from other clubs are judged on only their positives or highlight reels.
As always happens, it will become clear that all the signings were let go by other clubs for a reason, and aren't all the brilliant and unappreciated prospects you all think they are, and even though most of you will continue to talk them down, guys like Sione, Lamb, etc will be very competitive.

I suppose I should just find it amusing to watch you all build up your hopes, just to have them dashed when reality hits the fan when these guys get on the field.
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You are making out like we want Lamb to fail or something. Fact is, Brown has stated that Watson will get first crack at 6. I wish him well like any Knights fan should.

I will also be backing Lamb to put loads of pressure on him and I look forward to a healthy battle between them throughout the year. Whoever gets the 6 long-term whether its the local in Lamb or Watson, I will back them all the way.

Fans just want the better player in the 6 and I'm sure Lamb will get an opportunity to state his case.
 
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Aidos said:
You are making out we want Lamb to fail or something.
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No I'm not.
I'm clearly saying people are building up their hopes, based on nothing but wishful thinking about how good all the imports will be.
As happens time after time, they will be half as good as you think they are.
If you are looking for something to be insulted by, that is the insult i'm throwing out there - that you are all naïve optimists about half our squad, and for some reason, pessimistic about the other half.
Most of our local guys will have improved on last year and will have a good year in a much stronger squad next year.
Most of the imports will go OK, but fail to live up to the hype.
Watson and Lamb are representative of that.
People are over rating Watson - who is just a kid with a good highlights reel as a minor player in a very good side.
People are under rating Lamb - who managed to shine in a side spending half the salary cap - basically a reserve grade side trying to play firstgrade.
 
I can see where Billy is coming from and in some ways I feel the same. Pearce is the only top player with experience we have signed all others are fighting for a spot in 1sts, some have been given a promise but still must deliver.
Ponga for example is a very promising player who is about to play his first full year of 1st grade but it worries me that his inexperience will be his undoing his potential may not override that for the first half of season but we still talk him up as the answer yet make no mention of Meaney who has played well against men for a season.
Are we putting to much into the new signings, especially Watson and Ponga. Time will tell.
We are so desperate for success that we are counting it before it happens.
 
I kind of feel we have 4 years now to find the next best play maker.

I think right now Watson will add more than Lamb. If Pearce plays both sides of the field and basically does bulk of the direction Watson can just pop up and support play etc jag a try break a line.

Look at Morgan and Thurston, those two work perfect, and Morgan has that knack of scoring. Morgan was fairly quiet when he started partnering Thurston and just did his role. No reason Watson and Pearce can't be similar.
 
Billy said:
No I'm not.
I'm clearly saying people are building up their hopes, based on nothing but wishful thinking about how good all the imports will be.
As happens time after time, they will be half as good as you think they are.
If you are looking for something to be insulted by, that is the insult i'm throwing out there - that you are all naïve optimists about half our squad, and for some reason, pessimistic about the other half.
Most of our local guys will have improved on last year and will have a good year in a much stronger squad next year.
Most of the imports will go OK, but fail to live up to the hype.
Watson and Lamb are representative of that.
People are over rating Watson - who is just a kid with a good highlights reel as a minor player in a very good side.
People are under rating Lamb - who managed to shine in a side spending half the salary cap - basically a reserve grade side trying to play firstgrade.
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Pot. Kettle.
 
mullenmagic said:
Pot. Kettle.
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********.
People on this site conflate things I say into a wildly inaccurate misrepresentation - and I've long given up trying to correct them, because it is an endless task - but that is down to them.
If I say a young player is good and promising, and you read that as a young player is the next Joey - that is your problem buster.
I will continue to say a player is good if I think they are - and if you want to pretend I say something else, it's only yourself you are making look like a fool.
 
Havent we had a fair number of locals come through but have left and gone onto bigger things Cordiner comes to mind and Bird ...
 
Can hardly say that, they were in the joint for five seconds.

Watson won Auckland Nines player of the tournament. Ponga was in the team of the tournament Didn't see Lamb making the list.
 
That's in Nines though.

Watson and Ponga appear most effective when given more open space, Lamb's strengths are in directing more calculated, game-management plays.
 
Ethan said:
Havent we had a fair number of locals come through but have left and gone onto bigger things Cordiner comes to mind and Bird ...
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In the past we had a policy of spreading our junior money over a large group of juniors pretty evenly, while other clubs like the Roosters would have no local juniors and throw big money at kids like Cordner - which meant they picked the eyes out of the juniors of other clubs.

When Tinkler wanted to put a lot more money into juniors he had Bennett and Graham Murray work out the best way to do it, and what they came up with is the high performance squad. The idea way to identify the best players as young as possible and give them a level of coaching way above the other kids. Kids like Sione, Lamb, Cogger, Sam Stone, Brodie Jones, Tom Starling and Saulo have hit firstgrade or the seniors at 18 or 19 with insane skill levels because they have been getting coached like firstgraders since they were 15.
On the other hand, Dan and Jake Saifiti didn't join the club till they were turning 19 - and they are the best young guys to come through in a while, so putting all the money into a handful of guys doesn't always do the trick.
 
The fact of the matter is people are going to get excited over the signing of Watson and people are going to get excited over the prospect of Lamb. I could give less of a sh*t about one being an import and the other being a local product and quite frankly I’m over the whole “locals > imports” discussion. We NEED to be fielding the best possible team with the best available players week in week out, which I believe Brown and Mooney have done a brilliant job in getting a decent mix of experience and talented youth. No one is overrating or underrating anyone. Watson is a dynamic runner of the ball with great vision, strength and evasiveness and Lamb is a smart, calm and collected playmaker but to say one is better than the other is utterly pointless when neither has played together, and have both played for two different style of football teams over the last 2 years. And Jesus Christ on a bike, why can’t people wrap their head around the fact that if one player isn’t playing well enough then they can in fact lose their place in the side. NO ONE is saying Watson will be in the 6 jersey for the entire season. The fact of the matter is the club has been looking for a running five-eight for the last year and Watson will be given the opportunity to nail down a spot, this doesn’t mean things can change down the track and Lamb can come into the team. I don’t know how many times this needs to be said. This goes for anyone in the team, not solely one player. Form, suspensions, injuries - the opportunities are there.
 
Wasn't the story with Dan that he only got signed because someone went out to watch Jacob play and he was in the same team?
Our best young player could still be kicking around in Ron Massey Cup or whatever it is called if not for some luck.
 
So I guess the key is just don't import any players, since they all automatically fail to live up to expectations. But all the local juniors that come through, they must always be expected to live up to expectations because they haven't been let go by a club yet.
 
Joshhh said:
So I guess the key is just don't import any players, since they all automatically fail to live up to expectations. But all the local juniors that come through, they must always be expected to live up to expectations because they haven't been let go by a club yet.
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The key is to breed all the good players you can, and if you have positions you can't fill, sign the best players you can.
That has worked for us in the past.
We have also tried buying whole squads of players under Smith and Bennett. It was a miserable failure both times, after a little bit of success at first. It took years to get over Smith and years to get over Bennett.
I haven't made up my mind on Brown yet, but signings like Hazard, Griffin, Sio, Naden and Roqico aren't filling me with hope.
 
Matty23 said:
And Jesus Christ on a bike, why can’t people wrap their head around the fact that if one player isn’t playing well enough then they can in fact lose their place in the side. NO ONE is saying Watson will be in the 6 jersey for the entire season.
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Well actually, that has been said in this thread or the pearce thread on here. Assertions that Watson is locked in for the year regardless of form yadda yadda. Quotes of how Brown said Watson was going to be 5/8 and we should believe this because he said it to the press, yet when Pearce says he is looking forward to forming a combination with Lamb, and how he has big wraps on him, we can't believe that as "of course he would say that" to the press.

Anyway, I've said it before, Watson will certainly get first crack at 5/8. But if he is failing there his position is not set in stone regardless of what some block heads on here want to hyperbole about.

Do we expect Lamb to get any time at 5/8 in pre season trials? Given how stead fast Brown is about who will be 5/8 all year (apparently), you would think trialling him there a waste of time.[/
 
Yes Kurriboy all positions will be up for grabs by round two or three of the competition. Will MOPearce and Watson fire? Yes in my opinion but that is all it is≥ This will motivate Lamb and Cogger to put all they have binto breaking into the top 17.

You can bet all of 1-17 will be aware of this come round one. I think Brownie's steadfast will be just that until a couple of poor performances. Now he has the cattle to change things about, a l;uxury he never had over the last two seasons.,
 
Billy said:
The key is to breed all the good players you can, and if you have positions you can't fill, sign the best players you can.
That has worked for us in the past.
We have also tried buying whole squads of players under Smith and Bennett. It was a miserable failure both times, after a little bit of success at first. It took years to get over Smith and years to get over Bennett.
I haven't made up my mind on Brown yet, but signings like Hazard, Griffin, Sio, Naden and Roqico aren't filling me with hope.
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You can't just bring up a bunch of kids & hope they go good. 2016 ring a bell? we won 1 game all year. You have to have a core of older, experienced players & that's what we've tried to create. You then fill in the gaps with your best juniors & they get to develop by playing with good players around them. It's simply not realistic to have a majorly local side. And hate on Smith all you want, but he probably created the best team we've had in a decade before he signed with the Roosters.
 
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