Sadly it's that time, your team for 2020

Article by Dillon in the Herald says it's likely Levi will stay and goes on to say it will be hard to fit Levi, Brailey, Watson and Mann into the 17, but they are all better than reserve grade level.
I think injuries will sort that out for us.
Last year Levi, Watson and Mann all played injured in a lot of games because with Griffin injured we were still short of cover.
The guy who probably doesn't get a top 30 spot if Levi stays is Randall. I'd say Randall is our injury cover option if Levi goes.
 
Owey said:
Well, i agree with your assessment of him, but if he is there rd 1, he has earned it over the preseason

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Agree with this. Obi seems to have observed enough of our team to have an idea of what he wants from us. If Mann is in the team after the end of a preseason with Obi in charge, he must be doing something right. If he's playing like he did at the end of this year, I expect he'll be in reggies, Watson will be in the 6 and Crossland/Hoy/Sasagi will be pushing him for a spot later in the year. Who knows what will happen though.
 
Tex had a lot of errors in his game early last season and was dropped back to under 20s for a while. He might be just the sort that thrives under O'Brien, with a lot of direction to channel his energy into more productive areas, instead of trying a lot of low percentage stuff.
 
knightime said:
Agree with this. Obi seems to have observed enough of our team to have an idea of what he wants from us. If Mann is in the team after the end of a preseason with Obi in charge, he must be doing something right. If he's playing like he did at the end of this year, I expect he'll be in reggies, Watson will be in the 6 and Crossland/Hoy/Sasagi will be pushing him for a spot later in the year. Who knows what will happen though.
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Sione trained the house down in the preseason and did everything right by all accords but we all saw how that would turn out over the course of the season...
 
Deadset Sione has more lives than Sylvestar the cat.

Hopefull Mann and Sione are no longer near firsts barring injury.

Fitzgibbon needs to have a rebound year, think he may have been found out as a one trick pony last year, was plod.
 
Lord of the Skraelings said:
Deadset Sione has more lives than Sylvestar the cat.

Hopefull Mann and Sione are no longer near firsts barring injury.

Fitzgibbon needs to have a rebound year, think he may have been found out as a one trick pony last year, was plod.
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Would not be surprised if O’Brien tells Sione to look elsewhere this preseason.
 
Mann and Levi can play reggies. Watson was easily one of our best throughout the season and Brailey will be a shoe-in. Sione will be in the side, but doesn’t make an impact even when on the bench.
 
relicorange94 said:
Would not be surprised if O’Brien tells Sione to look elsewhere this preseason.
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I wouldn't be surprized if Sione improves out of sight now that he has a coach who can give him a clear role to play.
In fact, if O'Brien can't get a lot more out of Sione, he's probably another dud coach.
 
https://www.newcastleknights.com.au/news/2019/10/17/season-review-jirah-momoisea/

Season review on Jirah Momoisea.
I see he has now played 26 games of reserve grade over 2 seasons and has only been playing league for 3 seasons.
Him and Saulo are the same age and are now at a pretty similar standard, but their stories couldn't be more different.
Saulo helped us win a national under 16s title, was one of the best players in the country at under 18s level, starring for NSW, and got his first firstgrade off season at 19.
Jirah played Union in NZ till he was 18 and played a few games of league for his school, where he impressed Storm scouts enough to get a year of under 20s at the Storm. The year he turned 20 he was cut by the storm and joined the Knights, where Todd Lowrie coached him well enough to get him up to reserve grade level.
In short, Saulo has been the next big thing at prop for 6 years, and Momoisea probably wasn't even watching league for most of that, and has come out of the clouds to join Saulo as our next two props.
 
Battler said:
I like Sione, but to suggest that O'Brien is a dud if Sione doesn't improve markedly, is unfair.
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Sione is the classic example of a player who was mucked around by Brown's coaching style.
He is screaming out for a coach who can recognise his faults and skills and set him a role he can achieve and develop in over time.
Sione has played nearly every number from 1 to 13 except 7 I think, and all that has achieved is to muck him around.

It is coaching test 101 for O'Brien to find Sione's best role, communicate to him what he needs improve and how he needs to play, and settle him into the team.
The reason Brown is gone is because he couldn't do that with Sione and about 50 other young players from Feeney in his first pre season to Ramien in his last.
The reason we signed O'Brien is we think he can do that with Sione, Best, Sasagi, Toa, Crossland and even others who Brown has not got the best out of like Levi, Barnett and even Ponga to some degree.

In short, if O'Brien can't improve Sione, changing coaches was a waste of time.
 
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