Round 1 Team

Still 2 top 30 spots and a development spot left.

Crokes will be pretty stiff to miss out again IMO, especially if they don’t have anyone in mind for that last development spot.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Still 2 top 30 spots and a development spot left.

Crokes will be pretty stiff to miss out again IMO, especially if they don’t have anyone in mind for that last development spot.
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It's a brutal call.
Poor old Crokes has been one of our best performers in every grade for 7 or 8 years and has left no stone unturned to earn a spot - and he gets cut for some guy who has played 12 games of league.
The rewards are high if you make it to the top in league, but if I had a relative looking at spending the best years of their lives trying to make it at league, I'd tell them to put that effort into school instead.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Still 2 top 30 spots and a development spot left.
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Clubs can have up to six development players but the Knights haven't used all their spots since the first year they were brought in I think.

Now that you can use anyone off the street after round 11 it probably saves the club 100-150k or something not filling all the spots.

As for making the call on who gets a spot, the game is ruthless and the days of fairytales are long gone. Players need to be putting themselves first. If I'm someone like sasagi or Crossland with no obvious path to first grade I'm on the first bus out of town if a club can give me a first grade shot. Another year or two of stuffing around and they'll be on the scrapheap playing local league.
 
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I think we keep development slots open after losing Jock Madden. If memory serves, we had one development spot left and had to make a call between Jock and Pheonix over who got it, ultimately losing Madden to the tigers on a development deal.
 
slotmachine said:
Clubs can have up to six development players but the Knights haven't used all their spots since the first year they were brought in I think.

Now that you can use anyone off the street after round 11 it probably saves the club 100-150k or something not filling all the spots.

As for making the call on who gets a spot, the game is ruthless and the days of fairytales are long gone. Players need to be putting themselves first. If I'm someone like sasagi or Crossland with no obvious path to first grade I'm on the first bus out of town if a club can give me a first grade shot. Another year or two of stuffing around and they'll be on the scrapheap playing local league.
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I don't think that will happen to Sasagi or Crossland but if they do end up on the scrap heap playing local league then that will mean that not only didn't the Knights want them nobody did, other wise at there age they would get a contract somewhere either the NRL or Superleague .
 
Unfortunately the game has gotten to the stage that you have to be a brilliant athlete to make it in any position. Being a good athlete with brilliant skills doesn’t seem to cut it anymore outside of the halves and hooker
 
www.newcastleknights.com.au

Adam O'Brien joins the KNIGHTS // HQ Podcast

Ahead of the 2022 NRL Telstra Premiership season, we catch up with Head Coach, Adam O'Brien.
www.newcastleknights.com.au www.newcastleknights.com.au

Podcast with O'brien.
He says the player who had the best pre-season was Klem and thinks he is up for a big year.
He thinks it was a good pre-season despite all the challenges and largely puts it down to the new staff members.
Fair bit of Mann love - points out Mann puts his hand up to do anything asked of him and does a good job. Says that people who criticise Mann don't understand how hard it is to fill in in multiple different roles.
Talks up Randall, the halves partnership and Ponga - so basically the spine.
Seemed most impressed with the defence in the trails and said they tried a few things, but not everything they have trained for.

He actually seemed pretty relaxed with all the football stuff, but brushed most of the personal questions and didn't seem comfortable with the few he did answer.
 
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Ethan said:
I don't think that will happen to Sasagi or Crossland but if they do end up on the scrap heap playing local league then that will mean that not only didn't the Knights want them nobody did, other wise at there age they would get a contract somewhere either the NRL or Superleague .
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It's not that cut and dry. All depends on where they are, how old they are, if they know the right people, a club that lacks in a certain position, sometimes just pure luck, much like the normal work force. 100% there's guys playing NRL now that would have been working a normal job and never seen again if they were somewhere else at a particular point in time. And same the other way, there would be guys who never made it, that would have with an opportunity elsewhere.
 
Joshhh said:
It's not that cut and dry. All depends on where they are, how old they are, if they know the right people, a club that lacks in a certain position, sometimes just pure luck, much like the normal work force. 100% there's guys playing NRL now that would have been working a normal job and never seen again if they were somewhere else at a particular point in time. And same the other way, there would be guys who never made it, that would have with an opportunity elsewhere.
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Yeah when you see Cody Walker finally making it at age 26 and becoming one of the best players in the NRL, you do wonder about all the guys with talent who didn’t make it for whatever reason pre-age 22-23 and consequently gave the game away.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Yeah when you see Cody Walker finally making it at age 26 and becoming one of the best players in the NRL, you do wonder about all the guys with talent who didn’t make it for whatever reason pre-age 22-23 and consequently gave the game away.
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It's why I wish reserve grade could make a comeback. At the moment you have players scattered all over competitions and many not able to see the light so giving it up. If you could have a real B grade with all the 16 sides having a team, that would be quite a strong comp. The young guys would benefit so much playing in a comp like that over NSW/Q Cup, and the old guys would be more encouraged to keep grinding away.
 
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