Mathews and Ball 2023

Some changes in Ball.
Taj Blackman has gone from Hooker to halfback and will start in 7
Jye Linnane has gone from halfback to 5/8 and will start in 6
Travis May has gone from 5/8 to bench and will start in 14
a kid called Malachi Smith will start in 9
 
Malachi. What a wicked first name. Haha.

Great result HMATTS. Looked strong while way through. Hopefully. Good year for them.

Let’s go Ball.
 
That was a great try.
Ferguson and Sharpe and Linnane and a touch from Blackman - all our class players showing why they are so good.
 
Laurie Daly Cup
NMR Knights up 16-10 over Titans at halftime

SG Ball Cup
Knights up 26-6 over Norths at halftime.

Ferguson and Sharpe have their individual tries for the game - just Myles Martin needs his usual and the race for top tryscorer is on.
 
Good to see Jye Linnane back to his best in a competitive side.
He just about gave up passing in our terrible Mathews side last year - tried to do everything himself.
 
62-12
We haven't got the great forward pack of last year which might make it hard against the quality sides, but our backs look as good or better than last year. Both Sharpe and Ferguson have gone up a level.
 
Geez you can see what an offseason has done for Myles Martin. Doubled his size since last season. Well done

Great to see Ferguson playing good. Stated in offseason he struggled with mental health. Hopefully he's on the up and up.
 
Knights 20 - 14 Norths final score in Tarsha Gale.
They started slow last year too.
I thought the fullback for the Knights, Lilli White, looked a lot like Tamika Upton with the way she glides through the line. she needs to get a lot fitter and work a lot harder though.
 
Billy said:
Some changes in Ball.
Taj Blackman has gone from Hooker to halfback and will start in 7
Jye Linnane has gone from halfback to 5/8 and will start in 6
Travis May has gone from 5/8 to bench and will start in 14
a kid called Malachi Smith will start in 9
Click to expand...
All these guys were pretty good
 
mullenmagic said:
Thought Linnane was the standout other than Sharpe. Ferguson & Falemoe were great in the centres too.
Click to expand...
Myles Martin had his best defensive game yet IMO. As you would expect from a guy who has been tackling firstgraders for 3 months, he was getting through a mountain of work and was stopping guys dead.
His effectiveness in attack might have suffered a bit from the amount of work he did in defence, but if they did stats on Ball, he's have a lot of metres and tackles.
He also unselfishly passed the ball to Ferguson when he might have scored himself. He wouldn't have done that last year - he'd have had a crack himself for sure.
 
mullenmagic said:
Thought Linnane was the standout other than Sharpe. Ferguson & Falemoe were great in the centres too.
Click to expand...
It's only 1 game, but Linnane looking better than Taj Blackman is promising. Blackman went well too, but as an emerging Blue squad member who we have been grooming as the next halfback prospect since 2019, you'd expect Blackman to be the standout. Blackman is a year older than Linnane, and both have been in Mathews since they were 14.
It might be illogical, but I've always been more of a fan of Linnane because I can see the "swagger", aggression and self confidence of Steve Linnane in him. I assume he is related to Steve Linnane because they are both from Kurri Kurri, but I don't know if he's a son or nephew, because Steve Linnane's 2 brothers were also Kurri Kurri stalwarts.
 
Interesting matchups next week.
We play Penrith in Windsor.
Penrith had a great season last year, but we beat them in all the regular rounds.
Penrith have lost Mathews and Tarsha Gale and are down at halftime in Ball against Illawarra.
If we knock them off next week it will be hard for them to come back over a 9 game season.
 
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