Elimination Final - Knights V Raiders - Sunday 10 September 4:05pm - McDonald Jones Stadium

Match result

  • Total voters
    11
  • Poll closed .
What if it is only a low grade strain and AOB is just foxing to have Rapana et al running out of the line Ramien style to give the outside backs even more room to move. Most of our tries have come from the defence trying to overcompensate to cover Ponga and leaving gaps aplenty.
 
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MontyBrogan said:
I'm not even making a recommendation about whether to play him or not, don't have the info to know what the right thing to do is.

But this is a useless question. Can be countered with - what if we would win without him, and would only beat the Warriors the next week if he gets healthier through rest?

The question is - what decision gives us the best chance of winning 4 more games, not what gives us the best chance of beating the Raiders.
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i wasn't even replying to you. My point is we don't have the luxury to rest our star player, it is an elimination game. Unless his injury is really bad of course.
 
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Grug said:
What if it is only a low grade strain and AOB is just foxing to have Rapana et al running out of the line Ramien style to give the outside backs even more room to move.
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Then AOB is elevated to the rarified air in the pantheon of League Gods. I would consider offering my first born in tribute, and should we win a Premiership, personally lobby to have a suburb named in his honor.
 
Area51 said:
Shout out to Leo

Leo Thompson (Knights)​

Losing a prop of David Klemmer’s quality was always going to be a challenge for the Knights this season, but the growth of Thompson has meant they’ve hardly missed a beat in the middle of the park.

After starting the season with a week in camp with the Māori All Stars, his form has been such that he’s now a player who is an automatic selection in Newcastle’s run-on side each week.

The 23-year-old sets the tone through the early exchanges with his aggression and line speed and is a strong defender, with a 94 percent tackle efficiency rate through 23 appearances. He's type of player you want on your side when the first few hit-ups are flying in.

https://www.nrl.com/news/2023/09/06/nrl-finals-each-teams-underrated-player-to-watch/
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Don’t @ me everyone, but Leo has been an upgrade on Klemmer as a starting prop this year, due to how the modern game is played. I don’t care what the stats say. Leo is a winning player in the modern NRL & Klem is a losing player.
 
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Don't think that's a controversial take in the slightest. To say nothing of how well Leo has played in his own right, at some point it stops being a coincidence that Klemmer hasn't been on a good club team since his days coming off the bench for the Dogs (before he started getting paid the big bucks). Don't seem to be missing that "aggression and leadership" everyone likes to pretend he has in spades either.
 
Getting nervous.
As excited as I am, it’s hard to get that “they are just going to disappoint you” voice from the last decade out of my head.
We should beat them. Comfortably. I have trust issues when we “should” beat teams.

Raiders have a very unreliable inconsistent style. Type of team that can have their seasons best game against us, then get flogged by 60 next week.
Hoping we get a solid lead and have the luxury to protect some players.
 
It’s great that our team is a genuine premiership contender. It such a massive improvement from being a joke. Opponents are now wary when they play us.

Another hard preseason and we should be a stronger team. In particular thr 2 new poms, Dylan Lucas, Riley Jones, Oryn Keely and hopefully Laitia Moceidreke will benefit from the preseason.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Don’t @ me everyone, but Leo has been an upgrade on Klemmer as a starting prop this year, due to how the modern game is played. I don’t care what the stats say. Leo is a winning player in the modern NRL & Klem is a losing player.
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I've made this point before....but the turnaround in the culture of the club directly correlated with Klemmer leaving - I loved the passion and aggression of Klemmer on the field but I always had the sense that his attitude and being very self absorbed meant that it was always all about him, not the team and that made him one of the key personalities that was causing the disunity and poor culture in the club.

As much as I think Freddie is not a quality coach, I think this attitude issue was also why Freddie had Klemmer's papers were stamped 'never to be selected again'' for the Blues to keep that culture out of the Blues side
 
if, IF, we Select/play both Ponga and Hastings as per initial team selection what sort of bench do we need in case both go down early with recurrence of current injuries.
If you select Miller and Clune at 14 & 15 then that leaves DanS and either Croker or Hetherington.
Im thinking at tops we have Ponga or Hastings, possibly neither as both is to high a risk.
If Ponga and Hastings play and end up not injured and play through what do we do with Miller and Clune to relieve other positions.
Whatever happens it’s a damn if you do and damn if you don’t.
My choice/selection, play Ponga and Clune rest Hastings and leave Miller out
 
From his interview he said he feels right to play. It will all depend on a full contact captains run whether he is right. O’brien mentioned he was doing a lot at trading without a pain injection. So game day he will have the needle and should be fine.
 
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