NRL Round 17 - Knights Vs Eels - 5:30pm Saturday 29th June - McDonald Jones Stadium

Sarge said:
As has been said a millions times , don't get the hate for Tuala . Not costing us much , always gives 100%. Not like some high profile forwards . I hope we resign him even if it's only for reliable depth .
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Agreed. He's perfect for depth and good back up coin. If we had more fluent backline movement from middles providing that momentum, then we'd see he is a fantastic finisher.

He's probably just holding the spot for someone more explosive in the future, (Votano, Latu, Mocei, Davey) but he absolutely does the job and has done this yr. He's also a great role model for juniors to patiently ply there trade and always be ready when chance arrives, without kicking stones.
 
Tuala is a handy utility back to have in the top 30 but he’s not particularly good at anything by first grade standards beyond being pretty safe in defence. For now he’s a starter because the options below him are also fringe first-graders and he’s the best of them.
 
danknights said:
Haha your kidding right? Been to training? Tuala can run a 100 with ball in hand in 11 seconds.
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Wow, I would love to see that!
That is the speed Dom, Armstrong and Sharpe travel at.
Enari is reliable, but he can’t cover 100m in 11 seconds like the speedsters mentioned above. I am very confident in that fact!
 
sherpa said:
If you can't see the difference in the confidence Gagai has in Tuala vs Dom Young hmm
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Has Best lost all confidence in Marzhew on the other side of the field as well? Bit coincidental that both centres have both suddenly stopped creating chances for their wingers, isn’t it? Almost like something further in-field could be causing this …
 
Defence wins games said:
Wow, I would love to see that!
That is the speed Dom, Armstrong and Sharpe travel at.
Enari is reliable, but he can’t cover 100m in 11 seconds like the speedsters mentioned above. I am very confident in that fact!
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Yeah i am not sure if Enari is that quick but he is quite fast
 
jamesgould said:
Has Best lost all confidence in Marzhew on the other side of the field as well? Bit coincidental that both centres have both suddenly stopped creating chances for their wingers, isn’t it? Almost like something further in-field could be causing this …
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This is where I was going my comment. I wasn't hating on Tuala just wondering where the trust has gone.
 
Sheldon said:
This is where I was going my comment. I wasn't hating on Tuala just wondering where the trust has gone.
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I just don’t think there’s been many opportunities for any of our outside backs, not so much about trust. Or you could also say our halves aren’t trusting Best or Gagai, because they’re barely receiving any early ball.
 
KP missing has to be having an effect here.

We aren't as big of a threat without him, teams can just sit back and wait for us to come to them now. Previously KP used to get around looking for overlaps, getting the ball out wide and making defences make decisions because he is that big of a threat. Which can lead to overlaps and opportinuities for winger/centre.

Now, from what I notice, we aren't getting the ball out there with a running threat but more just shovelling the ball along the line with little shape, speed of attack, decoy runners etc, so defences can easily slide to cover it.
 
Kurriboy said:
KP missing has to be having an effect here.

We aren't as big of a threat without him, teams can just sit back and wait for us to come to them now. Previously KP used to get around looking for overlaps, getting the ball out wide and making defences make decisions because he is that big of a threat. Which can lead to overlaps and opportinuities for winger/centre.

Now, from what I notice, we aren't getting the ball out there with a running threat but more just shovelling the ball along the line with little shape, speed of attack, decoy runners etc, so defences can easily slide to cover it.
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Yep it’s very sideways, no speed and no decoys. Makes you wonder how much Ponga was doing to organise things, although it wasn’t exactly great before he got injured, either.
 
OnTilt said:
Eels are a bit of a bogey team for us, hard to see us winning this
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The eels could get smashed 80nil against reserve grade teams 3 weeks in a row, come out an against a full strength Knights team at home with half their squad injured and beat us by 50.

Saints are normally pretty good at that too 😭
 
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