The pre-season 2026 thread

Les Misérables said:
He'd be devestating with the ball. Particularly with tired defence around the 65 min mark. No doubt. But I doubt he can tackle proficiently in the middle. Particularly if we're defending our line.

He'd probably take just as much as he'd give.
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Yeah, defense will be an issue in the middle
 
Worth discussing Sione Haukinima now that we know he has moved to Newcastle and I assume training with Ball or maybe Flegg.

The story last year was Matts Coach Steve Simpson said his forward pack was too small, so mid season POS signed a schoolkid named Sione Haukinima from Logan in Brisbane and we flew him down every week to play Matts.
He was a head taller than anyone else in Matts and was reported as being 120kg - but looked bigger against Matts kids. It looked like Daniel Saifiti had put on some weight and was making 30, 40 or 50 metre runs against 16 year olds, but only 3 or 4 runs and only for a 20 minute spell. Sometimes they'd give him a second run for the last 10 minutes of games. He is surprisingly agile for a giant.
Hard to know how much training he was doing last year - maybe none.
He'll be 18 next year. I remember the Saifiti brothers were pretty unfit giants at 18 in flegg.
 
Still think something has to give with the outside backs. If you go off the assumption that Sharpe will be on the wing you've then got the following competing for spots in the reserve grade backline:

- Marzhew (re-signed in 2023 when he was killing it, presumably being paid decent starter money).
- Kepaoa (O'Sullivan signing, 2025 NSW Cup top tryscorer and Team of the Year winger).
- Schiller (presumably being paid fringe-first grader money, had already fallen behind even Hunt and McCarthy by the end of the year and could be even further down with Kepaoa joining and De Courcey rising, also looked a mess when tried at centre).
- De Courcey (would've been close behind Kepaoa for Team of the Year)
- McCarthy (not popular on here but thought he was always solid at worse outside of one bad game. Melbourne agreed because they were trying to pry him away this offseason).
- Hunt, Votano, Latu & Aoake outside the top 30 and all eligible for u/21's, but all spent most of last year in reserve grade.

It's theoretically good depth but pretty imbalanced compared to what we've got going on in the forwards. Feels like one of Marzhew or Schiller could/should be tapped on the shoulder early. Schiller already dug his heels in on an early move this past season but that was before falling down the pecking order so might change his mind now. If Marzhew's future is already sorted there's probably not much motivation for him to uproot his family again for a year. Maybe a year living in London playing second division like a few of his future teammates are already doing would be nice.
 
Hey if it's true then what a great pick up for them, and what a great side of the field to attack for us 👏
 
I would love to hear what the atmosphere is like at training. The club made some big changes and would be nice to hear more from inside the walls, obviously I don't need to hear this but it would be nice
 
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