NRL Round 16 - Knights Vs Dragons - 8:00pm Friday, 19th of June - McDonald Jones Stadium

For a 20 yo bloke who's had what, one NRL preseason, who is constantly asked to play in unfamiliar roles to plug critical gaps within the teams' system, he does a crazy good job for his age and experience. There's something outstanding about him.

At fullback he is anything but safe under the high ball and has cost us with Flegg standard positioning and judgement, particularly under the high ball. Its why we copped big scorelines against the Roosters and the Panthers. But he is daring, tough and naturally skillful. His biggest fault is that he backs himself, perhaps beyond his current ability. But according to Holbrook he is worthy of FG as the next man up to replace top tier talent.

There may be a 250 game footballer in him and if we think we'll need him for a premiership push in the next couple years we should blood him in the deep end now.
Yep & Holbrook has rated him since the preseason . And Graham appears to have passed Smith at 14
 
I reckon Sandon is not quite 100% so they went with Hunt at the back.
They don't tend to name players returning from injury unless they're 100% these days. And as our 20, there could be a late positional change, injury during warm up, or concussion, and he'd be playing the entire game or 75 minutes, anyway. So I'd hope he's good to go.
 
Surely if fit Smith comes into the halves and Sharpe moves to fullback?

I'd rather change just the 1 position TBH I know his not the best but probably good for him to have a run against a weaker team.

I think Smith to the 19 or even extended bench, if our first-choice halves are right.

Also, Sharpe is slowly getting back to full fitness would rather him not get bashed on kick returns.
 
Makes sense if true about Sharpe to fullback. Smith was putting up outstanding attacking numbers before his injury grabbing four tries assists across two games and will always find himself on the bench or starting due to him being our absolute best backup if injury during a game happens to Brown, Sharpe or even Ponga.
 
I'd rather change just the 1 position TBH I know his not the best but probably good for him to have a run against a weaker team.

I think Smith to the 19 or even extended bench, if our first-choice halves are right.

Also, Sharpe is slowly getting back to full fitness would rather him not get bashed on kick returns.
I don’t love the chopping and changing but the 5 plus errors Hunt makes could be costly if we don’t come out firing.
 
Hey whatever works as long as we get the W, just feel it's bad for Sharpes development.
Sharpe I’m sure will be given the freedom like Ponga to still chime into the line and create and attack,Holbrook and browny would be silly if they weren’t telling him to get involved as much or similar to kalyn , he just won’t be making as many tackles this week and hopefully now he is getting fitter, he can have a great running game from the back also and show some of the things he has shown previously at fullback.
And Hunt so far has always shown his best when he has shorter stints on the field around 20-30mins so if he is needed that suits him Better
 
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