NRL Round 18 - Knights Vs Dolphins - 4:05pm Sunday, 5th of July - McDonald Jones Stadium

I think this game will be easier for them to get up for.
I hope.

Sometimes our outs simplify our gameplan a little bit. They have some pretty hefty outs as well.

I think the table reflects where we are when we play our best footy. Hopefully we can get the 2 points playing our best footy.

We need to start the improvement trajectory if we want to play in September. Teams will come home strong, and hopefully we are one of them.
 
Once-a-Knight and a Phin....at least we don't have to worry about a jr coming back to haunt us in this game...

"The NRL’s June 30 transfer chaos has kicked off with the Melbourne Storm confirming now former Dolphins second rower Oryn Keeley will join the club effective immediately."
 
Our form has collapsed over the past 6 or so weeks. Our offensive shape is too often ineffective. Sloppy passing. Wrong options.

Our only real middles are JSaf and Frizell. Mooney is talented but there is too great a difference between his peak and his mean. He's played maybe 3 or 4 great games this season, the rest have been underwhelming, not bad but just not anywhere near where we need him to be.

Im watching a team who're trying but just dont have another gear, less than that, they're struggling to maintain the quality they brought early in the season. Particularly the halves. This season is almost a beta run for new systems while we bring along our juniors.
 
Dolphins missing Isa Kotoa with Origin players, Hammer, Cobbo, Flegler and Bostock out. We have KP and Best out. Still both strong sides but Isa Kotoa is a big out for them.

Yeah, Mooney had a quiet game v the Tigers, but I don’t think he’s been that bad. He made 134 metres the week before. Frizz had a good game.

This origin period is tough because we rely on KP so much. But I have confidence in Sharpe at the back and Sandon back in the halves. If we play like we have the last month we will lose to this Phins side, so we need to be better.

I’m expecting a much improved game from our spine, and Brown to take a bit more of the lead and have a big game.
 
Les Misérables said:
Our form has collapsed over the past 6 or so weeks. Our offensive shape is too often ineffective. Sloppy passing. Wrong options.

Our only real middles are JSaf and Frizell. Mooney is talented but there is too great a difference between his peak and his mean. He's played maybe 3 or 4 great games this season, the rest have been underwhelming, not bad but just not anywhere near where we need him to be.

Im watching a team who're trying but just dont have another gear, less than that, they're struggling to maintain the quality they brought early in the season. Particularly the halves. This season is almost a beta run for new systems while we bring along our juniors.
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Can't really understand that line of thinking.

We've scored 12 (in a monsoon), 22, 32, 28, 36, 44, and 42 points in our last 6 games. Maybe you mean to include byes to make the "6 weeks" sound longer than it is. In which case ignore the monsoon and we're still averaging 27 a game. We scored a length of the field try on the opening set just this week.

Offensive shape is fine, very good in fact. We are making too many errors, and we do lack middle depth.

But I have no idea how you look at this team and think because of lacklustre games against the Dragons and Tigers we "don't have another gear". Our ability to score points is elite. Fixing the dumb handling errors is much easier than solving more fundamental problems. If there is a smokey from outside the top few sides this year, it's us.
 
Tobe Fair said:
I dont understand this. Hunt is a far better finisher with a far better defensive game and far better in the air.
At twenty Hunt is a wonderful prospect for our future and McCarthy had not the ability at the same age and an argument could be made, not even now.
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McCarthy outplayed him easily in cup and by far has a better defensive record I mean it toke what 4 games from Kyle in first grade before he missed 1 tackle?

You can like him all you want that’s your opinion, we have never won any of the three games he started at centre and he is a pure hype job, but I guess we will find out against the Dolphins where he will be marking Jake, I’ll be paying super close attention this time and try and find this super ultra talented player that has yet to show up.

But hey I might be wrong despite everything else point that way, like I said I’ll pay super close attention to just him this time.

Oh and let’s not forget last time he was named centre the actual coach himself pulled him to the bench for Sharpe who at that time played zero minutes as a centre in first grade… ringing endorsement
 
We should be winning this one. Katoa is such a massive loss for them. I know they got up and beat the Warriors without him but Schneider is such a massive downgrade. It’d be like us losing Ponga and replacing him with present day Shannon McDonnell.
 
mozza said:
We should be winning this one. Katoa is such a massive loss for them. I know they got up and beat the Warriors without him but Schneider is such a massive downgrade. It’d be like us losing Ponga and replacing him with present day Shannon McDonnell.
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Shannon McDonnell racing away to score the match-winner at the one game I’ve been to at Canberra Stadium is one of my favourite memories though … possibly his greatest ever moment though!
 
MontyBrogan said:
Can't really understand that line of thinking.

We've scored 12 (in a monsoon), 22, 32, 28, 36, 44, and 42 points in our last 6 games. Maybe you mean to include byes to make the "6 weeks" sound longer than it is. In which case ignore the monsoon and we're still averaging 27 a game. We scored a length of the field try on the opening set just this week.

Offensive shape is fine, very good in fact. We are making too many errors, and we do lack middle depth.

But I have no idea how you look at this team and think because of lacklustre games against the Dragons and Tigers we "don't have another gear". Our ability to score points is elite. Fixing the dumb handling errors is much easier than solving more fundamental problems. If there is a smokey from outside the top few sides this year, it's us.
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I thought we played well against the Storm and were unlucky not to win.

But they're the only decent team we've played in a while. We're one of the best attacking teams in the comp, scoring points is easy for us. But scoring isn't our issue, its certainly not why we'd lose a game.

Dragons - W
Titans - W
Bye
Eels - W
Storm - L
Bye
Dragons - W
Tigers - W

Lets be honest, we've played 4 teams in 8 weeks. 3 of those teams are bottom 4. All of them are bottom 8. Of course we're going to put points on them.

Let's revisit my comment in a month and see if you can understand my line of thinking then
 
Les Misérables said:
I thought we played well against the Storm and were unlucky not to win.

But they're the only decent team we've played in a while. We're one of the best attacking teams in the comp, scoring points is easy for us. But scoring isn't our issue, its certainly not why we'd lose a game.

Dragons - W
Titans - W
Bye
Eels - W
Storm - L
Bye
Dragons - W
Tigers - W

Lets be honest, we've played 4 teams in 8 weeks. 3 of those teams are bottom 4. All of them are bottom 8. Of course we're going to put points on them.

Let's revisit my comment in a month and see if you can understand my line of thinking then
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Maybe we're talking across purposes. I said I couldn't understand your line of thinking in saying "Our offensive shape is too often ineffective". Sounds like you also don't agree with that statement given the subsequent description of our ability to attack.

Not sure what there is to revisit in a month. Could we lose against the better teams we now run up against? Of course
 
I think the Dolphins are gonna run rings around us. Our form since coming back off the bye has been turd. Lack of respect for the opposition, poor ball handling, completion rate has been shocking. The Dolphins are missing more than us but their depth has been elite for them and players like Nikorima, Farnworth, Isaako are in career best form.

I think this is gonna be a repeat performance of our round 3 match against the Wahs. I genuinely believe the Dolphins are a smokey for the comp.
 
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