NRL Round 20 - Knights Vs Sharks - 6:00pm Friday, 17th of July - Ocean Protect Stadium

Seano said:
Just had a look at our remaining draw...Yikes. Going to need to knock off a couple of more fancied teams and probably beat both Tits and Manly at home, I'd reckon.

Starts this weekend.
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Next two games will make or break our season. Against Sharks and Roosters. Keen to see how we perform against them.
 
Up until the last 8mins of the last game Ponga played horrendously. Now thats of his system and the spine and backs should be back to first choice lets have a crack.
 
If there's a game that is going to expose our weakness through the middle, it's going to be this game. Even if Saifiti was good for this game, I just can't see how we can match it with their monster forward pack. They have a hooker who plays 80, so they have a 4 middle rotation that means they don't lose any impact when their bench comes on. They absolutely murdered the phins through the middle on Saturday who have a very powerful middle themselves.

As I see it, any path to victory would have to be like that Melbourne game where even though we got dominated through the middle, we kept ourselves in the game with long-range efforts. But that expansive approach might backfire on us like it did on Sunday if the execution is off. I'd also be targeting Mulitalo in the air since Dom will be marking him I think. Ngawanitawase really owned him in the air a few weeks ago when the chooks got over them.
 
I’d be okay with Hunt on wing for Marzhew if his butt is still sore. (This looked particularly nasty imo, but instead we will focus on the one kick Ponga took with his legs up)

My concern with Hunt on the wing WAS from last year.
He was lanky/tall and defenders were just dominating and driving him back every carry, like Jenkins. He always came back for more though. But it wasn’t overly effective to have him taking carries out of our own end.

But, this year, I think he’s really worked on his strength and he seems to get through the contact and/or find the ground a lot quicker. Think that’s been his biggest improvement for mine. Still the same 100% effort, supported by a stronger body.

Opportunity to bring in Winter (presumably if Votano considering leaving, or do we dangle to carrot to Votano, or even McCarthy) to the reserves as backline cover.
 
Grug said:
Up until the last 8mins of the last game Ponga played horrendously. Now thats of his system and the spine and backs should be back to first choice lets have a crack.
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I suspect he was managing himself a little.

With Hunt on bench, he potentially had an out if he was gassed. But the early injury to Marzhew meant there was no backline cover for him.

Things like handing off the kick returns helped him conserve his energy for attack. But I suspect he was just trying to see out the 80 this game.

Last 15 minutes, he had some gas in the tank, and emptied it.
 
usa3617 said:
If there's a game that is going to expose our weakness through the middle, it's going to be this game. Even if Saifiti was good for this game, I just can't see how we can match it with their monster forward pack. They have a hooker who plays 80, so they have a 4 middle rotation that means they don't lose any impact when their bench comes on. They absolutely murdered the phins through the middle on Saturday who have a very powerful middle themselves.

As I see it, any path to victory would have to be like that Melbourne game where even though we got dominated through the middle, we kept ourselves in the game with long-range efforts.
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Yehh, I’m worried about Brailey off the back of their strong forward runs.

Think we struggle to contain dummy half runs and wrestle back the momentum when we are on the back foot.

I actually noticed, for maybe the first time, we gave away 2-3 set restarts in a row following a break- trying to get our line sorted. I actually thought it was clever, and reminded me of what Penrith (and some other good teams do when they start to lose the battle). We held down a little longer and made the referee make a call.
 
Want to give Crouchy and Hopwood some love. Whilst Crouchy copped a couple hit in end after confrontation with Smith and Keon. He didn’t put his head down and kept plugging away and also didn’t lose his head with errors.

Hopwood showed his maturity again as well and had an errorless game, unsure in there meters but that doesn’t fully matter. With Mooney off for 15min they put in decent mins.

It may be our downfall a little in coming weeks against Sharks and Roosters, but I have all faith in the boys coming through to keep being a quality forwards in the future.

Not having Jsaf, Saulo is starting to pinch but still impressed by these boys.
 
BTP said:
Want to give Crouchy and Hopwood some love. Whilst Crouchy copped a couple hit in end after confrontation with Smith and Keon. He didn’t put his head down and kept plugging away and also didn’t lose his head with errors.

Hopwood showed his maturity again as well and had an errorless game, unsure in there meters but that doesn’t fully matter. With Mooney off for 15min they put in decent mins.

It may be our downfall a little in coming weeks against Sharks and Roosters, but I have all faith in the boys coming through to keep being a quality forwards in the future.

Not having Jsaf, Saulo is starting to pinch but still impressed by these boys.
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The reality is we are long odds to win the comp this year (not saying we cant) having these 2 guys put in the fire now and the back end of the year is going to hopefully greatly improve our ability in the next few years to win the comp. I think we really are just a dominant pack away from doing so. POS is building it from junior low cost players and youd have to think we have a great pipeline coming.
 
Beatell said:
The reality is we are long odds to win the comp this year (not saying we cant) having these 2 guys put in the fire now and the back end of the year is going to hopefully greatly improve our ability in the next few years to win the comp. I think we really are just a dominant pack away from doing so. POS is building it from junior low cost players and youd have to think we have a great pipeline coming.
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I agree. Don’t want to see us falter and slip out the back of finals, so hoping fully fit squad and a top 5 position by end of year and a push to a potential Prelim.

Next year will be just as exciting with Crouch and Hoppy both getting this good game time. I’m also hoping for a possibility of Hagan coming in next year as bench 9. His dummy half intelligence and runs is so impressive and it’s the next cog in our attack to have an attacking 9 threat that will split open the middle providing attack there with our already potent edge attack.
 
I'm not too worried about our run in. We will need to beat a good team or two to secure a finals berth, but we need to beat those sides to show we are good enough anyway. I think their will be some great performances in the run in. Looking forward to the back end of the year.
 
Young forwards who might come out of next pre-season as regular firstgraders are;

McEwen - I still think he will be a middle forward pretty soon - maybe next year.

Hopwood - just needs to get a bit bigger and stronger with age - he has all the skills already

Crouch - has hit the age when big middles usually reach their potential

Manuleleua - has to improve his fitness and tackle efficiency still, but getting better every game. He's at the point where he's too good for reserve grade but just not ready for firstgrade.

Cant - getting better through shear hard work. He'll be a solid contributor every game next year.

ESL - He looks to be one of our best every week in reserve grade, but we don't seem keen on keeping him. He would be ready to be a regular firstgrader next year for sure.
 
Owey said:
I'm not too worried about our run in. We will need to beat a good team or two to secure a finals berth, but we need to beat those sides to show we are good enough anyway. I think their will be some great performances in the run in. Looking forward to the back end of the year.
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This is my opinion also, I don’t care who we play in the run-in because whoever we play in finals is gunna be a tough team. Now that origin is done, we will need to improve towards the back end of the year. The next two weeks are a great chance to see where we’re at. If we make top 4 i think we’re every chance to make the GF, because we would’ve have got our game to the point that we’re beating the likes of the sharks, roosters and warriors. If we lose those games but win the others and make the 8 its a fair representation of where we at and how much we need to improve next year.
 
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