Best 19 in 2027

[krustykraz]

Yeah i dont want to jump the gun on him too much, but geez i think hes going to have a very very good career, playing plenty of rep footy. And im so bloody glad all he ever wanted to do was play for the Knights. Hopefully we never have to get in a bidding war for him.

This kid is something special.
I think he will improve heeps just this coming offseason.
Won't be long before the number 10 is undisputedly his.
If we can somehow manage to upgrade him every couple of years before he goes to market, that will avoid the bidding wars.

 

[RedBlue]

Future Chief type guy at the knights

There was this funny kid tipsy as at the Accor brewery pre Panthers going off every second ‘codyyyy hopwood future captain, coddayyy hopWOOD is CAPtain’

Man’s right

 

[Billy]

Best defence efficiency

Forwards and hookers

Jones 97.7%
Saulo 96.9%
Hopwood 96.6%
Lucas 96.4%
Crouch 96.2%
ESL 96.2%
Frizell 95.5%
Mooney 94.4%
Crossland 93.3%
Cant 93.1%
Croker 92.5%
Graham 91.9%
Saifiti 91.7%
McEwen 90.3%
Manuleleua 88.9%
Hola 85.7%

Backs and halves

Winter 100%
Brown 92.2%
Sharpe 90.2%
Best 86.9%
Hunt 84.3%
Young 79.5%
Gagai 79.5%
Gamble 79.4%
Smith 73.5%
Ponga 72.6%
Marzhew 71%
De Courcey 66.7%
Schiller 53.3%

 

[Thieves Like Us]

Haters gonna hate….

 

[Tackleslikeagirl]

Haters gonna hate….

View attachment 8439

Person who runs that page is a dribbling gronk lol

Only have to do a small scroll & see Knights living rent free in their head

 

[luke46]

1. Ponga
2. Young
3. Winter
4. Best
5. Marzhew
6. Sharpe
7. Brown (Smith early rounds)
8. Saifiti
9. Crossland
10. McEwen
11. Lucas
12. Manuleleua
13. Hopwood

14. Smith (Graham early rounds)
15. Mooney
16. Niukore
17. Croker
18. Hunt
19. Crouch

I actually like the idea of starting with Jsaf and Hopgood/crouch then having mooney and McKewan come on 25 minutes in when there’s some tired legs etc.

 

[Treadly]

Best defence efficiency

Forwards and hookers

Jones 97.7%
Saulo 96.9%
Hopwood 96.6%
Lucas 96.4%
Crouch 96.2%
ESL 96.2%
Frizell 95.5%
Mooney 94.4%
Crossland 93.3%
Cant 93.1%
Croker 92.5%
Graham 91.9%
Saifiti 91.7%
McEwen 90.3%
Manuleleua 88.9%
Hola 85.7%

Backs and halves

Winter 100%
Brown 92.2%
Sharpe 90.2%
Best 86.9%
Hunt 84.3%
Young 79.5%
Gagai 79.5%
Gamble 79.4%
Smith 73.5%
Ponga 72.6%
Marzhew 71%
De Courcey 66.7%
Schiller 53.3%

Surprised how high hunt is on the list, but the defence is saw in winters 1 game was immense. If he can keep that high standard and setup young. Well try getting through winter and brown.

 

[Billy]

Surprised how high hunt is on the list, but the defence is saw in winters 1 game was immense. If he can keep that high standard and setup young. Well try getting through winter and brown.

Winter is tackling at 85.5% in reserve grade, so making 12/12 in one game of firstgrade is a bit of an outlier. 85.5% is still good for an 18 year old playing seniors for the first time.
Hunt is a guy who stands out because of his appearance - I think we all see his rookie mistakes because he's so hard to miss and they stick in our minds. For a guy who plays a different position every week, his stats all look good.
If he gets that right centre position and plays there all season, I think he'll have a great year.
You could say the same for Winter.
It's a good problem to have.

 

[Sheent14]

Winter is tackling at 85.5% in reserve grade, so making 12/12 in one game of firstgrade is a bit of an outlier. 85.5% is still good for an 18 year old playing seniors for the first time.
Hunt is a guy who stands out because of his appearance - I think we all see his rookie mistakes because he's so hard to miss and they stick in our minds. For a guy who plays a different position every week, his stats all look good.
If he gets that right centre position and plays there all season, I think he'll have a great year.
You could say the same for Winter.
It's a good problem to have.

Defence will be a huge part of who gets the nod playing next to Young, but who has the better catch and pass? A big part of their role will be executing that as crisply as possible. A big part of our identity in attack is executing that to utilize Dom's speed for yardage and scoring opportunities. Gags and Best among the best in the comp at this.

 

[jamesgould]

Haters gonna hate….

View attachment 8439

As much as this account is trolling, I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried about it. And not for the reason they're mentioning either, I don't think sides are going to suddenly work out how to shut down Ponga after a decade in first grade, or that our halves are rubbish. That's pretty braindead stuff.

But we are going to have a target on our back next year ... sides will turn up knowing it's a tough game and bringing that bit extra. Our style of play is a season older and sides will have an off-season to figure out how to counteract it.

I think Holbrook's big challenge in the off season is making sure the playing group doesn't just expect it all to happen again, or think "we're back to full strength in 2027, we'll be unstoppable". Ponga and other senior players will be a huge part of that too. But we really need to step everything up another notch if we want even an equally successful 2027.

I just look at sides that have had a huge year out of nowhere in previous years, and so many fall back to the pack the year after. We saw it ourselves to an extent in 2023.

Definitely think we do have a lot of the ingredients right though, there's every reason to be optimistic about next year.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

I just have too much belief in Justin as a coach to think he's gonna show up next year with the same plan playing the same way and just expect it to work.

The next step would be to better leverage the threat of our ability to score everywhere to become a team that's better at rolling downhill, controlling the game more. And the fact teams will know they can't relax, can't clock off, on plays 3 & 4, AND they have to maintain a wide defensive line - this should help with that.