Spine Appreciation Thread

Kalyn Ponga: 2.25 games, 1 try, 2 line breaks, 3 try assists, 21 tackle breaks, 157 running metres per game, 1 forced drop out.
Dylan Brown: 4.5 games, 1 try, 3 line breaks, 4 try assists, 3 line break assists, 9 tackle breaks, 11 offloads, 113 running metres per game.
Fletcher Sharpe: 6.25 games, 2 tries, 2 line breaks, 4 try assists, 4 line break assists, 19 tackle breaks, 4 offloads, 85 running metres per game, 1 forced drop out.
Sandon Smith: 7.75 games, 6 try assists, 8 line break assists, 8 tackle breaks, 3 offloads, 89 running metres per game, 4 forced drop outs.
Phoenix Crossland: 9 games, 2 tries, 1 line break, 3 tackle breaks, 409 tackles (leads the league), 18 running metres per game, 1 40/20 kick.
Harrison Graham: 6 cameos, 1 line break, 2 try assists, 7 tackle breaks, 41 running metres per game, 1 forced drop out.

Only the beginning. But everyone's eating.

Already starting to feel like I was under-estimating how good Kalyn is. Some previous halves he's played with have done a good job of teeing him up. But he's never had teammates who can benefit from his gravity like this. Guys who amplify each other's game.

I'm calling my shot now: Penrith lead the comp with 50 tries scored. We're on 41. If we have a good run of fitness, we're going to run them down & lead the comp in tries scored. Book it.

Well if they could do it with Hasting and Gamble in the halves, they should do it easy with Sharpe and Brown there instead. Not to mention our try-scoring front rower extraordinaire.

Since it looks like we’re back to peak PVL ball, the Knights are now one of the teams best positioned to take advantage of that just like Souths, as evidenced by yesterday’s scoreline.

232 after 9 games, this time last year 122 after 9 games.
Dragons best defensive efforts against the Bulldogs (lol), and Titans when they struggled early
We’re averaging what 25-26, 2023 we were averaging a touch under 24.

Teams that are blown out big time have bounced back well at times this season, as well as plenty of instances when teams were given no chance.
Dragons obviously a different breed of terrible buck a lot of those trends lol.

Dean Young said he will be able to implement what he wants more after the bye.

Guess we’ll see.

One of the most satisfying moments from sunday was watching lucas stroll through a massive gap created purely by having ponga out the back in shape. For an edge defense i dont think there is a bigger concern in the game than seeing ponga in front of you.

I'm not old enough to have seen him play, but my father would tell me why Clive Churchill was the best playmaker ever from fullback, and how unlimited tackles and small gaps between the attack and defence meant the only guy who could inject himself into the attack where he saw a weakness was the fullback.
We are going back to that as the players all get fit enough to rush up in defence all game a 6 agains near the line become more frequent.
In short, 60 or 70 years ago the halfback and 5/8 just played what was in front of them and ran if they saw a chance, while the fullback was the guy who made plans and got the ball if he called for it.
A good fullback is as important as a good halfback now, and a great fullback can be Clive Churchill like. He was considered the greatest playmaker the game has seen for about 50 years, and he did it from fullback.

our spine - great fullback who runs the attack - couple of halves who take any chance they see and don't make a lot of plans.

So Today I think we saw what Holbrook wants our spine to look like.
The opposition didn't put a lot of pressure on them, so we can't expect them to all work that smoothly every game - but that's everyone doing their job and the whole thing clicking.

Every week it seems like there’s less Ponga through the middle third more Brown & Sharpe bringing him onto it to target the 4 and 3 man. We absolutely don’t have Sharpe playing as a 1 in attack 6 in defence unless you judge it by kicking load. He’s just the 6.