NRL Round 11 - Knights Vs Titans - 2:00pm Sunday, 17th of May - Suncorp Stadium - MAGIC ROUND!!!

Billy said:
Graham not named for reserve grade - Jacob Davis in 9 and Diesal Hagan gets his first taste of reserve grade in 14.
Cant named in reserve grade.
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Second taste for diesel. Came off the bench and played very well a few weeks ago.
 
KPGreatness said:
If Graham is playing I hope he goes better than his last game cause he was extremely bad in that game.

Obviously Smith is good for his ability to slot into 7,6 and keep the team going like he did, I do feel like some here want Smith to fail for reasons only know by them, but he brings value to this team or we could go back to Gambleā€¦šŸ¤® to which Smith is 10x the player

And to answer the guy that said Holbrook will pick or merit well he wonā€™t he because Graham certainly didnā€™t play a game that screamed first grade last week,so if Graham plays it will based on reputation on the fact he has gone decent in the past.

If Graham dominated against the Dragons (which was expected) than I can justify his selection, but fact is he played worse last week than Smith therefore Smith should be higher in the pecking order if it was indeed based on merit
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I donā€™t think youā€™d find many on here who want any of our players to fail?
 
Iā€™m willing to cut Smith some slack. Iā€™m not sure how much he has trained at hooker. And obviously his first game in that position. I guess what we were all thinking his defence would be questionable. But Iā€™m confident a few games in hooker he will be very crafty from dummy half, and he has good speed of the mark. I really think he played within himself, because of how the game went. If we need points you might see him get more involved.

Also legitimate debate between him and Graham. As a few have said itā€™s good to have competition in positions.
 
Smith is defending at 79.6% efficiency in firstgrade and missing nearly 5 tackles a game.

Graham is defending at 93% efficiency and missing under 2 a game.

In reserve grade for the last 2 weeks, Graham has made over 50 tackles a game at over 90% efficiency.

Crossland also defends at 93% efficiency - but obviously does big minutes in firstgrade.
 
To me it looked like Smith wasnā€™t happy to be playing backup hooker and his display was not the standard he showed playing in halves.
Graham seemed to go the other way when playing Hooker, yes his preferred position, two games ago in Cup had a great game then followed it up with a ok effort, top tackler but playing in a well beaten side.
If Graham could cover 6-7 for short period he would seem a more logical selection to rotate with Crossland and Croker at 9 & 13.
As someone said earlier itā€™s nice to have multi back up options.
Bottom line is that if Brown, Sharpe and to a lesser concern Ponga stay fit and healthy Smith is bench relief or Cup 7.
 
Just thoughts, but if Croker was to get injured before the game day, who would we want to see go into the 13 starting role? Do we go with Crossland and move Graham or Smith into starting 9? Or use Friz to start and rotate him when he needs a breather?
 
jamesgould said:
I donā€™t think youā€™d find many on here who want any of our players to fail?
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Yeah they donā€™t, what they actually donā€™t want is for the club to be spending $500K on a utility. Any sniff of anything short of perfectly allocated cap space makes people uncomfortable I think.

Factor in though that Iā€™m pretty sure Wishart, Pezet & Faā€™aologo were all on pretty good wickets at Melbourne as back-ups, which was maybe a blunder given their pack got owned in big games, but w/e. Likewise Walters, Paix, Smoothy & Mozer were all on between $250 and 400K last season. Meanwhile we are spending $500K on the clear-cut backup at 9, 7 & 6, whoā€™ll likely play a bit of 9 most weeks with everyone fit, and pretty much nothing on Gamble, Hunt & Hunterā€¦ itā€™s far from dead cap. I think though fans like having the clear-cut 4 spine guys and nothing spent on any back-ups.

Also I think people are just in a bit of a panic about not being able to afford Lucas. And yes, the threat of him going is real. Looking at it from his perspective, yes we can say he should accept a similar amount to Best & Saifitiā€¦ the difference is those guys have been getting paid for way longer. Lucas is older than Best and Best would have made millions more than him playing footy already, millions plural. Would be hard to begrudge him if he simply wanted to make the most of his limited time playing footy. Two seasons at PNG probably makes him as much money as 4 with us.

And POS signed a guy whoā€™s known as this great mentor to Pasifika & Maori playersā€¦ and every young back rower we have coming through is of that background.

Definitely a worry but for the moment we have him for next year & the signs Sharpe is showing at 6 now are making him more of a must re-sign for mine.
 
Mclovin said:
Just thoughts, but if Croker was to get injured before the game day, who would we want to see go into the 13 starting role? Do we go with Crossland and move Graham or Smith into starting 9? Or use Friz to start and rotate him when he needs a breather?
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Without reading anyone else's responses. I think it's would start Graham 9 crossy 13 and Smith 14. Just based on 1st grade performance. I dint see the need not to try that vs moving frizz. He is great in the pack.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Yeah they donā€™t, what they actually donā€™t want is for the club to be spending $500K on a utility. Any sniff of anything short of perfectly allocated cap space makes people uncomfortable I think.

Factor in though that Iā€™m pretty sure Wishart, Pezet & Faā€™aologo were all on pretty good wickets at Melbourne as back-ups, which was maybe a blunder given their pack got owned in big games, but w/e. Likewise Walters, Paix, Smoothy & Mozer were all on between $250 and 400K last season. Meanwhile we are spending $500K on the clear-cut backup at 9, 7 & 6, whoā€™ll likely play a bit of 9 most weeks with everyone fit, and pretty much nothing on Gamble, Hunt & Hunterā€¦ itā€™s far from dead cap. I think though fans like having the clear-cut 4 spine guys and nothing spent on any back-ups.

Also I think people are just in a bit of a panic about not being able to afford Lucas. And yes, the threat of him going is real. Looking at it from his perspective, yes we can say he should accept a similar amount to Best & Saifitiā€¦ the difference is those guys have been getting paid for way longer. Lucas is older than Best and Best would have made millions more than him playing footy already, millions plural. Would be hard to begrudge him if he simply wanted to make the most of his limited time playing footy. Two seasons at PNG probably makes him as much money as 4 with us.

And POS signed a guy whoā€™s known as this great mentor to Pasifika & Maori playersā€¦ and every young back rower we have coming through is of that background.

Definitely a worry but for the moment we have him for next year & the signs Sharpe is showing at 6 now are making him more of a must re-sign for mine.
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When you look at the amount of games our previous back-up in Cogger played, and how much we struggled with him there, $500k on a player of a Smithā€™s quality is money well spent. You donā€™t want the season going down the pan if one of our halves breaks a leg, so agree heā€™s great from that point of view. Probably best to think of it as an insurance payment ā€¦ on a sideā€™s most important position.

I do see him as a halfback though, not convinced heā€™s an answer at hooker ā€¦ šŸ¤”
 
jamesgould said:
When you look at the amount of games our previous back-up in Cogger played, and how much we struggled with him there, $500k on a player of a Smithā€™s quality is money well spent. You donā€™t want the season going down the pan if one of our halves breaks a leg, so agree heā€™s great from that point of view. Probably best to think of it as an insurance payment ā€¦ on a sideā€™s most important position.

I do see him as a halfback though, not convinced heā€™s an answer at hooker ā€¦ šŸ¤”
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Agreed, Iā€™m not a fan of him at hooker like many I believe but we need Smith more than people think, without Smith I doubt we survive long enough until the troops (Sharpe, Brown and KP) came back so he can never push the playmaking back to those guys.

Hunter is extremely raw because we a converting a really good 6 into a 7 and it looks like he struggles with it a bit and wonā€™t be ready for firsts for another 2-3 years at least, Gamble is at his absolute peak and just isnā€™t first grade quality.

I do see Smith as extremely important insurance, how many times have people like Joey, Freddy, Gould say we lack depth, now we got it and want to get rid of it?.

I want to keep Lucas as bad as the next guy but itā€™s a lose lose situation, if we get rid of Sandon we are kinda praying to every deity imaginable that Brown and Sharpe never get injured again until people like Hunter, Butler etc are fully ready for first grade, because I doubt Gamble could even compete with Sandon.

What we are hoping as a club is what I call the ā€œRoosters Theoryā€ that we look to be on such a rise and a great trajectory that people will take slight unders just to be apart of it.

Lucas was a big fan of the Knights and jumped at the chance to join us, I just hope thatā€™s enough but I donā€™t begrudge him if he feels like he has to take more money.
 
jamesgould said:
When you look at the amount of games our previous back-up in Cogger played, and how much we struggled with him there, $500k on a player of a Smithā€™s quality is money well spent. You donā€™t want the season going down the pan if one of our halves breaks a leg, so agree heā€™s great from that point of view. Probably best to think of it as an insurance payment ā€¦ on a sideā€™s most important position.

I do see him as a halfback though, not convinced heā€™s an answer at hooker ā€¦ šŸ¤”
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Give him a few more weeks. He said after the game it was a huge adjustment defending in the middle, he hadnā€™t done it for years.
 
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