2020 Pre Season and Trial Games

5 month preseason, I assume that its well paced not to to burn out players but still a long time hey!

Your definately right RE Ponga Billy, I wouldn't have expected Senior players back til late November, and Ponga and Klemmer back til probably January aside to say hello.........

But in the fair dinks department if your boss suggests coming back 9/10 young fella's would.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the coach only wants Ponga and the team together on the first day for intro's and a talk about how he does things and what he expects .
Then maybe Ponga will have the rest of his time off .
 
First gallery of the pre-season:

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https://www.newcastleknights.com.au/news/2019/11/06/day-one-2020/
 
I see Bayden Searle's manbun, Simi Sasagi's half afro, Luke Huth, Matt Croker, Zac Hosking's baseball cap and Matt Soper-Lawlor without his trademark headgear.
The guy with the freckles looks like someone I should know, but can't put a name to him.
 
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Brodie Jones, Herman, Chris Randall behind Josh King, kid with freckles who I don't recognise, Zac Hosking, Luke Huth in the background, Tautau Moga and the guy in front of him might be a slimmed down Tevita Alifa.
That looks like the reserve grade group.
 
What happened to the Fijian flyer mentioned in the article this morning? He didn't last long. I even checked him out on YouTube.

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I'm surprized Ben Talty didn't get a run.
Middle forwards turning 21 Matt Croker, Brandon Russell and Jack Cameron all deserve a chance, as well as middle forward Zac Hosking, who certainly proved his worth in reserve grade last year, but that is a lot of middle forwards, while gun second row Talty is also turning 21, and we seem short of second rowers, while, if anything, we have too many middles.
 
So the entire pre season training squad is now;

Top 30

Mitch Barnett
Bradman Best
Jayden Brailey
Phoenix Crossland
Herman Ese’ese
Beau Fermor
Lachlan Fitzgibbon
Tim Glasby
Aidan Guerra
Hymel Hunt
Brodie Jones
Josh King
David Klemmer
Edrick Lee
Danny Levi
Mason Lino
Kurt Mann
Sione Mata’utia
Tautau Moga
Kalyn Ponga
Mitchell Pearce
Daniel Saifiti
Jacob Saifiti
Pasami Saulo
Starford To’a
Enari Tuala
Connor Watson

DEVELOPMENT PLAYERS

Mat Croker
Tex Hoy
Luke Huth
Jirah Momoisea
Simi Sasagi

Train and trial

Tyrone Roberts-Davis
Matt Soper-Lawler
Chris Randall
Zac Hosking
Jack Cameron
Brandon Russell
Bayden Searle
Toby Marks
 
Fullback
Ponga, Watson, Mann, Hoy, Toa, Best, Marks, Soper-Lawler

Wing
Lee, Toa, Tuala, Robert-Davis, Soper-Lawler, Moga, Hoy, Best, Marks

Centre
Hunt, Toa, Best, Moga, Tuala, Sione, Roberts-Davis, Marks, Hoy

5/8
Lino, watson, Mann, Crossland, Randall, Sasagi, Searle, Hoy

Halfback
pearce, Lino, Crossland, Searle

Hooker
Brailey, Levi, Watson, Randall, Huth, Sasagi

Prop
Klemmer, DSaf, JSaf, Eseese, King, Saulo, Glasby, Momoisea, Croker, Cameron

Lock
Glasby, Guerra, Hosking, Russell, Barnett

Second row
Fitz, Barnett, Jones, Fermor, Guerra, Sione
 
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Keep reading all these articles about training intensity and how you play on game day is reflective of your input into training. It’s like Groundhog Day. Pearce comes out and says it feels tougher than other years......blah blah blah. Same crap different coaching team. All cliches that we’ve heard before. Just get on with it and show us with your actions. Seriously tired of reading the basics season in season out. Excited for 2020 because you must always have hope and the pain of the year prior slowly dissipates. I will not be paying much attention at all to the media hype anymore. Signings maybe. Pre-season, I’m just going to assume they’re cranking it as they should always be.
 
Iro looks like a tall, well built athlete like his uncle and father.
I wonder where he was born?
He would have been born around the time his father was playing for Hunter Mariners or maybe a bit later, so might have been born in Newcastle.
 
So the youngest player in the squad, Bradman Best, was the best trainer for week 1.
Hard to imagine anyone beating him if he stays injury free.
He is a combination of big, strong, fast and fit.
Some guys are bigger, some guys are stronger, some guys are fitter - I don't think we have anyone faster - but no one else is a combination of all those things.
 
The fittest player after the testing was Connor Watson.
Second fittest was Chris Randall, who is doing his first firstgrade preseason.
It's impossible to know how much training Randall does on his own, but he has had a massive motor ever since he started in reserve grade, so he may be just naturally very fit.
It will be interesting to see how he develops over the pre season, and what O'Brien does with him if he consistently out trains the other hookers.
 
So they put Crossland in front of the media before Pearce.
Both him and Pearce said there has been nothing at training so far to indicate who will be 5/8 this year.
But they put Crossland in front of the media before Pearce, and I can't think why they'd do that unless they were getting his face out there so it doesn't become a big thing when they drop him in for round 1.
In short - their words were "nothing to see here".
Their actions were "you want to talk about halves - have you met this guy?"
 
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