2020 Pre Season and Trial Games

Billy said:
I could see how you would think that if the only year you ever watched him was his last.
Every team he coached before that in firstgrade and reserve grade improved over the season.
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That's because it's a more trickier task coaching egos and overpaid players in comparison to reserve graders who make minimum wage, and fringe first grade players.

To some extent, Brown had that problem at the Dragons, and the Knights.
 
R_A said:
That's because it's a more trickier task coaching egos and overpaid players in comparison to reserve graders who make minimum wage, and fringe first grade players.

To some extent, Brown had that problem at the Dragons, and the Knights.
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The point is, both Stone and O'Brien seem to be proponents of the "pick and stick" coaching philosophy.
Stone outperformed expectations for the squad he had most years.
O'Brien has a better squad than Stone ever had, and "pick and stick" doesn't mean changes won't happen, because injuries mean teams will have to use most of their top 30 over a season, and probably a few development players as well, and as we saw with Stone, if someone came in as an injury replacement and had a blinder, they didn't get dropped.
All it really means is we won't see Brown's never ending game of musical chairs for positions.
Like Stone, O'Brien will decide on his best side before the season kicks off, and try to develop it into a cohesive unit over the season, and only make changes if forced by injury or if someone plays the house down and demands selection.
 
Mann had the defensive problems at the Storm and Dragons as well as here. Wonder how the new coach thinks Kurt is now NRL quality all of a sudden in his seventh season senior footie?
 
It's impossible for us to work out how well Mann defends on his player stats because we don't have a breakdown on how he goes in different positions, and he has played in all sorts of positions.
His stats would look great if you thought of him as a winger or fullback, but terrible if you thought of him as a 5/8.
O'Brien seems to think he is a good defender, and frankly, O'Brien is one of the few people who has spent years working with Mann and looking closely at his skills and at his stats in various positions (as a coach at Melbourne), so can make an informed call on Mann as a defender.
I wasn't impressed with how he went at 5/8 last year (in defence), but clearly he was injured, being targeted, and was not getting much help from the players around him, many of whom were not really having a go by the time Mann was dropped into 5/8.
In short, I think O'Brien is in a much better position to make this call than anyone else, and if he says Mann is a good defender, and he does say that, I'll wait till I've seen different before making up my mind.
 
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Billy said:
It's impossible for us to work out how well Mann defends on his player stats because we don't have a breakdown on how he goes in different positions, and he has played in all sorts of positions.
His stats would look great if you thought of him as a winger or fullback, but terrible if you thought of him as a 5/8.
O'Brien seems to think he is a good defender, and frankly, O'Brien is one of the few people who has spent years working with Mann and looking closely at his skills and at his stats in various positions (as a coach at Melbourne), so can make an informed call on Mann as a defender.
I wasn't impressed with how he went at 5/8 last year (in defence), but clearly he was injured, being targeted, and was not getting much help from the players around him, many of whom were not really having a go by the time Mann was dropped into 5/8.
In short, I think O'Brien is in a much better position to make this call than anyone else, and if he says Mann is a good defender, and he does say that, I'll wait till I've seen different before making up my mind.
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He mustn't have shown anything during preseason to change Obi's opinion either. I'm sure he is being tested in training as he will be on the field.

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When it was first suggested Mann would be 5/8 I thought no way, Lino or Crossland preferred but they have deficiencies as well, 5/8 is a problem spot for us. Talk has continued with Mann all but guaranteed the spot, coach obviously sees things we can’t or has settled for best of bad bunch theory. Either way I will go along with Mann as first choice and see how it goes, we will be a few weeks into comp before we all know.
 
I notice they have brought in a new face for the centres in the latest photos.
With Tuala, Best and Moga all out of action for a short period I suppose they had to bring in someone.
He must be training with the reserve squad, whoever he is.
 
It wouldn't hurt to get Kidley training with the squad now.
He was always our best trainer and is still very fit.
He wouldn't slow the boys down at all and would give the second team a bit of x factor in the opposed sessions.
 
https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/02/05/utility-no-more-settled-mann-ready-for-return-to-the-halves/

Article about Kurt Mann.
It says Kurt as a 5/8 "steered the Knights to a 2011 SG Ball title".
The truth is that Kurt was a very good running 5/8 and I think he was our top tryscorer that year, but the SG Ball player of the year was our halfback Tom Rouse, and I thought our best player was hooker Adam Clydesdale. Rouse and Clydesdale did pretty much all the playmaking between them, and Kurt thrived by running off those two.
Apart from that, the article is pretty good. If Kurt can play the same role as he played in 2011, he will be pretty handy for us.
 
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Owey said:
If he plays the role I think he will off the bench, I think he will be very dangerous for us this year and soo might not be too big a call

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Having said that, Cam Murray is elite and the role is not far from what he played last year

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