2020 Pre Season and Trial Games

I was going to say I thought Pasami was Samoan and I didn't know he had Maori heritage, but I see in the interview on the Knights site that Pasami didn't know either and had to ring his dad to ask him.
 
Toohey saying a lot of the top players will get decent minutes at Maitland.
I notice NRL.com have put up a live updates page for the game, so maybe the team will need to be named tomorrow like all other games - or maybe not.
 
https://www.newcastleknights.com.au/news/2020/02/17/klemmer-on-lookout-for-dragon-merrin/

Klemmer Interview.

Interesting quotes on 5/8.

So perhaps the biggest question – who has been training outside Mitchell Pearce this week?

"Well, Phoenix [Crossland] is still injured so young 'Simmy' [Nathanael Sasagi] has been there and doing well. But it'll be interesting to see how Adzy goes with these two trials," Klemmer said.

"We also saw in Perth at the Nines what Kurt Mann can do in attack and I know Adzy has a lot of confidence in him."

I've still never seen any sign that Simi has any sort of playmaking skills. I can't recall him kicking, and I can't even remember seeing him pass the ball (I'm sure he has, but I can't recall it). Having said that, how sweet would it be to have a beast like that as a running 5/8, assuming he can do more than just run and bump people out of the way.
 
Tex Hoy has been named by a fox journalist as one of the 6 young players to emerge from the 9s.
Pity he is a fullback and we shouldn't have a vacancy at fullback for the next 10 years.
It's funny how we couldn't find a fullback for 10 years, we buy the next big thing in Ponga, and suddenly we have NSW under 20s fullback Hoy, NSW under 18s fullback Best, Junior Kiwis fullback Toa, and Pacifica under 16s fullback Va'elia (must learn how to spell that) - and we also have Matt Cooper back this year, and he was our best try scoring fullback in the juniors ever.

The coaching staff will probably have to decide if they play Hoy as fullback in reserve grade so he is ready to replace Ponga if he gets selected for SOO, or if they move Hoy to any of the 3 or 4 other positions he can play.
 
Dragons squad - 27 players

Euan Aitken, Eddie Blacker, Adam Clune, Mathew Feagai, Max Feagai, Jackson Ford, Tyson Frizell, Luke Gale, James Graham, Ben Hunt, Jacob Host, Tim Lafai, Blake Lawrie, Hayden Lomax, Zac Lomax, Joe Lovodua, Corey Norman, Jordan Pereira, Mikaele Ravalawa, Jason Saab, Tristan Sailor, Shaun Sauni-Esau, Tariq Sims, Jayden Sullivan, Paul Vaughan, Brayden Wiliame, Tyran Wishart.
 
Since they won't name the side, I'll make a bold call.
I say Toa is one guy who should have forced his way into our top 17 after his efforts in the 9s.
He was great in the 9s.
 
Cam Mcinnes is out for months with injury and I think a warriors player did an acl so season over.

Bet they're wishing that stayed home like all our best players
 
slotmachine said:
Cam Mcinnes is out for months with injury and I think a warriors player did an acl so season over.

Bet they're wishing that stayed home like all our best players
Click to expand...

The NRL would have to be annoyed though surely. They put up 1 million in prize money for the winner, potentially 2 million if they win the 9's/NRL double! Only for teams to take second string teams mostly, and retired NRL players which I personally enjoyed but I don't think that is what the NRL had in mind for the 9's.

Ticket sales were no doubt affected as teams announced their squad of youth vs stars.

It's smart of clubs to leave their best at home, but a million dollars isn't even enough to motivate most clubs to send their best.
 
If it's in Newcastle next year, we'll probably have to give it a crack to get the crowds in.
 
Kurriboy said:
The NRL would have to be annoyed though surely. They put up 1 million in prize money for the winner, potentially 2 million if they win the 9's/NRL double! Only for teams to take second string teams mostly, and retired NRL players which I personally enjoyed but I don't think that is what the NRL had in mind for the 9's.

Ticket sales were no doubt affected as teams announced their squad of youth vs stars.

It's smart of clubs to leave their best at home, but a million dollars isn't even enough to motivate most clubs to send their best.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure. The 9s were great despite being second string teams mostly. Gave the NRL the chance to display all these young guns coming through in a novel format, and it allows the best players to focus on weekly games (where they're probably needed most to promote the game generally).

You'd think if they can fork out $1 million prize money for one weekend, they could improve the premiership prize, or at least the minor premiership prize.
 
Triple M saying there's a split in the playing group over Brown moving on. Absolute rubbish. Players quick to respond on social media suggesting it's closest group for years.
 
I imagine some of the guys Brown really favoured would not be overjoyed with him leaving, and some of the others would be pretty happy to see the end of him, but they are all pros who will get with the new programme, especially if we have some good results.
 
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