2021 NSW Cup


Rookie report for the Souths game. No surprise that Lucas and Ticehurst got the biggest wraps.
Ryan also mentioned Mapapalangi and Black as young guys getting their first chance.
I really don't know what is happening with Black. In the pre-season trials he seemed to be our second choice hooker behind Brailey but he's been on the fringes of reserve grade all season. In this game he looked great for short minutes. All I can think of is that he is battling some sort of injury.
 
1. Bailey Hodgson
5. Braydon Musgrove
3. Dylan Lucas
23 Krys Mapapalangi
20. Shibasaki
4. Simi Sasagi
6. McKenzie Baker
8. Daniel Ticehurst
9. Chris Randall
10. Matt Croker
12. Ben Talty
13. Jirah Momoisea
11. Zac Hosking

Interchange:
7. Liam Wilkinson

15. Jaron Purcell
16. Cooper Jenkins
17. John Toleafoa

I'd suspect Mapapalangi will play 5/8 as he did for Manly and Simi will stay in the centres, but maybe not.
 
Knights 14 - 14 Wests at fulltime

2 tries, 2 conversions and a penalty goal each.
a penalty goal each in the second half was the only score.
 
If Parra beat Mounties tomorrow we are back in the top 5, with a game we should win against Saints next week.
 
Stats are in for the game
Zac Hosking topped the fantasy points with 57.
Croker topped the tackles with 42.
Sasagi topped metres run with 182.

The telling stat for me was run metres by the back 5;

Sasagi - 182 metres (centre)
Hodgson - 158 metres (fullback)
Lucas - 151 metres (centre)
Shibasaki - 112 metres (wing)
Musgrove - 86 metres (wing)

 
Stats are in for the game
Zac Hosking topped the fantasy points with 57.
Croker topped the tackles with 42.
Sasagi topped metres run with 182.

The telling stat for me was run metres by the back 5;

Sasagi - 182 metres (centre)
Hodgson - 158 metres (fullback)
Lucas - 151 metres (centre)
Shibasaki - 112 metres (wing)
Musgrove - 86 metres (wing)

Anything on Mapapalangi's game worth noting Bill? He's one I've been interested in watching but haven't seen it
 
Anything on Mapapalangi's game worth noting Bill? He's one I've been interested in watching but haven't seen it
It's hard to tell what positions guys play because Ryan or whoever writes the team sheet drops names in anywhere. In this game he had Simi listed at 5/8 and Mapa listed at centre, but their stats say the opposite.
Mapa played 54 minutes, 16 fantasy points, ran 42 metres, made 11 tackles with 2 missed and had 3 kicks.
His halves partner, Mac Baker, 51 fantasy points, 64 metres run, 30 tackles with 4 missed and 6 kicks - he also scored a try and kicked 3/3.

It was a big ask for the kid in his 2nd game of seniors to match up against the form halves in the NSW cup in Jock Madden and Billy Walters - and against the Wests side that is coming 2nd in the comp and beat us by 50 last time we played them. He has basically gone from SG Ball to playing against a side that is not a million miles off NRL level.
 
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Another good stat out of the game was Dan Ticehurst equal 2nd with Chris Randall for tackles made with 41, just behind Matt Croker with 43.
Dan's best before this game was 32 tackles with 5 missed, so 41 with 2 missed in a game that would have been very defence orientated is a big improvement.
 
Some very good stats, same 4-5 names come up each time, Crocker, Sasagi, Ticehurst, Hoskins.
Nice to see Randall was heavily involved and Baker seems to be going good
 

Highlights - not much to see - a few ordinary tries each amongst what was probably a lot of good defence.
 
No NSW cup this week because of the Covid lockdown, and only 2 games will be played in the local comp - Maitland V Souths and Wests V Kurri.
Knights named in the real NRL this week;

Noah Ryan (under 19s player) Kurri
Noah Nailagoliva (under 19s) Maitland
Matt Soper-Lawlor - Maitland
Tom Cant (under 19s) Maitland
Noah Johannssen (under 19s) Souths
Harry Croker (under 20s) Souths
Mitch Black (under 20s) Souths
Kobe Davies (under 20s) Souths
Heath Gibbs - Wests
Logan Radzievic - (under 20s) Wests
Pat Achurch - (under 20s) Wests
Max Buderus - (under 20s) Wests
Hayden Loughrey - Wests
Christian Ma'anaima -(under 20s) Wests

I think we could organise a game where all our other non NRL squad members could play against any real NRL guys who are not in lock down and want a game. Because of the bye last week, there'll be plenty of guys looking for a run for fitness, and there's no legal reason the guys based in Newcastle can't play a game.
 
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From the draw, they are saying both the Saints game and next week's Penrith game are off and we should get 1 point for each.
That works out fair because we should have won against Saints and Lost against Penrith.
The bad news is that we have 2 byes and a game against 9th placed Souths after that - so the only game in about 7 weeks will be against a Souths side who are not having a go when they do show up.
We really need to find a way to get a game or two organised - maybe against some other team having a bye.
 
Dan Ticehurst and Cooper Jenkins were late inclusions for Maitland and Liam Wilkinson for Wests.
 
No games again this week.

I wonder if anyone has thought about a trial game v Canberra?
Both us and Canberra are outside the lockdown areas and I can't think of a reason we couldn't play them.
 

Reserve grade are still training hard.
Interesting that Mitch Black is "ripping in" after returning from injury, which explains why he has got so little game time.
 
Hows hodgepodge going?
He's in the squad training in Qld, which will probably do him as much good as playing reserve grade. With Pong not doing a lot of contact, he's probably getting a fair bit of time at fullback.
 
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