2026 Season

The reigning premiers with a whopping 0 points scored in their first game of the year. #dynasty
 
Owey said:
I thought it was a bit deeper then that Harv. I'd heard DCE was frozen out of the origin side while Cronk, Smith and Slater were there. He had been chosen for a series when Thurston was unavailable, then that Melbourne block basically told the Queensland hierarchy they couldn't work with him. I think it was an arrogance thing, Qld had a strong idea on how to win obviously, DCE thought he knew better and carried that attitude on and off the field. It wasn't until those guys moved on that DCE got chosen again.
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Yeah that’s kind of what I mean, I’m not sure there’s ever been a “this is why I (and I guess Cam & Billy) don’t like him” statement. Just strongly get a vibe he sees DCE as a loser. Your explanation makes a lot of sense, particularly when he was younger Daly was known to be arrogant. I can buy him going into camp and being very keen to have his two cents on everything.
 
MattyM said:
The reigning premiers with a whopping 0 points scored in their first game of the year. #dynasty
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They hate Madge.
- the media…probably.

Think they’ll be a bit Sharks-like this year. Bully the lower teams, but struggle against any of the emerging top 4. Tough 2 games to open their season against Hull and Penrith.

I was very curious to see what Penrith dished up this year.
Albeit a bit rusty, they just have that “system” that works so good. They are so good in attack. I’m surprised nobody has really tried to emulate what they are doing with their shape. Probably helps, nobody else has a Cleary and Yeo. But their side isn’t really anything special outside of Edwards, Cleary, Yeo - just their attitude and training. Cleary just steers them around so well, and it’s easy for the forwards to remain disciplined and resisting the urge to overplay, when he often can get them points.

Enjoy watching them set up to the left, they just have so many bodies in motion. Reminds me of like NFL plays. Everyone has a similar start position, but they run different lines, or same lines and Cleary chooses option a, a, a, B!

Crazy watching Jenkins play for them, and remembering the disaster class when he was in red and blue. Almost ruined the kids career.

Talagi also looks better for a season with Cleary. His kick for Jenkins try was a nice bit of skill to avoid the tackle, then “put it on an absolute dime for Jenkins” *cronks voice*.

Early days I know. But looks like Storm and Panthers are pretty motivated to get back to the top.
 
Owey said:
I thought it was a bit deeper then that Harv. I'd heard DCE was frozen out of the origin side while Cronk, Smith and Slater were there. He had been chosen for a series when Thurston was unavailable, then that Melbourne block basically told the Queensland hierarchy they couldn't work with him. I think it was an arrogance thing, Qld had a strong idea on how to win obviously, DCE thought he knew better and carried that attitude on and off the field. It wasn't until those guys moved on that DCE got chosen again.
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Is Cronk still the halves coach at the Chooks?
Cause that funny if they're working together now
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Yeah that’s kind of what I mean, I’m not sure there’s ever been a “this is why I (and I guess Cam & Billy) don’t like him” statement. Just strongly get a vibe he sees DCE as a loser. Your explanation makes a lot of sense, particularly when he was younger Daly was known to be arrogant. I can buy him going into camp and being very keen to have his two cents on everything.
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There’s always been that speculation that DCE doesn’t really fit in sometimes. Like if all the boys are together at the airport waiting to fly, he will be off on his own doing something else - heard that story a fair bit.

Maybe that’s something that’s come to be later in his career at Manly as he has aged out. By all accounts he has a bit of a personality type to him. Not to say he wasn’t liked at Manly, but I guess they have more time with him to understand him a bit better. And he was one of the Manly stalwarts. Whereas, in QLD origin system, you kind of need to gel quickly and assimilate together easily. Don’t really have time to understand and work with any quirks people may have. When he went to origin, he was almost the outsider, coming into the established status quo and gameplan….in addition to all the points mentioned above.
 
Not surprised the Panthers won as I tipped them even though the match was a error-athon, that was a typical 2021-24 Panthers performance.

Defence was strong and back to their suffocating best.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
Think they’ll be a bit Sharks-like this year. Bully the lower teams, but struggle against any of the emerging top 4. Tough 2 games to open their season against Hull and Penrith.
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Yeah I’ve had them as a mid table side this season for no reason which reflects their talent, just get a strong impression they’ll be one of the defending premiers who reminds us how hard it is to get yourself up for it again and that what Penrith has done is really unusual.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
I was very curious to see what Penrith dished up this year.
Albeit a bit rusty, they just have that “system” that works so good. They are so good in attack. I’m surprised nobody has really tried to emulate what they are doing with their shape. Probably helps, nobody else has a Cleary and Yeo. But their side isn’t really anything special outside of Edwards, Cleary, Yeo - just their attitude and training. Cleary just steers them around so well, and it’s easy for the forwards to remain disciplined and resisting the urge to overplay, when he often can get them points.

Enjoy watching them set up to the left, they just have so many bodies in motion. Reminds me of like NFL plays. Everyone has a similar start position, but they run different lines, or same lines and Cleary chooses option a, a, a, B!
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Club Cleary vs Club Tom Dearden and Origin Cleary vs Origin Tom Dearden has to be the ultimate demonstration of how different the game styles are. I know it’s become fashionable to bag Cleary because you have to be good at both to be considered great, but there’s a real chance that he’ll just never be good at that level. He’s had a big go at it now and has only looked good sometimes, when the game goes a certain way. It’s hard to square that with the same player from the last 20 minutes of the 2023 grand final.

But honestly there’s a real argument Nathan is the perfect club level halfback. Coach’s dream. Will do exactly what you want week in week out. Really good at analysing the other team’s defensive system during the week and offering ideas for how to exploit it. Etc.
 
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A bit early in the season, but unsurprisingly, Robbo whinged about the ref. IDK what the ref is supposed to do when Crighton gives a bloke a facial right in front of him, or runs through the kicker's leg, Butcher just refusing to let go of the tackled player after a Warriors break, despite most of his team mates being back onside, or Collins starting an all-in and the Roosters carrying on as if they were expecting to be rewarded for it. Just some examples of really dumb unnecessary penalties & restarts. If the ref did anything wrong, it was in not binning a chook for the repeated infringements.

Just dumb footy which cost them as they nearly got back into the game in the last 20.

And a dire start for the Broncos too, if it wasn't already, the white-anting of Madge at Red Hill must surely be in full swing now.

All-in all, a good round so far for most Knights fans.
 
Not putting a line through them by any means, but yeah they have a lot of work to do. Interesting to note that the last time they imported an old premiership winning half, over the two seasons Cronk was there, the most points they conceded in a game was 38, in a game he didn’t play in (I’m sure we all remember the game in question).
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Happy to hear counter-arguments but if I was Blues coach my back rowers are Dylan Lucas and Jacob Preston.

You barely get any time in camp to work on combinations. Give your halves the best traditional edge forwards you can find, and we have the two best line runners & hole hitters in the entire league born and bred in NSW. Someone like Hudson Young is way more the “engine” of his team’s attack and instantly you’re partnering Katoa or whoever gets picked in the halves with a more idiosyncratic player who won’t happily run the lines you want. Whereas you give him Dylan Lucas or Jacob Preston and instantly it’s, ah, yeah, right, the kind of guy I’ve been playing with for years except way better.

They’re also both absolute demons in terms of work rate as opposed to Liam Martin who gets to play in a team where he’s only expected to run for 50m a game and assault people.

There’s my two bob on it.
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Agreed, Crighton has been subpar for a couple seasons now, but he seems to be an automatic pick in these NSW sides. Poor defender and spams offloads even when they’re clearly not on. Give me Lucas everyday over him.
 
Titans are making me very happy that we look like we will compete for high kicks because they have been terrible when under the high ball.
 
Josh Hannay clearly had a shark game plan so the sharks did something to tweak theirs. Funny they would do that Masterclass! 🤣
 
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