Adam Clune discussion

Joshhh

Joshhh

Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Adam Clune.png


Knights player #330
NRL debut: St. George Illawarra Dragons vs Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Round 4 2020
Knights debut: vs Sydney Roosters, Round 1 2022

With the new player profiles up, I felt like we should have dedicated discussion threads for each of the players going into 2022. Who better to start off with than our most contentious man going into the 2022 season, the new signing who will be replacing Mitchell Pearce at halfback. So I don't spam the forum, I will just post a few of these at a time. 🌚
 
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Liked what he was doing first trial. The two chases of the Dogs runaways was very impressive re speed and determination.

I think he will be a very handy game-manager in the mould of a Blake Green. Might be no superstar, but a real competitor.

Was very interesting to listen to Knights HQ podcast with Clune and Green. He is obviously highly intelligent and motivated. He has a Law degree and a Finance degree, and has many options after his football career is over. This in contrast to our previous 7, who needed to tattoo his name on his arm, for all those occasions he forgot what it was.
 
I don’t want to be badmouthing Pearce. I wish we got a little more out of him as far as performance wise, but let’s not forget he knocked back Manly and Cronulla to play with us. He was definitely part of getting us out of being a train wreck of a team. Completely agree we won’t miss him.
 
Clune surprised me, didn’t notice him on the very rare occasion I watched the dragons, he is quick, can tackle and has the ability to make good choices and make selective passes, every bit as good, probably better than Pearce 2021
 
packo said:
I don’t want to be badmouthing Pearce. I wish we got a little more out of him as far as performance wise, but let’s not forget he knocked back Manly and Cronulla to play with us. He was definitely part of getting us out of being a train wreck of a team. Completely agree we won’t miss him.
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Yeah it makes me a bit sad because he was a big part of the mission for a while. As time goes on though, it just becomes more obvious in his last year or two he just wasn't motivated anymore, or just too old.
 
Joshhh said:
Yeah it makes me a bit sad because he was a big part of the mission for a while. As time goes on though, it just becomes more obvious in his last year or two he just wasn't motivated anymore, or just too old.
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His body would be struggling. Been in grade since 17 or something wasn’t it? Not going to have that same impact and spark from the start of your career. His repeat sets were awful, that was the most frustrating part. He should have been able to capitalise on that no matter your age. We let slot of teams off the hook last year because of our inability to get repeat sets which applies zero scoreboard pressure.
 
Pearce just became past it, had no brains to play suttle style all helter skelter, needed to be more clever as he lost pace but never developed that like Maloney so ended up, especially last few games, with not being shrewd or fast.
He was a very good competitive player until 2021 then declined, one season too long but he was good for us
 
I thought Clune played well although his long pass could be a little better, but what i really liked was watching him direct players around the field.
My Saints mate said he was a good player , the other thing i think will stand us in good stead is Clifford's running game .
It was pretty to watch when he scored that try , he was elusive , quick , strong and had a nice palm , if those two play for the season like they did in the trial we could be in for a much better year than predicted.
I know people don't like Mann much but i think he played well at lock he defended well and he gave the opposition a lot more to think about when we were attacking whether he got the ball or not ... I liked it ...
 
ApperceptionJosh said:
If you listen to the morning glory with matty John's podcast, Joey raves on about how talented Clune is, specifically 'blown away' by his skill, kicking game smarts and how well he controls the team as the dominant half.
Got to say, hearing the GOAT speak so optimistically about him has got me pumped for Clune this year
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God bless Joey, but he loves the Knights. He'd be talking up Corey Norman or Chris Sandow if we signed them.
 
ApperceptionJosh said:
If you listen to the morning glory with matty John's podcast, Joey raves on about how talented Clune is, specifically 'blown away' by his skill, kicking game smarts and how well he controls the team as the dominant half.
Got to say, hearing the GOAT speak so optimistically about him has got me pumped for Clune this year
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Hope Joey's right :)
 
I never realised how quick Clune was, saved a try and almost ran down Dufty. There’s no doubting he’s a competitor. Hope he goes well.
 
I posted in the Dogs trial thread that I thought Clune already looking way better than Pearce.

This team has been crying out for a half with some skills for years. We suffered through Plodco and not being able to create anything, not able to kick the ball due to knees and just being generally useless, to getting Pearce the apparent saviour, who couldn't get repeat sets and long kicking game was horrible, taking penalty kick for touch going 10m, and low creativity unless gifted to him.

Clune seems at least in the brief moment we have seen him so far, appears to actually be a competent half with the skills we need. I recall the excitement of the forum, and myself when Green turned up and played that 1 game, I feel that now with Clune.

If Clune has a good year, takes the pressure off Ponga and Clifford and in turn, the Knights could have a very good season.
 
He can play. I think we might have a hidden gem on our hands. If he can be as good or a bit better than Jamal Fogarty - which isn’t an unreasonable expectation, given Fogarty’s right in the middle of the road among NRL 7’s and both have that similar backstory of being overlooked, but sticking with it and coming into first grade late after absolutely braining reserve grade - then he’ll be regarded as one of the signings of the season. Playing behind our pack, with Kalyn lurking out back or on his inside shoulder drawing a lot of attention, in a relatively simple structure where he just plays one side of the field, he will be given plenty of opportunity to look good.
 
The other thing that tells me that Clune is going well as far as AOB and Joey are concerned is , our number 2 halfback is bulking up to play 13 or 14. Crossland will still be able to move to the halves if needed but it seems the coaches are sure Clune's the 7 we need ...
Dont know if im right here but maybe they thought Clune was good enough to be our number 1 halfback when they signed him, because it seemed to me that we looked at a lot of players before Clune but not much after . We've been connected with Milford but no real word on it from the club but not much else since Clune signed .
Am i right there .
 
And, for once we haven't bought a half at the end of their career.

Clune is 26 and if he can continue to show what he did in the 30 minutes he was on in the trial, he would be the answer to our 7 problem long term.

With a productive Clune, Ponga on form, Clifford controlling the kicking and his running game, with the pack we have and exciting outside backs, makes me bar up just thinking about that propect.
 
I think Clifford laps him for natural ability but he’s not quite as assured in his decision making, doesn’t know his game as well.

But yeah stand to be proven wrong but I’m happy to go forward with the spine we have, look for young talent who might snatch a jersey from an incumbent, and only make a big splash in the player market if it’s for a sure thing rep player.
 
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