Best 19 in 2027

Owey said:
That round 1 loss in 24 was one of the most gut wrenching in my time as a knights fan. I expected us to continue doing what worked from the previous season and ended up watching one of the most disjointed home performances you are likely to see. The regression was shocking.
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I'm definitely still scarred by that match haha.
 
I hope so because we were doing it because we have 1-on-1 advantages out wide against someone in pretty much every game we play. Same with the Dolphins who are the most stylistically similar team. Go on then other teams, get some early ball to "Thomas Chester". Can't wait to see it!
 
Thieves Like Us said:
Haters gonna hate….😅

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Once team's shut down KP, good luck with that. Nobody has ever been able to shut down KP except the Knights themselves by not putting adequate support around him.

He now has as much support as any player could pretty much want, that's whats making it harder for teams to deal with him. There's now so many other options in the team, and they're doing their job well. You now have to shut them all down.

Knights had no forward pack of note against the Roosters, were slaughtered all game defensively, had no possession and they still couldn't shut down KP completely. Knights scored two amazing tries off Manuleulua, Roosters had to resort to kicks
 
Owey said:
That round 1 loss in 24 was one of the most gut wrenching in my time as a knights fan. I expected us to continue doing what worked from the previous season and ended up watching one of the most disjointed home performances you are likely to see. The regression was shocking.
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Ricky really used the "us against them" mentality and we didn't look like the team who won 10 games straight at the end of 23.
Start all over again with bone headed football!
 
I love Hunt, I really do. You can see early posts where I thought he’d barely play first grade. I was completely wrong. What I remain skeptical of is whether he is quick enough in D especially to be a starting centre. Lateral movement and speed is non-negotiable for a top line centre. Ironically, you can get away with a lack of speed better on the wing (to’o being a perfect example). I’d have him on my 19 man bench for cover and in some desperate situations, you could even bring him on late when we need a try and start bombing the opposition. He is easily the biggest areal threat at the club.
I’d like to see Winter start the year at centre in Gags spot.
In saying that, for those who’ve seen more of Winter than I - what is his ceiling?
 
Hutcho said:
I love Hunt, I really do. You can see early posts where I thought he’d barely play first grade. I was completely wrong. What I remain skeptical of is whether he is quick enough in D especially to be a starting centre. Lateral movement and speed is non-negotiable for a top line centre. Ironically, you can get away with a lack of speed better on the wing (to’o being a perfect example). I’d have him on my 19 man bench for cover and in some desperate situations, you could even bring him on late when we need a try and start bombing the opposition. He is easily the biggest areal threat at the club.
I’d like to see Winter start the year at centre in Gags spot.
In saying that, for those who’ve seen more of Winter than I - what is his ceiling?
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Not quite sure where this idea of Hunt not having pace is coming from. I can think of countless examples this season where he completely blows past his opposite centre. He is deceptively quick and is a smart footballer. He should 100% get first dibs in Gags spot.
 
When Hunt first made firstgrade he frequently lagged a long way behind when players made breaks and it looked like he was too slow to keep up, but it was because he wasn't very fit and just didn't have the gas to make runs.
Now that he has done a proper pre-season and is fit enough, he can keep up and looks pretty fast in fact.
 
You would think Hunt is ahead of Winter based on 1st grade experience, nice to have the choices.
Hope decision on whom is based on ability at centre and Hunt isn’t just being kept at 19 to cover injuries
 
krustykraz said:
Hunt is improving all the time.
He will be a lot better after his second pre-season (I think this will only be his second?).

Winter looked amazing at centre in his debut.
Happy for these two to battle it out.
The other gets the 19 for cover.

I hope both are long term Knights
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I think Hunt was brought in late in the 2024/25 pre-season after Jye Linnane got injured and did the full 2025/26 preseason, so he has one and a half.
He is 20 till Christmas Day when he turns 21 - he is 5 months older than Cody Hopwood, so our second youngest player still, going into his 3rd year.
 
Hunt is a terrific young player with a lot of skills. However, I haven’t see much of him setting up his winger, drawing in the centre etc type plays. This could be something we miss a lot with Gagai moving on.
I haven’t seen enough of winter to know if he’s good at this, although he’s a strong fast skilful young talent as well.
This is what I’d be working on all off season.
 
Jon Snow said:
Hunt is a terrific young player with a lot of skills. However, I haven’t see much of him setting up his winger, drawing in the centre etc type plays. This could be something we miss a lot with Gagai moving on.
I haven’t seen enough of winter to know if he’s good at this, although he’s a strong fast skilful young talent as well.
This is what I’d be working on all off season.
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Hunt spent a full season of SG Ball at 5/8. We made the GF and Hunt spent the whole season setting up players like Wilson De Courcey with his accurate left to right long passes and kicks for his wing.
 
Suppose we have the luxury of a fully fit team - minus Brown to start the season.

Is there a world where Holbrook takes his “game by game” approach - quotes floating around that he kind of tailors the tactics to each team - and takes it up a notch to make use of our squad depth.

eg. We are playing Roosters who have a strong forward pack - let’s make sure we have Safs or Mooney out there at all times and rotate Hopwood/Crouch/Croker/Niukore. Vs we are playing the Dogs, so let’s have McEwen/Manulelua matchup vs Kikau and use the other in the forward rotation this game for a bit more speed and footwork from our forwards against the smaller pack.

Essentially does he manage the minutes of our forwards, get them all involved and playing and hopefully navigate the origin period before starting to settle on our “finals” team *crosses fingers*.

I think Hunt gets first crack at centre. Unless he signs elsewhere. I think he will have his name pencilled in, but it could change if Holbrook doesn’t love what he sees.

I think the next few months will be tough for Holbrook - figuring out what he should do for his ideal 17. But I actually think he’d be a good man manager to help explain his decisions and discuss with players involved. Eg. Sorry Toby - Fletcher has done well in FG so will get first crack, but we will be relying on you to support across the backline etc.
 
Billy said:
I think Hunt was brought in late in the 2024/25 pre-season after Jye Linnane got injured and did the full 2025/26 preseason, so he has one and a half.
He is 20 till Christmas Day when he turns 21 - he is 5 months older than Cody Hopwood, so our second youngest player still, going into his 3rd year.
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Didnt realise he is so young! He is a gamebreaker jumping for kicks
 
krustykraz said:
Hunt is improving all the time.
He will be a lot better after his second pre-season (I think this will only be his second?).

Winter looked amazing at centre in his debut.
Happy for these two to battle it out.
The other gets the 19 for cover.

I hope both are long term Knights
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Completely agree with one exception - to ensure the continued development of whoever doesn't win the right centre spot, the 19 jersey should be rotated between a handful of guys each week. Obvious caveat is finals matches or significant games toward the end of the season.

Of the 28 matches our NRL side played this year, Hunt's involvement included:
- 13 Starts (8 Centre; 4 Fullback; 1 Wing)
- 4 matches coming off the bench and playing less than 40 mins
- 1 match coming off the bench and playing more than 40 mins
- 10 matches as a non-playing reserve

In round 16 he was a non-playing reserve for our Friday night game against the Dragons, on the Sunday of that weekend he played his sole NSW Cup game of the season - From memory he played one half in second row (where he was named) and the second half at centre.

While Hunt's utility value is exceptional, factoring the games with <40mins off the bench and the one NSW Cup outing, he effectively missed 13 matches this year (arguably 11 if you factor that NSW Cup didn't make their GF) and was regularly shifted between across multiple positions. This is obviously a novel phenomenon with the advent of the 6-man bench this season but is definitely something Holbrook will need a plan for going forward.
 
MullosLefttoRight said:
Completely agree with one exception - to ensure the continued development of whoever doesn't win the right centre spot, the 19 jersey should be rotated between a handful of guys each week. Obvious caveat is finals matches or significant games toward the end of the season.

Of the 28 matches our NRL side played this year, Hunt's involvement included:
- 13 Starts (8 Centre; 4 Fullback; 1 Wing)
- 4 matches coming off the bench and playing less than 40 mins
- 1 match coming off the bench and playing more than 40 mins
- 10 matches as a non-playing reserve

In round 16 he was a non-playing reserve for our Friday night game against the Dragons, on the Sunday of that weekend he played his sole NSW Cup game of the season - From memory he played one half in second row (where he was named) and the second half at centre.

While Hunt's utility value is exceptional, factoring the games with <40mins off the bench and the one NSW Cup outing, he effectively missed 13 matches this year (arguably 11 if you factor that NSW Cup didn't make their GF) and was regularly shifted between across multiple positions. This is obviously a novel phenomenon with the advent of the 6-man bench this season but is definitely something Holbrook will need a plan for going forward.
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Great points. This being the first year of the 6 man bench, I'm sure they game has noticed that some players weren't getting actual game time. I'm sure the nsw cup draw will be modified accordingly.
 
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