Ex-Knights Watch

I thought Keeley was supposed to be one of the more promising juniors in recent times. What was their reason for letting him go?

I really don’t understand letting basically untried juniors go just to sign fringe first graders like Jed Cartwright.

Hosking too, why was he never even given a run? It’s not like the club’s had a heap of gun forwards in his way.
 
Yeah Toohey said there was attitude problems and his manager was causing problems behind the scenes as well but don't remember what the specific issue was there.
 
Johns said during the game that Keeley had a chronic knee issue when at the Knights and if he trained one day he had to take the next day off..
He also missed a year in juniors with a neck injury that was pretty bad.
 
Hosking was a stick figure the year he left, tall and lanky but never bent the line. When I saw him play for Brisbane I was shocked. Stoked for him but he was not showing that ability in Cup. He was also solid in defence, but not a stand out anywhere else.
 
Newygirl said:
I thought Keeley was supposed to be one of the more promising juniors in recent times. What was their reason for letting him go?

I really don’t understand letting basically untried juniors go just to sign fringe first graders like Jed Cartwright.

Hosking too, why was he never even given a run? It’s not like the club’s had a heap of gun forwards in his way.
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He will go down as another Hudson young
 
Billy said:
Johns said during the game that Keeley had a chronic knee issue when at the Knights and if he trained one day he had to take the next day off..
He also missed a year in juniors with a neck injury that was pretty bad.
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Sounds like he had a blinder last night. I liked what I saw in him here. Cant keep them all unfortunately
 
When juniors display poor attitudes we are best to offload them because the last thing we want is more senior players with attitude issues.
 
Lefty said:
When juniors display poor attitudes we are best to offload them because the last thing we want is more senior players with attitude issues.
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He came back from a fractured neck at 17 and chronic osteochondritis in his knee at 18 to be the best forward in the under 19s origin.

I think we let him go because his medical history means he is high risk.

"Poor attitude" sounds like ******** to me. You don't come back from potentially career ending injuries as a teenager with a poor attitude.
 
Newygirl said:
I thought Keeley was supposed to be one of the more promising juniors in recent times. What was their reason for letting him go?

I really don’t understand letting basically untried juniors go just to sign fringe first graders like Jed Cartwright.

Hosking too, why was he never even given a run? It’s not like the club’s had a heap of gun forwards in his way.
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I guess a lot of them go because they can’t see a pathway to first grade with Obi as coach. He tends to pick and stick and doesn’t give anyone else a go.
Maybe this is lazy coaching as the regulars know the drill and if new guys come into the team it means the coach has some work to do?
Or maybe the coaches approach just puts them off?
 
Defence wins games said:
I guess a lot of them go because they can’t see a pathway to first grade with Obi as coach. He tends to pick and stick and doesn’t give anyone else a go.
Maybe this is lazy coaching as the regulars know the drill and if new guys come into the team it means the coach has some work to do?
Or maybe the coaches approach just puts them off?
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… except Dylan Lucas has forced his way into considerations and likely established himself as part of the first 17 even when Friz is back. My understanding is this was part of the problem with Keeley - he thought he should have been higher in the pecking order than Lucas. All everyone talks about with Dyl is how hard he busts his arse.

I’d also point to Leo Thompson as someone who forced his way in way ahead of what would reasonably be expected for a guy we signed on a development deal initially, who was on a second tier deal in Canberra and didn’t have any sort of hype around him or huge wraps on him, and who in that first season with us (2022) clearly didn’t even know all the rules of league yet. But, again - Leo is a notoriously hard trainer, to the point where he’s been elevated to the leadership group already. Dom Young leapfrogged guys to be a first choice winger after his second pre-season. Kai has obliterated any expectations any of us had about him being slowly eased in and is now an ironed on first choice back rower. Both big fellas got huge wraps for their attitude and application in pre-season.

There’s three ways for a young bloke to get into AOB’s team: be an absolute animal on the training paddock, be an athletic freak or - most likely - be a combination of both of the first two things.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
… except Dylan Lucas has forced his way into considerations and likely established himself as part of the first 17 even when Friz is back. My understanding is this was part of the problem with Keeley - he thought he should have been higher in the pecking order than Lucas. All everyone talks about with Dyl is how hard he busts his arse.

I’d also point to Leo Thompson as someone who forced his way in way ahead of what would reasonably be expected for a guy we signed on a development deal initially, who was on a second tier deal in Canberra and didn’t have any sort of hype around him or huge wraps on him, and who in that first season with us (2022) clearly didn’t even know all the rules of league yet. But, again - Leo is a notoriously hard trainer, to the point where he’s been elevated to the leadership group already. Dom Young leapfrogged guys to be a first choice winger after his second pre-season. Kai has obliterated any expectations any of us had about him being slowly eased in and is now an ironed on first choice back rower. Both big fellas got huge wraps for their attitude and application in pre-season.

There’s three ways for a young bloke to get into AOB’s team: be an absolute animal on the training paddock, be an athletic freak or - most likely - be a combination of both of the first two things.
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That sounds fair enough, but we seem to lose a lot of players who turn up in other teams, in some cases 30-40 percent of the team are former Knights players.
The only other teams that bleed good players are those in premiership teams who have to be let go due to the salary cap.
And that’s not us.
 
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