Finals Week 1 vs Rabbitohs - 7:50pm Friday 11th of September - Allianz Stadium

The Artist Formerly Known as Aku'd said:
Looking back over our results, so many close games 4-8 weeks ago that could’ve been won in moments. That 4th position was there for the taking. Next year!
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Absolutely.
I know there’s some games where we won, but probably didn’t deserve to. But I’ll ignore them haha.

But those 3 games where we lost by combined total of 5 points…from memory we scored more tries in most it was just the goalkicking. But that’s 6 points, and we are on 40 points. Going into the Manly game we’d have almost had an eye on the minor premiership which sounds absolutely crazy.

The biggest saving grace in this, is that we probably exceeded expectations this season. With horrible injury toll to lots of our key players throughout the year - we relied on lots of our reserves to step up. Hunt, Hopwood, Crouch, Smith, Manu, Graham will all be so much better for their runs this season. If all went to plan, I don’t think they play anywhere near as many minutes.

Next year - Hunt will likely slot into Centre, Hopwood likely back to bench, Smith back to bench when Brown is back, Manu to Bench, Graham to bench, Crouch/Saulo to bench/reserves. The depth that was tested this year, will reap the rewards next year I hope.

Just need to hit the ground running next year and get some early points on the board. Smith training at 7 in preseason, Hunt getting regularly games and training at Centre. With a bit of luck, the biggest problem we face next year is telling Brown he’s playing Cup for a few weeks because Smith and Sharpe are killing it.

I’m concerned that I’m optimistic for next year.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
Absolutely.
I know there’s some games where we won, but probably didn’t deserve to. But I’ll ignore them haha.

But those 3 games where we lost by combined total of 5 points…from memory we scored more tries in most it was just the goalkicking. But that’s 6 points, and we are on 40 points. Going into the Manly game we’d have almost had an eye on the minor premiership which sounds absolutely crazy.

The biggest saving grace in this, is that we probably exceeded expectations this season. With horrible injury toll to lots of our key players throughout the year - we relied on lots of our reserves to step up. Hunt, Hopwood, Crouch, Smith, Manu, Graham will all be so much better for their runs this season. If all went to plan, I don’t think they play anywhere near as many minutes.

Next year - Hunt will likely slot into Centre, Hopwood likely back to bench, Smith back to bench when Brown is back, Manu to Bench, Graham to bench, Crouch/Saulo to bench/reserves. The depth that was tested this year, will reap the rewards next year I hope.

Just need to hit the ground running next year and get some early points on the board. Smith training at 7 in preseason, Hunt getting regularly games and training at Centre. With a bit of luck, the biggest problem we face next year is telling Brown he’s playing Cup for a few weeks because Smith and Sharpe are killing it.

I’m concerned that I’m optimistic for next year.
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I’ve seen enough of Manu to say he will be the starting right edge. McEwen plays off the bench in the middle. Do we think McEwen could play in the middle?
 
bremsstrahlung said:
Absolutely.
I know there’s some games where we won, but probably didn’t deserve to. But I’ll ignore them haha.

But those 3 games where we lost by combined total of 5 points…from memory we scored more tries in most it was just the goalkicking. But that’s 6 points, and we are on 40 points. Going into the Manly game we’d have almost had an eye on the minor premiership which sounds absolutely crazy.

The biggest saving grace in this, is that we probably exceeded expectations this season. With horrible injury toll to lots of our key players throughout the year - we relied on lots of our reserves to step up. Hunt, Hopwood, Crouch, Smith, Manu, Graham will all be so much better for their runs this season. If all went to plan, I don’t think they play anywhere near as many minutes.

Next year - Hunt will likely slot into Centre, Hopwood likely back to bench, Smith back to bench when Brown is back, Manu to Bench, Graham to bench, Crouch/Saulo to bench/reserves. The depth that was tested this year, will reap the rewards next year I hope.

Just need to hit the ground running next year and get some early points on the board. Smith training at 7 in preseason, Hunt getting regularly games and training at Centre. With a bit of luck, the biggest problem we face next year is telling Brown he’s playing Cup for a few weeks because Smith and Sharpe are killing it.

I’m concerned that I’m optimistic for next year.
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All brilliant points to make. Particularly how amazing our youngsters and reserves were stepping up under pressure this year. As you say, will only make for a fuller and more experienced squad next year. Pray the footy gods are kinder to our injury toll.
 
Kinda sucks that we'll be struggling to name a fully fit team, and the Rabbits will go into a home semi they don't really deserve after multiple assists from the officials for obvious reasons over the back end of the season, with basically a full-strength team (assuming Duncan was coming in for Aiken anyway).

If the Rabbits don't win this game at home with arguably their best team against a busted Knights, then they should really reconsider their football programme.
 
JOJO82 said:
They are saying he is undergoing an intense rehab program to try and get him ready for the first final
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This worries me a little. I can’t imagine 2 weeks being long enough to prepare the elbow to withstand the pressure of Koloamatangi and Mitchell on you.

However, the elbow is a more stable joint than the shoulder, but you see how common recurring shoulder dislocations are. Usually, it’s not the initial that does the most damage, it’s the consequent ones when the ligaments are stretched.

I think he just needs to avoid the mechanism that caused it - ie. full extension of the elbow. Curious what the rules are around braces - you could maybe get by some significant strapping/brace that stops the elbow from straightening - whether that limits him too much - I’m not sure.

really hard to predict. He could see out the game. Or it could go again with first run.

Curious how intense the “prove your fitness” test would be. You don’t want to re-flare it or stretch it again. But you’d also prefer it to happen in training.

Just hope we do the right thing by him, it could be pretty bad if there’s not much support there.
 
If Manu isn't ready next week, it will be handy if he is ready the week after for the reserve grade final.
Manu and Crouch were both big contributors to the success of reserve grade this year.
We should be a big chance for a title if we get them back.
 
Billy said:
If Manu isn't ready next week, it will be handy if he is ready the week after for the reserve grade final.
Manu and Crouch were both big contributors to the success of reserve grade this year.
We should be a big chance for a title if we get them back.
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The Grand finals not til the week after (week 3) unless we make a prelim in first grade crouch will go back for sure.
 
The way these last couple of weeks have played out couldn’t have gone much worse for the Knights. The Rabbits get a game against a reserve-grade Roosters side and put a score on them, basically a training run. This will also be Latrell’s third game back, so he’ll be better and ready to go. And they’ve got the inspiration to play for Jai.

Us, meanwhile, sitting pretty in sixth. We’ve lost our two starting props, our X-factor SR is in serious doubt, on top of losing both Dyls. And we lose our home game advantage. We’ll be heavy underdogs, and rightly so. I would have been more confident playing the Sharks or Cowboys.
 
It's been a great season despite almost everything going wrong for us at the back end.

Would love to knock off the Rabbits, as we've been in this position before against them and come away with nothing. But the result either way doesn't change the progress we've seen across the club this season.

As long as we get a fair go in this game, I'll live with the result either way and look forward to next season and a fully fit Knights tearing things up in 2027.
 
Seano said:
Spoon to top 8 is a massive improvement, top 8 to top 4 would also be a massive improvement and a genuine shot at the title.
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We’re only 2 wins out of the Top 4. We were actually very capable of doing it this year given all those games we lost by 2 or simply a couple less injuries.

I would expect Top 4 next year. Unless PVL decides to drastically change the rules in the offseason (not out of the question) or half the team goes down with ACLs (probably shouldn’t even put that thought out there, apologies in advance)
 
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