Kalyn Ponga discussion

Joey1245 said:
So all your saying is sharpe needs to get involved in dummy half from 6?
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No im saying his not a 6 firstly, lucas saw his best ball all year from having a geniune playmaker inside him tonight and we saw the result. My dummy half point was referring to sharpe getting in and doing the tough stuff thats beneath our main man.
 
slotmachine said:
He's awful there, has absolutely no feel for the position. Also is a complete turnstile.

It's fullback or nothing for KP and we have a much cheaper special talent who is a natural fullback
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Yep. People have always thought he can play in the halves because he can kick and he can throw a cut out pass which can slice through the rain without getting wet.

But Cooper Cronk deadset struggled to pass it more then 5 metres. Probably the fourth(?) best halfback I’ve ever seen?

A lot more to being a great halfback than what’s on the highlight reel & Ponga is bad at pretty much all of that stuff.
 
Thieves Like Us said:
Individually Ponga is a great player. He has a unique skill set that I’m not sure anyone can match. The issue is fitting him into our team with the other players we have. He’s a full back who doesn’t back up through the middle and a half who can’t defend in the front line.
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Ponga is a great player and he has not indicated that he wants to leave. I am very happy he plays for the Knights, but he is playing to Oni’s instructions. Let him play fullback like he was during the 2023 run and develop Sharpe. It shouldn’t mean we keep one player or the other. I want to keep them both and for the coach to wake up to himself and do his job to maximise the skills and performance of both players.
I will be watching Ponga play for QLD in the first SOO. If he plays like a fullback and does well, I will be very happy for Obi to get speared.
I am afraid that Obi might tie down Dylan Brown to his boring plan next year and negate his natural playing style.
Obi has to be heaps better to last the season, let alone 2 more.
 
slotmachine said:
One issue with Ponga at 6, he sucks there.
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But he shouldn’t have to be playing at 6 or a 6 style. Leave him alone as our fullback and come into the line like we have seen before.
I just don’t get Obi’s hybrid game as it is too complicated. Simplify everyone’s role, let Sharpe play 6 as his defence is as good as anyone’s, with Gamble as half.
The Knights are now in danger of presenting with a much weakened forward pack after injuries tonight. We may be forced to give some of our young up and coming forwards a go due to necessity.
Just loved our speed of playing the ball and catching retreating defence on their heels tonight, particularly in the first half.
More of this please, put the boring, complicated Obiball in the cupboard and forget it.
 
Meh we got a young kid in sharpe who wants his hands on the ball at every chance, takes the tough carries, hangs off every ball runner for an offload. Then we have the highest paid player in the game who hands the ball off at every chance when we need metres and wants to be a 5/8 for one tackle every set.
Ponga could do sharpes job so much better than what sharpe does in reality but for whatever reason we have 2 guys who play the same position completely differently, is that coaching.. idk . Are we telling ponga how we need him to play or are we playing around how he wants to play.. serious question.
 
Kalyn, as a player, is a borderline cheat code in the attacking situations he’s really really dangerous in. You know the ones. Wide 4 on 4’s, picking out and burning specific defenders on short sides, etc etc etc. And he’s historically been maybe the most likely player in the comp to break the line off a kick return. There are a lot of other things you want your fullback to do that he’s just not good at. But this CAN work… if you have the right other players (I’d also identify Latrell Mitchell as a guy who, at fullback, is just ridiculously good in those wide areas but has massive holes elsewhere in his game… but he’s just SO good in those areas you put up with it, like Kalyn, and then he’s had complimentary spine players with him like Cody Walker who make up for the holes in his game).

Every year, because of the money he makes, because we’ve had a chronic scarcity of dynamic spine players, there’s been a project to try to change the player he is. Initially AOB tried to turn him into that Tedesco style of fullback, he didn’t take to it. We’ve tried playing him at 6, non starter. We’ve tried various modes of Kalynball with him at fullback just popping up wherever, it looks clunky and horrible. None of it works, and when we need that late season winning streak or it’s a must win finals game, all of a sudden, yep, he’s back attacking those 4-on-4’s and burning defenders filling in out of position on the short side again.

What we’ve always needed for him is a great organising 7 who can work through sets in a way which sets up Kalyn’s pet positions on the field. We had that with Hastings for a bit, a good but not great organising 7 when engaged. It looked like we had it with Pearce and Blake Green, for like two games. Cogger and Gamble have sometimes made it work. But we’ve needed an Adam Reynolds, someone like that, just a sentient footy brain who can pull the right rein between teeing Kalyn up and capitalising on the attention he draws with a different option. We never found it.

But if you’ve got a kid coming up who legitimately looks like if Ryan Papenhyuzen and Dylan Edwards did the fusion dance from Dragon Ball Z… do you still need to cling desperately to Kalyn?

This is sincerely the kind of decision the Roosters have often been confronted with lol. Just pull the trigger. Pick the guy who makes everything easier.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Kalyn, as a player, is a borderline cheat code in the attacking situations he’s really really dangerous in. You know the ones. Wide 4 on 4’s, picking out and burning specific defenders on short sides, etc etc etc. And he’s historically been maybe the most likely player in the comp to break the line off a kick return. There are a lot of other things you want your fullback to do that he’s just not good at. But this CAN work… if you have the right other players (I’d also identify Latrell Mitchell as a guy who, at fullback, is just ridiculously good in those wide areas but has massive holes elsewhere in his game… but he’s just SO good in those areas you put up with it, like Kalyn, and then he’s had complimentary spine players with him like Cody Walker who make up for the holes in his game).

Every year, because of the money he makes, because we’ve had a chronic scarcity of dynamic spine players, there’s been a project to try to change the player he is. Initially AOB tried to turn him into that Tedesco style of fullback, he didn’t take to it. We’ve tried playing him at 6, non starter. We’ve tried various modes of Kalynball with him at fullback just popping up wherever, it looks clunky and horrible. None of it works, and when we need that late season winning streak or it’s a must win finals game, all of a sudden, yep, he’s back attacking those 4-on-4’s and burning defenders filling in out of position on the short side again.

What we’ve always needed for him is a great organising 7 who can work through sets in a way which sets up Kalyn’s pet positions on the field. We had that with Hastings for a bit, a good but not great organising 7 when engaged. It looked like we had it with Pearce and Blake Green, for like two games. Cogger and Gamble have sometimes made it work. But we’ve needed an Adam Reynolds, someone like that, just a sentient footy brain who can pull the right rein between teeing Kalyn up and capitalising on the attention he draws with a different option. We never found it.

But if you’ve got a kid coming up who legitimately looks like if Ryan Papenhyuzen and Dylan Edwards did the fusion dance from Dragon Ball Z… do you still need to cling desperately to Kalyn?

This is sincerely the kind of decision the Roosters have often been confronted with lol. Just pull the trigger. Pick the guy who makes everything easier.
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What would the uproar be if a ponga upgrade costs us fletcher sharpe, not a problem for the next 2 seasons, but the time will come. Unless we plan on making sharpe the 3rd million dollar player in our spine.
At the same time a desicion will need to be made
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Kalyn, as a player, is a borderline cheat code in the attacking situations he’s really really dangerous in. You know the ones. Wide 4 on 4’s, picking out and burning specific defenders on short sides, etc etc etc. And he’s historically been maybe the most likely player in the comp to break the line off a kick return. There are a lot of other things you want your fullback to do that he’s just not good at. But this CAN work… if you have the right other players (I’d also identify Latrell Mitchell as a guy who, at fullback, is just ridiculously good in those wide areas but has massive holes elsewhere in his game… but he’s just SO good in those areas you put up with it, like Kalyn, and then he’s had complimentary spine players with him like Cody Walker who make up for the holes in his game).

Every year, because of the money he makes, because we’ve had a chronic scarcity of dynamic spine players, there’s been a project to try to change the player he is. Initially AOB tried to turn him into that Tedesco style of fullback, he didn’t take to it. We’ve tried playing him at 6, non starter. We’ve tried various modes of Kalynball with him at fullback just popping up wherever, it looks clunky and horrible. None of it works, and when we need that late season winning streak or it’s a must win finals game, all of a sudden, yep, he’s back attacking those 4-on-4’s and burning defenders filling in out of position on the short side again.

What we’ve always needed for him is a great organising 7 who can work through sets in a way which sets up Kalyn’s pet positions on the field. We had that with Hastings for a bit, a good but not great organising 7 when engaged. It looked like we had it with Pearce and Blake Green, for like two games. Cogger and Gamble have sometimes made it work. But we’ve needed an Adam Reynolds, someone like that, just a sentient footy brain who can pull the right rein between teeing Kalyn up and capitalising on the attention he draws with a different option. We never found it.

But if you’ve got a kid coming up who legitimately looks like if Ryan Papenhyuzen and Dylan Edwards did the fusion dance from Dragon Ball Z… do you still need to cling desperately to Kalyn?

This is sincerely the kind of decision the Roosters have often been confronted with lol. Just pull the trigger. Pick the guy who makes everything easier.
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Here here
 
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