Kalyn Ponga

Ponga’s defence in origin means nothing. Yes he showed good defence but he was in the middle of the park with basically no decision making needing to be made and had big guys either side of him.

Out at 5/8th is a whole new ball game. He will have a big backrower looking to run through him as well as a centre and most likely the fullback lurking around the back.

This risk is too dumb for words and if it comes off then you can see why Brown is getting paid the big $$$ and not me but I just don’t see what the point of trying it now after a very successful year at fullback last year.
 
cowboyman said:
Ponga’s defence in origin means nothing. Yes he showed good defence but he was in the middle of the park with basically no decision making needing to be made and had big guys either side of him.

Out at 5/8th is a whole new ball game. He will have a big backrower looking to run through him as well as a centre and most likely the fullback lurking around the back.

This risk is too dumb for words and if it comes off then you can see why Brown is getting paid the big $$$ and not me but I just don’t see what the point of trying it now after a very successful year at fullback last year.
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Hmmmm. Seems that one half of 5% of your brain is still fighting with the other 5%.

If Sione can defend at 6 im sure the best young tallent in the game will do ok also.
Im more worried about the blind side defenders belting him tbh.
 
Can anyone give us the jist of Dean Ritchie's article about the long term futures of Pearce and Ponga?

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Knights weighing up a 2 year extension for Pearce and after this season they plan to negotiate an extension with Ponga that would keep him around until the end of 2026.
 
cowboyman said:
Ponga’s defence in origin means nothing. Yes he showed good defence but he was in the middle of the park with basically no decision making needing to be made and had big guys either side of him.

Out at 5/8th is a whole new ball game. He will have a big backrower looking to run through him as well as a centre and most likely the fullback lurking around the back.

This risk is too dumb for words and if it comes off then you can see why Brown is getting paid the big $$$ and not me but I just don’t see what the point of trying it now after a very successful year at fullback last year.
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runs deep with this one...the bitterness of losing Ponga

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Not sure where the bitterness is. I’m complimenting the guy saying how well he went at fullback last year. Why put unnecessary risk and and pressure on him by moving him to a position he has openly stated he doesn’t prefer to play right now?

If anyone thinks defending in the middle compared to on the edge are one and the same then I’m not the one lacking footy knowledge. Half of defence is decision making out on the edge. If you’re even half unsure on who to tackle then obviously you aren’t going to be as strong in the tackle even if you made the right decision. That is negated in the middle so he was able to put his all into each and every single tackle knowing who was getting the ball. So much easier to defend no matter how big or small the opposition are.

Besides Val is coming home I’ve got no doubt about that. If by some miracle that don’t happen then I’ll be bitter about it all. :lol:
 
As Ponga himself said he will play at 5/8 if it works all well and good if it doesn't he will go back to f/b its no biggy if it doesn't work and if it does he and Pearce could make the best halves pairing in the comp .
The other thing is what makes people think he couldn't defend there at least as well as Watson or Lino who's defence isn't great anyway .
Half those big second rowers trying to tackle him will be grabbing fresh air I reckon same as Tedesco did that time its easy to say they will be gunning for him but imo they will be hoping and praying they can lay a hand on him . ..
 
this move i think is as much about watson as it is ponga. watson will be better suited at the back, he wont mind doin the dirty work out of his own end, something ponga didnt do. i expect to see him sniffing around the middle and running off our forwards hips, a tactic that imo is underused in todays game.
worst case it doesnt work out and we end up with what we had last year. exciting times ahead.
 
EASBay17 said:
this move i think is as much about watson as it is ponga. watson will be better suited at the back, he wont mind doin the dirty work out of his own end, something ponga didnt do. i expect to see him sniffing around the middle and running off our forwards hips, a tactic that imo is underused in todays game.
worst case it doesnt work out and we end up with what we had last year. exciting times ahead.
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I certainly haven't missed the upside for Watson, i think he'll kill it

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Owey said:
I certainly haven't missed the upside for Watson, i think he'll kill it

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Me either, Watson "could" be Slater 2.0 if i was Brown id have Robbie O at every training session. Watson has all the attributes of a modern day fullback.
Quick over 30m, agility, vision, awareness, the only downside is Size, though if he can use that to a advantage? ( Like Slater did ) he has every chance of being one good fullback.
 
88Knight4life said:
Me either, Watson "could" be Slater 2.0 if i was Brown id have Robbie O at every training session. Watson has all the attributes of a modern day fullback.
Quick over 30m, agility, vision, awareness, the only downside is Size, though if he can use that to a advantage? ( Like Slater did ) he has every chance of being one good fullback.
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The other downside IMO is his ball-playing and kicking. I imagine it's something he's been working on over the preseason. The real quality fullbacks are essentially another ball-playing half in attack. If he can be play-making livewire for us then I'm sure good things will happen.
 
knightime said:
The other downside IMO is his ball-playing and kicking. I imagine it's something he's been working on over the preseason. The real quality fullbacks are essentially another ball-playing half in attack. If he can be play-making livewire for us then I'm sure good things will happen.
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Michael Gordon done well as a running fullback.
 
knightime said:
The other downside IMO is his ball-playing and kicking. I imagine it's something he's been working on over the preseason. The real quality fullbacks are essentially another ball-playing half in attack. If he can be play-making livewire for us then I'm sure good things will happen.
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He can ball play, it needs work but he can ball play.
Its easy to remember the few bad things he did but he did plenty of wonderful things to.
Also at fullback you have more time to pick the pass and deliver it which will help a lot for watson.
 
As I see it there are only two questions.
How much do we need to take care of Ponga while he is still young?
What do we do if Pearce is out for any reason?

I think Ponga can look after himself, but if he shows signs of struggling, we should either rest him or move him back to fullback for a while.

If Pearce is out, we should make sure we don't ask Ponga to take on more responsibility than he is ready for. It should all be about Lino, with Ponga's role not changing at all.
 
Billy said:
As I see it there are only two questions.
How much do we need to take care of Ponga while he is still young?
What do we do if Pearce is out for any reason?

I think Ponga can look after himself, but if he shows signs of struggling, we should either rest him or move him back to fullback for a while.

If Pearce is out, we should make sure we don't ask Ponga to take on more responsibility than he is ready for. It should all be about Lino, with Ponga's role not changing at all.
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Pretty sound reasoning Billy...

I agree and think Ponga can look after himself. That being said he, like all the players in our spine, they still have to develop their combinations and how they can compliment each others role and style.

I say that because I think if he 'shows signs of struggling', the coaching staff should be discerning whether it is a workload/fatigue issue due to opposition targeting versus slow in building combinations, positioning, timing, etc. because it may mean that he needs more time to get those things to gel rather than resting him out of the 5/8 role.

I also agree re the Pearce out scenario with Lino taking that role - we will need minimal disruption for the spine in particular if we want to go deep into this season
 
I think if Pearce is out, Lino playing the same role is an obvious one. I think a hard question to answer is what happens when Watson is out. Lino to 5/8 and Ponga to fb would be my obvious choice right now, but what if everything around the halves is settled and Ponga is killing it? Who is the next fb off the rank?

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Owey said:
I think if Pearce is out, Lino playing the same role is an obvious one. I think a hard question to answer is what happens when Watson is out. Lino to 5/8 and Ponga to fb would be my obvious choice right now, but what if everything around the halves is settled and Ponga is killing it? Who is the next fb off the rank?

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My guess would be Mann goes to 1 and Buhrer/Woolford to 14.
 
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