Knights’ Recruitment Manager

It's gonna be a long offseason JOJO.

At the end of the day Ponga's last season is probably going to be 2032. If we still have 1. Ponga 6. Sharpe 7. Brown we'll have a great foundation. Cody Hopwood will be 27, Jermaine McEwen 28, Lachie Crouch 29, Trey Mooney 30. I think if it's 3+ of them still around in 2032, we're in a hell of a spot. Would love to keep Manuleleua but if the proposed 'Mana Pasifika' team is team #20, that dude is getting offered over $1.5 million a season to go there and maybe more, good luck to us.

The rest is kinda just noise. Every team totally turns over the majority of its roster over a 6-7 year cycle. Been proven historically that if you keep gun spine players through these roster transitions, you have a recipe for being consistently competitive.

Dylan Brown is awesome and he was having a great season. When Ponga was out and Brown, Smith and Sharpe was our 7, 6 and 1, Brown pretty consistently outperformed the other two (with the caveat that I think Sharpe actually plays way better at 6 than 1 now), unless I was having a stroke when I watched those games. And that's his first real season in a new role. He'll get better. He's a cheat code for generating time and space for our best player, who also happens to be a top 3 player in the NRL.
 
Alex said:
I don't get it either lol

The fact that some people were saying we wouldnt have made the GF if Brown was playing is just as absurd
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They’re looking at the game and thinking absolutely nothing else would have changed, except Brown wouldn’t have taken the quick tap and intercept that Smith took.

Yes Smith had a great game, but the whole context of the match changes if Brown is there. We might have won by 20!
 
Generally most think Smith is ok/VGood so thought, Brown back to 6, Smith to 7 and Sharpe to right centre, left if Best leaves.
If injury to 6 or 7 then Sharpe moves and the likes of Winter or Hunt move in.
Sharpe could be like a Kurt Gids covering anything from 1-7 but predominately centre when full side.
 
Smith is a great player that is held back by defence, his attack is closer to top line than people want to believe, he broke a few mini records in 2026 for example he is the first Knights halves player (7,6) in six years to make it in the top 20 of try assists by the end of the season to which he had 16 and came 14th, next closet was Mitchell Pearce at 20th in 2020, Sandon also came in the top 20 specifically 14th for line break assists as well being the first Knights half since Mitchell Pearce to do it in 2020.

Sandon also came second in the NRL for lines engaged which is great for obvious reasons in terms of baiting players he is actually the first Knights half to do be in the top 5 since Jackson Hastings in 2023 and the only Knight to be in the top 2 of it since Mitchell Pearce in 2019.

Obviously he will always hold the record of being the first halfback since Joey to lead us to a grand final.

He is let down in defence but he has 50% of the game down pat being the attack and if he got his defence to around the 88% he would be one of the top line halves in the game.

Stats come from the NRL stat page.
 
KPGreatness said:
Smith is a great player that is held back by defence, his attack is closer to top line than people want to believe, he broke a few mini records in 2026 for example he is the first Knights halves player (7,6) in six years to make it in the top 20 of try assists by the end of the season to which he had 16 and came 14th, next closet was Mitchell Pearce at 20th in 2020, Sandon also came in the top 20 specifically 14th for line break assists as well being the first Knights half since Mitchell Pearce to do it in 2020.

Sandon also came second in the NRL for lines engaged which is great for obvious reasons in terms of baiting players he is actually the first Knights half to do be in the top 5 since Jackson Hastings in 2023 and the only Knight to be in the top 2 of it since Mitchell Pearce in 2019.

Obviously he will always hold the record of being the first halfback since Joey to lead us to a grand final.

He is let down in defence but he has 50% of the game down pat being the attack and if he got his defence to around the 88% he would be one of the top line halves in the game.

Stats come from the NRL stat page.
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Line engaged is the big one for me, been such a failing of our halves for so long. One reason it always used to look like "throw the ball to Ponga on a shape and see what he can do", rather than "get Ponga in space"
 
We are in a great place. We actually have players who many other clubs want. Our culture is enviable. Young players get the chance to make a name for themselves. That is the risk you take by putting them in The shop window. . But it also is huge attraction for any up and coming star.

On the surface it seems like a huge threat. But that is how the strong culture is built. They may decide to take the money and leave. But the key decisions come from not letting a player decide the narrative around a deal. Best IMO is taking the **** out of us. I know everyone agrees he has had a great year. So did Young and Walker. But their clubs have had enough.

PNG have created this chaos. I am surprised the pending cap increase has not settled it all down. PNG are going to be potentially booed and jeered relentlessly when they step on the field in Australia. A truly stupid choice by the NRL to make them enemy number 1 due to the rules they are allowed to operate under. It is only the start. I can see the clubs demanding huge changes if they start dominating.
 
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Billy said:
If everyone fit right now I say Smith 7 Brown 6 is our best halves combination - with Sharpe a year away from being better than both.
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Gotta say, this to me feels true. Whether or not that combination works best, who knows. But individually as halves, those are the best two in those positions.

Smith is a better eyes up footballer than Brown imo. Smith can also chace points better than Brown and I'm not convinced we go as deep in the finals with Brown instead of Smith.
 
I don’t think people are appreciating just how good Sharpe was becoming as a 6, and just how good he could be in the future.

He was shifted around a lot this year but when he got a run of games at the back end he was improving all the time.

His defence was outstanding and his long kicking game was improving a lot, another off-season and he could be a very handy kicker. He has a much bigger boot than Smith too. To me he’s simply too good to be just a centre, he needs to be the 6.

I really like Smith as well, and agree about the eyes up aspect, he doesn’t disappear either, he’s constantly trying things which is a great asset and not something Brown is as well known for.

However, I think long term the two best players are Brown and Sharpe.

Amazing that this is now a problem, the last few years would’ve killed for any of them to replace the **** show that was Cogger, Gamble, and Hastings.

Will be forever grateful POS fixed this terrible situation massively and long-term. I think we can wear one bad signing in Nuikore who at $600k will only be on a tiny fraction of the cap if it goes to $18 million.

It’s really not the end of the world when you look at the rest of the improvements across the board. Every club has at least one bad signing on their books.

Just hope we don’t do a Dolphins and completely blow up a great squad by making stupid and unnecessary decisions
 
Badel saying today that Hudson Young has been shopped to us. That rumour has been around for a while he has wanted to
move back home. Says We cannot due to the obvious rise of our backrowers. However I have heard locally he has actually offered to move to the Front Row if required. Seems Logical now he is late 20s. He could completely change the forward game for us.

Strange he hasn’t take the Canberra offer or really shown interest in a PNG move on big money. Sounds like he may be willing to sacrifice a few dollars to be where he is happy.
 
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Seth Gecko said:
Badel saying today that Hudson Young has been shopped to us. That rumour has been around for a while he has wanted to
move back home. Says We cannot due to the obvious rise of our backrowers. However I have heard locally he has actually offered to move to the Front Row if required. Seems Logical now he is late 20s. He could completely change the forward game for us.

Strange he hasn’t take the Canberra offer or really shown interest in a PNG move on big money. Sounds like he may be willing to sacrifice a few dollars to be where he is happy.
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Wtf that’s a weird one, I thought he hated the Knights, certainly acts like it.
 
Seth Gecko said:
Badel saying today that Hudson Young has been shopped to us. That rumour has been around for a while he has wanted to
move back home. Says We cannot due to the obvious rise of our backrowers. However I have heard locally he has actually offered to move to the Front Row if required. Seems Logical now he is late 20s. He could completely change the forward game for us.

Strange he hasn’t take the Canberra offer or really shown interest in a PNG move on big money. Sounds like he may be willing to sacrifice a few dollars to be where he is happy.
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You were saying the other day that you believed we wouldn't keep Manuleulua, Sharpe and McEwen if we kept Best but seem interested in Hudson Young who's after much more money? 🤨
 
I'd get over my dislike of Hudson Young if we could afford to sign him, which seems unlikely, and thanks to the Raiders spitting the dummy over his PNG offer, no club can sign him for less than $1m, even if he desperately wants out and is willing to take a reduction to "move home".
 
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