Let's be honest its time for our team for 2021!

I am assuming Mann is staying, if we sign a 5/8, Green or whoever and Brailey is fit then Mann will likely play right centre with Watson 14. What I am saying is that I think the coach has a very high opinion of Mann who I think will still be used to cover 6 & 9 with Tuala, Shibs, Hunt etc playing right centre.
 
It's a good problem to have - not being able to think how we will use Watson, Mann, Randall, Toa, Young, Jones, Saulo, Crossland, Shibasaki, Hoy, King and even Momoisea and Sasagi - that's 13 guys who i'd like to see get plenty of firstgrade next year, and if everyone stays fit all year, maybe none of them would get a game.
 
I see Crossland has had surgery on “an injury he carried all year”. He had a groin problem in the pre season and hasn’t been kicking in first grade, but he did some cracking kicks in the scrimmage games.
Not sure if his groin is a problem or not.
 
Lord of the Skraelings said:
Do we have a list of who has officially left and what spots if any we have for next year?
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1 Kayln Ponga
2 Hymel Hunt
3 Enari Tuala
4 Bradman Best
5 Edrick Lee
6 Kurt Mann
7 Mitchell Pearce
8 David Klemmer
9 Jayden Brailey
10 Daniel Saifiti
11 Tyson Frizzel
12 Lachlan Fitzgibbon
13 Mitch Barnett

14 Connor Watson
15 Jacob Saifiti
16 Sione Mata'utia
17 Pasami Saulo

other signed players

18 Starford To'a
19 Jirah Momoisea
20 Pheonix Crossland
21 Shibasaki
22 Christian Ma'anaima
23 Dominic Young
24 Tex Hoy
25 Brodie Jones (probable signing according to Toohey)
26 Simi Sasagi

off contract

Josh King
Mason Lino
Chris Randall
Matt Croker
Luke Huth
Tyronne Robert-Davis

Leaving the club

Aidan Guerra
Andrew McCullough
Herman Eseese
Tim Glasby
Tautau Moga

Blake Green remains at the club in an unknown capacity. He is doing rehab for his injury and may join either the coaching or playing staff.

That gives us 3 positions left to fill if Jones and Green are both signed to the top 30, or 5 positions if they aren't.
 
ApperceptionJosh said:
Every knights player that has gone there has excelled, so he'll become amazing knowing our luck Hahaha starling, tapine, young and leilua
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Young and Starling followed their Knights under 16s team mate Brendan O'Hagan to Canberra. O'Hagan had some good years playing for Canberra at under 20s and reserve grade level, but this year he was cut by Canberra and joined Wests Tigers as a development player I think. He always had his best games against the Knights. Just last year he had a great game against us in reserve grade.
 
In the Toohey's news this week, Tyson Frizzel says he was expecting the Knights to tell him how he would be used in the side when he showed up for a recruitment interview, but what he got was an assessment of him as a player and a well thought out plan to make him into a better player.
I suspect O'Brien picked that up from Bellamy, and Bellamy delivers on that promise for virtually every player he signs.
All the guys O'Brien has signed so far, with the possible exception of TRD, have improved over last off season.
I suspect he'll have a long list of things he wants to work on with just about every player in this off season.
 
Billy said:
In the Toohey's news this week, Tyson Frizzel says he was expecting the Knights to tell him how he would be used in the side when he showed up for a recruitment interview, but what he got was an assessment of him as a player and a well thought out plan to make him into a better player.
I suspect O'Brien picked that up from Bellamy, and Bellamy delivers on that promise for virtually every player he signs.
All the guys O'Brien has signed so far, with the possible exception of TRD, have improved over last off season.
I suspect he'll have a long list of things he wants to work on with just about every player in this off season.
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Hopefully Pearce is the main one...
 
Matty23 said:
Hudson Young has come in leaps and bounds this year. He’d be awesome if he was in our pack.
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He's a big game player.
He scored 2 tries in our under 16s grandfinal and I think they were the only 2 he scored all year, and he's been going hard in every big game for the raiders.
You want players who lift for the important games.
 
Rookie of the year 2021?
The yet to debut players we have signed are Simi Sasagi, Christian Ma'anaima, Dom Young and Jirah Momoisea.
Guys we might sign to top 30 or development contracts are Matt Croker, Luke Huth, Baydon Searle, Dylan Lucas.

I think Jirah is most likely to debut because he can play prop, second row or on the bench and he is easily the oldest and most experienced of that lot.
Simi or Dom Young might be the best athlete, but they both seem to be playing centre and it's hard to see them getting a run.
 
The one that excites me the most of that bunch is Simi Sasagi. Has as much potential as Bradman Best, but what position that be in is anyone’s guess. I could definitely see him as a centre, second-rower/lock or five-eight with the build, speed and the ball-playing ability he has.

Jirah would be the obvious choice to debut next. Thought he may have gotten the chance this year but I can only assume Obi wanted to make as little changes as possible and keep the same 1-17 as close as possible to ensure we maintained consistency, which unfortunately, we didn’t. Will be hard to see that happening unless the obvious happens like injuries and suspension.
 
Simi has played so little football - basically just one 12 game season of under 18s - 30 minutes of under 20s in 2019 and 1 game of under 20s as a fullback in 2020.

Some kid will be sitting in a pub someday telling the story of his last game of footy in 2019 when Bradman Best ran over him to score 4 tries, then they replaced Best with Simi Sasagi who ran over him to score 4 more tries (I didn't see the game, but I imagine that's how it went when we scored 12 tries with Bradman scoring 4 and Simi 4).

Knights 62 - 6 Manly Jersey Flegg Round 5 2019

Try scorers

  • Jack Cameron 3'
  • Justin Worley 13'
  • Ofa Manuofetoa 20'
  • Bradman Best 23'
  • Bradman Best 34'
  • Nathanael Sasagi 38'
  • Bradman Best 44'
  • Bradman Best 47'
  • Nathanael Sasagi 50'
  • Nathanael Sasagi 53'
  • Ofa Manuofetoa 66'
  • Nathanael Sasagi 69'
That was the only game Sasagi played in 2019 and he had a stress fracture in his back. He played off the bench and went on at halftime (35 minute halves). He scored the first time he touched the ball and 3 more times when he could get the ball off Bradman.
 
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I notice Jaron Purcell played every game as a second row for Wyong as they won the minor premiership in the real NRL.

Jaron was captain of our 2017 under 16s grandfinal winning side and he scored the matchwinning try in the grandfinal. He was also captain of NSW under 16s and man of the match in the SOO game.
In 2018 he played for NSW under 18s a year young. He also made his firstgrade debut for Wyong at age 17.
In 2019 he was injured in the first game of SG Ball and had surgery on a shoulder injury. He didn't come back till the last few games of under 20s and I thought he was our best player in under 20s in his first game, after 6 months off with an injury and playing under 20s for the first time.
In 2020 he did an off season with the NSW cup squad as an 18 year old and was the youngest guy we used in the pre season trials. His only game for us was as lock in under 20s. After covid he played every game for Wyong firstgrade in the real NRL as they won the minor premiership and only had 2 loses including their loss in the knockout final.

When Alex McKinnon extended his contract last, he described him as a Jake Trbojevic type lock, which is a fair description - not huge, but very hard working and has game awareness and skills you don't see in many middle forwards.

I'll be surprised if he doesn't get a firstgrade off season this year, despite having 2 more years in under 21s. He is the same age as Bradman Best.
 
Another guy I hope gets a pre season next year is Daniel Ticehurst.
He is basically a Klemmer sized prop forward and an angry young man (on the field at least).
He played for the junior Kiwis last year and I thought he was the only Kiwi forward who aimed up against Aus when he came off the bench.
I haven't seen any sign of him having the big motor that young props need to have if they are going to play seniors, but he might develop it with more training.
 
Billy said:
Another guy I hope gets a pre season next year is Daniel Ticehurst.
He is basically a Klemmer sized prop forward and an angry young man (on the field at least).
He played for the junior Kiwis last year and I thought he was the only Kiwi forward who aimed up against Aus when he came off the bench.
I haven't seen any sign of him having the big motor that young props need to have if they are going to play seniors, but he might develop it with more training.
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I know dan and his fam quite well. I hope he gets a firsts preseason. His been training with a few other blokes all through this covid stuff so will be interesting to see how he pulls up when training kicks off again. He goes hard but he doesn't believe in his ability.
 
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