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

Great work Obi suggested this back before Round 1. If Tex had started then would be pretty well experienced by now.

Alternatively if Randall fires, Mann back to the halves.
 
member 2299 said:
Great work Obi suggested this back before Round 1. If Tex had started then would be pretty well experienced by now.

Alternatively if Randall fires, Mann back to the halves.
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Dropping Tex in with no training for the spot and then throwing him on the scrapheap would be what I like to call a "Brown move".
O'Brien could have used him as a utility this year, but he has spent 3 months getting him ready for 5/8 instead.
 
Billy said:
Dropping Tex in with no training for the spot and then throwing him on the scrapheap would be what I like to call a "Brown move".
O'Brien could have used him as a utility this year, but he has spent 3 months getting him ready for 5/8 instead.
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In fairness to Brown, he didn’t really have the cattle and the luxury of keeping kids out until they were ready. That said, Brown would have Tex at prop and Crossland in the centres most likely.
 
knightime said:
In fairness to Brown, he didn’t really have the cattle and the luxury of keeping kids out until they were ready. That said, Brown would have Tex at prop and Crossland in the centres most likely.
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What?! Don't you mean they'd both be playing hooker at the same time :lol::lol:
 
Lachan Lam apparently hasn't resigned with the chooky's yet , Joey has a big rap on him and thinks he should go to another club and Fittler said the same thing.
He wants to play halfback , what about Lam to half and Pearce to 5/8. Johnsy was very impressed by his toughness and Defence especially.
He can play half and hooker but prefers and wants to play halfback .
 
The Sharks want to let Moylan go and are willing to pay a % of his $900,000 contract but again he has played 43 games in 3 seasons so he has missed about 27 games through injury more than a season out .
I know were looking for a good 5/8 but at $900,000 a year id say no, im not that big a fan of his anyway.
 
Ethan said:
The Sharks want to let Moylan go and are willing to pay a % of his $900,000 contract but again he has played 43 games in 3 seasons so he has missed about 27 games through injury more than a season out .
I know were looking for a good 5/8 but at $900,000 a year id say no, im not that big a fan of his anyway.
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Moylan is another injury prone playmaker with issues.

The Knights have had their fingers burnt with Griffin and Moga and they have made it clear they will not sign injury prone players again.


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It's pretty clear that Hoy is being groomed for 5/8 next year.
He seems to be O'Brien's "project" player.
O'Brien made it fairly clear when he arrived that he wants a "running" 5/8 and after the 9s he decided Hoy is the boy.
All the reports say he was training the house down till yesterday and the coach seemed pretty keen on him playing.
I assume Hoy has been doing a lot of work on his 5/8 skills since the coach decided to not use him as a utility a few months ago.
There was also an article recently about the coach wanting Hoy to do Judo in the off season to improve his defence.

The coach seems most impressed with Hoy's X-factor and Hoy has always been the guy who would put in a chip kick for himself on tackle 3 if the mood takes him and is always wanting to go for a run.

I suspect we'll let Lino go and Crossland will be the shadow player for Pearce next year.
 
Billy said:
It's pretty clear that Hoy is being groomed for 5/8 next year.
He seems to be O'Brien's "project" player.
O'Brien made it fairly clear when he arrived that he wants a "running" 5/8 and after the 9s he decided Hoy is the boy.
All the reports say he was training the house down till yesterday and the coach seemed pretty keen on him playing.
I assume Hoy has been doing a lot of work on his 5/8 skills since the coach decided to not use him as a utility a few months ago.
There was also an article recently about the coach wanting Hoy to do Judo in the off season to improve his defence.

The coach seems most impressed with Hoy's X-factor and Hoy has always been the guy who would put in a chip kick for himself on tackle 3 if the mood takes him and is always wanting to go for a run.

I suspect we'll let Lino go and Crossland will be the shadow player for Pearce next year.
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Both Judo and BJJ lessons should be had by smaller "weaker" guys in the off season. Fairly similar arts but differ in strategy. Bloody good for defensive structure and body placement.
 
Randall has made some serious progress over the last year.
He only joined the fulltime squad and switched from utility to hooker at about the last month or so of last season.
His game yesterday was by far the best he has ever played and he certainly looks like an NRL quality hooker now.
We have Brailey for next year, and we also have Mann, Watson and Crossland who are all part time hookers and utility players.
If we signed Randall right now, we'd get him as back up for Brailey on minimum coin.
If we don't find a spot for him, someone else will.
 
Usually at this time of year I do a post about who I think will train in the preseason from the lower grades.
This year I have nothing to go on.

I think we will have to do some sort of pre pre-season camp or trial do for young players to try to work out which 10 or so guys get to train with our top squad.

Ones that stood out last year and deserve another chance are Baydon Searle, Mitchell Black, Dylan Lucas and of course Chris Randall, Simi Sasagi, Christian Ma'amania, Matt Croker and Luke Huth.

how the coaches decide who else is a mystery.
 
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
Blake Green
Andrew McCullough
Herman Eseese
Tim Glasby
Tautau Moga

In this interview;
https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/...bsite&utm_medium=home&utm_campaign=latestnews

Phil Gardner says we have 25 contracted players and 5 spots to fill. He says we need a 5/8 and that Pearce has been very vocal about what sort of player we need to sign. He also says we need edge backrowers.

I have 26 names on the list including Watson and Jones who are rumoured to be signing - so 1 of them must have signed or we have signed someone we haven't heard about yet.
 
$800k and can't run the show and Ponga's practically a 5/8th anyway. Really does my head in. Great write up though Billy!
 
I think I read Watson might not have signed on the dotted line but has agreed to terms, which is close enough.

I wonder how long the NRL will take to confirm the squad size. Not much room if it's only 28.
 
Lord of the Skraelings said:
$800k and can't run the show and Ponga's practically a 5/8th anyway. Really does my head in. Great write up though Billy!
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But we can't play him from 5/8 though, that would be stupid. And hey, we tried him there and he failed :giggle:, yet he plays like a 5/8 more than a fullback. I don't even need to look to know that Ponga's highlight reel will be full of him taking the ball 1st or second receiver and ball playing to set up his outside backs, or running across the defensive line to look for a hole to slice through whilst using his outside backs to create doubt in the defenders minds. Can anyone remember Ponga taking the ball at the back and weaving through the opposition kick chase to score a length of the field try? I can't. Or how about scoring a try backing up a half break in support play, sure, I can recall one, or two, but it's not where he is most effective. Which would be at 5/8.

No, let's make him play both roles, and that way we can make our Ferrari have to be the last line of defence and put his body in front of runaway 120kg backs, jump for bombs and get smashed by the kick chase.
 
I’m going to put this here before having a forum holiday.

It was a year of improvement, false dawns and frustrating typical Newcastle dribble mixed into the standard rollercoaster ride that is being a Knights fan. Case and point today’s game.

Many will argue we have made progress. I would agree and call it slight progress. With the signings and an extra year experience for a lot of the class of 2016 I was expecting a little more. Injuries certainly saw to that and the standard attitude issue that’s starting to become very hard to shake no matter what we change. Is it some kind of witch craft?!?

AOB doesn’t look like the answer but it’s too soon to judge. We cannot just expect every Bellamy student to be the next Bellamy. How AOB couldn’t get us up against the Titans to secure a home final ultimately cost any success we was going to have. What on earth happened there?

Sadly next year we will have an inferior squad to half a dozen or so teams. Arguably inferior coaching staff too. So I expect much of the same and believe a finish of 7th or 8th would be another decent outcome for this roster. Souths, Raiders, Eels, Storm, Roosters, Panthers and GC I think will have the right mix of talent, coaching ability and brand of footy. Cannot see us having much luck against these teams.

However, we can only try. And wish for luck. We’ll need it. And........we also need new halves.....lols
 
Well we go into the off season in pretty good shape.
Brailey and Watson are both starting to run and should be right for pre season.
A few guys need minor surgery - Ponga, possibly Lee needs to get some of the hardware out of his arm, maybe a few others.
All in all, we should have a full squad for the start of pre season.
 
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