NRL Round 1 - Knights Vs Cowboys - 1:15pm Sunday 1st March (AEDT) - Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas

Frank McWilliams said:
Sorry bit wordy trying to top Harvey in word volume
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mullenmagic said:
Watching back the highlights and there’s some good skill shown in all of the tries.

- Sharpe jumping over Drinkwater
- Marzhew powering through multiple defenders in a way few other wingers can
- Frizell late offload into some great vision from Smith to put Ponga in space
- Good setup from Brown and quick hands from Gagai on Dom’s try
- Dom catch and offload to Mooney for the final try

More fun than watching a single, sad consolation try in the 77th minute when the opposition has clocked off.
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Something which has driven me mad for ages - I don’t think anyone at the Storm or Roosters since Cronk & Smith has been a particularly elite/pinpoint kicker of a football (besides Sam Walker’s short kicking), but they make up for it with just having a smart kicking plan. Mentioned it elsewhere but they land the ball on a mismatch all the time so even if it’s not that good a kick, something might happen. Everyone does it, whether it’s the first choice halves or someone like Tyran Wishart. Sounds so obvious but so many teams don’t really do it. Today felt like the only time I’ve seen it from us. That kick for Sharpe to out leap Drinkwater - who’s not that good in aerial contests - was a clear as day set play. Sandon has the ball on the last and it’s just “if in doubt aim at Dom”. And yeah, wow, good things happen! Who could have guessed?
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Something which has driven me mad for ages - I don’t think anyone at the Storm or Roosters since Cronk & Smith has been a particularly elite/pinpoint kicker of a football (besides Sam Walker’s short kicking), but they make up for it with just having a smart kicking plan. Mentioned it elsewhere but they land the ball on a mismatch all the time so even if it’s not that good a kick, something might happen. Everyone does it, whether it’s the first choice halves or someone like Tyran Wishart. Sounds so obvious but so many teams don’t really do it. Today felt like the only time I’ve seen it from us. That kick for Sharpe to out leap Drinkwater - who’s not that good in aerial contests - was a clear as day set play. Sandon has the ball on the last and it’s just “if in doubt aim at Dom”. And yeah, wow, good things happen! Who could have guessed?
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We have the players who can actually compete in the air and it's good that we finnaly did it and looks like we might continue to do it. That try to Sharpe was so nice, it looked like we were going away from him and defence would have taken their eyes off him so that was a great set play from Ponga.
When the other Fletcher comes into the team we will have even more reason to go to the air.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Something which has driven me mad for ages - I don’t think anyone at the Storm or Roosters since Cronk & Smith has been a particularly elite/pinpoint kicker of a football (besides Sam Walker’s short kicking), but they make up for it with just having a smart kicking plan. Mentioned it elsewhere but they land the ball on a mismatch all the time so even if it’s not that good a kick, something might happen. Everyone does it, whether it’s the first choice halves or someone like Tyran Wishart. Sounds so obvious but so many teams don’t really do it. Today felt like the only time I’ve seen it from us. That kick for Sharpe to out leap Drinkwater - who’s not that good in aerial contests - was a clear as day set play. Sandon has the ball on the last and it’s just “if in doubt aim at Dom”. And yeah, wow, good things happen! Who could have guessed?
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Agreed so much.

I think it was last year we went against the Titans that had Kini at fullback, obviously a tiny fullback and I believe we had KP or Sharpe at fullback but we never once angled a kick so someone can out leap him, and I hated it since it was such a obvious play.

It was great it looked like against the cows they had a game plan for when kicking close enough to challenge
 
Heard similar sentiments from multiple non-Knight fan mates today. Think it’s too early to say that but most dangerous seems valid, and is a huge rap on a team with 2 elite playmakers. Every time he touches the ball it feels like something could happen, doesn’t matter if he’s 20m out or 80m out. Ponga had a similar feeling when he was younger but has become more contained in how he attacks, though still as dangerous as anyone in those areas.
 
Two observations on today’s game…

1. I thought we were going to **** the bed when the e pulled it back to 12-12. After the early game promise I thought our old beliefs and behaviours were going to show themselves. Credit to the lads for facing into that and pulling through.
2. He won’t get the headlines but I thought Gags was great in defence today. Purdue is suppose to be the second coming of KP and when in open space he can clearly ghost past people but I thought Gags did really well to not give him that space.
 
It's nice to see how young the 3 new guys are. Easy to forget because of how we talk about them, being our big new signings, but Brown is 25, that's a baby in playmaker years, he's about to start his prime. Mooney and Smith are 23 yet you'd think they are established first-graders with how we look at them. Good signs for the next era of the club.
 
Thieves Like Us said:
Two observations on today’s game…

1. I thought we were going to **** the bed when the e pulled it back to 12-12. After the early game promise I thought our old beliefs and behaviours were going to show themselves. Credit to the lads for facing into that and pulling through.
2. He won’t get the headlines but I thought Gags was great in defence today. Purdue is suppose to be the second coming of KP and when in open space he can clearly ghost past people but I thought Gags did really well to not give him that space.
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Gagai was immense defensively. Have to agree. Still got it.

Sharpe is something special. You can understand why Holbrook feels like he needs him starting, things just seem to happen around Sharpe. He is special.
 
Joshhh said:
It's nice to see how young the 3 new guys are. Easy to forget because of how we talk about them, being our big new signings, but Brown is 25, that's a baby in playmaker years, he's about to start his prime. Mooney and Smith are 23 yet you'd think they are established first-graders with how we look at them. Good signs for the next era of the club.
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I didn’t realise Mooney was so young. I’m not sure why I never looked it up.
The way he’s spoken about at times make it sound like he’s had his whole career to play first grade, but never been up to scratch, and we’ve picked him up a potential late bloomer on the way to the nursing home.

The thought that he could have 10 years left to develop, is scary.

Seems like we’ve picked up a promising forward whose best years, will hopefully be in the red and blue. My no means a finished product, but I like where we are heading!

Admit I didn’t watch him as closely this game. I was far too distracted by Ponga/sharpe/Brown.
 
Fantastic win, really liked how we were looking to offload in every carry and when they did the ball was quickly passed out away from the ruck area. I hate seeing a good offload only for the person who gets it just runs straight and gets tackled, much more productive when it gets spread out and we looked dangerous doing that all game.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
I didn’t realise Mooney was so young. I’m not sure why I never looked it up.
The way he’s spoken about at times make it sound like he’s had his whole career to play first grade, but never been up to scratch, and we’ve picked him up a potential late bloomer on the way to the nursing home.

The thought that he could have 10 years left to develop, is scary.

Seems like we’ve picked up a promising forward whose best years, will hopefully be in the red and blue. My no means a finished product, but I like where we are heading!

Admit I didn’t watch him as closely this game. I was far too distracted by Ponga/sharpe/Brown.
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Yeah I’ve had a stiffy for him since that junior Origin game where Pezet set up 100 tries. He was in a different class to every other forward on the field. I’ve heard Raiders fans explain why they couldn’t fit him in so many times but seeing him finally get that chance to be a pack leader, I’m back to being confused again. You’d rather have Morgan Smithies coming off your bench than this guy? Really?
 
Also, something worth noting: While I don't think the Cowboys are contenders or anything, would not automatically assume they're going to be horrible (though going from Reece Robson to Reed Mahoney at 9 is a huge downgrade), because they're one of the teams that can really take advantage of the new interchange rules. They're one of the few teams (it may just be them and Cronulla honestly, the Raiders have lost some depth) that can carry four good/impactful bench forwards. Griffin Neame is one of the better first middles off the bench in the comp. I hate Matt Lodge obviously and never want him at my club but he bends the line. Tom Mikaele ran for 71 metres in his 9 minutes of game time. I think John Bateman was a late scratching but they can play around with their back row between him, Nanai and Luki. They killed us once our starting props came off and ended the game with a pretty handy advantage in metres gained, especially factoring in that a higher % of our yardage would have come from line breaks. And yeah their starting middle is good, Taumalolo is still really good, Hess is a bruiser in D, Cotter makes about 98 tackles per game...

Something to keep an eye on over the season but they certainly have the cattle to be a good team up there & they're actually going to be one of the better teams at taking advantage of our skinny pack, not one of the worst ones. Payten is first coach sacked if he can't get wins out of them. They really shouldn't be that bad.
 
Joshhh said:
It's nice to see how young the 3 new guys are. Easy to forget because of how we talk about them, being our big new signings, but Brown is 25, that's a baby in playmaker years, he's about to start his prime. Mooney and Smith are 23 yet you'd think they are established first-graders with how we look at them. Good signs for the next era of the club.
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Nice upgrade from having Hetherington, Cogger and Hastings in the side.
 
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

Etc etc etc.
 
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