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

After watching the trial last night, I can see Sharpe jersey 7 (left) and Brown 6 (right). Smith to #14. I have been thinking the opposite all off season but seems to be the way its heading.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Fletcher was way better the second he was moved to the right last season so I may lose my ****ing mind if they go with that tbh.
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I think the coach is trying to move us away from being so left side dominant. Its too predictable to defend against hence the horrible attack. Its going to be a long work in progress type of thing.
 
Ponga stated yesterday that he'll be playing both sides of the field this year.

Don't put too much into the fact that Smith played like ****, it was in part by design, because clearly Brown was being trialled as the primary/dominant playmaker for that game, which left Smith in a bit-part role which isnt how he plays his footy. We can speculate as to why that had to take place on the right hand side of the field for Brown, but my sense is that Holbrook was utilising the trial opportunistically to make certain observations.

Gotta say, Brown did a very decent job of it, kicked pretty well for someone who’s hasn't done much of it.

Still think it'll be Smith at 7 on the right. Not looking too deeply at the trial game
 
Ponga has only recently restarted training with the team. Could ponga and brown be getting in each other's way on the left, and Holbrook has realized he needs to split them up. They both like a similar short side 4 v 4 or 3 v 3 type set up. And they both like to be the ball player in those scenarios.
Dylan brown has shown he is pretty good on the right (where as ponga was a little ****e imo). Are we a more dangerous footy team with ponga controlling the left and brown taking ownership of the right?
So ponga 1 (in Defense but then is predominant playmaker on left in attack including regular kicking)
Brown 6 (plays right and takes majority of kicking duties)
Sharpe 7 ( defends left and is a traditional suporting fullback in attack).
Sandon would be 14 and goes to hooker and crossland to 13 after 25 mins?
 
Les Misérables said:
Ponga stated yesterday that he'll be playing both sides of the field this year.

Don't put too much into the fact that Smith played like ****, it was in part by design, because clearly Brown was being trialled as the primary/dominant playmaker for that game, which left Smith in a bit-part role which isnt how he plays his footy. We can speculate as to why that had to take place on the right hand side of the field for Brown, but my sense is that Holbrook was utilising the trial opportunistically to make certain observations.

Gotta say, Brown did a very decent job of it, kicked pretty well for someone who’s hasn't done much of it.

Still think it'll be Smith at 7 on the right. Not looking too deeply at the trial game
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I'm certainly not about to bag Smith, we made way too many errors for him to be a factor in the game. I don't bag players much anyway and Smith will play some awesome footy for us. But I don't know where the assertion that playing on the left isn't how Smith plays comes from. A vast majority of last year for the roosters that is exactly how he played. Have a look at highlights of the Anzac day game, which was a break out for him, he was playing on the left. He looked pretty good doing it for the most part. He did have a couple of games late in the year as the on ball half where he looked good too. But 80% of his nrl games for the roosters were as the left side half.
 
Jar head said:
Ponga has only recently restarted training with the team. Could ponga and brown be getting in each other's way on the left, and Holbrook has realized he needs to split them up. They both like a similar short side 4 v 4 or 3 v 3 type set up. And they both like to be the ball player in those scenarios.
Dylan brown has shown he is pretty good on the right (where as ponga was a little ****e imo). Are we a more dangerous footy team with ponga controlling the left and brown taking ownership of the right?
So ponga 1 (in Defense but then is predominant playmaker on left in attack including regular kicking)
Brown 6 (plays right and takes majority of kicking duties)
Sharpe 7 ( defends left and is a traditional suporting fullback in attack).
Sandon would be 14 and goes to hooker and crossland to 13 after 25 mins?
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Ponga goes well on the right as well. A good example of this was late season 24 when we had Crossland left and Cogger right as our halves and KP got a lot of joy outside Cogger. But left real is his sweetest spot.

As Les said, it appears he will be playing both sides. That means we are splitting our halves left and right. But then surely working on a Brown, KP combo on the left would just be deadly. If he is playing both sides, he still needs to get to his sweet spot outside the half on whichever side he is attacking. The playing Brown on the right thing has just really done my head in.
 
Smith will suddenly have a lot more time to ball play with ponga sitting off his left hip compared to Hunt.
Can’t help but feel browns running game with the threat of ponga out the back on that left side is free money though
 
Owey said:
I'm certainly not about to bag Smith, we made way too many errors for him to be a factor in the game. I don't bag players much anyway and Smith will play some awesome footy for us. But I don't know where the assertion that playing on the left isn't how Smith plays comes from. A vast majority of last year for the roosters that is exactly how he played. Have a look at highlights of the Anzac day game, which was a break out for him, he was playing on the left. He looked pretty good doing it for the most part. He did have a couple of games late in the year as the on ball half where he looked good too. But 80% of his nrl games for the roosters were as the left side half.
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Owey said:
Ponga goes well on the right as well. A good example of this was late season 24 when we had Crossland left and Cogger right as our halves and KP got a lot of joy outside Cogger. But left real is his sweetest spot.

As Les said, it appears he will be playing both sides. That means we are splitting our halves left and right. But then surely working on a Brown, KP combo on the left would just be deadly. If he is playing both sides, he still needs to get to his sweet spot outside the half on whichever side he is attacking. The playing Brown on the right thing has just really done my head in.
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Yeah the "archetype" of player Sandon is is a utility playmaker, 9/7/6. If we had Jamal Fogarty on the books instead of Brown, I'd be happy with Sandon at 6. If we had both Fogarty and Brown I'd be happy with Sandon at 14 playing 60 minutes at hooker and hopefully building a full game motor. The player he's most similar to in the comp right now - not talking talent, but overall playing style - is Ben Hunt.

Where I want Smith playing - halfback, right side of the field - is 100% about Kalyn and Dylan. Put the big money stars in their best spots first. Pick the rest of the spine to compliment that. Brown's "archetype" is "out-and-out five-eighth". If you play him anywhere besides where you would play someone like Cody Walker or Ezra Mam, you're weakening one of your best strengths to strengthen a weakness.

Jar head said:
Ponga has only recently restarted training with the team. Could ponga and brown be getting in each other's way on the left, and Holbrook has realized he needs to split them up. They both like a similar short side 4 v 4 or 3 v 3 type set up. And they both like to be the ball player in those scenarios.
Dylan brown has shown he is pretty good on the right (where as ponga was a little ****e imo). Are we a more dangerous footy team with ponga controlling the left and brown taking ownership of the right?
So ponga 1 (in Defense but then is predominant playmaker on left in attack including regular kicking)
Brown 6 (plays right and takes majority of kicking duties)
Sharpe 7 ( defends left and is a traditional suporting fullback in attack).
Sandon would be 14 and goes to hooker and crossland to 13 after 25 mins?
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This would be absolutely baffling tbh. Think of Walker and Mitchell, Mam and Walsh, Munster and Papenhyuzen, and tbh Brown & King Gutho, all these combinations of 6's & 1's who've been absolute dynamite combining on the left... in Pearce's first seasons with us we played him on the left to get a great ball player on Kalyn's inside creating space for him... yet when we put our generational fullback and elite 6 together, a 6 who has as much natural ability as anyone in the game at creating acres of space down that channel, it's oil and water? I dunno man I might just pack it up and go live in the woods if that happened.
 
Owey said:
I'm certainly not about to bag Smith, we made way too many errors for him to be a factor in the game. I don't bag players much anyway and Smith will play some awesome footy for us. But I don't know where the assertion that playing on the left isn't how Smith plays comes from. A vast majority of last year for the roosters that is exactly how he played. Have a look at highlights of the Anzac day game, which was a break out for him, he was playing on the left. He looked pretty good doing it for the most part. He did have a couple of games late in the year as the on ball half where he looked good too. But 80% of his nrl games for the roosters were as the left side half.
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Ok. Thanks for pointing that out Owey.
 
“I’m assuming it will be me and Sandon [in the halves], unless Justin changes anything. I don’t think there will be any changes, but I’m sure all those boys will be in amongst it somewhere. It’s pretty good with the new rule, with (a squad of) 19, so that’s pretty cool.”

www.nrl.com

Why Dylan already feels like one of the family in Newcastle

Dylan Brown would have preferred to have made his first NRL appearance for the Knights in his new hometown of Newcastle, rather than under the bright lights of Las Vegas.
www.nrl.com www.nrl.com
 
CornChippy said:
I think the coach is trying to move us away from being so left side dominant. Its too predictable to defend against hence the horrible attack. Its going to be a long work in progress type of thing.
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Too predictable lol
What as opposed to now, and the last season, where they couldn’t score a point to save themselves?

Why the hell, would a coach be pre-empting something that has even happened yet either? Especially since a stacked left side is literally going to be our greatest strength

In 22 Souths were an intercept away from a GF win because they doubled down on their strengths on their left edge.

Was it predictable, yes. Could anyone stop it, no. Think they scored more tries than anyone ever, that season.

Imagine Souths moving Cody to the right because they already had Latrell out the back on the left. They could score at will almost. They didn’t get in each others way, they bring out the best in each other. Great players become even better when they’ve got great players around them.

Let other teams worry about stopping it. You don’t weaken a strength, to strengthen a weakness. Especially since we’re almost back 22 rules with the Six Agains anyway
 
I left a comment before about DB saying in a fox interview he played on the right for kicking responsibilities and more ball playing. I hope it was just a “trial”, saw that it did not work and go back to put him on the left.
 
Just have to hope that the idea was something like, make him do most of the kicking so he'll get into the mindset of doing a lot of it in NRL games. He's spent years watching Moses kick.
 
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