NRL Round 13 - Knights Vs Eels - 3:00pm Saturday, 30th of May - McDonald Jones Stadium

jamesgould

jamesgould

Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
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We’re emerging from the wilderness of the bye round in either 5th or 6th spot depending on today’s result, possibly effected by Origin if Ponga doesn’t back up, but apart from that close to full strength with only Best missing.

For our flashback match, it was mentioned on here recently, so here’s the highlights of our extremely unentertaining 6-4 win over Parramatta in 2010. Skip to the end to see the matchwinning try though, and Kidley’s sideline conversion, worth watching that again for sure!

 
You have forgotten about Jsaf James. Not sure he will back up? Pretty hugh out if he does. He should get a break IMO. But he’s so important to the side.

Lucus unless he gets used will more than likely back up. So no Ponga and Jsaf will be a more of a test.

Will Moses backup?
 
frankLauda said:
You have forgotten about Jsaf James. Not sure he will back up? Pretty hugh out if he does. He should get a break IMO. But he’s so important to the side.

Lucus unless he gets used will more than likely back up. So no Ponga and Jsaf will be a more of a test.

Will Moses backup?
Click to expand...
With just playing off the bench, hopefully for our sakes J-Saf isn’t overused and is ok to go. 🤞🏼
 
Looking at the nsw side. I think jsaf is going to be in for decent minutes. a 20/30 first half second half stint or something similiar with the players picked.
 
My team Vs Eels
  1. Fletcher Sharpe
  2. Dom Young
  3. Dane Gagai
  4. Kyle McCarthy
  5. Greg Marzhew
  6. Sandon Smith (gk)
  7. Dylan Brown
  8. Tyson Frizell
  9. Phoenix Crossland
  10. Trey Mooney
  11. Dylan Lucas (c)
  12. Jermaine McEwen
  13. Mat Croker
Bench
Harrison Graham
Peter Hola
Pasami Saulo
Francis Manulelua
Jacob Saifiti
Fletcher Hunt

Reasons: (☢️long☢️)
Kyle McCarthy:
Deserves a run in grade, safe, solid defensively and will go about his job, Hunt makes to many errors and Eels can be a banana skin game and I want to make sure we are solid so McCarthy who has been performing very well in cup will get his shot for mine

Fletcher Sharpe:
Moves to fullback to cover for KP, if he gets through origin I’d still sit him out as he is to important and we really shouldn’t need him against the Eels if we are a serious side.

Jacob Saifiti:
I’d give him a well deserved rest, look I completely understand people will want him in as he is our best prop, but how long can we work him? Every game with long minutes it puts so much stress on his body I’d rather a week without Saf than a month or so, a bonus is i’d than use it as a perfect time to trial Lucas as captain, I’d actually carry Saf on the bench just in case we do need him but with the plan to not use him at all, if things go well.
Long origin minutes or not, we can’t keep flogging him, our season does depend on SAF remaining healthy.

Peter Hola:
Very good in cup, high impact player and can bend the line, NRL experience I’m sure he could handle the Frizell role for a week.

Tyson Frizell:
I’d push him into the starting spot for SAF since we need someone like him next to Mooney as Frizell can add the punch that Saifiti would normally do, I wouldn’t have Saulo as he is not a impact, line bending or offensive style prop at all, he is defensive so I’d still bring him off the bench with Hola.

Cody Hopwood:
I’d drop him to cup to get some games under his belt, he has been on the bench for three weeks in a row now and has played a total of 12 minutes, can’t keep that up so, I’d drop him.
 
jamesgould said:
We’re emerging from the wilderness of the bye round in either 5th or 6th spot depending on today’s result, possibly effected by Origin if Ponga doesn’t back up, but apart from that close to full strength with only Best missing.

For our flashback match, it was mentioned on here recently, so here’s the highlights of our extremely unentertaining 6-4 win over Parramatta in 2010. Skip to the end to see the matchwinning try though, and Kidley’s sideline conversion, worth watching that again for sure!

Click to expand...
Tahu was seeing red at the start of this game
 
Article in the Herald this morning (Max McKinney article) says it takes 12 or 13 wins to make the finals.
At the halfway point of the season we have 7 wins, so need 5 or 6 more to make the finals.
Says we have 13 more games.
We have 7 home games.
We play 5 sides currently in the top 8 and 8 sides currently outside the top 8.
Says we have 2 more byes and need to improve our F and A to have any chance to get in with only 5 wins.
In short - we might get in with 5 wins - we should get in with 6 wins - we will get in with 7 or more wins.

www.newcastleherald.com.au

How many more games will the Knights have to win to make the finals?

Newcastle are halfway home in terms of reaching the play-offs.
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au
 
Last edited:
jamesgould said:
Would be a pretty monumental collapse to miss the finals from here. I hope we're aiming a bit higher. Penrith and Warriors already look pretty locked in as 1 and 2, but 3-4 are quite open compared to previous years ... and we've got a lot of our tougher games out the way already. Top four should be our aim.
Click to expand...
We’re Knights fans. We should be used to monumental collapses. 😵‍💫
 
frankLauda said:
You have forgotten about Jsaf James. Not sure he will back up? Pretty hugh out if he does. He should get a break IMO. But he’s so important to the side.

Lucus unless he gets used will more than likely back up. So no Ponga and Jsaf will be a more of a test.

Will Moses backup?
Click to expand...

Coming off bench, even if he does 50 and it will more likely be 35-40 surely, he does. - We can't afford to rest for mine, do that after origin.

From Billys post above we have a dream run from here, if we miss the 8 would be a monumental collapse!
 
Without seeing Parra’s squad yet and expecting Moses to back up but not Kp and potentially not Saf, I see it as a risky game. Parra could have Longi, Riley Smith and Tuavati back this week. They have been poor defensively on the edge so expecting us to still really nail the execution there.

Mooney, Saf, Saulo, Frizz been going strong past few weeks so expecting them to go over the top of them.

If Ponga is rested than Sharpe looks much better movement wise, so I’d put him at FB. Hunt to centre, he has his mistakes but I don’t see holbrick dropping Hunt for McCarthy, especially if Kyle isn’t realistically in future plans.
 
Grandpa Joe said:
Coming off bench, even if he does 50 and it will more likely be 35-40 surely, he does. - We can't afford to rest for mine, do that after origin.

From Billys post above we have a dream run from here, if we miss the 8 would be a monumental collapse!
Click to expand...
Maybe we can play SAF to start. See how the game goes. If we are on top don’t bring him back on. I would be inclined to rest Ponga.
 
Won't be too surprised if Tom Cant is named at left centre.
Not his best position, but at least he'd defend well enough to stop us leaking 3 or 4 tries.
 
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