NRL Round 15 - Knights Vs Roosters - 5:30pm Saturday 14th June - McDonald Jones Stadium

And he's only young and hasn't filled out, a couple of more pre-seasons and he may follow the Lucas path into the backrow.
I see him more of the Meaney mould. Not a game breaker but a genuinely solid first grader who you can rely on defensively.

He’s only young just needs more bulk and to add a bow to his attacking string.

I do see DeCourcey and D’Acre jumping him at one point, if they match his defensive ability.
 
Disappointed not to get the win that was there for the taking but there are positives going forward. Those that killed us are moving on next year. The rookies look like they are all but ready to be regulars after another preseason, making me slightly less worried about the forward situation next year. 1st half with the ball movement should be the blue print going forward, instead of going back primarily to the one out rubbish in the second. The lack of points in the first half was simply the lack of experienced attackers and if Ponga, Sharpe and Best were there, we put 20 plus on the scoreboard. Whether we are eligible for the 8 or not, rest of the year should be next years preseason with a rotation of rookies in the forwards and backs with Arthur playing every game for the rest of the year. Alternating between starting and off the bench.

Still pissed off. Just not at the players (bar a couple lol), only at the result.
 
Disappointed not to get the win that was there for the taking but there are positives going forward. Those that killed us are moving on next year. The rookies look like they are all but ready to be regulars after another preseason, making me slightly less worried about the forward situation next year. 1st half with the ball movement should be the blue print going forward, instead of going back primarily to the one out rubbish in the second. The lack of points in the first half was simply the lack of experienced attackers and if Ponga, Sharpe and Best were there, we put 20 plus on the scoreboard. Whether we are eligible for the 8 or not, rest of the year should be next years preseason with a rotation of rookies in the forwards and backs with Arthur playing every game for the rest of the year. Alternating between starting and off the bench.

Still pissed off. Just not at the players (bar a couple lol), only at the result.
I don’t think our lack of attack is that simple even with them in the side we struggled to score through the season
 
Also, yes, we let the game slip away but still in my mind, robbed by inconsistent interpretations of both the last try for the roosters and the contested kick by hunt. How is that a knock on when it didn't leave his hand until teddy forced it? Should've been the same ruling as the last play from Hastings where he played at the ball while in Teddy's hands.
 
To be honest - I don’t care about the “controversial” try.
It shouldn’t have mattered given the possession, the lopsided penalties, and field position. We are simply **** in attack. The last set we had on their line we should have planned around Lucas entirely. He should have gotten the ball off the back of a shift on the 3rd or 4th tackle. Best, Sharpe, KP all missing, he was the only player all game who looked a class above and likely to break the game open. But instead we do two retarded dummy half runs - neither of which were remotely on (Hunt’s in particular was atrocious but he’s a 19 year old kid, Brailey is 50 year old man and should have ****ing known better), and get the ball to Hastings where he was essentially forced to run it like a forward.
 
Yep just got home , very happy with the effort . Couldn't have asked for anything more !
A win? Totally agree. They tried their guts out especially in defence.Very few tackles in our 20 for the Roosters. Held them to 0 for 60 min. We just lacked someone to finish off the plays. The young ones went well I thought, some promising signs, young Graecen especially.
 
Also, yes, we let the game slip away but still in my mind, robbed by inconsistent interpretations of both the last try for the roosters and the contested kick by hunt. How is that a knock on when it didn't leave his hand until teddy forced it? Should've been the same ruling as the last play from Hastings where he played at the ball while in Teddy's hands.
Both totally correct calls IMO.
 
Will be very interesting to see how he plays, from NSW Cup reports I’m expecting someone who can only run at about 2mph and has zero spark whatsoever.
Verdict: this is his benefit season. Retirement or Ron Massey Cup in 2026.
 
Watched the game late, yes disappointed in result but not in effort thought they all tried hard, can’t believe the criticism of some but considering our starting team missing so many those criticised probably felt they needed to try something to compensate for inexperienced players. Our spine was so so, Hunt tried hard but he is wing/centre, Cogger has been better of late and was good tonight, Hastings played ok but not the player he was, Brailey tried but like many games of late nothing quite worked.
Schiller, Gagai, McCarthy and Marzhew had big efforts but couldn’t seem to make the break.
Pack had little oomph, Croker and Jones are better after the serious work is done, we miss JSaf and Leo, Brailey?, KPP seems slow, looks for an opening but by the time he finds it it’s closed but big on effort, Crossland huge effort but still think he is a 14,: and Lucas, our man of the match, always looked dangerous, he is the real thing.
Bench, couldn’t understand bringing Cant on for Jones should have been Grecean or ESL but he gives his all. McEwen and ESL will be challenging for top 17 in 26. Grecean went ok, was a big night for him he played strong without standing out
Our bench would be playing Cup except for injuries but showed enough to give confidence of a strong showing next season.
Can’t wait for some of our missing to return especially Ponga, Sharpe, Best, JSaf and Leo.
 
I don’t think our lack of attack is that simple even with them in the side we struggled to score through the season
Playing AOB ball though. The few times we've actually played footy, we've scored points and looked dangerous. The hint of that was there first half, just didn't have the class from those missing to convert some of the positions we were in.
 
Just back home, thought we played well given all the players missing and changes to the squad.

Thought Brailey was ordinary, Hastings also, Sick of the ridiculous barge over attempts.

Just needed a bit of polish to our attack as we really didn't look like scoring when we were line against line. Our try came from a break from a distance.

But I'm happy, we could have lost that by 20. Effort was there. Spread the ball more, contested some kicks.

Last 10 minutes of the first half the side was gassed, did well not to concede end of 1st half.

One thing I will say is if we are going to spread the ball, need to do so with a the line moving forward to put pressure on their D line and get them on the back foot. Just passing it one to the next is easy peasy defensively.

And defence, whilst good, our line in defence needs to get up on them way more than we do. Too passive. Always until the game is over then all of a sudden you see effort lift in D.

I thought all the youth players played pretty well. Glad KPP is going, way more cold then warm, and never really hot.

Welcome Dom.
 
I really wish we would just contest kicks! I know we are going for the high percentage stuff and controlling them in the half blah blah blah.. any time a ball is not in the opposition's hand we should be contesting it
 
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years on this forum, we’re quick to write off our rookies.
We don’t get many good keepers come through, we’d have even less if management gave up on them as quick as some of you guys.
 
I really wish we would just contest kicks! I know we are going for the high percentage stuff and controlling them in the half blah blah blah.. any time a ball is not in the opposition's hand we should be contesting it

Really doesn't make much sense.

We put a kick up down near their try line and are happy to let them catch it and tackle them to shut down kick return.

We put out a line dropout near our line, and are happy to contest it likely more than half the time handing them field position right on our line.

Yo can play 20 minutes just to get one good shot at them down on their line, and when we get the chance to contest something down their end, we should be. Yet line dropouts where you back your D to perform, could be punted 50m off the dropout and make them work their way back.

One thing I'm surprised we don't see more often, is short kickoffs contested to start the game. I'd love to see a team try one as a shock play.
 
Took the two with 30 minutes to go was the killer for us. Gee they tried there guts out though. Kpp bit of a ball hog as was brailz. Needed more than just 1 outs in good ball. Proud but please someone needs to just do attacking sets in the 20 this week at training.
 
Really doesn't make much sense.

We put a kick up down near their try line and are happy to let them catch it and tackle them to shut down kick return.

We put out a line dropout near our line, and are happy to contest it likely more than half the time handing them field position right on our line.

Yo can play 20 minutes just to get one good shot at them down on their line, and when we get the chance to contest something down their end, we should be. Yet line dropouts where you back your D to perform, could be punted 50m off the dropout and make them work their way back.

One thing I'm surprised we don't see more often, is short kickoffs contested to start the game. I'd love to see a team try one as a shock play.
Why doesn’t it make sense?
The game is set up to give sides 7 tackle sets as much as possible, so avoid that, have a good chase and keep them within halfway to kick back to us - especially when you have a bunch of kids playing.
 
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