Pearce to the Dogs ?

A lot of the talk around the club has been about building for next year being "the year" this group would give the comp a massive shake. We need a lot of improvement to do that, sure. But i wouldnt be getting rid of Pearce if that is still the agenda.
 
For mine see Obi thinking of 2022 with Hodgson 1, Gagai 4, Ponga 6, Clifford 7, Barnett 13, Jones/Fitzy 12, Daniel 8, Jacob 10, Mann 14, Randall 15 and a couple of our big boppers 16 and 17.

A year to get started on the road to a top four with Best, Enari and a few others to continue improvement.
 
member 2299 said:
For mine see Obi thinking of 2022 with Hodgson 1, Gagai 4, Ponga 6, Clifford 7, Barnett 13, Jones/Fitzy 12, Daniel 8, Jacob 10, Mann 14, Randall 15 and a couple of our big boppers 16 and 17.
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Part of making Ponga captain and trying to get him more involved with the organising could be a plan for a Clifford/Ponga halves combination. That would work for me if we use the Watson and Pearce money to buy a couple of SOO standard players in their prime to put a good squad around them.
 
Is Ponga a 6, I really don't know. Lots of people on here think it is an easy transition for him. Sure Lockyer did it but he was a freak and much better player at same age. Pongas kicking game is very rushed and indecisive, yeah he's young and all that but I'm not sold
 
I think if Ponga moves into the halves he’s more of a Cody Walker or Jarome Luai, definitely the clear secondary kicker and not really the guy who “steers the team around”. I remember seeing Adzy talk about how he views “the 6 and the 1 as having a similar role in attack” when asked about where Tex Hoy might play if he stays at the club long term. I think Clifford has it in him to be that Adam Reynolds type player who allows a side to play two out-and-out attacking/creative players as the other guys in the spine.
 
slotmachine said:
You don't go from scraping into the finals to winning the comp.
If a lot of things go right maybe a top 4 finish, that would be a huge result.
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It took Bellamy 3 seasons to get the Storm to the minor premiership, coming 5th, 6th & 6th in those 3 seasons. Storm came 10th in '02 before he joined as coach.
We're close to making the finals 2 years in a row, not comparing AOB to Craig but I'd say we're on track for a top 4 finish if we keep a similar playing group together.
 
if Kalyn moves to 6, can someone teach him how to tackle. would have to have the worst technique ive ever seen. hell get Alf down and teach him the hip toss.

is Hodgson ready for 1st grade in a team expecting to make another leap? surely we have some money we can throw at a FB in the interim even if it was a cheap 1yr deal for someone like Jordan Rapana who has done well for Canberra filling in (is he signed?)
 
Rapana is off contract. Would certainly be having a look at him (club has signalled interest in signing another outside back).

I don’t think we should be trying to kick Pearce to the kerb right now, but yeah it looks like there might be big money out there for him. I don’t think he’s an idiot & probably realises that the club looks at him as the guy to prep Clifford to take over from him as the on-field general in the halves, as was the case with old Maloney & young Cleary at the Panthers a couple of years back. The question is, does he think his career is winding down, or does he think he’s still in his prime and should be competing for a few years yet as “the man” in whatever team he’s at? Better players than him have made that adjustment gracefully, but then someone like Cronk won more in his career and would probably be viewed as an over-achiever, whereas many would say Pearce under-achieved… oh and also he only ended up with us because the club he was at didn’t think he was good enough. So yeah there’s a lot more reason for that competitive fire to still be burning.
 
Would be happy to add another year onto that 2022 contract, tbh. Think he's building a really good combo with Clifford, and shows how much he's missed another decent half in his time at the Knights. Plus this season has shown how much we struggle without him.
 
Depends how good young Hodgson goes in reggies next year. And yeah at 33 you have to go year to year on your contracts IMO, no matter who it is. If it was good enough for Cam Smith…
 
Hodgson might not yet be right if at all, Ponga may not transfer to 5/8, Clifford might be a good to very good 5/8 but not a 7, Pearce might/will struggle at 33yo as playmaking half. Maybe we should look at spine as Ponga, Clifford, Pearce/new buy and Brailey with Hodgson, Crossland, Clune and Randall as back up.
 
Seeing Ponga playing a fair bit of first receiver tonight really made me thought maybe the halves is the way to go in the future, the more he has his hands on the ball the better. And then Pearce comes in & pulls off some clutch plays just to prove his worth again.
 
Frank McWilliams said:
Hodgson might not yet be right if at all, Ponga may not transfer to 5/8, Clifford might be a good to very good 5/8 but not a 7, Pearce might/will struggle at 33yo as playmaking half. Maybe we should look at spine as Ponga, Clifford, Pearce/new buy and Brailey with Hodgson, Crossland, Clune and Randall as back up.
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There’s no rush on any of this. Storm players have the highest average number of reserve grade games before debut of any club, and the Panthers had Luai biding his time in reserve grade for ages until Maloney retired. The proof is in the pudding re: those players, all guns from the moment they became full time first graders.

If they really believe in the Bailey as much as I’ve heard, hopefully they can hold onto and develop him. Now that we have Clifford, moving Kalyn into the halves with him and bringing our next fullback in when ready is going to be a way easier way to transition to our next competitive spine, than signing a replacement half for Pearce would be. Top drawer halves come at a massive premium unless you get lucky (e.g. those numpties up at North Queensland telling Clifford he wasn’t wanted, or whatever the hell happened to Souths which resulted in them losing Reynolds) and are rarely ever actually off contract in the first place.

Honestly don’t know what the club does if Bailey doesn’t come along as hoped in reggies hahaha.
 
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