Promising Junior Watch

6 in the under 18s is massive.
Most I can remember us getting was 4, but most years it's 1 or 2 and some years 0.
More than half the players who make Aus schoolboys go on to play firstgrade I think.
Riley Rostron making it a year young is massive.
 
Billy said:
6 in the under 18s is massive.
Most I can remember us getting was 4, but most years it's 1 or 2 and some years 0.
More than half the players who make Aus schoolboys go on to play firstgrade I think.
Riley Rostron making it a year young is massive.
Click to expand...
Assume most in the Aus team would be playing SG Ball?

Big achievement for all selected. But yes, promising signs for Rostron being U17 against a lot of bigger bodies used to playing SG Ball. Appears he played at Fullback as well after playing most of the season at 6.

Obviously a lot of hard work away from NRL but promising signs.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
Assume most in the Aus team would be playing SG Ball?

Big achievement for all selected. But yes, promising signs for Rostron being U17 against a lot of bigger bodies used to playing SG Ball. Appears he played at Fullback as well after playing most of the season at 6.

Obviously a lot of hard work away from NRL but promising signs.
Click to expand...
One way to look at Rostron as 18th man is that he can play 1, 3, 6, 9 with equal impact, and probably anywhere else - those are just the positions I've seen him play - so he is perfect injury cover.
The schoolboys always put the 18th man on for the last 10 minutes, so they all get a run.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
Assume most in the Aus team would be playing SG Ball?

Big achievement for all selected. But yes, promising signs for Rostron being U17 against a lot of bigger bodies used to playing SG Ball. Appears he played at Fullback as well after playing most of the season at 6.

Obviously a lot of hard work away from NRL but promising signs.
Click to expand...

All players playing SG. Rostron will play SG next year, what position insure, 1 or 6 that’s for sure.

Majority will also play Flegg next year as well, likes of Butler and Mulherin possibly Townsend will get some Flegg games this year as well apparently.

As for NRL all of them would be 2-4 years away physically. Although Toby Winter and Hagan could be up for NRL next year physically and they’re both 18/19
 
Not only Aus School boys but we had Jake Asplet win player of the tournament, Malachi Faaveli won player of match on multiple occasions and Junior Finau (Fane Finau’s brother) being damaging in his games too.

Kingston Seve according to Shortball and Knights juniors pages was very unlucky to not get in the Aus team.
 
Liam Martin - the fullback selected for the 2026 schoolboys - is listed as a Parramatta junior - but his junior club is Valentine Devils (the junior club in Lake Macquarie that produced many Knights like Newton, Quinn, Perry and many others) and he played this year for Hunter Sports High alongside Will Manning and Cooper Townsend and many other Knights juniors.
I suppose he went to Parra because Knights don't have many fullback vacancies.
 
Billy said:
Liam Martin - the fullback selected for the 2026 schoolboys - is listed as a Parramatta junior - but his junior club is Valentine Devils (the junior club in Lake Macquarie that produced many Knights like Newton, Quinn, Perry and many others) and he played this year for Hunter Sports High alongside Will Manning and Cooper Townsend and many other Knights juniors.
I suppose he went to Parra because Knights don't have many fullback vacancies.
Click to expand...
Liam was part of our Matts squad alongside Manning for his age group a couple of years ago. He broke his wrist in his first game for us and got injured again as he came back from that. He didn't make our squad again the following season. He got his shot at Parra. (His mum teaches at my kids school).
 
Mel Nonu is someone who is on a massive improvement curve.
Start of the Ball season you could see he had size and speed and could score a try, but he looked very unsafe under a high ball and didn't put his hand up for many hit ups, and would lose the ball in contact far too often.

Maybe it was coach Lantry, or maybe someone else, but he very quickly worked on all his faults and by the end of the Ball season you had to rank him up with Hagan, Winter and Butler as our best 4 in Ball, and he had scored 18 tries at well over a try a game.

He didn't get an immediate start in Flegg, but as soon as he got a start he started scoring tries and making strong hitups as often as he could. He was pretty much one of our best in Flegg from his first game.

Late callup to Reserve grade 2 games ago and immediately scored one of the best tries of the season, and followed up with another try this week.

Kyle McCarthy went from Ball to Flegg to Reserve grade in his first year, but he didn't get to reserve grade till the last few games of the season and struggled to keep up.

Mel is already one of our best in reserves and improves every time he steps on the field.

A firstgrade pre-season could get him up to firstgrade level as soon as next year with the speed he is improving.
 
Billy said:
Mel Nonu is someone who is on a massive improvement curve.
Start of the Ball season you could see he had size and speed and could score a try, but he looked very unsafe under a high ball and didn't put his hand up for many hit ups, and would lose the ball in contact far too often.

Maybe it was coach Lantry, or maybe someone else, but he very quickly worked on all his faults and by the end of the Ball season you had to rank him up with Hagan, Winter and Butler as our best 4 in Ball, and he had scored 18 tries at well over a try a game.

He didn't get an immediate start in Flegg, but as soon as he got a start he started scoring tries and making strong hitups as often as he could. He was pretty much one of our best in Flegg from his first game.

Late callup to Reserve grade 2 games ago and immediately scored one of the best tries of the season, and followed up with another try this week.

Kyle McCarthy went from Ball to Flegg to Reserve grade in his first year, but he didn't get to reserve grade till the last few games of the season and struggled to keep up.

Mel is already one of our best in reserves and improves every time he steps on the field.

A firstgrade pre-season could get him up to firstgrade level as soon as next year with the speed he is improving.
Click to expand...
Might need to if rumours are true of Doms agent asking for 600k+. Knights can’t afford that after recent resigning and close to resigning Best and Friz. Mel could be an impressive preseason away from snagging a wing spot or at least next in line behind Hunt and Marz.
 
BTP said:
Might need to if rumours are true of Doms agent asking for 600k+. Knights can’t afford that after recent resigning and close to resigning Best and Friz. Mel could be an impressive preseason away from snagging a wing spot or at least next in line behind Hunt and Marz.
Click to expand...
I sure the club want to keep Dom, but how much has POS set aside for him? What is he worth? 600k seems slighty more.
 
BTP said:
Might need to if rumours are true of Doms agent asking for 600k+. Knights can’t afford that after recent resigning and close to resigning Best and Friz. Mel could be an impressive preseason away from snagging a wing spot or at least next in line behind Hunt and Marz.
Click to expand...
Dom’s manager is kidding himself if thinks they’re paying that when they know full well he doesn’t want to go anywhere else. He might want to start showing some better form too

If Winter is earmarked for Gags spot, they could easily just play Hunt on the wing. He may not have Dom’s pace but he’s better at everything else
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top