Recruitment And Retention Discussion

I think we need to higher a sports psychologist

The team as a whole drop their heads when they get a whiff of adversity. It could be as small as a penalty against us at the wrong time

You see their body language change, the effort drops and the opposition take full control

Boot camps are in part meant to help with that sort of thing around adversity and dealing with it, but it hasn’t been working for us
 
I'd actually say our fitness isn't bad, our good defence for 75% of the year was due to a lot of last minute scrambling, which you don't do if you're gassed.

But certainly if he's responsible for the injury count in any way then it's a good idea to look for someone new.
 
You say that but there was an article yesterday or today about how Canberra's boot camp at the start of the year brought them together. I think we have been in poor shape for a few years and the players clearly arent connected and playing for each other week in week out. So many reports of us still having a party culture and it does show.
Tapine, Horsburgh, Papali’i, Starling, Pattie, Fogarty, Strange, Weekes, Kris, Hudson, Mariota & Smithies, have missed a grand total of seven games to injury & suspension between them.

Rattle off a list of players of comparable importance to us and they would have all missed about that many each, most of them more.

Call it reductive if you like and I’m not trying to take anything away from the Raiders, you still have to win the games, and I’m not saying we would have been as good as them and them as bad as us (although they did just concede 62 with not THAT many players out lmao). But it’s easier to come together if the players are actually there lol.
 
We are short of hookers for next year, Joey Lussick is off contract at the Eels, aside from Arthurs we don't have any pure hookers on the books so we definitely need someone.
 
Had a chat with a Roosters tragic on the weekend and interestingly he - a guy who's seen Sandon play a lot of Cup on top of NRL - is a Sandon Smith hooker truther lol. "Always looks more effective the closer into the ruck he gets, created heaps of tries when he's had to sub in at 9 during games because our Cup hookers keep bludging, when he's played hooker off the bench in the NRL out attack has looked so slick." Said "he's a natural number 9 but I guess he doesn't want to make all those tackles" about how allegedly Sandon wants a guaranteed halves jersey.

He said if he had the Knights roster next year he'd play Brown at 7, Crossland at 9 with Sandon coming off the bench at hooker after 20 minutes, and Gamble at 6. "The only way Brown at 7 is going to work is if you give him a 6 who'll yell at him to stay on the ball and count tackles for him, that's Gamble." Sharpe on the wing.

Always find it interesting to get opinions from outside the Knights bubble.
 
Had a chat with a Roosters tragic on the weekend and interestingly he - a guy who's seen Sandon play a lot of Cup on top of NRL - is a Sandon Smith hooker truther lol. "Always looks more effective the closer into the ruck he gets, created heaps of tries when he's had to sub in at 9 during games because our Cup hookers keep bludging, when he's played hooker off the bench in the NRL out attack has looked so slick." Said "he's a natural number 9 but I guess he doesn't want to make all those tackles" about how allegedly Sandon wants a guaranteed halves jersey.

He said if he had the Knights roster next year he'd play Brown at 7, Crossland at 9 with Sandon coming off the bench at hooker after 20 minutes, and Gamble at 6. "The only way Brown at 7 is going to work is if you give him a 6 who'll yell at him to stay on the ball and count tackles for him, that's Gamble." Sharpe on the wing.

Always find it interesting to get opinions from outside the Knights bubble.
I don't mind that combination.
 
He said if he had the Knights roster next year he'd play Brown at 7, Crossland at 9 with Sandon coming off the bench at hooker after 20 minutes, and Gamble at 6. "The only way Brown at 7 is going to work is if you give him a 6 who'll yell at him to stay on the ball and count tackles for him, that's Gamble." Sharpe on the wing.
I thought the idea to move Sharpe to 6 was because of how much he spoke when they put the mic on him at training. Sharpe strikes me as having quite a good footy IQ and being a good talker. Can see the merits in partnering Gamble and Sharpe, but think Sharpe and Brown has a way higher ceiling.
 
Mooney showed some nice ball playing yesterday

I would feel a lot more confident heading into next year if our spine is:

6. Brown
7. Smith
9. Crossland
13. Mooney

Sharpe at centre with Gags on the wing
 
Had a chat with a Roosters tragic on the weekend and interestingly he - a guy who's seen Sandon play a lot of Cup on top of NRL - is a Sandon Smith hooker truther lol. "Always looks more effective the closer into the ruck he gets, created heaps of tries when he's had to sub in at 9 during games because our Cup hookers keep bludging, when he's played hooker off the bench in the NRL out attack has looked so slick." Said "he's a natural number 9 but I guess he doesn't want to make all those tackles" about how allegedly Sandon wants a guaranteed halves jersey.

He said if he had the Knights roster next year he'd play Brown at 7, Crossland at 9 with Sandon coming off the bench at hooker after 20 minutes, and Gamble at 6. "The only way Brown at 7 is going to work is if you give him a 6 who'll yell at him to stay on the ball and count tackles for him, that's Gamble." Sharpe on the wing.

Always find it interesting to get opinions from outside the Knights bubble.
What a horrible year Gamble has had with injuries. To me Gamble has been underrated, I have always liked his dig deep and keep going attitude. Which we did miss in our last 4 games.
 
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