Recruitment And Retention Discussion

Brown is a big part of the reason KP re-signed and while Smith has been a great fill in, he’s definitely not a Dylan Brown level talent as good as he’s been.

The problem is we didn’t actually get very much of Brown, KP and Sharpe because of them all being injured. Look forward to seeing it one day hopefully before KP retires, they can string a full season together
Ill be happy with 15+ games plus a finals series with all of em. And our starting front row for the finals
 
No argument at all with Brown. He is a very good player, one of the first picked in the NZ test side. We may have paid slight overs for him now, but once the cap goes up he will be at a good price. Agree with HVG we don’t win a comp without him.
 
Hmm.. maybe. The jury is still out on the Dylan brown contract for mine. Do we look markedly worst with 6. Sharpe 7. Smith? Arthur signing didn’t work out. Etc.
In defense we look markedly worse and that is 50% of the game. In saying that Smith has been fantastic for us and is young enough to improve that side of his game. With the high attrition rate in the modern game, he will always see plenty of NRL and continue to be a crucial cog.
 
Defence yes, we don't go backwards too much with Sandon in attack
I think it's a lot easier for Brown to generate space on his outside and the bigger the game the more that he can basically be an extra forward in yardage will make a difference. I think we need Dylan's defence and will also need him to break down the best defenses.

In a general sense though yes as a guy who's got some pace & skill about him he's been perfectly capable of doing the same role in the attacking system.
 
For me there's not much in it. Yeah brown is better at taking hit ups, digging into the line and long kicking. Reckon Sandon has a stronger short kicking game and is a better pure ballplayer.
 
For me there's not much in it. Yeah brown is better at taking hit ups, digging into the line and long kicking. Reckon Sandon has a stronger short kicking game and is a better pure ballplayer.
Disagree there, I think Dylan is a better at every aspect of the sport, including short kicking game but to me he’s ball-playing is significantly better. We just haven’t had a chance to see it all in a Knights jersey yet.

Probably hasn’t helped he’s always played on the left and has had to get used to the right side. Would still like to see him play left side just to see it


 
Worth noting that Dylan was playing with one knee held together by wishes and prayers all season, and my understanding is when playing with a partially torn ACL you have this extra weekly rehab load which I believe will be gone once he returns. This season was the first full season he played where he wasn't in the top 5 for line breaks by halves I believe. We haven't seen the best of him yet. The main thing we've seen is that getting him on the first layer of the attack to open up the field for others a la Izzy Katoa may genuinely be where the best version of him will blossom.

I think Sandon has been a fair bit better with his short kicking game, especially with the creativity of it - Dylan can default to what you might call a bit of a robotic option. Otherwise I think Dylan's better at everything else, especially decision-making/calmness after a line break.
 
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