Round 1: Newcastle Knights vs Cronulla Sharks

What is your prediction for this game ??

  • Knights 1-12

    Votes: 19 54.3%
  • Knights 13+

    Votes: 11 31.4%
  • Draw

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sharks 13+

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • Sharks 1-12

    Votes: 4 11.4%

  • Total voters
    35
  • Poll closed .
Mann's little grubber from dummy half is something Levi needs to get in to his game more. If we can get that as an option it will give us a third, 5th tackle kick option when the defense is looking to put pressure on Ponga and Pearce.

I can see that tactic being used a few times per game generating some easy repeat sets, and maybe even some tries.

I thought in the Sharks game we didn't grubber to the in goal enough, though granted that could have been a ploy to have the sharks running out of their 1m line rather than risk a 7 tackle set. But the grubber from dummy half should not go dead in goal.
 
Great assessment Ethan.

Ponga is going to take a few games to settle in at 5/8. A couple of times he was not sure what to do as it is a completely different game to moving in to the backline from fullback when the ball was one more wide of the ruck. He will pick it up pretty quick with Mitchell calling the shots.

Be fair Billy you had doubts about everyone except Pearce not coming up through the junior ranks. The days when we had ten or so starters coming through are gone forever. It was just freak years with Joey, Matty, the Gidleys, Simmo, Chief, Peden, Darren Albert etc. Nowadays it is hard to sign local junior talent and keep them.
 
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Mann's little grubber from dummy half is something Levi needs to get in to his game more. If we can get that as an option it will give us a third, 5th tackle kick option when the defense is looking to put pressure on Ponga and Pearce.


I can see that tactic being used a few times per game generating some easy repeat sets, and maybe even some tries.

I thought in the Sharks game we didn't grubber to the in goal enough, though granted that could have been a ploy to have the sharks running out of their 1m line rather than risk a 7 tackle set. But the grubber from dummy half should not go dead in goal.
in the first half it was obvious we didnt want to force a drop out. with that wind we wpuld of been catching the drop out on our own 30.
 
Watson , He is a little dynamo that is good under the high ball , is in position mostly and runs with intent .
Lee , No one will be taking his place if he keeps playing like that.
Hunt , Went well for playing his first game of the year .
Ramien , He ran up out of the line a few times ala Sione but he ran well and tackled Aggression .
Skd , I thought he was very good again Glad he is here .
Ponga , is going to take a bit of time to master 5/8 and he is already fairly dangerous there , im willing to wait and see .
Pearce , the best 7 we have had since Joey , Has a very good kicking game and tackles hard .
Klemmer . WooHoo
Levi , Had his best game that I have seen him play I think .
Gavet , He showed the reason we bought him , Runs and tackles with aggressive intent .
Fitzy , He is going to score a lot of tries this season too , He runs a great line .
Sione had a good game in defence and ran the ball hard too pity he isn't bigger he gets pushed back a lot .
Glasby , He was all class out there .
Dan. S. He looked very good when he came on . He plays hard and would always be in my 17 .
Guerra , He came on and did his job 110% as we expect after that's what he did last year .
Barnett , He ran hard and always tackles with aggression but im still not 100% sure about him .
Mann impressed me at hooker I thought he played very well but the way Danny played he has to start .

We still have Moga to come back although Hunt did well , Moga might have to fight hard to get it back .
Ese,ese will replace Dan so we lose nothing there really which is good .
Jacob still have to come back as well and should be super hungry.
Also it will be interesting when Griffin comes back too.

Perfect assessment except difference is when Ramien runs out he shuts down the player. Doesn't get left clutching at straws.
 
I'm a bit more worried about Hunt's defence.
Lee was left isolated against 2 attackers a few times. Lucky Lee was able to shut Dugan down.
 
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I'm a bit more worried about Hunt's defence.
Lee was left isolated against 2 attackers a few times. Lucky Lee was able to shut Dugan down.
Same problem as last year, and as Brown pointed out last year, it doesn't come from the centre, it comes from players not sliding. Lee was a long way infield, and Hunt was even further infield - the two of them were trying to cover where 4 defenders should have been.
The guy I think will be told to fix it next week will be Watson - he will be told to yell at guys to slide if that happens on either side.
 
He played well Saturday but are you trying to deny he was so bad at centre they had to put a bloke half his size in his spot to tackle for him?
Well considering he would’ve ended up making twice as many tackles defending 3 in compared to the centres, I’d imagine it wouldn’t have a lot to do with someone making tackles for him?
 
He played well Saturday but are you trying to deny he was so bad at centre they had to put a bloke half his size in his spot to tackle for him?
How you blokes convinced yourselves that two weeks after Watson dislocated his shoulder he was moved so he could "fix" the defence has always been a mystery to me.
It would have been an interesting submission at the coaches meeting. "We have a little guy, not great at defence anyway, with a busted shoulder - let's use him to prop up the wing defence."
At the same time Brown was saying the problem wasn't the centres, it was further in than that, and he moved Fitz and Guerra around, somewhat fixing the problem.
 
Mann's little grubber from dummy half is something Levi needs to get in to his game more. If we can get that as an option it will give us a third, 5th tackle kick option when the defense is looking to put pressure on Ponga and Pearce.

I can see that tactic being used a few times per game generating some easy repeat sets, and maybe even some tries.
That would be good. Only criticism I have with Levi is he likes to run it or go for the miracle ball on the 5th tackle a bit too much, so would be good if he had a grubber in his game. In saying all that he's looked twice the player so far this year than he's ever looked. Been very sharp
 
2019 and still believing sione is a gun centre after coach says he is 4th or 5th best option at the club...

Everyone should be very happy they are using him in a role he is best suited for.
 
Am happy Sione is playing 2nd row, hope he gets the chance to play in one position, tackled well, top tackle count, sure it’s a pity he isn’t a bit bigger but definitely a goer.
Think we can let comments of him playing centre last season go, what’s past is past.
In my team he would be bench with Guerra in but happy he has got the opportunity
 
2019 and still believing sione is a gun centre after coach says he is 4th or 5th best option at the club...

Everyone should be very happy they are using him in a role he is best suited for.
2019 and still thinking defence is a one out effort and not a team effort.
Sione is the guy who is left like a shag on a rock and ends up looking like a fool.
Fans see that, and decide that he is the problem. Meanwhile, the 5 or so other guys who are not sliding or trying to tackle, they are all fine - they were nowhere near the missed tackle - how could they be the problem?
Time after time on here a few people pick someone to blame for our team not working as a team in defence, and more times than not, it's the one guy who is trying to make tackles with no support.
Good teams don't have one guy moving up fast and trying to tackle - they have 5 blokes moving up fast and trying to tackle. Moving up fast and trying to tackle isn't the problem - hanging back and watching others is the problem.
 
Billy he used to rush out of the line for no reason and leave gaping holes, that isn't even a debate. He'd do that atleast half a dozen times a match and maybe put a shot on someone once.
 
Billy he used to rush out of the line for no reason and leave gaping holes, that isn't even a debate. He'd do that atleast half a dozen times a match and maybe put a shot on someone once.
Sione made more tackles than any other back last year - some games he made as many tackles as all the other backs put together. He was having a crack - many others weren't.
Again - teams like Melbourne etc have all their players moving up fast and getting in the faces of the attack - Sione would not look out of place in any of those good sides - he looks out of place in a team where a lot of people are not having a go.
 
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If Sione was such a good centre the club wouldn't have bought 3 centres in the last two years to replace him. We can stop pretending we have a gun centre now because we actually have one.

In my team he would be bench with Guerra in but happy he has got the opportunity

After seeing how the first game played out it makes sense Sione gets the edge spot because brown has the three bench forwards rotating through the middle and Guerra/Barnett can play that role better. You can't be bringing Sione on to replace Gavet at prop, but Guerra can do it.
 
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