Round 12: Newcastle Knights vs Melbourne Storm

What is your prediction for this game??

  • Knights 13+

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Knights 1-12

    Votes: 2 11.1%

  • Draw

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Storm 1-12

    Votes: 4 22.2%

  • Storm 13+

    Votes: 12 66.7%
  • Total voters
    18
  • Poll closed .
Joshhh said:
I seriously hope that's intentional misdirection.
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Well he says the only way to stop King training has been to turn out the lights in the gym and he wants to reward effort. King seems to have had his cards marked from before O'Brien arrived, being the only fit player to not get a run in the major trial games, but from what O'Brien is now saying, King has responded by training as hard as he can and doing all the "extras".
Brown used King as basically a defender only, but in reserve grade King mostly played 60 minutes and ran over 100 metres, so he is capable of playing a different role.
Everyone else has made big progress this year because they have trained harder than ever before, and it sounds like King has been the hardest trainer, at least recently, so logic says he should have made a lot of progress as well.
It's pretty tough on him to ask him to prove himself against Melbourne when we are out of form as a team, so I hope he gets a couple of games at least to show us what he has got.
 
Am excited to see how King goes, for a while their he looked like a good prospect lets see how he goes with opportunity, and good on him with that attitude even if it doesn't pan out.
 
When someone's playing so crap I sometimes wish we'd just bench them without replacing them, showing clearly having no one there is better than having you there lol.
 
Warcrow said:
When someone's playing so crap I sometimes wish we'd just bench them without replacing them, showing clearly having no one there is better than having you there lol.
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O'Brien said he'll make personnel changes if we don't respond well enough this week, he said he'll put a young guy in there if he feels he's going to get full effort from them. O'Brien talks all the right things, just cannot fathom him using Crossland at hooker for a probable 20 minute type period to rest Randall, just to keep Mann at 6 if that's the way we go. We'll see on game day I guess, he's got a few different options available to him & maybe he's just keeping things close to his chest.
 
I dont mind Crossland having a go at 9 if it gets him a game but no chance would i be moving Mann .
I think he has found his spot at 6 and he's stepped up every week and played bloody good footy ( Mann at six is definately not our problem ).
If they take the last 20min of last weeks game into the start of next weeks game ill be happy.
 
I don't know why you would weaken two positions because you don't want to move Mann though. He's the obvious utility out of the 3 of them, and a much bigger impact player who can cause havoc with fresh legs against tiring forwards.
Meanwhile our issue for the past 2 months has been Pearces ability to not show up. Therefore, unless you want to drop the million dollar halfback, our issue is a lack of playmaking ability from our 6. I don't disagree that Mann has been playing great as a running 5/8, he has the occasional pass & his short kicks from dummy half last week were the only kicks we had, but he barely shows them, especially when playing 5/8.
 
Out of our 4 spine players Mann is the only one playing well .. Maybe put Lino in for Pearce because Mann is doing his job well cant say the same for Pearce . Why replace Mann who's doing the job he was told to do, he attacks well and is probably the best defender out of the 3 of the 1 6 7 .
Funny how everyone else is saying how great Mann is going at 5/8 but Knights supporters cant see it and want him gone ...
Manns form is better than our 2 x million dollar players at the moment maybe we should drop the 1 or 7 . Give Hoy and Lino a game .
 
knights22 said:
I don't know why you would weaken two positions because you don't want to move Mann though. He's the obvious utility out of the 3 of them, and a much bigger impact player who can cause havoc with fresh legs against tiring forwards.
Meanwhile our issue for the past 2 months has been Pearces ability to not show up. Therefore, unless you want to drop the million dollar halfback, our issue is a lack of playmaking ability from our 6. I don't disagree that Mann has been playing great as a running 5/8, he has the occasional pass & his short kicks from dummy half last week were the only kicks we had, but he barely shows them, especially when playing 5/8.
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So our $1m number 7 is not showing up and that makes our 6 who is showing up every week the problem ...That makes no sense to me .
Our issue is Pearce and Ponga not playing up to there pay packet , has nothing to do with Mann .
He barley shows his kicks because he is a running 5/8 we have 2 others 7 and 1 who are supposed to be our general play kickers but they arnt up to scratch so get rid of Mann ... Really .
 
Ethan said:
Out of our 4 spine players Mann is the only one playing well .. Maybe put Lino in for Pearce because Mann is doing his job well cant say the same for Pearce . Why replace Mann who's doing the job he was told to do, he attacks well and is probably the best defender out of the 3 of the 1 6 7 .
Funny how everyone else is saying how great Mann is going at 5/8 but Knights supporters cant see it and want him gone ...
Manns form is better than our 2 x million dollar players at the moment maybe we should drop the 1 or 7 . Give Hoy and Lino a game .
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Forever the wooden spoon quality team that never reaches anything beyond mediocre with that thinking.
 
No one is saying to get rid of Mann. He can just do the same job he is doing from a number of positions, he doesnt have to be the 5/8.
 
For this game I would go
1.Ponga
2.Tuala
3.Best
4.Shibs
5.Hunt
6.Crossland
7.Pearce
8.Klem
9.Randall
10.J.Saf
11.Fitz
12.Barnett
13.Mann

14.Hoy
15.Guerra
16.Saulo
17.King

Mann can relieve Randall at some stage and Barnett can go back to lock, Guerra to right edge.

I just checked and Shibs isn't even in the 21 so that wont happen lol.
 
As I said, Pearce isn't showing up, but I highly doubt O'Brien will drop Pearce, the guy we're paying $1mil for & who is also our captain. If that is the case, then the only solution is to change Mann, bring in someone who is actually a playmaker & move Mann to either 9, or 14.

But hey, we've lost 3 hookers, our attack is the worst it's ever been. We should try keeping it exactly as it is, but we'll develop our youngest halfback as a hooker to save Mann from changing!
 
If this game is a bad result you would think Lino deserves a chance a show what he can do.
I dont think Pearce is playing terrible, he the perfect coaches halfback to execute a game plan but if other teams break it down he seems to struggle to adapt.
But thats when players like Ponga and Mann need to take that presser off and make some last tackle plays(take some teams defence of guard)
 
knights22 said:
As I said, Pearce isn't showing up, but I highly doubt O'Brien will drop Pearce, the guy we're paying $1mil for & who is also our captain. If that is the case, then the only solution is to change Mann, bring in someone who is actually a playmaker & move Mann to either 9, or 14.

But hey, we've lost 3 hookers, our attack is the worst it's ever been. We should try keeping it exactly as it is, but we'll develop our youngest halfback as a hooker to save Mann from changing!
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Funny that its the coach talking about Crossland going to hooker because Mann is playing well at 5/8 and you cant drop 2 x million dollar players . I dont see how dropping changing Mann is the only solution .
 
Leaving Mann at 5/8 is ok but realistically Randall will need a break so best to put Crosslands in at 5/8 and Mann moves to hooker, might only be 10-15 mins either side of halftime and gives us a chance to see how Crosslands goes.
 
Frank McWilliams said:
Leaving Mann at 5/8 is ok but realistically Randall will need a break so best to put Crosslands in at 5/8 and Mann moves to hooker, might only be 10-15 mins either side of halftime and gives us a chance to see how Crosslands goes.
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That's what we have all assumed will happen, but O'Brien said in his mid week presser that Crossland will be good at passing from dummy half because most halfbacks who play hooker get the ball to the right person and have a good pass, and went on to say you could hear Crossland's contact in defence in the scrimmage match from the sidelines and talked about how much progress he's made in defence. In short - O'Brien is clearly thinking of putting Crossland in at hooker. Maybe only for 20 or 30 minutes, but maybe he has decided that Hoy is his 2nd choice 5/8, so Crossland, as a big halfback, could switch to hooker in the future.
 
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