Rumour: Knights chasing James Roby from St Helens

Yeah, I don't see it given all the talk has been we don't need three hookers in our top 25.

Great player though!
 
Yeah they keep saying that they're happy with Levi & Randell. Hopefully instead of buying a half like we keep hearing, they make Randell that guy & bring in Roby. That would be nice.
 
Slowly getting past it now but is still a quality player. Hard to believe that he is probably the 3rd or 4th string hooker now for England. They have a couple of gun hooked player over here now plus Hodgson for the Raiders.
 
Quite a bit of talk in various rumour articles that we are after either Farah or Roby.

Farah's been denied more times that I've had hot dinners, and Brown has said a few times we're not after a hooker and that three hookers in the top 25 is too many.

I really think the media are putting two and two together (that we offloaded Clydsdale and that Farah is on the market) and coming up with 27.
 
They definitely are with Farah, keep reading Farah is linked with the Knights even though we've said were not multiple times. Roby is a bit out of left field though, although it's probably just because he's a hooker, a former player under Brown, so they put it together with no truth to it.
 
Canberra bought Clydsdale so they would have 3 hookers seems a bit weird
 
You can't really count Randell as a hooker in the whole "you can't have 3" scenario because he's not a hooker. Levi and Roby are. Technically we have one hooker in the first grade squad at this point and he's a 19 year old with 7 NRL games... Yeah Randell can play there but it's not his natural position, he plays several different positions. Surely if you don't want 3 you'd have Roby and Levi and then play Randell in the halves/backrow/bench/hooker in NSW Cup as back up.
 
Junior11 said:
You can't really count Randell as a hooker in the whole "you can't have 3" scenario because he's not a hooker. Levi and Roby are. Technically we have one hooker in the first grade squad at this point and he's a 19 year old with 7 NRL games... Yeah Randell can play there but it's not his natural position, he plays several different positions. Surely if you don't want 3 you'd have Roby and Levi and then play Randell in the halves/backrow/bench/hooker in NSW Cup as back up.
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My thoughts exactly, doesn't really add up
 
Wouldn't read anything into what brown said. He can't come out and say he's shipping Clydesdale off cause he's useless and overpaid like 90% of the squad. He'd have the locals only crew sharpening their pitchforks and 10 year old girls writing letters to the herald.
 
Junior11 said:
You can't really count Randell as a hooker in the whole "you can't have 3" scenario because he's not a hooker. Levi and Roby are. Technically we have one hooker in the first grade squad at this point and he's a 19 year old with 7 NRL games... Yeah Randell can play there but it's not his natural position, he plays several different positions. Surely if you don't want 3 you'd have Roby and Levi and then play Randell in the halves/backrow/bench/hooker in NSW Cup as back up.
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This is like saying Gagai isn't a centre because he never played there before he reached first grade. Randell is definitely a hooker, he's played a season of first grade there! If he isn't playing hooker there's no way he makes the top 25.
 
I cant see farah coming with potter being appointed. Even though they say there is no bad blood. I don't even mind if we dont do great next year if we are getting rid of dead weight. roby looks pretty good, but he reminds me of gidley just before he started getting injured. Even his running style. I'm happy to put a randell in for a season and see how he handles it. I see him as a great source of energy. The teams seems to play harder and faster when he is on the field.
 
Ballin? Surely Koroisau hasn't signed to he's 3rd team to sit behind an already well established hooker. Luke, Segyaro and now Ballin? That's just plan silly, from both Koroisau and Manly
 
Afro Zac said:
Ballin? Surely Koroisau hasn't signed to he's 3rd team to sit behind an already well established hooker. Luke, Segyaro and now Ballin? That's just plan silly, from both Koroisau and Manly
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Ballin has been told to look elsewhere, Koroisau will be the first choice. Ballin is a workhorse, but I think we need a bit more than that, Clydsdale was just a workhorse too.
 
Brown said 3 hookers in the top 25 was too many, which makes sense, but we really do need a couple of hookers for NSW cup.
I really hope Redman comes back. He is great value on a second tier contract - just what we need for backup.
James Elias had a horror run in 2015. Injured for most of the year. I don't know if he'll get another run.
Other guys who got a run in NSW cup this year at hooker include De Saxe, Kelly, Phythian and McNamara can come up from NYC - but i'd hate to rely on any of them for firstgrade.
 
Billy said:
Brown said 3 hookers in the top 25 was too many, which makes sense, but we really do need a couple of hookers for NSW cup.
I really hope Redman comes back. He is great value on a second tier contract - just what we need for backup.
James Elias had a horror run in 2015. Injured for most of the year. I don't know if he'll get another run.
Other guys who got a run in NSW cup this year at hooker include De Saxe, Kelly, Phythian and McNamara can come up from NYC - but i'd hate to rely on any of them for firstgrade.
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Certainly have to do something about it. We had Clydsdale, Randell, Gidley, Redman & Levi all play hooker this year, if we had to find 5 again for next season, we'd be struggling.
 
jamesgould said:
This is like saying Gagai isn't a centre because he never played there before he reached first grade. Randell is definitely a hooker, he's played a season of first grade there! If he isn't playing hooker there's no way he makes the top 25.
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By your theory that must make Gidley a hooker. Or Greg Inglis/Greg Bird a 5/8. There's a hooker (Levi/Roby) and then there's a makeshift player who can play hooker (Randell). You could easily play Randell in majority of positions though while guys like Roby and Levi are nothing but number 9's.

So like I said, we have one specialised hooker in the top grade who's a 19 year old with 7 NRL games and a 23 year old utility who's played 18 games as back up hooker in his life. Every game last year he played in the halves or backrow. He could develop into a quality NRL hooker but right now he's still a utility who's done well filling in. He's still learning to play hooker like Gagai is still learning to play centre while Levi and Roby have been playing there their whole careers.

My argument was that the whole "3 is too many" doesn't have to apply here because if we do get Roby then we'd have only two hookers (Roby and Levi) and a utility who'll play NSW Cup and be our back up in whatever position he's needed in (Randell)

Personally I think Brown is clearing the decks for an experienced hooker. Having two young inexperienced players with just 26 games between them doesn't fill me with much confidence in such a vital position. We have one of the brightest hooker prospects in the NRL, he needs someone like Roby. The team needs someone like Roby.
 
Roby is quickly becoming past it and at 31 potentially entering his first season of NRL I wouldn't be banking on him personally.
 
cowboyman said:
Roby is quickly becoming past it and at 31 potentially entering his first season of NRL I wouldn't be banking on him personally.
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If he's good enough to hold his own for a year or 2 while Levi gets more experienced, that'll be enough for me.
 
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