The Halfback Conundrum

[krustykraz]

I'd start with,
6.Gamble
7.Hastings

Hopefully Pryce develops and becomes a great 6,
Then depending on form and injuries I'd go,
6.Pryce
7.Hastings
With Gamble either 13 or 14

Or I'd go
6.Pryce
7.Gamble

Gamble has to be in the team somewhere when fit.

 

[krustykraz]

Are any of the players on the list above even available anymore?

 

[Battler]

Are any of the players on the list above even available anymore?

Don't think so. Braydon Trindall was my pick, but pretty sure he resigned with Cronulla.

 

[Thieves Like Us]

O’Sullivan Junior is probably packing his bags as we speak…..

 

[Sheent14]

Random one, but what happened to Karl Oloapu ? Still injured? I’d imagine the dogs will play him as a 13 but they already have like 3 locks - Mann/Hayward and someone else I’m forgetting.

 

[krustykraz]

O’Sullivan Junior is probably packing his bags as we speak…..

It was all a big Ploy!
Pezet didn't even receive an offer from the Knights.

 

[Thailands Novacastrian]

If something isn't working you'd just stick with it no matter what? Not try something different until you find something that works? I can't understand this criticism.

So how many years and games is it going to take AOB to find a halves pairing required or we just going to keep giving every fella a shot
How many more experimental years required under he's tenor
we rely on ponga way to much
We can't build consistency due to the fact we have a different pair of halves each week
Every analyst and there dog says the exact same thing
What I don't get is how people think doing so is healthy for the team
No successful team does such a thing
They pick and stick only making changes when necessary due to Injuries or rep
Slipping into 8th doing so when In reality we only got there due to other clubs choking
Isn't finding what works it's a quick fix

The only time we had picked and stuck for a long period we finished 5th go figure

This is the NRL not juniors

 

[Sheent14]

So how many years and games is it going to take AOB to find a halves pairing required or we just going to keep giving every fella a shot
How many more experimental years required under he's tenor
we rely on ponga way to much
We can't build consistency due to the fact we have a different pair of halves each week
Every analyst and there dog says the exact same thing
What I don't get is how people think doing so is healthy for the team
No successful team does such a thing
They pick and stick only making changes when necessary due to Injuries or rep
Slipping into 8th doing so when In reality we only got there due to other clubs choking
Isn't finding what works it's a quick fix

The only time we had picked and stuck for a long period we finished 5th go figure

This is the NRL not juniors

All bottom tier halves. Hastings would have been the half all year if he didn’t start fighting players every game.

 

[jamesgould]

Stick with Hastings all year and I dare say we’d have lost a lot more games.

Not to mention we had thousands of halves injuries anyway, so a lot of it was enforced.

 

[alexwilliams]

Gamble and Hastings... Big no to Cogger

 

[MattyM]

My gut says we should go with:

6. Gamble
7. Cogger

Keep Phoenix in that hooker/lock role. Pryce I’m still not sold on. Hastings sucks - kicking isn’t up to standard and wants to box every man and his dog.

Cogger was starting to find his feet toward the back end of the year and Gamble just is a competitor. If they go bad, it is what it is, just stick to something and find a way to make it work.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

Random one, but what happened to Karl Oloapu ? Still injured? I’d imagine the dogs will play him as a 13 but they already have like 3 locks - Mann/Hayward and someone else I’m forgetting.

Suffered some kind of very worrying spine/neck injury last I heard. Like, he’s not paralysed, but I think playing with it puts him at risk of paralysis or something like that.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

Tom Duffy get him out of the cowboys

He’s absolutely caning QCup. I’ve not seen that much of him or been that blown away by what I’ve seen, but he’s a guy I’ve heard a few people speaking very highly of.

 

[JOJO82]

I would be giving cogger/gamble the halves spots to start off and see how we go.

Might be in the minority but I think Cogger started looking good at the back end of the season. Gamble we all know what he brings.

 

[bremsstrahlung]

Hastings would be a high risk/high reward option imo. I think he would be more motivated than ever to shut people up and prove them wrong. Could result in a massive year.

Or…we’ve burned him, he’s burned us, untenable.

I may be reading into it, or be biased in my memory, but something seemed to change between 2023 and 2024 in his relationship with Ponga. Our run home was largely influenced by getting Ponga into good positions and giving him the ball when the time was right. A plan if you will.

2024 seemed to be just giving it to him for the sake of it. There ya go, do something. Then when that didn’t work, it was almost like Hastings was deciding not to give it to Ponga. We’d set up to spread left with 3 v 3 and Hastings would hold the pass or go back to the right.

I think AOB sits them down and says, positions are open, train and play trials for a spot.
I think Cogger/ Gamble is box seat combo atm. If Hastings or Pryce have a great pre season, maybe they come into contention.


Cogger did a job at the end of the season, maybe he’s a confidence player and needed to settle in.


Whoever it is, sort out the kicking. Hope we don’t have to endure another season of 100% uncontested shallow ‘bombs’ that land on the 20-30m.

 

[Seano]

G'day Knights fans.

Long time reader, first time poster. Hadn't intended on posting but I had to express my disappointment at the Jonah Pezet news.

I'm a big believer in not being too critical of players making decisions about their careers, especially choosing to chase money. They play a brutal sport for a limited time and are only one tackle away from being out of a job.

But that said it does feel like Jonah has bottled it. He didn't want the risk/challenge of leading the Knights so much that he's knocked back $2.5m to put his NRL career on hold career and in the hands of Jehrome Hughes. There's every chance that Hughes, Munster and Wishart play a lot of games over the next 2 seasons, then where does that leave Jonah? Still, a reserve grader looking to crack the NRL?

And I guess we can all expect the usual media and bloggers claiming that the club is dysfunctional and no one wants to play there...same as it ever was.

On the bright side, Jonah was a $2.5m risk we no longer have to worry about, I don't think we're anywhere near the ceiling on Phoenix's ability in the 7, Cogger improved at the back end of last season to look more like the 2023 GF hero and the Knight are finally starting to crank out (and recruit thanks to POS) some very exiting looking juniors.

Go Knights.

 

[Sarge]

Hastings would be a high risk/high reward option imo. I think he would be more motivated than ever to shut people up and prove them wrong. Could result in a massive year.

Or…we’ve burned him, he’s burned us, untenable.

I may be reading into it, or be biased in my memory, but something seemed to change between 2023 and 2024 in his relationship with Ponga. Our run home was largely influenced by getting Ponga into good positions and giving him the ball when the time was right. A plan if you will.

2024 seemed to be just giving it to him for the sake of it. There ya go, do something. Then when that didn’t work, it was almost like Hastings was deciding not to give it to Ponga. We’d set up to spread left with 3 v 3 and Hastings would hold the pass or go back to the right.

I think AOB sits them down and says, positions are open, train and play trials for a spot.
I think Cogger/ Gamble is box seat combo atm. If Hastings or Pryce have a great pre season, maybe they come into contention.


Cogger did a job at the end of the season, maybe he’s a confidence player and needed to settle in.


Whoever it is, sort out the kicking. Hope we don’t have to endure another season of 100% uncontested shallow ‘bombs’ that land on the 20-30m.

Exactly the way I saw it !

 

[Seano]

Weirdly my profile above says "Greg Smith" was my favourite player (it's actually Ben Kennedy) but I was at that game with my POS (and I don't mean Peter OSullivan) ex-brother-in-law. I can tell you some stories about that historic game. I'll never forget Rod Da Silva working out that Greg didn't know what a dummy was and took every single one....despite being out to a big lead it was game over that point. At one point Rod dummied to the sideline and Greg took that as well. lol

 

[danknights]

Weirdly my profile above says "Greg Smith" was my favourite player (it's actually Ben Kennedy) but I was at that game with my POS (and I don't mean Peter OSullivan) ex-brother-in-law. I can tell you some stories about that historic game. I'll never forget Rod Da Silva working out that Greg didn't know what a dummy was and took every single one....despite being out to a big lead it was game over that point. At one point Rod dummied to the sideline and Greg took that as well. lol

That's not a fav player bio. It changes with how many posts you do. Obvs ol Greg played 1 game so you'll have him for a few posts until it changes. So get posting so we can forget that fella

 

[Seano]

Happy to get posting to shed Greg Smith the same way Darren Britt shed him from the ball in the 2nd half of that game.

Speaking of which (not sure the right forum to ask this) but me and my old man (also a Knights tragic) saw that Laitia Moceidreke was selected for the NFL pathways program (good luck to him) but we wondered why he didn't make it at the Knights? We were hoping he'd be the new Dom Young (they don't show many reserve grade games on Kayo, unfortunately).