The Halfback Conundrum
- Thread starter HarVeeGee13
- Start date
what's that pong
Jason Hoogerworf
Have you seen the sharks finals record ?
Kurriboy
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
And yet even the Sharks have won a premiership more recently.
I don't get this comment. Giving us a pass mark because of another team is worse, is hardly inspiring stuff.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
I think the Sharks finals thing is worse than ours more because they were the higher team on the ladder & the home team for 3/5 of those losses. AOB’s record is just exactly what you’d expect for a team which finished 7th, 7th, 5th, 8th. The ladder positions not actually being that great is more notable than what happened in the finals once we got there.
Les Misérables
Sean Rudder
I don't understand it either.
The fans play a role in the culture of a club, and if we innately defend rather than criticise average results we can hardly expect to ever build the sort of culture that sees teams consistently win Premierships. I believe that. You become what you tolerate.
And yea, I'd say the Knights have one of the most sympathetic fan bases.
That's what happens when you have multiple years of 19 yr olds playing fr the club and getting lapped for 3 wooden spoons and sayng "they're young, they're trying their best" Ha.
I personally believe our best years are from 25-29 - Potentially onwards, but lets keep the block close for now.
Obi's 4 years (is it 4?) I don't think he's had a regular 7 thats played majority of a season. Peace had one decent season before doing his peck in following season and then leaving
Clifford had the mental application of a child.
Hastings had one good year (look where it got us)
Last year was a weird flux of 3 7's who couldn't get there **** together until Crossland was basically said "bugger it I'll do it myself through sheer will and determination.
It's not a great situation as a coach to have playmakers constantly in flux, your star player in KP out for half a season for i;d say at least half his tenure. Might sound like i'm making excuses, I'm not but just trying to paint a bit of a picture. I think the last two seasons he's done well get us into finals and compete when just making top 8 is truly difficult.
I think this season is the first season that we may actually have up to 3-4 juniors who are about ready to explode either 25 season or 26 season, the type of talent that will turn momentum of games, Obi hasn;t really had that in his time, nor has the signings really worked in his favour.
We're yet again though relying on good form for a whole season (shock horror) of players like, Cogger, Gamble, Brailey, Jsaf and the emergence of Pryce, Hopwood, Tyrone, Sharpe to add the extra spice. Let alone the talent below them AND likes of Blair and Sullivan have only JUST begun their time here
Team wouldn't be fighting for top 8 a pass away from beating Cows in Cowland if they didn't back Obi, he may not be everyone cup of tea But he may well be on verge of having the best talent at his disposal. Both on and off field.
For me there is no reason to not be aiming for top 6 this season and a home semi. Making a 7 work either from junior or securing a talent will be next step. But no reason who we have now can't get it done
slotmachine
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
The most and it's not even close, they still show up in droves when the club is an embarrassment.
Personally I felt like I was being used as an ATM during the Brown years when they weren't even trying to win games
so stopped handing over my money, but each to their own.
How much of this is on AOB not getting the best out of what he has with his conservative gameplans?
As for the junior stuff, I know the top squad and recruitment mustn't be looking too flash when people start frothing over juniors.
He did in 23. 24 I’d say he finally got them locked in by seasons end but was mostly too late by then.
Hastings is self explanatory currentyl
Cogger seems to lack any general game breaking skill, only so much Obi can do.
Gamble was going ok until he broke his foot.
Crossland had the footy brains to eventually get squad going.
I definitely expected more from all of them last year and this year too.
About juniors I think your comment comes from someone who does’t do a lot of research on both manners.
Way rugby league is going currently you need a very strong junior base and in past two years we’ve developed a lot of top quality juniors who may be ready to take up the mental this year and next. We aren’t the Roosters where we offer media contracts and modelling gigs. We’re very much like Penrith and Canberra and need to develop properly, which we finally are doing I’m excited because of the sheer talent we currently have and the club has only scratched the surface with the resources they’ve put into pathways and additions of Sully, Blair and recently Hannah Clare.
Think you should be very excited and try looking at the teams coming through from A. Johns to Flegg.
slotmachine
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Been hearing for 20 years about how many good juniors we have coming through, I will temper my expectations until I see them playing first grade.
www.smh.com.au
Young guns set to propel club into golden era: Johns
NEWCASTLE great Matthew Johns says there is a batch of junior players coming through the Knights' system, several of whom - now the club has the Nathan Tinkler resources and Wayne Bennett polish - have the potential to be superstars.
Did you have this saved somewhere for a rainy day??Been hearing for 20 years about how many good juniors we have coming through, I will temper my expectations until I see them playing first grade.
Young guns set to propel club into golden era: Johns
NEWCASTLE great Matthew Johns says there is a batch of junior players coming through the Knights' system, several of whom - now the club has the Nathan Tinkler resources and Wayne Bennett polish - have the potential to be superstars.
Know what happened of those superstars? SuperCoach Bennett didn’t ever try to blood them bar Sione and his brother.
At least see that we now have been trying as a club to put people in right places and $$ insane amounts of $$ for living arrangements and quality training facilities.
Frustration aside. I get it, I’ve followed club for 20 years too and seen our best talent go and club ruin the catchments trust.
But it’s finally coming back and actually quite exciting seeing some of this talent coming through. Genuine game breakers like Linnane, Hopwood, McEwen, Sua DeCourcey and of course Sharpe.
Let alone the younger kids you would t heard of yet like Ryder Crosswell, Sosaia Latu (signed until 2028) Fletcher Sommerville, Chip Valentish, Haami Loza, Wil Hope and Curtis Mulherin.
All these players are pre Sullivan and Blair.
Celticman98
Sean Rudder
I think we need to copy the Bulldogs and create our own halves academy.
Pity the ship has sailed with Garth Brennan as he would have been handy with this type of stuff.
Pity the ship has sailed with Garth Brennan as he would have been handy with this type of stuff.
Defence wins games
Todd Bates
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Yeah I’m not a big fan of Gus, but you watch the way Isaiya Katoa plays - his kicking technique is a carbon copy of Cleary, the way he manipulates defenders at the line with his eyes and body language reminds me of Luai - and it’s pretty clear that there’s something to having that kind of specialised halves program. Three guys who’ve all played with unusual composure & control for their age/experience since their debut. Not every kid who’s come through has panned out obviously, but I think it’s inarguable that the kids who have the potential, Penrith have gotten the best out of.
Parr & Gus are quite friendly with each other, and Gus loves bragging about his own brilliance, Peter shouldn’t be too proud to ask for a sit down & a run through of how his halves academies work.
Brad tighe
Michael Eagar
I think a lot of guys like Mitch black, Brock Lamb, Luke Huth are all good enough to play nrl but have been burnt out by what seems a toxic season.
Frank McWilliams
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Always thought Lamb was the better out of him and Cogger but Cogger is still playing firsts and Lamb is in local comp, doesn’t seem right.
Not saying Lamb was a big future star
Not saying Lamb was a big future star
Les Misérables
Sean Rudder
Surely recruitment plays a role in this? And didn’t someone go through all the timelines and there were pretty much no stages where we could have signed a marquee half?
It’s almost like we’ve had this conversation before …
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
5 years? Pearce’s last game for the club was at the end of 2021…
KPGreatness
Anthony Quinn
Yeah tbh if I remember correctly all the good halfbacks ie. Reynolds etc were signed up and than Pearce announced he wanted to leave so yeah no real elite 7 has been on the market since well one we could realistically get.
Plus elite 7s right now are extremely scarce and has been for a while now, I don’t blame that on OB at all hell even the Roosters got lucky with Walker that he lived up to his potential but even he was a risk singing when they got him.
Les Misérables
Sean Rudder
'Recruitment' lol c'mon Gouldy.
OB has ran that narrative the entire time, being that he only focuses on getting the team ready for game day and seemingly leaves everything else to his staff. No one buys that, it's honestly quite absurd. But I understand why he'd be motivated to paint things that way.
A close mate of mine works as an assistant coach in the NRL and is of the opinion that it is '100% the head coaches fault' that we hadn't signed a 7.
Re the 'timelines of a marquee half', Mitchell Pearce himself never came off contract. So according to that previous summary, which from memory assesed when players were coming off contract, we wouldn't have signed Pearce either.. You don't find good halfbacks on your evening walk, you need to be overt and aggressive in your pursuit of one and eventually circumstances will unfold in your favour, as they had done for us with Pearce.
If Brown was anything like OB we wouldn't have signed Pearce. And we wouldn't have signed Ponga either.