The pre-season 2026 thread

Billy said:
Just reading that Bradman, Jermaine and Mat McEwen and Fletcher Hunt are all training with the Newcastle Yowies for the Koori knockout - coach is Ron Griffiths.
Bradman is expected to drop out if selected for the Kangaroos.
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A great watch that competition!
 
slotmachine said:
This is what I'd be doing on the assumption that the new middle options step up and friz isn't required to start there. 50 minutes of McEwen to go hard against tired defenders would be great viewing.
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The wildcard here is Asu Kepaoa. I know he’s mostly played wing and centre but I think he’s too lead footed to actually play there full time, from what I’ve seen anyway.

If the club was going to make any back rower signing though it wouldn’t be a cheap stopgap guy to protect the young blokes from the first x minutes of games, maybe if Kepaoa puts his head down that role is his chance to make a proper fist of it in FG.
 
Would rather give McEwen consistent minutes in first grade, over a journeyman who will give you a solid 6 every game without much upside. I do like the idea of Friz playing the first chunk of the game though, before bringing McEwen on.

Let’s not forget McEwen was playing in a badly beaten side who essentially “gave up”. Can guarantee we will be much better next season, Mcewen’s minutes will be quality.
 
If I'm Holbrook I'm telling McEwen that his application to defence is his pathway to a starting spot. Im bringing him off the bench for very short minutes initially and slowly increasing over time rewarding improved form.

Hopefully by the end of the season he is a comprehensive first grader. McEwen is a 250 game prospect we need to protect the kid.
 
How do we feel about Asu?, haven’t seen a lot of him at second row but people say he can play it.

Believe POS or Parr said it actually, he has 40+ nrl games so he could take a spot and allow frizz to focus on middle stuff and so on.
 
Dylan Brown training with some mates at Wests Mayfield today on his instagram #parasocial #stalker

Don’t know how much he’s gotten around the other Knights boys yet but he certainly doesn’t seem like the uncommitted, low-effort slob his reputation suggests…
 
Les Misérables said:
If I'm Holbrook I'm telling McEwen that his application to defence is his pathway to a starting spot. Im bringing him off the bench for very short minutes initially and slowly increasing over time rewarding improved form.

Hopefully by the end of the season he is a comprehensive first grader. McEwen is a 250 game prospect we need to protect the kid.
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Get Stomp to mentor him.
 
Culture, it was mentioned before about the club, the poor culture, and that was lampooned on here as Culcha it's gotta be the culcha, and making some point about having the best players.

But the Jenkins interview shows how the club fails itself and is pathetic. That, is the culture of the club being talked about where we let ourselves down.

To be dropped and not even know until the team sheet is out, or player leaving the club and no exit interview, no thanks for your time here and all the best etc. You just don't deal with people like that. And players talk, Jenkins getting dropped with no notice, they won't have been the first to have that treatment. Players talk, and that sort of thing at the club is a cancer in the squad.

Player gets treated poorly, chats to some team mates in the lower grades who can't believe it, changes their opinion. Poisons the young squad coming through, work gets to some of the NRL squad, maybe it's happened to them as well, it just breeds poor outcomes.

The club just does not set itself up for success from every aspect. Respect and effort both ways should be the clubs creed.

Be the player other players want to play with, but we going to **** on you and ditch you, treat you like garbage!

Not good enough.

Just watching further on, and Jenkins rings Ivan out the blue, after the club already told him no twice through his manager, and he says hey Ivan can we meet up for a coffee, and Ivan meets him. Yet at the Knights you just know, that player would have been dead to the club after he left, no coffee, no interest.
 
Kurriboy said:
Just watching further on, and Jenkins rings Ivan out the blue, after the club already told him no twice through his manager, and he says hey Ivan can we meet up for a coffee, and Ivan meets him. Yet at the Knights you just know, that player would have been dead to the club after he left, no coffee, no interest.
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I don’t know the exact details, but didn’t we just bring Pasami Saulo back to the club?
 
jamesgould said:
I don’t know the exact details, but didn’t we just bring Pasami Saulo back to the club?
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Sure, but we don't know how that came about, did he give us a call, did we call him.

Thats not really the point though, it's how the club treats it players. You would have to be fairly simple minded to think what happened to Jenkins is the only time the club treated a player that way. To me, it seems to be a great illustration of how the club operates internally.

You can bet that situation, or the way they dealt with that player disrespectfully, happens at the club much more often than it should, it should never happen. One instance you can bet there are plenty more.

That stuff soon enough brings the whole culture down.
 
jamesgould said:
I don’t know the exact details, but didn’t we just bring Pasami Saulo back to the club?
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Pasami is right in that sweet spot of player POS was looking at to balance the roster: Guy who has been plugging away in NSW Cup for a long time and is looking to move for a better playing opportunity, not a paycheque. I’m sure him being from Newy helped but a big part of that would be the cold logic of “local player = cheaper”.
 
Kurriboy said:
Culture, it was mentioned before about the club, the poor culture, and that was lampooned on here as Culcha it's gotta be the culcha, and making some point about having the best players.

But the Jenkins interview shows how the club fails itself and is pathetic. That, is the culture of the club being talked about where we let ourselves down.

To be dropped and not even know until the team sheet is out, or player leaving the club and no exit interview, no thanks for your time here and all the best etc. You just don't deal with people like that. And players talk, Jenkins getting dropped with no notice, they won't have been the first to have that treatment. Players talk, and that sort of thing at the club is a cancer in the squad.

Player gets treated poorly, chats to some team mates in the lower grades who can't believe it, changes their opinion. Poisons the young squad coming through, work gets to some of the NRL squad, maybe it's happened to them as well, it just breeds poor outcomes.

The club just does not set itself up for success from every aspect. Respect and effort both ways should be the clubs creed.

Be the player other players want to play with, but we going to **** on you and ditch you, treat you like garbage!

Not good enough.

Just watching further on, and Jenkins rings Ivan out the blue, after the club already told him no twice through his manager, and he says hey Ivan can we meet up for a coffee, and Ivan meets him. Yet at the Knights you just know, that player would have been dead to the club after he left, no coffee, no interest.
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I’ve said about this earlier - Jenkins spoke really well about a CLUB that has forgotten how to act. Somewhere down the line over the last 2 years this club lost its Human side. It’s NOVACASTRIAN side. It’s not a reflection of how he played it’s a reflection on how we nurture, teach, grow and foster players who want to play for each other and the club. The badge is on the heart and we seem to have lost that. I said earlier I have heard this from other players current and past. I suppose that’s why the likes of Penrith, Melbourne etc are where they are are and we are where we are. 👎
 
jamesgould said:
I don’t know the exact details, but didn’t we just bring Pasami Saulo back to
the club?
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He must see the place on the up or had no other option because he wasnt happy here when he left and his treatment, he was nearly out the door 12-18 months prior to the cowboys but both clubs werent on the same page. Its good to have him back though, his in that sweet spot for props and is one of those guys whos lives absolutely revolve around their footy, always training outside of the club, diet, lifestyle choices etc.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Pasami is right in that sweet spot of player POS was looking at to balance the roster: Guy who has been plugging away in NSW Cup for a long time and is looking to move for a better playing opportunity, not a paycheque. I’m sure him being from Newy helped but a big part of that would be the cold logic of “local player = cheaper”.
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Agree and not many will concur with me but I think Peter Hola could be in the same boat. 26, came from Canberra to QLD Cup and some Dolphins games. Good depth where you won’t miss much in quality.
 
Enjoying watching the McEwen brothers v the Gagai brothers in the Koori knockout.
Matt McEwen and Dane Gagai having a crack at each other - they'll be training together soon.
 
Every year a guy like Peter Hola, who’s been a top reserve grader and bounced from club to club, finally gets a real shot in first grade and turns out to be able to do a job. No reason you’d bet against him making the team regularly.

POS has basically done the opposite of previous recruitment regimes. For years we’ve overpaid the tier of forwards just below the very best in the game - D Saf, Klem, Frizell, the big bet on Kai is sort of a version of this - and balanced the cap with unsexy spine players who have been long-term reserve graders who couldn’t consistently get a run at their previous clubs eg Gamble, Clune, Cogger.

Could argue that POS bought us the D Saf of five-eighths - obviously really good (turns out we did miss him heaps this year), at times clearly a top 3 guy in that position, frequently frustrating his fans with the nagging feeling he should be better than he is - and balanced the cap by buying a lot of guys who are Tyson Gamble or Adam Clune but for forwards eg Saulo, Hola, etc.
 
Saulo and Mooney I can see it happening as they were being kept in cup by a very good forward pack.

Hola got about 20 minutes in first grade for the season when the phins had lost their entire starting pack to injury.
 
And Shibasaki played Origin this year. And played really well! I’m not going to tell anyone what is and isn’t possible.

I really think people underestimate how bleh a lot of our forwards are lol. Jack Hetherington does not look better in reggies than Peter Hola does.
 
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