The pre-season 2026 thread

Well if nothing else listening to Holbrook doesn’t make me want to take a long nap. It’s probably a great change for the players as well. He really sounds enthusiastic about the job, surely that should rub off on the players too.

Very nice to hear that they will focus on skills for the whole pre-season, sounds like that wasn’t done in the past and it certainly showed.
 
Billy said:
The interesting thing about the Holbrook interview is they asked him about running up sandhills etc and he said they'll do that if the trainers wanted to, but it wasn't in his plans - he wanted to spend a lot of time on football drills.
The photos of this mornings session shows them with football in hand.
Don't think they handled football much for the first week last year.
Click to expand...
It looked like the only time they handled the football last season was on game day 🤦‍♂️🤣
 
Yeah I've always said that it's a myth that you need at least one half who's both able and willing to kick the ball. Just score every set somehow. Easy.
 
Article in the Herald on the first training session says Toby Winter won the beep test

Sharpe
Votano
ESL
Manuleleua
McCarthy
Cant
Hopwood
Crouch
Hola
McEwen
Aoake
Deisal Hagan
Toby Winter
+ 4 more

Quote from Holbrook in the Herald article
"They were 100 miles an hour," Holbrook said. "We had the football out day one. I'm big on that. It is not like the old days, when you would run and get all your conditioning up. We have to value the skills side a lot more."
 
Billy said:
Quote from Holbrook in the Herald article
"They were 100 miles an hour," Holbrook said. "We had the football out day one. I'm big on that. It is not like the old days, when you would run and get all your conditioning up. We have to value the skills side a lot more."
Click to expand...
This is really good as I believe we have attacking threat oozing in this team between Sharpe, Ponga, Best, Gagai, Lucas, Brown, Smith, Young.

If we can nail the skills we should be able to destroy most defences
 
Looks like Latu on the far left of the photo in the Herald, and that Knights juniors page already said he'll be there so it probably is.

De Courcey and Sullivan are the two top 30 players you'd expect to be in this group that I haven't seen yet.

Haven't seen Hunter or Graham yet, both development players.

There's specific rules and regulations around how long the players breaks need to be depending on several factors, I'm guessing Hunt played too much first grade to be in this first group back despite being on a development deal.

Not sure what's going on with D'Acre, he went back to Canada a week or two before the end of the season but I'd heard he was definitely coming back. Still over there playing university rugby for now though based on social media.
 
Feels unusual listening to a Knights coach who doesn't bore you to asleep.

Skills in general definitely need to be worked on as last year that seemed to be something that was forgotten.
 
Sharpe
Votano
ESL
Manuleleua
McCarthy
Cant
Hopwood
Crouch
Hola
McEwen
Aoake
Deisal Hagan
Toby Winter
Latu
Graham
Hunter
+ 1 more

Footage on NBN news shows Graham and Hunter - so that's 16 of 17 accounted for.
I couldn't spot De Courcey, but it was a pretty wide shot.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Whatever he's planning, he's probably not going to come in and publicly foreclose on the prospect of Sharpe playing anywhere before they actually start all training together. It's wiser to try stuff in training and sort of let things fall as they may naturally. You don't ever want to say anything which can be interpreted as a lack of belief in one of your players.

If he does decide to not play Sharpe in the spine he'll explain it as a "best for the balance of the team" thing and likely also make pains to talk about how good it is to have the option to move Sharpe into the halves or fullback if there are injuries.
Click to expand...
Im still convinced Smith plays 7.

Brown is not a 7 he is a 6. If there are say '5 steps' which lead to points, in any ordinary build up where a series of decisions/actions are taken by spine players, Brown likes to do step number 5. Or if he receives the ball on step number 2 he'll often look to make it the final step in that play. He's a finisher. He needs other people around him to contribute to the build up for him to be at his best.

Smith is a broadly skilled half with great vision who has options, he can run and he can pass and he gets the assignment. Watching him for the Roosters screaming at players either side of the ruck demanding the ball first off the ruck (despite wearing a 6 jersey half the time) tells me he'll be energised by the task of getting quality ball to Brown and Ponga.
 
Les Misérables said:
Im still convinced Smith plays 7.

Brown is not a 7 he is a 6. If there are say '5 steps' which lead to points, in any ordinary build up where a series of decisions/actions are taken by spine players, Brown likes to do step number 5. Or if he receives the ball on step number 2 he'll often look to make it the final step in that play. He's a finisher. He needs other people around him to contribute to the build up for him to be at his best.

Smith is a broadly skilled half with great vision who has options, he can run and he can pass and he gets the assignment. Watching him for the Roosters screaming at players either side of the ruck demanding the ball first off the ruck (despite wearing a 6 jersey half the time) tells me he'll be energised by the task of getting quality ball to Brown and Ponga.
Click to expand...
Completely agree.
 
And yet the coach has now said he would like Sharpe in the halves. If 2 coaches and the guru recruitment guy see this as the way to go. Then I'm happy with the decision. Sharpe may develop alot under Holbrook. Let's wait and see.

But I do get the ponga, brown, smith, crossy lineup advantages. I would not be opposed to it at all
 
He said Sharpe could play in the halves but nothing set in stone until he has the full squad training. Guaranteed he will have those spine players rotating positions in case of injury also. It’s as plain as day DB is not a first receiver. But, I have faith in the coaching staff making the right decision on our first choice spine.
 
I thing Holbrook left all options on the table, but is clearly a big fan of Sharpe and wants him involved.

The best point he made is that injuries mean you seldom have all your players fit, and a lot of our spine play multiple positions well.

What positions Gamble trains for is the biggest question IMO. He is a firstgrader, but only seems to play 6. I'd have him training as a ball playing lock because he would be 3rd or fourth option at 6 right now, and a chance at bench or starting 13 if he could play lock for 40 minutes or so.
 
If Crossland is starting 9 with Smith at 7 the cover for them, 14, is light on.
We lack a backup hooker of 1st grade standard especially if we have an injury, I guess same could be said for 7.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top