Toohey's News

I'm impressed that O'Brien has thought enough about the squad he has to decide he can develop either Crossland or Sasagi as next year's 5/8 and wants to sign a strike centre.
I don't really agree with him, but I'm impressed that he has the knowledge of our squad to come to those decisions.
 
Billy said:
I'm impressed that O'Brien has thought enough about the squad he has to decide he can develop either Crossland or Sasagi as next year's 5/8 and wants to sign a strike centre.
I don't really agree with him, but I'm impressed that he has the knowledge of our squad to come to those decisions.
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As in too early for Crossland or Sasagi? I trust in his plan. I also trust that Obi won't muck around if things aren't working or the effort isn't there.

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Owey said:
As in too early for Crossland or Sasagi? I trust in his plan. I also trust that Obi won't muck around if things aren't working or the effort isn't there.

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I don't agree that we need a strike centre when Toa, Best, Hoy, and even Sasagi are more likely to be ready to be a strike centre next year than Crossland and Sasagi are likely to be ready to be what we need at 5/8 by next year.
I'd still be looking for an experienced 5/8 above anything else.
But O'Brien is the one with his whole future as a firstgrade coach riding on it, and if he doesn't want to take the safe option and wants to back the kids to do well, good for him I say.
 
Billy said:
I don't agree that we need a strike centre when Toa, Best, Hoy, and even Sasagi are more likely to be ready to be a strike centre next year than Crossland and Sasagi are likely to be ready to be what we need at 5/8 by next year.
I'd still be looking for an experienced 5/8 above anything else.
But O'Brien is the one with his whole future as a firstgrade coach riding on it, and if he doesn't want to take the safe option and wants to back the kids to do well, good for him I say.
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No one has mentioned Moga much either, outside of a back up. It will be interesting to see how he goes under Obi. Possibly won't survive.

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Owey said:
No one has mentioned Moga much either, outside of a back up. It will be interesting to see how he goes under Obi. Possibly won't survive.

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Until we see different, I think it's fair to be optimistic that just about every player has the chance to improve under the new coaches.
Moga could have his best year ever.
Guys like Sione, Fitz, Barnett, the twins, Saulo, Jones etc have all progressed very slowly in the Brown era, and a different coach, especially someone who seems to put in extra time with young players, could well get some really good improvement out of most of them.
I'd like to think everyone has a chance to shine next year, at least till we see them in the trials, and then I might change my mind.
 
Ese is another that has constantly annoyed with effort who could go to a completely new level

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Billy said:
Until we see different, I think it's fair to be optimistic that just about every player has the chance to improve under the new coaches.
Moga could have his best year ever.
Guys like Sione, Fitz, Barnett, the twins, Saulo, Jones etc have all progressed very slowly in the Brown era, and a different coach, especially someone who seems to put in extra time with young players, could well get some really good improvement out of most of them.
I'd like to think everyone has a chance to shine next year, at least till we see them in the trials, and then I might change my mind.
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Under Brown some of these blokes have been making the same mistakes for 4 years. I don't care what grade you coach if a player is making an error you actually do a bit of coaching and try to correct the problem If that don't work drop him and get someone that will do the job. Somewhere on here I said Brown is a better illusionist than David Copperfield because he actually convinced plenty that he could coach.
 
Rip Taylor has had a remarkable coaching career, but getting into the reserve grade GF this year is one of his best.
Just 6 or 7 weeks ago we beat them - and I thought we might miss the wooden spoon because I couldn't see Wenty winning another game.
Since then they haven't lost a game, and their best player against us, Tim Mannah, can't even make the side now.
They snuck into the top 8 with 3 straight wins and have had solid wins in their 3 finals so far.
Taylor comes across as some old dinosaur who can barely string a sentence together, but all through his coaching career he has been working as a very successful business manager as well.
I was a great fan of his coaching style when he took our under 20s to a minor premiership. He basically had Kade Snowden, Cory Patterson, Tim Natusch, Jon Tupou, Brendan Hlad, Warren Schillings, Larry Taufua etc all going out and smashing the hell out of sides. We were giving away penalties at about 2 or 3 to 1 in most games, and I think a lot of refs were giving penalties out of pity as much as anything else - but Taylor didn't care - the players were just told to own the middle of the field.
 
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https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/...stone-as-knights-roster-all-but-done/?cs=7580
-Obrien to start at the Knights in the next few weeks.
-The top 30 squad is almost complete with only 3 vacancies currently, Could go up to 5 with Levi and Gavett expected to leave in the off season.
-Brodie Jones has been re-signed for atleast one more year.
-Crossland, Toa and Best promoted to top 30.
-Matt Croker, Luke Huth, and Tex Hoy will be 3 of the 6 development players.
-Knights are not looking to sign many players, An outside back is on their list but it won't be rushed because they need to free up some funds first.
-Doesn't look like their will be many recruits for 2020.
-Stone is holding off on the Rossellas job because he still has ambitions to be involved in the NRL.
-Knights are not at all interested in Trent Merrin or any props as rumours say.
-Ponga didn't have the season of his dreams but will get to finish on a high with the Aus 9's and U23's.
- As part of Uni, Buhrer is doing an internship with the Jets.
 
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I see Toohey reported that Brodie Jones has been given another year and said the only question about him is "does he want it enough".
I see Jones as the type of player I really hope to see thrive under the new coaching regime.
Brown gave very little encouragement to many young guys, and very little guidance for them to improve their games.
From all reports, the new guy is all about putting in time and effort to give young players the help they need to improve.
Our best chance to have a good year next year is if a heap of guys like Jones, Hosking, Randall, Sione, Fitz, Momoisea, Hoy, Croker, Russell, Huth etc have all got a lot of unrealized potential that Brown's methods wasn't able to unlock, and Obi has the right skills to get instant improvement from them.
 
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Toohey listed the highlights of the season in an article today.
Nothing new that I could see.

He did mention the under 16s winning the title in passing.
For me, that was the highlight of the season.
That team smashed it, and it's hard to think of a player that wasn't impressive.
7 of them made rep sides - 6 for NSW and 1 for Pacifica.
The top three IMO, second row Max Bradbury, halfback Jonah Pezet, and hooker Noah Naigoliva, are as good as any we have had at Mathews level.

Flegg was also a great year for development. Even though we finished 7th and went out of the finals in the 1st game, we had 16 under 20s players play in higher grades, with Toa, Best, Hoy, Crossland and a few other like Marks and Searle play plenty of seniors.
 
Besides 1st grade being butt average, Flegg getting knocked so quickly was the lowlight for me. I get that a lot of them didn’t play together for much of the year
 
Rob said:
Besides 1st grade being butt average, Flegg getting knocked so quickly was the lowlight for me. I get that a lot of them didn’t play together for much of the year
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I thought we had a great shot in Flegg, and I still don't know how we lost Ball in 2018 with Best, Toa, Sasagi, Crossland, Madden and a good crop of forwards.
Dureau seems good at working with individuals and improving them, but his has taken two good teams to underperforming in the finals I think.
 
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Billy said:
I thought we had a great shot in Flegg, and I still don't know how we lost Ball in 2018 with Best, Toa, Sasagi, Crossland, Madden and a good crop of forwards.
Dureau seems good at working with individuals and improving them, but his has taken two good teams to underperforming in the finals I think.
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Maybe he has a bit of Brown about him and can't take them to the next level
 
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