Toohey's News

Jar head said:
When we start getting talked up as contenders and as a team people want to watch, we start getting some ref calls. I dont care about the sydney press, but their reporting on us and the calls we seem to get are aligned imo. Go watch the back end of 23 again, we started getting the 50/50's.
I saw a stat yesterday which ill go find and post if I can, but we have received the least penalties and 6 agains of any team this year. We are poking through the line, finding our front and trying to get up quick... a lot, but not getting any reward. I see this every week, especially those close games we lost. We were the better team but couldn't pull away because we weren't allowed too. I think that changes as soon as we are "talked about".
Click to expand...
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20260806_132157_Facebook.jpg
    Screenshot_20260806_132157_Facebook.jpg
    140.5 KB · Views: 52
KPGreatness said:
In terms of future prospects as a whole I’d say we have a few with the pick of them at the moment is the prop Jack Hillier imo but we also have Bates, Allen (prob further away than the other two) and more we can get into but they are all (baring Hillier) about 3-5 years away
Click to expand...
Wells is coming along nicely he is starting prop this week in Jersey Flegg he also is a POS signing.
 
far north fan said:
Wells is coming along nicely he is starting prop this week in Jersey Flegg he also is a POS signing.
Click to expand...
Any other year we would be very excited about Wells - but we have more good prospects than you can poke a stick at this year.
I hope we can give as many as possible a firstgrade preseason, and I think we will have a lot of the top 30 starting late because of World Cup, so maybe half the SG Ball squad will be in the early sessions.
I think I read somewhere that Wells is pretty new to the forwards, so going from bench second row in Ball to starting prop in Flegg is very good progress.
 
Billy said:
Any other year we would be very excited about Wells - but we have more good prospects than you can poke a stick at this year.
I hope we can give as many as possible a firstgrade preseason, and I think we will have a lot of the top 30 starting late because of World Cup, so maybe half the SG Ball squad will be in the early sessions.
I think I read somewhere that Wells is pretty new to the forwards, so going from bench second row in Ball to starting prop in Flegg is very good progress.
Click to expand...
Agree! Yeah he is he has always been second row or lock from what I researched. I do know Rabbitohs offered him a contract at the same time as Knights also. Exciting to see where they all end up in the next couple of years. So much talent this year!
 
12/8

POS says we are in a "premiership window" and should be aiming for 2 titles in the next 5 years.

Says he wants to hang around and enjoy the success.

POS says lots of good things about the players who have emerged this year - Manu, Hopwood, Crouch, Hunt, Cant, Graham etc.

Hagan had 17 family members travel to Canberra for his debut - that didn't happen.

Dobson hopes to get Gamble, Arthur and Schiller back for the finals, but only Schiller looks certain.

The 3 McKay brothers played together in Flegg for the first time.

www.newcastleherald.com.au

Toohey's News: Knights boss makes bold premiership declaration about next five years

Get the latest Knights news and gossip in Barry Toohey's column
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au
 
Last edited:
Die Hard said:
The thing I am not certain on is how we are going to continue our premiership dominance after the first 8 or so when Ponga etc retire.
Click to expand...
And Foxsports will report on ‘Ponga rumours that won’t go away’ being sick of being on such a good and winning team and achieved everything in RL he wants that he wants to go to a sh*t team and build them from the ground up like he did at the knights.
 
100% agree that two is a reasonable goal. 1 over 27/28/29. There will be a bit of roster churn after that as happens with any team that hits those heights but you have a good shot at another one with a restructured team around 2031/32 with young forwards like Hopwood in their absolute prime - so, one in the next few years while we have a deep rotation of forwards and strike everywhere, and then one a few years after that with a team built more on elite starting middles who have gotten a lot better in the arm wrestle, with the Big Three in the spine playing off the back of that platform. Peter needs to stay on to see it through but I think the core of players you non-negotiably want still there in 31/32 will be Ponga, Brown, Sharpe, Lucas, Hopwood, Mooney, and beyond that we'll see, along with hopefully some club stalwart types like Crossland, Croker, Crouch etc who don't command big big money. Obviously Francis gonna be special but honestly it looks like if they add another team in New Zealand in 2029 he could be on a road right now that ends with him getting over a million a season to go there and we probably can't match that.

There is a lot of luck involved in this obviously but we are going to have an argument for having the best spine in the comp and a lot of elite strike players, like legitimately a top 3 centre, top 3 back rower, top 3 winger, etc etc etc. The only real issue with the roster is we can't dominate the middle right now but I think that issue is going to start to solve itself. We should start believing and so should the playing group. And it looks to me like they do.

To me you're in a premiership window if you're making top 4 a few seasons in a row and only missing if something goes badly wrong, minor premierships don't matter. From 97-02 we finished 2nd, 2nd, 7th, 3rd, 3rd, 2nd. Two premierships, in the first and 5th seasons of that run. If you told me 6 years from now we matched that run, 5 top four finishes in 6 seasons, two premierships, I would not be surprised at all. This is easily the most talent we've had since then.
 
Last edited:
KP
Dom
Hunt
Best
Marz
Sharpe
Brown
J Saf
Crossland
Mooney
Lucas
Manu
Croker
Smith
McEwen
Hopwood
Crouch
Niukore
Graham
reserves:
Hagan
Winter

With Lucas able to play centre and Sharpey the entire halves and backline, Smithy can come in at 6,7 and 9. Don't need to carry a back on the bench. All weapons regardless of their position. Sandon Smith is the signing of the year IMO. Chooks farked up big letting him leave, especially with Sammy Walker now looking to chase money at Perth or PNG. Their treatment of younger halves as discards when they don't set the world alight immediately, is at long last catching up to them. I hope they burn themselves to the ground. Plastic club with no soul.

But having said that i reckon they will throw the entire City Ford vault at The Clearys. Ivan may get the offer he can't knock back.
 
Last edited:
I think this kind of comment (premiership window) can go one of two ways.

If you’ve crowed early - it can put a lot of pressure on things. Especially If the team don’t think they are ready.

But, I genuinely think the players are starting to believe. The confidence they play with now is seriously impressive after the last few years. The squad seems connected.

As I said in another post, they could easily be thinking, what if we won those few games - that’s us in 2nd spot. Or at the very least - we can beat those teams on our day. Which is half the battle.

I think they learn some lessons from this season.

No Brown and Lucas will make it a bit harder, but there’s plenty left to play for this season and I think if we can keep a settled squad for the rest of the season - there’s the right enough time to refocus, blow out the cobwebs, fine tune things and peak in September and book that post season trip for Mid October.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top