R1 | Knights 24-14 Warriors @ Hunter | Sat 4.30pm

[Joker's Wild]

Whatever happened to James Taylor? I thought he would have been pushing to be a fringe first grader by now, but he has seemed to have fallen completely off the radar and I can't even recall him in any of the trial games.

He and Finn were the best of our forwards yesterday.

 

[The Showstopper]

Anyone else concerned that Bennett's gonna try and raid our outside backs? Broncos have absolutely nothing there. He's obviously already talking to Gagai but we have some blokes sitting in NSW Cup like Mamo, Chanel, Ross, etc who would walk in to the Bronco's backline.

No. He is past it. He sold good players to accomodate Boyd. I doubt any Knight will go near the man. He blames his players instead of taking responsibility for his out of date coaching structures. If they do then I won't be losing sleep. Rick Stone is fast growing into a coach players want to play for. The players love the man but respect his authority.

 

[Still Nutty]

So Tyrone has no case to answer...no surprises there but I wonder how many 8 point tries will be awarded throughout the year for the same thing.

If consistency is applied, you would think at least 1 a week against Billy Slater for starters [-(

 

[Noname36]

No. He is past it. He sold good players to accomodate Boyd. I doubt any Knight will go near the man. He blames his players instead of taking responsibility for his out of date coaching structures. If they do then I won't be losing sleep. Rick Stone is fast growing into a coach players want to play for. The players love the man but respect his authority.

I wouldn't be so sure. I think Gagai feels he owes Bennett a lot for giving him a chance and bringing him to the Knights when the Broncos sacked him. Also if someone like Mamo is offered more FG time up there he'd be out of here ASAP.

Saying that though neither are players that suit Bennett Ball so I don't think they'd come back to bite us in the arse if they went up there.

 

[The Showstopper]

Gagai goes Sione to centre and Mamo to fullback. his defence needs loads of work and speed and positioning are not synonymous with him as he has been found out plenty of times. His inability to break tackles concerns me as well. That said he is not someone I want to see go. I have just grown used to our club getting plundered by other clubs and it is almost expected these days. McManus is the likely player to lose out to Jake if it comes to him demanding a grade spot on form.

 

[Yosh]

Find a way to keep them all!

1. Mamo
2. Uate
3. Gagai
4. Sione
5. McManus

17. BJ

There.

 

[slotmachine]

Never understood the fascination with bj on the bench when we have a swag of 80 minute 2nd rowers.

Aku got player's player. Looked pretty hot.

 

[Frederick]

Never understood the fascination with bj on the bench when we have a swag of 80 minute 2nd rowers.

Aku got player's player. Looked pretty hot.

Because our 80 minute back rowers are all decidedly vanilla. BJ would at least offer something different

 

[Joker's Wild]

Rochow looked more caramel swirl than vanilla on Saturday. He has either developed some nice foot work over the off season or Bennett was coaching him not to use it

Either way I was impressed

 

[slotmachine]

Agree, he was arguably our best forward.

So are we pulling him off, or Scott, to give BJ 20 minutes?

 

[perverse]

Rochow looked more caramel swirl than vanilla on Saturday. He has either developed some nice foot work over the off season or Bennett was coaching him not to use it

Either way I was impressed

I've always thought Rochow had nice footwork at the line, I think he just really amped up his enthusiasm and involvement on the weekend. It was really impressive, I don't think I could bench him at the moment. Will be interesting to see how he's going when Tariq is available, but he's clearly stating his case to stay in the starting side.

Is Smith the one to make way for Tariq? He only played 30-35 minutes on the weekend, is on the way out after this year anyway.

 

[macavity]

Smith is going to be a one-year-too-long player this year I fear :/

 

[slotmachine]

He really struggled with the pace of the game, but as perverse says a ready made replacement is three weeks away.

Dave faalogo did a fair job at lock too.

 

[Noname36]

I think Rochow will end up playing in the middle from the bench. He had a great game on Saturday but I feel sooner rather than later Stone will have Tariq starting in his best position which is on the edge.

Rochow looked pretty good in the middle when he played there last year. Mobile forwards seem to be getting more and more important so there's definitely a place for him even if Tariq takes his spot eventually.

 

[Joker's Wild]

I thought Faalongo looked off the pace in fact. Struggled to get back onside a few times

Smith looked ok for mine in the limited time he had on the paddock.

 

[Spot On]

Quite a few players looked much fitter, quicker and confident under Stone than they ever did under Bennett. Rochow was really good and obviously Aku, now allowed to cut his hair the way he wants, looked a different player - physically and mentally.

 

[Bring it home Knights]

I thought Mullen and Roberts were quite poor during this game. Their kicking game in particular. Gagai and uate played well in attack and defense. Leilua is looking massively out of shape however when he played like a forward in closer he did some good runs. Snowden played a very key role in our forward pack not getting monstered. Compared to our other forwards, he consistently made meters after impact.Sione had a safe game which is rare from someone so young as this is when most players have plenty of errors in their game. I was particularly impressed with Randell. His passing game was outstanding and kept the team rolling forward.

It was evident that the team played with a lot of desire and with more freedom in attack. I'm really looking forward to the rest of 2015and seeing some attacking football.

 

[Jono078]

It's funny, I watched a clip on youtube last night and it was when we beat the Storm by scoring 2 tries in the last few minutes to win the game, and when they interviewed Gidley he said there was an out pour of emotion and he said it was because that was the first time that season he felt they all played and put in for each other.

And this was very evident in round 1. It seems like we are a tighter bunch than ever and we stuck together and pulled out the win.

 

[Yosh]

I think we all see BJ having the potentially to be a devastating player for us. We're just not sure where he should be playing to be the most beneficial for the team.

I think we have the backs covered but could use some more impact off the bench. He could play 30 to 40 minutes to cover for our other backrowers late in each half, come on and try to make line breaks or get offloads off like he did on the weekend.

If he stays centre, I'm happy with that too.

 

[Bring it home Knights]

I think we all see BJ having the potentially to be a devastating player for us. We're just not sure where he should be playing to be the most beneficial for the team.

I think we have the backs covered but could use some more impact off the bench. He could play 30 to 40 minutes to cover for our other backrowers late in each half, come on and try to make line breaks or get offloads off like he did on the weekend.

If he stays centre, I'm happy with that too.

Last year Leilua made a break and he was being run down by a 35 year old Fui Fui Moi Moi. That's enough evidence for me that he'll end up in the forwards.