What's new
The Front Row Forums

Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Trial Team vs New

2012....Sharks Year

First Grade
Messages
5,385
1st half.
Fifita and Prior laid the platform, both had exceptional games. Prior is old school toughness .
Gal solid, still taking the 4th tackle run though lol
I thought SJ was fairly quiet, certainly no razzamatazz but did get them down field a few times by finding touch.
Moylan looked dangerous every time they attacked . Hopefully Morris and Dugan stay fit because their attack will be exciting to watch with Moylan
Nikora came good later in the 1st half.
Jack Williams was fairly solid.
Interesting because Bukuya came on the 2nd half . I don't think Capewell can match it with the other backrowers. He played like the end of last year...average
Kennedy looks the goods bit freakish and skillful. Bronson didn't really make an impact 1 or 2 bumping carry's .
Josh Morris had 2 good runs , before he got belted.
Couple of other forwards looked OK in 2nd half as well so depth looking good.
Good summary 47...didn't get to see the game...did Chad play?
 
Messages
14,496
Only a trial as they say but if I was John Morris I would be very happy with the look of the Moylan, Townsend & Johnson Combination. So many points of attack will certainly have the opposition defences on their toes. Also Brailey looked fantastic as well.

As for Nathan Brown I’ve never believed that whinging bum would ever change much at Newcastle and yesterday’s trial would be a bit of a worry for Knights fans and more importantly Nathan Brown. Their spine looked very clunky and clueless. Even when the Sharks fringe players were put on the field at half time and the Newcastle firsts stayed on for most of the match they still couldn’t get any momentum. Embarrassing.
 

taipan

Referee
Messages
22,402
Missed the game.Was Feki up to his usual dropping the high ball and bad reads?
Do we look semi certs based on what was on offer?
BTW based on reading the above, if we need to offload a player, Duges appears a Cole's Special.
All this good news ,must be fake news.It's just not Cronulla.
 

Card Shark

Immortal
Messages
32,237
Only a trial as they say but if I was John Morris I would be very happy with the look of the Moylan, Townsend & Johnson Combination. So many points of attack will certainly have the opposition defences on their toes. Also Brailey looked fantastic as well.

As for Nathan Brown I’ve never believed that whinging bum would ever change much at Newcastle and yesterday’s trial would be a bit of a worry for Knights fans and more importantly Nathan Brown. Their spine looked very clunky and clueless. Even when the Sharks fringe players were put on the field at half time and the Newcastle firsts stayed on for most of the match they still couldn’t get any momentum. Embarrassing.

Agree slayer.

I normally don’t take much notice of trials, same with round 1 which is a glorified trial & each team gets to blow their load before they knuckle down for a long year but Newcastle have a shit load of work to do!

As I said to my old man & mate who are knights supporters, that loss will do them good!
 

Card Shark

Immortal
Messages
32,237
Missed the game.Was Feki up to his usual dropping the high ball and bad reads?
Do we look semi certs based on what was on offer?
BTW based on reading the above, if we need to offload a player, Duges appears a Cole's Special.
All this good news ,must be fake news.It's just not Cronulla.

Don’t recollect Feki being tested but Katoa was & played a good game.

I don’t want Duges gone, we’ve already lost enough backline talent this year. He looked raring to go yesterday, I was watching him closely.

He went off with what looked mild concussion early after bolting off the line to shutdown a knights attack & got his head in the wrong spot.

I’m tipping he will have his best year in ages now that his mental demons are out in the open.
 

snout

First Grade
Messages
5,517
The old line 'its only a trial' gets trotted out a lot.
Especially by those that lose.

Then why play them if teams are prepared to just turn up and not put in?

They may not be for two points but they are an indication of how preseasons gone.

Obvioulsy for us its been happy camp despite much off field crap.
We have built great resilience and have a squad that know how to roll with the punches.
Newbies like SJ and the whichever morris we have just settle straight in.

On the other side...if nathan brown even thinks of uttering ghe words its only a trial he needs a kick up the arse
Fulltime training since november and a very good squad. Guys should be pumped to get out and prove they want to play first grade and make a statement after many shit seasons.

And that flat unenergetic display is rolled out?

The new wests board would concerned. Very concerned.
We may well pin brown's arse to the wall in a fortnight.
 

Stake Removed

First Grade
Messages
9,676
The old line 'its only a trial' gets trotted out a lot.
Especially by those that lose.

Then why play them if teams are prepared to just turn up and not put in?

They may not be for two points but they are an indication of how preseasons gone.

Obvioulsy for us its been happy camp despite much off field crap.
We have built great resilience and have a squad that know how to roll with the punches.
Newbies like SJ and the whichever morris we have just settle straight in.

On the other side...if nathan brown even thinks of uttering ghe words its only a trial he needs a kick up the arse
Fulltime training since november and a very good squad. Guys should be pumped to get out and prove they want to play first grade and make a statement after many shit seasons.

And that flat unenergetic display is rolled out?

The new wests board would concerned. Very concerned.
We may well pin brown's arse to the wall in a fortnight.

The Knights didnt know how to use Ramien, we would bring him back on angle run inside would create so much damage.

Ponga has points him, but he also can throw a intercept, i liked the tackle Xerri did on Ponga as well.

Game management i know only trial but look at difference Pearce & Johnson, Johnson was finding the line kicked deep into touch Pearce didnt.

Lets hope they havent improved in 2 weeks, and we win a 1st up game for a long time
 

Card Shark

Immortal
Messages
32,237
The old line 'its only a trial' gets trotted out a lot.
Especially by those that lose.

Then why play them if teams are prepared to just turn up and not put in?

They may not be for two points but they are an indication of how preseasons gone.

Agree

The only teams that are treating is as “only a trial” are the teams that performed extremely well the year before or have a stable squad.

We showed we mean business yesterday! Knights would’ve been hoping to but couldn’t cut it.

We got the first 2 penalties & they got the next 6 or 7 & hardly looked like scoring.
 

ghoti

Bench
Messages
3,529
Might be the hangover brain worms talkin, but I kinda like that Johnson was quiet...

Used to watch him be in everything for the Warriors while they took loss after loss, these kinda strike players given less responsibility while they attract nervous defenders and given the chance to pick their moments I reckon often make the players around them more dangerous. I reckon we'll see Chad, Moylan and the edge runners shine while defenders have half an eye on Johnson as long as he doesn't try to get involved in everything

Excited to see all these guys take the field
 

Frenzy.

Immortal
Messages
47,955
How many newbies have you got this year? Going to take a while to get any type of rythytm going for you guys unfortunately. All quality signings though so I still see you in the top 8 by years end.

They wont be as easy in 2 weeks. They showed no cohesion in the good ball zone at all. They just have to gel a bit more.

Their defence, in structure, was OK too. Their defence, in strength and conditioning, looked soft though.

Having said that plenty of teams are gonna struggle with SJ and Mythlan playing both sides at random like they did last night. Never knew where those 2 charnts were gonna pop up
 

Frenzy.

Immortal
Messages
47,955
1st half.
Fifita and Prior laid the platform, both had exceptional games. Prior is old school toughness .
Gal solid, still taking the 4th tackle run though lol
I thought SJ was fairly quiet, certainly no razzamatazz but did get them down field a few times by finding touch.
Moylan looked dangerous every time they attacked . Hopefully Morris and Dugan stay fit because their attack will be exciting to watch with Moylan
Nikora came good later in the 1st half.
Jack Williams was fairly solid.
Interesting because Bukuya came on the 2nd half . I don't think Capewell can match it with the other backrowers. He played like the end of last year...average
Kennedy looks the goods bit freakish and skillful. Bronson didn't really make an impact 1 or 2 bumping carry's .
Josh Morris had 2 good runs , before he got belted.
Couple of other forwards looked OK in 2nd half as well so depth looking good.

Not bad except you missed how well The Coiffed one set it all up :)

I was more impressed with The Virgin this week because he actually has to defend coming off the line a fair bit in the first half when they were coming at the Sharks but botching chances. I didnt see a misread that had to be covered and he fair smashed a couple of charnts. So did Little Brittain
 
Last edited:

coolumsharkie

Referee
Messages
26,627
Might be the hangover brain worms talkin, but I kinda like that Johnson was quiet...

Used to watch him be in everything for the Warriors while they took loss after loss, these kinda strike players given less responsibility while they attract nervous defenders and given the chance to pick their moments I reckon often make the players around them more dangerous. I reckon we'll see Chad, Moylan and the edge runners shine while defenders have half an eye on Johnson as long as he doesn't try to get involved in everything

Excited to see all these guys take the field

I thought his game was purposeful in that he was doing a great deal of just hanging off to the right each time, must be good for him to be able to relax and not be the only merkin relied on to make shit happen. Also saw a bit of Noddy coaching influence with his kicks to touch, hope fully getting more accurate as the season goes on but this could be a good ploy in the early stages to give the boys a rest.
 

Mr Angry

Not a Referee
Messages
51,767
Missed the game.Was Feki up to his usual dropping the high ball and bad reads?
Just one bad one on one miss. Was solid otherwise.
Do we look semi certs based on what was on offer?
Long season, but as good as last year.
BTW based on reading the above, if we need to offload a player, Duges appears a Cole's Special.
Nah Dugan is a weapon. Sege, Ava -->
All this good news ,must be fake news.It's just not Cronulla.
Manly won, so not all good.
 

txta2

Bench
Messages
4,871
Missed the game.Was Feki up to his usual dropping the high ball and bad reads?
Do we look semi certs based on what was on offer?
BTW based on reading the above, if we need to offload a player, Duges appears a Cole's Special.
All this good news ,must be fake news.It's just not Cronulla.
Feki had 1 bad read ,came in early and the opposite winger scored, he got hooked after that. But still him running out from dummy half hard is what they need. He is probably the first pick winger in the club...Katoa showed glimpses.
Did Chad play? Good question..he dropped the ball once messed one play up with the ole dummy right, dummy left shimmy shimmy.
I'm still not a fan of Johnson being in the position of catch and pass... bit of waste really
 
Messages
14,496
I thought his game was purposeful in that he was doing a great deal of just hanging off to the right each time, must be good for him to be able to relax and not be the only merkin relied on to make shit happen. Also saw a bit of Noddy coaching influence with his kicks to touch, hope fully getting more accurate as the season goes on but this could be a good ploy in the early stages to give the boys a rest.

Loved Johnson’s kicking game.
His goal kicking is the goods too!
 

Latest posts

Top