The “Unpopular Opinion” Thread

[Burwood]

I’ve been wanting to make this thread for a while now, and saw the phrase used a couple of times since today’s loss to Parra. Post your unpopular opinions, or gives others feedback on theirs.

I’ll start:

1. Best is severely overrated. Having taken 3000 hit ups on the 2nd tackle this year, you’d think a player as big and strong as he would at least make a break or bust a tackle every so often. I can’t recall one instance from the entire year. Opposition worked out it’s easy to shut him down by tackling him low.

2. Brailey isn’t as good as made out to be. He’s got quick service, but it’s amazing how many times he picks the wrong guy to pass it to.

3. Brodie Jones’ best attribute is that he’s a local. Offered nothing in 1st grade except for one game where he played out of position. Done nothing since.

4. Mann has reached peak derp. Next year he’ll return to 2019/2020 form and provide some value for us.

I’ll leave it at those for now. I had a lot more, but it seems that they have become popular opinions so not really fitting into this thread.

 

[Loose Cannon]

I’ll get to mine soon.

But I score your list as following.

 

[aqua_duck]

Beat definitely needs to add a very more strings to his bow, can't just rely on size and power in 1st grade, I think part of the problem is he almost never receives the ball with space to work with, it's always either a crash ball or down a narrow blind.
The overall structure of our attack really doesn't do our backs any favours, our attack is either one out or sideways, we need to learn to play straight and then out the back to give our outside men the best possible opportunity

 

[Yosh]

1. AOB hasn't shown enough during the two years he has had here and should be fired.

2. Our players don't really want to win, they just want to not lose.

 

[Woosh]

Haven’t watched a Knights game in years but Best has Sione Mata'utia vibes and will end up as edge back-rower.

 

[slotmachine]

Best has Sione Mata'utia vibes

He's a bit bigger and faster so gets the benefit of the doubt, but could be headed that way.

 

[Burwood]

AOB hasn't shown enough during the two years he has had here and should be fired.

I think he’s surrounded himself with the wrong people. A problem with new coaches is that they can feel threatened by experienced assistants- Willie Peters, Rory Kostjasyn etc aren’t exactly a threat.

I hate the guy, but maybe we do need someone like Flanagan on board.

 

[Jono078]

Ponga. Do his positives outweigh the negatives?

He can obviously put on a try assist but I feel this has been his worst year to date.

His kick returns were MIA. I feel like his tackle breaks and line breaks are well down? And his defense is a fair concern.

You look at all the rookie fullbacks this year and man they're all exciting, it's just a matter of who is willing to put in the work and sacrifice to be the best.

 

[Burwood]

Ponga. Do his positives outweigh the negatives?

He can obviously put on a try assist but I feel this has been his worst year to date.

His kick returns were MIA. I feel like his tackle breaks and line breaks are well down? And his defense is a fair concern.

You look at all the rookie fullbacks this year and man they're all exciting, it's just a matter of who is willing to put in the work and sacrifice to be the best.

His only improvement this year has been his change in technique with taking a high ball which sees him landing on his head less often.

The rookie fullbacks are playing like Ponga in his first year with us.

 

[Allstar Knights]

Mann has a quality yardage game out of our own end when he doesn't make errors. Better at it than Best and Tuala.

 

[Apey]

1. Probably a bit of a stretch to say severely overrated because most of us on the forum are worried about his deficiencies. Unless you mean in the media, then 100%.
2. Largely disagree with this one.
3. Pretty much yeah.
4. I hope so, but I don't believe it.

 

[Jono078]

His only improvement this year has been his change in technique with taking a high ball which sees him landing on his head less often.

The rookie fullbacks are playing like Ponga in his first year with us.

I thought I'd look at his stats to see for myself about some of the claims I made;



So his Runs and tackle breaks are down. How much of this you put down to him coming off his shoulder injury and then his groin issues mid-season I don't know. Other than that you'd probably say it was his best year. His missed tackles are down and his errors, by reasonable margins.

Stats don't tell the full story but it's interesting viewing regardless.

 

[Alex28]

I feel a bit for Best. Our key play to score is literally cutting him out. We need to find a better use for him.

Can’t agree with Brailey though. He’s going to be an Origin hooker.

 

[aqua_duck]

I think Ponga has definitely hit a plateau but it also doesn't help that he very rarely gets the ball in much space. As I said we're not really doing our backs any favours with our attacking structure. When's the last time we stripped a team for numbers with a bread and butter block play? When's the last time we shifted quickly from our own half and caught a team out?
All the tries we scored today were more a result of individual quality rather than great attacking structure.

 

[Burwood]

And let’s see how he goes next year without his two best mates Watson and Hoy around.

 

[mozza91]

Frizell has been a little underwhelming this season.

Gagai is a good signing and has improved out of sight since he was here last.

Barnett is our best forward. Effort and skill wise.

Fitzgibbon isn’t near as bad as what is made out.

Hunt is easily our best outside back and should have been playing in the centres the last 2 years

AOB has done a good job and turned us into a tough team that can grind out wins. I think he’ll take us a step further next year and get us pushing the top 4.

 

[perverse]

1. Yep, looking highly possible. He's probably still got a year or two before we know for sure, still very young.
2. Yep, agreed 100%. Good service, great tackler, good in effort areas... but very one dimensional otherwise. We offer zero threat out of dummy half. Has completely put his running game cue in the rack, no kicking, playmaking or subterfuge from dummy half whatsoever.
3. Yyyyyes and no. Yes in that, I don't know if he reaches any great heights. No in that I think he can offer good value as a squad player. Depth/bench and oscillating between the two most likely.
4. I wish, but he is what he's pretty much always been. Had one pretty ok year, but still was more of a problem than a solution even at the time. Rest of his career is... well... this.

Here's one of my own. Ponga will never be the player he could be. He won't ever reach the heights of someone equal to (in many cases less than) his talents that actually loves the game. When asked in the pre-match media just this week before the Parra game how he thinks Parra are going - the only response he could offer is that we haven't done our video work yet, and that he doesn't watch footy. Doesn't watch footy?? Mate, we're paying you a million or more to play the f**king game, and you can't be bothered to sit at home with a beer and do a bit of homework?

It shows in the way he plays the game too. Why do you think he's not sniffing around Friz for offloads all the time? Friz has had a million chances to offload to a flying Ponga in the past couple of months, yet we've seen zero. Ponga looks great as someone either creating for himself through sheer athleticism, or someone running a structured play that he's learned during his "day job" - but he will never have the footy instincts of a Tommy Turbo or a Ryan Papenhuyzen. As a result of that, I don't think he'll ever be the player we want (and need) him to be.

We want to blame our halves or our coaching all the time for our lack of ability to play ad lib football, but our highest paid attacking weapon has no instinct for that style of play whatsoever.

He either needs to find that love, that obsession for the game and for winning at it... or alternatively we can't rely on him to be our main man.

 

[perverse]

I'm actually curious to know how much ground Ponga covers in a match when compared to a Tommy Turbo, a Papenhuyzen or a Tedesco. These are blokes that always seem to be on the spot where they need to be for an offload, a final pass receiver on a break, etc. They work bloody hard off the ball to be where their teammates need them. Ponga often feels like the complete opposite to me. Outside of structured play, you look around for him and he's not even in the camera frame.

 

[Woosh]

I'm actually curious to know how much ground Ponga covers in a match when compared to a Tommy Turbo, a Papenhuyzen or a Tedesco. These are blokes that always seem to be on the spot where they need to be for an offload, a final pass receiver on a break, etc. They work bloody hard off the ball to be where their teammates need them. Ponga often feels like the complete opposite to me. Outside of structured play, you look around for him and he's not even in the camera frame.

Better hope Slater gets the QLD coaching gig.
He would help Ponga immensely like has with Papenhuyzen.

 

[Jono078]

Better hope Slater gets the QLD coaching gig.
He would help Ponga immensely like has with Papenhuyzen.

Really funny you say that... There was footage shown throughout the week of Slater and Ponga and Ponga looks disinterested in what he had to say haha. Obviously may not be the case but it's how it looks in the footage. I'll see If I can find it.