Knight Tales
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Hard to believe anything they say at the moment. It is just disappointment on a scale I have never seen or felt before.
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Player power shouldn’t be making those sorts of decisions. Doesn’t really matter who the coach is - doesn’t sit well with me.
I get that you don't like AOB, but you make a lot up irrationally.
And everyone was rating Luki way above Nanai. How tides turn.
The talent pools are somewhat very different. Parr is here to try to fix that. If Obi is still struggling with the changes being implemented he will be sent packing. He will be coach Rd 1 2023. And as annoyed as we get with Adam all the feedback from the top
Adding personnel obviously helped him, but so did his own continuous growth. It's not like he was sitting there in press conferences telling people he knows what needs to be done because he'd won a grand final.
News Limited see AOB as the soft target now.Knights are ‘rudderless’ after huge roster blunder. Only a big transfer swing can save O’Brien
The Knights are in disarray.
After making the finals the last two seasons they are faced with the possibility of collecting the wooden spoon in 2022.
What’s more, there is division within the club after David Klemmer was handed a show cause notice due to an ugly run in with a trainer in Round 20. It was then reported that Klemmer’s contract could be torn up.
It has left coach Adam O’Brien under serious threat. The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield last week week suggested O’Brien had six to eight games next season to try and turn things around and save his job.
“I spoke to Adam O’Brien and he’s asked me, how are the punters seeing it from this side and I said, look I think everyone’s happy that you’re safe for the rest of the year,” Rothfield said on NRL360.
“I then said, but I think you’ve got six to eight weeks at the start of next year and you know what? He agreed.”
O’Brien is cleary aware of the pressure he is under. He would also be aware that something needs to change if the Knights are to turns things around in 2023.
He needs to start with the roster.
The Knights are in desperate need of a halfback to fix an unbalanced top 30 and ignite their woeful attack after they failed to replace their most important player in Mitchell Pearce.
If reports the Tigers are keen to extend Luke Brooks are true, the Knights would be left without a top line halfback for a second straight season.
The successful clubs in the NRL build a spine from the halfback as a starting point and then fill in the rest of the roster around the No.7, No.6, No.9 and No.1.
The Knights have their fullback in Kalyn Ponga, who has signed a long-term deal through until 2027. He can also cover five-eighth if the club had another option for No.1 down the line.
Jayden Brailey, who has captained the side and is in the leadership group is the club’s long-term hooker after signing until 2025.
Five-eighth and halfback is where it gets a little murky. Jake Clifford, who is signed until 2023, was brought to the club as a five-eighth and was playing some decent football alongside Pearce in his preferred position at No.6.
However, Clifford has been shuffled between five-eighth and halfback this season and his form has fallen off a cliff, to the point he has spent large chunks of the season languishing in reserve grade.
Halfback Adam Clune is signed until 2023 as well, but given what he has produced at the Dragons and Knights so far in his career he is a handy back-up at best.
Anthony Milford is the side’s chief playmaker at the moment but he is bound for the Dolphins at the end of the season.
Pearce was the glue that held the Knights team together. His kicking game allowed Ponga to focus on his own game and he combined well with his edge ball-runners in attack and was strong defensively, both individually and as a leader of the defensive line.
Since Pearce left the Knights have been a rabble in both attack and defence. They are the worst side in the NRL in terms of defence and given what they dished up against the Bulldogs in Round 20, their attack is not much better.
Granted they got back to winning ways against the Tigers, but their 14-10 victory saw them jump out to a 14-0 lead, before Tigers scored the last 10 points of the match and nearly came over the top of them.
A closer look at their stats from last season to this season shows how far the Knights have fallen in both attack and defence.
In 2021 the Knights finished seventh on the ladder and ranked fourth in completion rate, which has slipped to 9th in 2022, while their run metres went from ranking seventh in 2021 to 13th a year later.
In post contact metres they have slipped from 6th in 2021 to 14th in 2022, while they ranked fourth in tackles in opposition 20 last season and now find themselves at eighth.
Interestingly the Knights attack was not much better in 2021 when they ranked 14th in linebreaks as opposed to 16th in 2022, while they ranked 13th in tackles busts as opposed to 15th now.
Defence is where things have clearly got ugly with the Knights ranking eighth for points conceded and 10th for tries conceded last season and they have slipped to 14th in both categories in 2022.
The main area where they have fallen away is in missed tackles after they ranked fourth in 2021 and now sit at 15th in 2022.
So while they did make the finals the last two seasons, the Knights have real issues in attack and defence that desperately need attention.
O’Brien even admitted that had they made the finals in 2022 it would have papered over the cracks of some deeper issues at the club.
The Knights need to invest in a halfback to direct the team around, but they also need players who can tackle and organise a defensive line.
Fox League’s James Hooper said O’Brien needed to take a big swing in the transfer market.
“They’ve got to get busy in terms of key position players because as you’ve pointed out it’s their halves and it’s their attack that have really been brought unstuck this season,” Hooper said on NRL360.
“They have bought Adam Elliott and Jack Hetherington (for 2023), which means they have got another lean year,” Paul Kent replied.
“This year the problem that has been identified is the No.6 and the No.7.
“Milford is going to the Dolphins next year. Clifford and Clune were brought in and there was a bit or a wrap on them at the beginning of the year and everyone was marvelling at how well they were going.
“But for whatever reason their form just went right off and neither of them now are producing what they need to produce.”
“If he (Luke Brooks) stays Newcastle are in some big trouble,” Anasta then pointed out.
Phil Rothfield, meanwhile, believes the Knights could switch Ponga to five-eighth and bring in a new fullback in a bid to fix their attack.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be any easier if you can’t find a good halfback, you find a really good fullback and move Ponga to five-eighth, but Kalyn’s sort of settled in at fullback hasn’t he?” he said.
Paul Kent, however, said Ponga has let it be known that he wants to be the fullback long-term and blasted the club’s lack of imagination and creativity in attack.
“He’s an established fullback,” Kent said.
“The Knights have got severe problems though, because of their pedestrian attack, they are continually setting up for the next play.
“The strike play in each set of six doesn’t arrive, it’s a set up into a set up, into a set up and then finally they run a block play and you think, is that what you’ve been setting up for.
“It’s taken you two tackles to get there to run a simple block play.
“Part of the magic of the way that Penrith play, Penrith are coming at you from every tackle with something.
“Even their little set up plays have something in there to just test you a little bit.
“Newcastle are just running dud play into dud play, into dud play.”
So how do the Knights turn their around in time for the first eight weeks of next season to guarantee O’Brien’s future?
David Klemmer’s hefty $800,000 contract would help attract a marquee half if he was to part ways with the club. With Luke Brooks reported salary for 2023 heading north of $1.1 million, Klemmer’s departure would free up some much-needed cap space.
But if the Knights don’t get Brooks for 2023, the cupboard is bare in terms of off-contract halfbacks available for next season.
Tigers youngster Jock Madden is probably the pick of the off-contract stars, but he is yet to prove himself as a consistent first-grader despite some promising signs.
Broncos veteran Albert Kelly, Storm back-up Cooper Johns, Bulldogs half Brandon Wakeham and Knights youngster Phoenix Crossland round out the off-contract No.7s.
Warriors playmaker Daejarn Asi, Broncos utility Billy Walters and Panthers pair Jaeman Salmon and Kurt Falls round out the five-eighths off-contract, but the Knights don’t need another No.6 as much as they need a halfback to steer the side’s attack.
Ben Hunt, Jackson Hastings and Brooks headline the 2023 off-contract halfbacks, but that won’t help the Knights in the first eight rounds next season and that won’t save Adam O’Brien.
The Knights may have to try and entice a key playmaker to break his contract as they have tried with Brooks.
Dylan Brown, Adam Doueihi, Cameron Munster and Cody Walker headline the five-eighths coming off-contract next season, but that wouldn’t solve their halfback dilemma even in the unlikely event they were able to grab a big name No.6.
Another option would be to try and get Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who is struggling to cement a starting berth at the Cowboys and sign him to play fullback, with Ponga shifting to five-eighth.
In terms of improving their defence in 2023, Angus Crichton would be the ideal player to sure up their defensive unit, while Sharks premiership winner Wade Graham is another veteran that would add some much needed steel to their forward pack.
Whichever way they go, the Knights need to make a bold move to change the way they do things in both attack and defence.
Trotting out the same squad next season will only lead to the same results.
If they don’t get Brooks immediately, by the time the Knights can secure a marquee half, O’Brien could already be long gone.
Knights are ‘rudderless’ after huge roster blunder. Only a big transfer swing can save O’Brien
Knights are ‘rudderless’ after roster blunder. Only a big transfer swing can save themwww.foxsports.com.au
As much as it will divide opinion, and the pros and cons are vast, the options we have are one of the rep props will need to be let go (Klem would be short odds) and I think Frizzell will be gone too for 2024. I still think we are a fair chance of getting Nanai out of NQ due to Parr and Zammit. The Safs I cannot see ever leaving or being allowed to. Pryce and KPP makes next season much more tolerable knowing we have a far brighter 2024 to look forward to. We will just have to accept the status quo is likely here for another 12 months. We can only hope Clifford and KP play in the halves and Young Hodgson finds fitness and can handle playing fullback at NRL level. Our best hope for next year. I pray interest in Brooks is now over. Would be better to try our hand at developing Pryce into a chief playmaker.
Doomed, minimum requirement is 4
