Match Discussion: Round 2 vs Dolphins @ McDonald Jones Stadium, New Lambton / Awabakal

[Knight Tales]

The Croker miss on Katoa has to be a big talking point when selecting the side. It was simply not acceptable. Cos Croker was trying to bump him and that is simply poor defence in anyone’s language.

 

[slotmachine]

Hopefully it’s not Cant who I think will be a quality lock forward, but isn’t very good on an edge imo.

Think friz will go the edge, Elliott starts and cant onto the bench

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

A real shame about Crokers bad miss. Despite what most others have said, I thought he was having a decent game until then.

 

[Zoidberg]

I did think Croker’s missed tackle may have had to do with a bit of fatigue. He kept playing on when Jacob didn’t return. Still should be better. And we probably did miss Jacob when he didn’t come back on.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

I did think Croker’s missed tackle may have had to do with a bit of fatigue. He kept playing on when Jacob didn’t return. Still should be better. And we probably did miss Jacob when he didn’t come back on.

My thoughts exactly. I think he had 12 or so runs for 120m and extended minutes which is more than we'd ideally expect of him. Fairly high tackle count too. He worked hard. Still an absolutely shocking miss though.

 

[Lynoman]

So good to be at a game again and even better to see the boys put in such an effort. We got lazy for about 20 min the second half but we really stood up with KPP off the field, so all in all a good performance. Also, spending money on gold tix is so much better than where we were last year. It's heaven sitting with diehard Knights supporters, instead of all the away supporters we were amoungst last year. Also, for some weird reason, my sports ears work again.

 

[Lynoman]

It wasn't necessary but you know what the media are like. I thought he handled it very professionally.
Loved KP's cheeky dig too

"Do I look unhappy?" f**king classic!

 

[Yosh]

Normally the Knights ruin my weekend but this weekend is looking good. Top of the table, star player signed, all them journalists annoyed we doing well.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[Lynoman]

Kudos to Barry Toohey for giving KP the chance to give that answer.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

I was watching the 9 coverage which I normally don’t do. But Joey went into the change room after the game and was interviewing the players. He then goes up to Jack Cogger and says something along the lines of “must have been a difficult week for you now that Brown has signed” which I think is a bit of a shit thing to say to him straight after a win. Everyone knows Cogger is on the outer and is probably 4th in line for a halves spot next year. Just seemed like an unnecessary line of questioning given everything going on. Felt a bit for Jack trying to awkwardly dead bat that question.

 

[ryan.a87]

Kpp suspended for 2 weeks
Jsaf most likely out next week
Thompson out for a month with a bung knee
Source: Toohey

could see a starting front row of hetherington and Croker next week

Cant and Tyrone on the bench maybe?

 

[perverse]

Kudos to Barry Toohey for giving KP the chance to give that answer.

It was a great answer too. You typically wouldn't taunt the media like that if there was even a hint of smoke behind the rumour. They really do just make shit up and aggitate for stories. "KP leaving the Knights" theory is built on the flimsiest of comments he made as a kid. They always talk about his "All Black ambitions"... but the only time he's ever even said anything about it publically he was asked something to the effect of "IF you went to union, would you like to play for the All Blacks?". The spirit of the question was more about his allegiance to Australia vs New Zealand than it even was about a potential code switch. They have taken that and cooked up over the years that Kalyn has these huge All Blacks ambitions. Literally every kid with a drop of NZ blood in them would opt to play for the All Blacks if they went to union. It's practically a non-question cooked up to make union fans dicks hard when they read it.

Now, has Kalyn spoken to NZ Rugby over the years, or even recently? Probably! The kid is an out and out superstar and probably one of the few that could go and play for the All Blacks. There would have to be dialogue. There would ALWAYS be people chirping in his ear. There's not a team of either code that wouldn't clear the decks to have him. That doesn't mean he's even close to putting a foot out the door. That's just normal. I'm pretty sure all the Roosters talk all the time is literally just the Roosters themselves making sure Kalyn knows he has a backup home if he ever wants it. They're well connected in business and the media.

There is definitely angst against the Knights in the media. We don't give them the access they want, we're a smaller "out-of-town" team, and I do think the general vibe is that everyone is quite happy for us to remain battlers and not really part of the larger conversation - subconciously or otherwise. At the end of the day, all the last week has highlighted for me above all else is how little media pundits know about our team. They really pay barely any attention - and this includes our own old boys. Matty Johns was chirping about how sad he is that the Knights have got this desperate - but the bloke has clearly not paid enough attention to grasp what the clubs actual thinking is here because he's still hung up on the fact that Brown isn't a traditional halfback. So cry me a river, Matty - if you gave half a f**k yourself you'd be able to comprehend the clubs perspective on this, but he can't help himself but be negative about it.

It blows my mind that Gus and Keiran Foran have better takes on the deal than 2 of our own legends that have literally played in the jerseys we're talking about. Can you imagine the crying if we didn't make this signing, and Kalyn leaves in a couple of years because we've failed to secure any class spine players? That would be considered one of the biggest dropped balls in NRL history.

 

[Yosh]

Kpp suspended for 2 weeks
Jsaf most likely out next week
Thompson out for a month with a bung knee
Source: Toohey

could see a starting front row of hetherington and Croker next week

Cant and Tyrone on the bench maybe?

Hope we can snag a win next week and then regroup during the bye.

We need to find a big middle somewhere and get him signed up for this season. Can be a 25-30 minute a game player but needs to be a big body.

 

[perverse]

Kpp suspended for 2 weeks
Jsaf most likely out next week
Thompson out for a month with a bung knee
Source: Toohey

could see a starting front row of hetherington and Croker next week

Cant and Tyrone on the bench maybe?

Ugh, and we're immediately punished for not replacing DSaf. There's no way around it, our back 5 need to basically repeat this weeks performance. Our middles are mostly tackle-bots at this point anyway. We don't look to make big metres through our forwards. As far as go-forward is concerned, we'd miss Greg more than any of our props.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

It was a great answer too. You typically wouldn't taunt the media like that if there was even a hint of smoke behind the rumour. They really do just make shit up and aggitate for stories. "KP leaving the Knights" theory is built on the flimsiest of comments he made as a kid. They always talk about his "All Black ambitions"... but the only time he's ever even said anything about it publically he was asked something to the effect of "IF you went to union, would you like to play for the All Blacks?". The spirit of the question was more about his allegiance to Australia vs New Zealand than it even was about a potential code switch. They have taken that and cooked up over the years that Kalyn has these huge All Blacks ambitions. Literally every kid with a drop of NZ blood in them would opt to play for the All Blacks if they went to union. It's practically a non-question cooked up to make union fans dicks hard when they read it.

Now, has Kalyn spoken to NZ Rugby over the years, or even recently? Probably! The kid is an out and out superstar and probably one of the few that could go and play for the All Blacks. There would have to be dialogue. There would ALWAYS be people chirping in his ear. There's not a team of either code that wouldn't clear the decks to have him. That doesn't mean he's even close to putting a foot out the door. That's just normal. I'm pretty sure all the Roosters talk all the time is literally just the Roosters themselves making sure Kalyn knows he has a backup home if he ever wants it. They're well connected in business and the media.

There is definitely angst against the Knights in the media. We don't give them the access they want, we're a smaller "out-of-town" team, and I do think the general vibe is that everyone is quite happy for us to remain battlers and not really part of the larger conversation - subconciously or otherwise. At the end of the day, all the last week has highlighted for me above all else is how little media pundits know about our team. They really pay barely any attention - and this includes our own old boys. Matty Johns was chirping about how sad he is that the Knights have got this desperate - but the bloke has clearly not paid enough attention to grasp what the clubs actual thinking is here because he's still hung up on the fact that Brown isn't a traditional halfback. So cry me a river, Matty - if you gave half a f**k yourself you'd be able to comprehend the clubs perspective on this, but he can't help himself but be negative about it.

It blows my mind that Gus and Keiran Foran have better takes on the deal than 2 of our own legends that have literally played in the jerseys we're talking about. Can you imagine the crying if we didn't make this signing, and Kalyn leaves in a couple of years because we've failed to secure any class spine players? That would be considered one of the biggest dropped balls in NRL history.

The main difference from the Matty Johns take on Dylan Brown to the Gus Gould/Kieran Foran etc is Matty Johns is a major FOX contributor, he knowns the FOX MO, he does it with a lot of his commentary, "create the news" "make the headline" . Matty Johns is just a really good FOX employee.

Now FOX are reporting Roosters are going to make a huge play for Ponga - during this week the reports will be "Brown is getting cold feet" . They will milk this story until it dies a death ( people stop clicking)

 

[perverse]

The main difference from the Matty Johns take on Dylan Brown to the Gus Gould/Kieran Foran etc is Matty Johns is a major FOX contributor, he knowns the FOX MO, he does it with a lot of his commentary, "create the news" "make the headline" . Matty Johns is just a really good FOX employee.

Now FOX are reporting Roosters are going to make a huge play for Ponga - during this week the reports will be "Brown is getting cold feet" . They will milk this story until it dies a death ( people stop clicking)

How can the roosters make a huge play for Ponga when they're not even allowed to negotiate with him until the end of next year? f**king ridiculous story, but I guess that's our year this year. Just more headlines about Ponga leaving. It was nice that we had a couple of years off.

I'd love to know how they're going to spin it that a class player coming to our team has somehow made Kalyn more likely to leave.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

How can the roosters make a huge play for Ponga when they're not even allowed to negotiate with him until the end of next year? f**king ridiculous story, but I guess that's our year this year. Just more headlines about Ponga leaving. It was nice that we had a couple of years off.

I'd love to know how they're going to spin it that a class player coming to our team has somehow made Kalyn more likely to leave.

I'm sure it will be Ponga demands an increased deal- that'll be the headline, they'll continue to paint Ponga (and his Dad) as greedy.

I'm waiting for the Brown getting cold feet stories during the week.

Or Knights forced to let go players ( the ones that were never going to be re-signed anyway) to make way for Brown and the players revolt .....

The ideas to milk this signing are endless- "top 10 worst NRL deals" etc etc etc

 

[Lynoman]

It was a great answer too. You typically wouldn't taunt the media like that if there was even a hint of smoke behind the rumour. They really do just make shit up and aggitate for stories. "KP leaving the Knights" theory is built on the flimsiest of comments he made as a kid. They always talk about his "All Black ambitions"... but the only time he's ever even said anything about it publically he was asked something to the effect of "IF you went to union, would you like to play for the All Blacks?". The spirit of the question was more about his allegiance to Australia vs New Zealand than it even was about a potential code switch. They have taken that and cooked up over the years that Kalyn has these huge All Blacks ambitions. Literally every kid with a drop of NZ blood in them would opt to play for the All Blacks if they went to union. It's practically a non-question cooked up to make union fans dicks hard when they read it.

Now, has Kalyn spoken to NZ Rugby over the years, or even recently? Probably! The kid is an out and out superstar and probably one of the few that could go and play for the All Blacks. There would have to be dialogue. There would ALWAYS be people chirping in his ear. There's not a team of either code that wouldn't clear the decks to have him. That doesn't mean he's even close to putting a foot out the door. That's just normal. I'm pretty sure all the Roosters talk all the time is literally just the Roosters themselves making sure Kalyn knows he has a backup home if he ever wants it. They're well connected in business and the media.

There is definitely angst against the Knights in the media. We don't give them the access they want, we're a smaller "out-of-town" team, and I do think the general vibe is that everyone is quite happy for us to remain battlers and not really part of the larger conversation - subconciously or otherwise. At the end of the day, all the last week has highlighted for me above all else is how little media pundits know about our team. They really pay barely any attention - and this includes our own old boys. Matty Johns was chirping about how sad he is that the Knights have got this desperate - but the bloke has clearly not paid enough attention to grasp what the clubs actual thinking is here because he's still hung up on the fact that Brown isn't a traditional halfback. So cry me a river, Matty - if you gave half a f**k yourself you'd be able to comprehend the clubs perspective on this, but he can't help himself but be negative about it.

It blows my mind that Gus and Keiran Foran have better takes on the deal than 2 of our own legends that have literally played in the jerseys we're talking about. Can you imagine the crying if we didn't make this signing, and Kalyn leaves in a couple of years because we've failed to secure any class spine players? That would be considered one of the biggest dropped balls in NRL history.

I actually had a chuckle at AOB's "knights faithful" comment and wondered if he was refering to some of us here on the forum. You think he reads it?

 

[PhilGould]

Tyrone is injured and hasn't looked like being NRL ready so far.

Cant and Jones will be in, if Saifiti is out too it'll pretty much have to be Jermaine McEwen, Elijah Salesa-Leaumoana or Paul Bryan debuting. Maybe Wil Sullivan plays NSW Cup this week and gets fast tracked. The rest of the NSW Cup forwards at the moment aren't eligible. They could probably get an exemption to get Hopwood in but don't think he's ready yet.

8. Hetherington
9. Crossland
10. Frizell
11. Lucas
12. Jones
13. Elliott

14. Brailey
15. Croker
16. Cant
17. McEwen / Salesa-Leaumoana / Bryan / Sullivan

There's ways to mix and match the configuration but those are the players you're most likely picking from.

Outside the box thinking would be Crossland at 13 with Matt Arthur onto the bench.

 

[Zoidberg]

What’s with the Roosters to make a huge play for Ponga story? Hopefully, we have extended him long before Nov next year but if not, I guarantee there will be a huge play for him from at least half the other teams out there.