2013 Trials

[Byron Knight]

Cool. Did we look the good or was it just a bad game all round?

We looked ok Yosh. Bit rusty as you would expect and weather didn't help. Encouraging signs though. There was a real feel of confidence around the team. If they get the execution and discipline right, we should be looking good for finals football this year.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Sounds like we went pretty well for our first trial.

Wayne would expect a big improvement in our second trial and then for us to be a well oiled machine come round 1.

 

[Spot On]

Props probably excited me the most. It looks like there is legitimate competition for spots. Willie played like a guy who knew he had good support around him. Snowden looked fit and ran with purpose. 2 hit ups a set at time. Nev came on and played in the middle and kept hi game nice and simple. Was smashing people too. Frei was solid, kid did his job. Tets ran hard in the second half, looked good in defence too. Cuthbertson had a few good offloads but like him in the second row more.

Sims is exciting though. First run was Martin Lang style. Hard and straight. Loves the contact. He would provide good impact off the bench.

Hey Byron

Had a mate play in the sevens before the game and then watched the big game. He was super impressed with a prop we had on in the second half - I assume it was Tets. He described him as a big islander with a bald head???? Said he was hitting the line hard, poking through it nearly every hit up. He was up Snowden though. Wasn't impressed with him at all. That said, he was of the opinion both sides simply went through the motions. Not a great deal of ball movement and was critical of Souths who he thought looked as though they weren't interested at all.

Other info/opinions he gave - The Mullo/Gidley combo didn't do much. The second half was much more entertaining with the ball being used. Tyrone had a blinder and looked extremely good against a side that still had quite a few names on the park. Hilder apparently was very solid as was Jeremy Smith. He thought Tahau was very, very good.

Said Tom Burgess was playing out of his skin and was a handful. A Supercoach must???? Michael Crocker was a beast and ripped in as per usual.

 

[Byron Knight]

Definitely Tets. Ran well. As mentioned before. Gids looked like he wanted to get through unhurt. Hard to really gauge where the combo with Mullen is at.

Tahu, I thought was quiet and we can disagree on snowden. Looked good compared to last year.

His summation is the same as my running commentary I think! Training drill first half and the kids having fun in the second.

Baby burgess was quality. Big guy with no thought for self preservation. Last run was as hard as his first. Looked very good

Smith was smith, hilder was hilder. Not in depth analysis but i think we know what we get there. Tyrone looked fit and if he was just enjoying playing. Maybe being the senior half out there made his life easier?

 

[Big Tim]

Jezza? Jezza? Who the F#*^ is JEZZA????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Yosh]

We looked ok Yosh. Bit rusty as you would expect and weather didn't help. Encouraging signs though. There was a real feel of confidence around the team. If they get the execution and discipline right, we should be looking good for finals football this year.

Ah okok.. nothing spec huh? cheers!

 

[Serc]

Good summary guys - I was at the northern end of the ground (taking my old man to his first game of footy) so not the world's best view given we were sitting ~30-40m away from the dead ball line but did have a good look at Hilders try as we were right in line.

Aku was sent on a long break down the right hand side (not sure who gave him the footy) and then 2 plays later the A and B defenders for Souths were asleep, and Hilder ran hard from dummy half about 5 metres out and burrowed his way over the line. Soft try. Other than that the weather certainly affected the attack of the two teams, a fair amount of dropped ball etc etc. Souths were either ineffective or disinterested in attack as they didn't really look like scoring much at all - even during the 2nd half when their team lineup was significantly better than ours. Having said that a lot could also be said for our defence which others have already touched on.

Other notes I took:

The only try that Souths scored in the game was effectively against 12 defenders. It came about 2-3 plays after we dropped the ball - with McKinnon(?) having been asked to go out the back when we had posession and get some blood cleaned up. Just as we dropped the ball the trainer signalled that he is coming off and we need a guy on the bench to come on...meanwhile Souths played 13 vs 12 for a few plays and scored nearish to where McKinnon would've been just as the replacement in the forwards was finding his spot in our defensive line.

Souths also blew a 3 on 2 on their right (our left) late in the last quarter - I think our winger came in and shut down their centre who was possibly not set deep enough!

Tyrone Roberts looked great, also noticed a lot of strategic/field position type kicks from Will Smith. Roberts created the break on the siren up the middle that lead to his try from one of his traditional dummys, I think he passed to Sims and the ball eventually ended up with him scoring 30m to the right near the right corner post!

 

[Frederick]

Knights name 27-man squad for Tamworth
Tuesday 19 February 2013 7:21 PM

Coach Wayne Bennett has named a 27-man squad for this Saturday's trial match against the Cronulla Sharks in Tamworth.
Newcastle Knights v Cronulla Sharks squad:
Chris Adams, Darius Boyd, Neville Costigan, Adam Cuthbertson, Adrian Davis, David Fa’alogo, Marvin Filipo, Mitchell Frei, Dane Gagai, Matt Hilder, Chris Houston, Kurt Gidley (c), Willie Mason, Peter Mata’utia, Alex McKinnon, James McManus, Jarrod Mullen, Kevin Naiqama, Anthony Quinn, Tyrone Roberts, Robbie Rochow, Beau Scott, Jeremy Smith, Kade Snowden, Timana Tahu, Zane Tetevano, Aku Uate.
Knights v Sharks
7:30pm, Saturday February 23
Scully Park, Tamworth
Click here for ticketing information

LINK

 

[Frederick]

No korbin............

 

[Jobdog]

I know Serc (and a few others) loves their stats, so here's a few I've picked out from last week's trial against the Rabbits. Yes, I know it's only a trial so you can't read too much into it, but still.

Fa'alogo - 40 mins (1 line-break, 7 runs for 59m, 16 tackles - 1 miss, 1 offload, 0 errors)
Boyd - 40 mins (0 line-breaks, 4 runs for 44m, 5 tackles - 0 missed, 2 kick returns for 24m, 1 error)
Gidley - 40mins (16 tackles - 0 missed, 3 kicks for 125m, 0 errors)
Mullen - 40 mins (2 runs for 16m, 7 tackles - 0 missed, 6 kicks for 291m, 0 errors)
Roberts - 40 mins (1 line break, 4 runs for 38m, 4 tackles - 2 missed, 2 tackle breaks, 7 kicks for 194m)
Smith - 40 mins (3 runs for 21m, 20 tackles - 1 miss, 1 error)
Scott - 40 mins (6 runs for 37m, 13 tackles - 1 miss, 0 errors)

 

[Frederick]

I know Serc (and a few others) loves their stats, so here's a few I've picked out from last week's trial against the Rabbits. Yes, I know it's only a trial so you can't read too much into it, but still.

Fa'alogo - 40 mins (1 line-break, 7 runs for 59m, 16 tackles - 1 miss, 1 offload, 0 errors)
Boyd - 40 mins (0 line-breaks, 4 runs for 44m, 5 tackles - 0 missed, 2 kick returns for 24m, 1 error)
Gidley - 40mins (16 tackles - 0 missed, 3 kicks for 125m, 0 errors)
Mullen - 40 mins (2 runs for 16m, 7 tackles - 0 missed, 6 kicks for 291m, 0 errors)
Roberts - 40 mins (1 line break, 4 runs for 38m, 4 tackles - 2 missed, 2 tackle breaks, 7 kicks for 194m)
Smith - 40 mins (3 runs for 21m, 20 tackles - 1 miss, 1 error)
Scott - 40 mins (6 runs for 37m, 13 tackles - 1 miss, 0 errors)

On the subject of stats, how f**ked are nrlstats!

 

[Serc]

mmmmm stats

Yes they are not very nice those nrlstats people this year...going to have to find myself a new place for my stats fix! (though the stats in DT/SC fantasy leagues are a reasonable replacement)

Where did you find those ones by the way JD?

 

[Jobdog]

The LINK provided to me by the lovely NRL Stats people on Twitter after I abused them for not being able to see as many stats anymore!

 

[Serc]

Ahh that looks just like the old full season databases they kept (before they hid them) back in 2011!

Pity we won't be able to see the individual matches now though...mainly used them last year for checking the minutes that players got for fantasy leagues etc

I *think* the NRL.com website has them also so that might be my source for minutes in 2013!

As for this weeks team list, I too noticed no Korbin Sims on the list...he seemed fine after the game when I spotted him so not sure what the go is there.

 

[Rolla]

No Waddell? Deal fall through or did he pick up a niggle?

 

[CJG 182]

Hopefully he just wasn't picked up.

 

[b4l]

He's back in Logan working as a sparky

 

[Tom155]

Ahh that looks just like the old full season databases they kept (before they hid them) back in 2011!

Pity we won't be able to see the individual matches now though...mainly used them last year for checking the minutes that players got for fantasy leagues etc

I *think* the NRL.com website has them also so that might be my source for minutes in 2013!

As for this weeks team list, I too noticed no Korbin Sims on the list...he seemed fine after the game when I spotted him so not sure what the go is there.

someone asked knights this on twitter answer was

@NRLKnights
Back in Newcastle. The Knights took a reduced squad to Tamworth @27Frendy: @NRLKnights where's korbin sims pls guys?

 

[Serc]

Thanks Tom...a little surprised he is not getting a run given the squad size, can only guess that Frei is ahead of him I guess!

 

[Tom155]

No Waddell? Deal fall through or did he pick up a niggle?

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1320829/warriors-bid-for-waddell/?cs=12