Can anyone answer this question for me:

[Frederick]

Here's the thing: when we play "Bennett ball" effectively (I.e. Getting our forwards into the grind with a strong defensive effort, controlling field position off Mullen's kicking game and frustrating the opposition) we're very hard to beat. It's how we won two semis last season and it's how we were playing for the second half of last season when we went onto have a long string of wins. I also find this is actually when we play our best attacking footy. We frustrate the opposition like we did Canberra last week and then can score some great trys off the back of that.

Problem is though, we do not have the forward pack to control the game like that and play "Bennett Ball" on a consistent basis (especially when we're not in form) and we don't seem to have a backup plan for when the opposition takes control of the game like Brisbane did on the weekend. We get frustrated when our usual tricks don't work and don't seem to have anything to fall back on and we end up just dropping our bundle completely in both attack and defence.

I can understand why Bennett decided to implement his Dragons style of footy here. While a lot of people (including here and in the media) were jizzing themselves about premierships there seemed to be an expectation that he'd bring that style here to get us the goods too. We're a completely different squad to the Dragons though. They had a stellar forward pack and just needed someone to come in and utilise it to it's potential. We never had that and frankly I doubt we ever will. We cannot produce quality front rowers to save ourselves and we can't seem to sign any either. Thank God Snowy wanted to come home that's all I can say.

We simply don't have the squad to play that Dragons style consistently and frankly we need an overhaul. If Bennett can't/won't do that then bring someone in that can. And no, as much as I like Stoney he isn't our man. Everyone here that seems to be dreaming of this wonderful time pre-Bennett where we were world beaters get your heads out of your arses because it didn't exist. If anyone seriously thinks Stoney was ever going to take us one game away from a GF then you're seriously delusional. Has anyone watched our NSW cup side lately? Their defence is consistently deplorable. Worse than FG. Who coaches them? Defence wins big games and we won't go close to one with Stoney as head coach unless we bring someone in to help with the defence.

We've had some awesome front rowers in juniors over the past few years who, for whatever reason, just haven't kicked on (sims, vaivai, ailomai, toka). NYC this year have another group of great front rowers but it remains to be seen whether they can make the step up.

Also, FYI, nsw cup won 50-6 yesterday, so it would be more correct to say their defence is inconsistently deplorable ;-)

 

[Noname36]

Did most people think automatic premiership when Wayne came? I don't doubt he is a good coach, but the premierships at Brisbane probably would have happened anyway. If anything they should of won more with the rosters the Broncos had and the Dragons were a premiership waiting to happen with the roster they had.

Our team is inconsistent for reasons I do not know but our best now is better than what is was between when Joey retired and when Wayne came.

I think a lot (especially here) did. I think everyone seems to forget that Bennett wasn't brought here to win us a premiership though. That's what he was brought to the Dragons for. They had a squad that was ready to win a premiership but just needed some coaching to get them to their potential to get them over the line. That certainly wasn't the case for us. At the time Tinkler said Bennett was brought here to bring professionalism to the club and revamp our junior system that was destroyed during the Hagan/Smith years.

If that's the case then he's certainly done what we brought him here to do. He's implemented the high performance unit for our juniors which is working wonders and we're probably back to the place our juniors should have been all along. The NYC are first and undefeated apart from a draw, the Harold Matts are first, SG ball are going well too. Blokes like Clydesdale and Mamo are coming through to firstgrade and for the first time in a very long time I have the faith that we can find some stars internally if we can't sign any. If Bennett left today, he's left the club in a much better place than any coach has post Warren Ryan.

Getting the top grade side a premiership though is the challenge and Bennett and the club knew that all along. I still remember when he had the choice between us and Souths he said that both clubs were a long way off a premiership but he chose to come here because we were giving him a longer contract and he knew we were acknowledging that it wasn't going to happen over night. It seems that Bennett and the club both knew that but unfortunately a lot of fans are now in a bitter place because they expected premierships. I still remember some of us sitting here and telling everyone to calm the f**k down and not expect premierships when we signed him.

I still don't think his style suits us because we can't do it consistently but everyone that's so keen to put the boot in can't seem to acknowledge what he's done for the club as a whole. Bennett probably won't win a comp here himself but he's certainly putting the club into a position to be very successful and have a chance of winning one in the future. Plus he managed to fix Mullen which is an achievement all on it's own because I was very worried that would never happen.

I'll stop now because I'm sure everyone is sick of my long rambling posts :lol:

 

[Noname36]

We've had some awesome front rowers in juniors over the past few years who, for whatever reason, just haven't kicked on (sims, vaivai, ailomai, toka). NYC this year have another group of great front rowers but it remains to be seen whether they can make the step up.

Also, FYI, nsw cup won 50-6 yesterday, so it would be more correct to say their defence is inconsistently deplorable ;-)

They were playing Wyong and from I've been told they were terrible. Look I don't hate Stone, I really like the bloke and hope he can make a go of it as head coach again, but with his credentials and the experience he has in that side he should have them killing it in that competition. Just pointing out that anyone thinking putting Stoney back in charge will be the answer is in for a lot more disappointment.

 

[madunit]

I wouldn't be blaming the forwards. This year has seen teams succeed when they've been fast at dummy half.

Gidley is so slow these days. Move him elsewhere.

Momentum from dummy half allows any pack to dominate. Look at the tigers. Still very young & light, especially in the back row, but Farah's speed out of dummy half has given our pack momentum & allows them to get on top in games when they had no right to.

 

[Misanthrope]

Out of curiosity, Fred: do you actually consider Sims a talent who hasn't kicked on? For mine, he's been one of our best forwards since Wayne's promoted him to the top squad.

 

[slotmachine]

Last year was an illusion conjured by Buderus. He made "bennett ball" work.

 

[Noname36]

I wouldn't be blaming the forwards. This year has seen teams succeed when they've been fast at dummy half.

Gidley is so slow these days. Move him elsewhere.

Momentum from dummy half allows any pack to dominate. Look at the tigers. Still very young & light, especially in the back row, but Farah's speed out of dummy half has given our pack momentum & allows them to get on top in games when they had no right to.

Our pack is the complete opposite of young and light mate (apart from a couple of exceptions). Certainly agree that a quality hooker can get the forwards on top though even when they're not up to scratch and it's why we miss Bedsy so much. Gidley just can't do what Bedsy did but the whole being captain and having a brother as CEO thing makes it hard for us to move him on (and really he should be a bench hooker/utility at best).

 

[slotmachine]

I read in the paper today Gidley has been guaranteed a place in the NSW side.
Shame we can't send the coach away with him for a few weeks.

 

[Apey]

I read in the paper today Gidley has been guaranteed a place in the NSW side.

No trolling! :crazy:

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Picture this guys it appears we are signing no one next year and our elderly forwards will be even older!

 

[Misanthrope]

How in blue hell could we not sign a single person next season? If we're at the cap, it's horrendous management.

 

[Bring it home Knights]

yeah but he should have recruited more aggressively. He limits the dollars he throws at players in key positions and we miss out.

I wouldn't go that far. Do you remember all those years when people were on here bitching about how no players would come to Newcastle unless we paid huge overs and still players would turn us down?

Since we signed Bennett we have attracted to the club rep players Snowden, Smith, Boyd, Fa'alogo, Buderus and Scott. We also signed Gagai who Bennett had coached previously. The knights also signed Mckinnon, Leilua and Cuthbo. Before that we had players like Ciraldo, Taufua, Tolar, AK47 etc. The knights also landed Kevin Walters as a halves coach.

I could bet with near certainty that the team would look for worse on paper if it wasn't for Bennett coming here.

 

[slotmachine]

How in blue hell could we not sign a single person next season? If we're at the cap, it's horrendous management.

Old man Bennett has run out of ex-dragons to poach and no one else has played up and been sacked by their club.\

Picture this guys it appears we are signing no one next year and our elderly forwards will be even older!

Be careful what you wish for. This season we swapped Buderus, Gower, Costigan and Naiqama for Waddell, Minto, Dobson and Newton.

 

[perverse]

If we don't recruit anyone noteworthy for 2015 I'll be pretty disgruntled. It was well documented that we recruited conservatively for 2014 to have money free for 2015. We also recruited Packer this year, who would have been huge for us.

God your agenda is boring, slotmachine. Do you play any other tunes, or do you only have the one (in my opinion misguided) song?

 

[Frederick]

Out of curiosity, Fred: do you actually consider Sims a talent who hasn't kicked on? For mine, he's been one of our best forwards since Wayne's promoted him to the top squad.

He's starting to come good now, but it's taken him a while to break through, considering his talent. Although I suppose that's more down to Wayne and his penchant for slowly bringing players through.

 

[slotmachine]

Plenty of tunes in the repertoire, I'll break them out when we start looking like a well managed, well coached team!

 

[Noname36]

God your agenda is boring, slotmachine. Do you play any other tunes, or do you only have the one (in my opinion misguided) song?

It's pretty sad when someone is obviously happy that the team is performing badly at the moment because it fuels their repetitive agenda.

For me personally I don't care what the problem is or who (if anyone) is responsible for it. I just want to see them start playing well this season.

 

[mozza91]

Plenty of tunes in the repertoire, I'll break them out when we start looking like a well managed, well coached team!

What would your solution be then? Sack Bennett and bring Stone in? Let's do it, he may be able to lure Tolar out of retirement.

 

[slotmachine]

Not sure Stone is the answer. He did a fair job with a bunch of misfits and not many resources, but what is his ceiling?

Seeing as we have trouble signing players, focusing on youth and finding a coach who backs them would be the first step. Someone innovative who promotes attacking footy would be a bonus.

 

[The Showstopper]

I wouldn't go that far. Do you remember all those years when people were on here bitching about how no players would come to Newcastle unless we paid huge overs and still players would turn us down?

Since we signed Bennett we have attracted to the club rep players Snowden, Smith, Boyd, Fa'alogo, Buderus and Scott. We also signed Gagai who Bennett had coached previously. The knights also signed Mckinnon, Leilua and Cuthbo. Before that we had players like Ciraldo, Taufua, Tolar, AK47 etc. The knights also landed Kevin Walters as a halves coach.

I could bet with near certainty that the team would look for worse on paper if it wasn't for Bennett coming here.

Gagai and Leilua are here cos their clubs sacked them. Both great players agreed. You have a point but mine is the fact that he is the best coach ever and he has simply signed in bulk from the Dragons really. All decent players especially Beau. Why have we not signed an out and out X factor like an SBW or a JWH? That is the concern. That was the promise when we bought into Tinkler.