First Grade Knights vs Rabbitohs

[Jobdog]

Let me ask, out of our offseason signings from last year ( not including Matt Hilder ), which players have taken your attention and made you thought " wow that was a great buy "?

Why not? Because it doesn't suit your agenda? ;-)

Let me say one thing though. Out of all the blokes we have bought, they are better than the ones we let go.

 

[otori]

Why not? Because it doesn't suit your agenda? ;-)

Let me say one thing though. Out of all the blokes we have bought, they are better than the ones we let go.

I know how much hate this might bring down upon me but frankly I think Clint Newton would be far more valuable than Chris Houston. I'm talking about playing ability so don't start jumping up and down about his personality. Also I'd much rather have kept Woolie than get Wicks.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Let go:

Reynoldson
Carmont
Tighe
Tanner
Perry
Woolnough

Brought in:

Wicks
Naiquama
Sau
Houston
Cross
Hilder

The ins pretty much out do the outs IMO too

 

[aqua_duck]

Imo our two best signing have been the quiet achievers in Hilder and Taia

 

[Jobdog]

I know how much hate this might bring down upon me but frankly I think Clint Newton would be far more valuable than Chris Houston. I'm talking about playing ability so don't start jumping up and down about his personality. Also I'd much rather have kept Woolie than get Wicks.

Sure, there are exceptions to every rule, and truth be told I would have preferred to have kept Woolnough, but still gotten rid of the others.

 

[perverse]

I know how much hate this might bring down upon me but frankly I think Clint Newton would be far more valuable than Chris Houston. I'm talking about playing ability so don't start jumping up and down about his personality. Also I'd much rather have kept Woolie than get Wicks.

clint was a pea-heart in a comfort zone. he never would have played to his potential in newcastle.

 

[Adsy]

Josh Perry was playing regular first grade. Albeit it underachieving and way below his potential.

Many of the " rejects " we signed were playing reserve grade at other clubs, and not deemed good enough to play first grade by their coaches at the time.

Let me ask, out of our offseason signings from last year ( not including Matt Hilder ), which players have taken your attention and made you thought " wow that was a great buy "?

I don't know about anyone else here, but I'm left with the queasy feeling of thinking we are spending too much on them :lol: Especially certain ex Dragons forwards that we paid overs for.

To be frank, there's quite a few of them who are playing first grade at the Knights right now who still have the jury out on them if they are even first grade standard players.

Why can't we talk about Hilder?

Overall results speak for themself. We are playing better footy then last year. Main reason for that is who left vs. who we brought in. They might not be setting the world on fire but they put up a fight every game. Something we rarely did last year.

 

[Yosh]

Taia is pretty good i must say. At first I was a bit skeptical but he is one of our better forwards week in week out, does everything he is asked of, runs hard makes good metres doesnt give away penalties and doesnt miss much tackles.

Houston garbage, cant see much talent in him, solid, could possibly be our Grimaldi type player doing all the clean up work in defense and being a quiet achiever HOWEVER giving away 34908 penalties a game isnt a quiet achiever...

Wicks crap version of Perry.

Hilder is saem catagory as Taia.

Wes and Lulia are garbage... Hope they never play FG again...

Cross and Sau have the most potential to be good signings. Sau will only get better in FG and Cross been to injured but if he can keep up an injury free period should do well for us.

 

[antonius]

...and with that post, you've missed the point. Again.

That'd be correct

 

[Karmawave]

Why can't we talk about Hilder?

We can talk about him as much as we like, but he did not come under the " playing reserve grade " banner that many of the other signings did.

He was a regular first grader, and a solid signing.

Not a matchwinner, but invaluable all the same.

Still, he has missed time with suspension and injury, and in my opinion is badly missed.

I don't have a problem with signing FIRST GRADERS from other teams.

I have a problem signing REJECTS from other teams who were playing RESERVE GRADE at a rival NRL club ( not first grade ), hoping they can all of a sudden magically become first grade quality footballers.

 

[Serc]

Most teams buy players from reserve grade at other clubs, they may think they see something in them and sometimes the player becomes a great buy, other times they are a complete dud and the club they left are justified in letting them go. Its a bit of a lucky dip, but if you get a good player on the cheap its worth the risk!

There are a number of other Josh Perry's in the the NRL at the moment who needed a change of scenery and as a result, they step up to another level.

 

[Karmawave]

Their age is obviously important.

I guess I'm just disappointed that in the end, for all these " positive " talk from everyone here about how " GOOD " we are going this year, the fact remains we sit on the SAME amount of points as Parramatta and a measly 26 points better for and against.

Canberra are better than us for gods sake.

I dunno ,I understand some people here think anything and anyone who pulls on red and blue are champions, but in reality that is simply not the case, and 12th on the ladder, 26 measly points better than Parramatta who are having a sh*t season, says it all.

All this stuff about how close we are to winning and all that garbage is just starting to give me the sh*ts, because close enough in NRL first grade isn't good enough.

 

[perverse]

All this stuff about how close we are to winning and all that garbage is just starting to give me the sh*ts, because close enough in NRL first grade isn't good enough.

and you're starting to give me the sh*ts because you have no patience and are critical of anything at the first sign of trouble.

the sharks were in the same boat as us last year and the year before that... now look where they are on the ladder. close enough isn't good enough in the short term, but your impatience in jumping the gun despite this being our first rebuilding year is getting pretty old.

 

[Jono078]

Lol you don't look at each week do you, you look at it as a whole.

Don't get me wrong as a whole being close to Parra on the ladder sh*ts me too, but everyone has said we are better than the ladder suggests.

Penalties dog us, key players out certain weeks because of rep or injury, i've been criticizing our attacking kicking game for how long now.

A whole bunch of little things, they can easily change and would make a huge difference in where we are on the ladder.

 

[Karmawave]

and you're starting to give me the sh*ts because you have no patience and are critical of anything at the first sign of trouble.

the sharks were in the same boat as us last year and the year before that... now look where they are on the ladder. close enough isn't good enough in the short term, but your impatience in jumping the gun despite this being our first rebuilding year is getting pretty old.

No patience?

How many more years do we need wait?

I mean seriously.

We had two of the best players of the modern era leave us, and that enabled us opened our salary cap up to spend some SERIOUS $$$ on replacing them.

And we replace them with nuffies.

Nuffies who are " nearly " good enough.

Nuffies who come 12th.

To think for most of this year, we had a good run with injury too. Imagine our year with not so much luck.

Come on Perverse. Look at it realistically.

Excuse after excuse after excuse. We have so much money to spend, and we aren't spending it on the right people.

How anyone can sit there and say that Danny Wicks and Chris Houston and Wes Naiqama will spend the summer offseason suddenly turning into world beaters with a staight face are kidding themselves.

 

[Jobdog]

Their age is obviously important.

I guess I'm just disappointed that in the end, for all these " positive " talk from everyone here about how " GOOD " we are going this year, the fact remains we sit on the SAME amount of points as Parramatta and a measly 26 points better for and against.

Canberra are better than us for gods sake.

I dunno ,I understand some people here think anything and anyone who pulls on red and blue are champions, but in reality that is simply not the case, and 12th on the ladder, 26 measly points better than Parramatta who are having a sh*t season, says it all.

All this stuff about how close we are to winning and all that garbage is just starting to give me the sh*ts, because close enough in NRL first grade isn't good enough.

Being "good enough", or "close enough" also fall into the same category as what we all define as luck. Sure, you make your own luck on some occasions, but you can also just be plain unlucky at times too ...

 

[Jobdog]

No patience?

How many more years do we need wait?

I mean seriously.

We had two of the best players of the modern era leave us, and that enabled us opened our salary cap up to spend some SERIOUS $$$ on replacing them.

And we replace them with nuffies.

Nuffies who are " nearly " good enough.

Nuffies who come 12th.

To think for most of this year, we had a good run with injury too. Imagine our year with not so much luck.

Come on Perverse. Look at it realistically.

Excuse after excuse after excuse. We have so much money to spend, and we aren't spending it on the right people.

How anyone can sit there and say that Danny Wicks and Chris Houston and Wes Naiqama will spend the summer offseason suddenly turning into world beaters with a staight face are kidding themselves.

I'll put this as simply as I possibly can. You cannot replace a player of Andrew Johns' abilities overnight. It's like those incredibly annoying ads - it wont happen overnight, but it will happen. This year has been our first year without him and to think that most people thought we'd go down the tube without him says a lot about what we're doing as a team at the present moment.

 

[League_God]

Maybe we should buy Todd Carney after he gets the sack...

Lol it'd be nice to sign a talented dickhead rather than just release them all the time.
But seriously yeah our halves are pretty dismal at the mo and both combinations are lacking that killer edge that teams fear from Lockyer/Wallace, Inglis/Cronk or Rogers/Prince. I agree with that Karma guy that we argue a lot about Bailey/Mullen v Mullen/Dureau but neither combination has exactly proved to be effective.

lol i would love to see him at the club.
as much as he is a trackhead, farkkkkk close to the best halves combo in the comp, carney, mullen.

but i have faith in dureau.

f**k BAILEY OFF!!!!
is it just me or do some coaches miss the simple easy sh*t.
smithy has proven himself successful with recruiting.

BUT FARRRRRRRRRRRRRKKK.
anyone with two eyes can see that
1. Mullen is not a halfback
2. Mullen is dynamic at 2nd receiver
3. Bailey offers nothing in attack besides his token step, shuffle shuffle go.
4. we have played best with two genuine halves out there. not a 5/8 playing halfback and a lock playing 5/8.

i just dont get it.
bailey is awesome off the bench. he should come on for zeb.

 

[Jono078]

It seems as if ever since Sterlo said Bailey and Mullen have to be our halves this year Brian Smith has listened to him.

Obviously that is probably not the case, but it's so bone headed professionals cant see what most of us do.

EDIT:

On patience Karma, I don't see any, what are you talking about? Last year we avoided the spoon by a whisker, this year we have been battling around 8th position all year, if that's not an improvement I don't know what is.

Next year will be our real revival. I said so before this season started.

 

[Karmawave]

I'll put this as simply as I possibly can. You cannot replace a player of Andrew Johns' abilities overnight. It's like those incredibly annoying ads - it wont happen overnight, but it will happen. This year has been our first year without him and to think that most people thought we'd go down the tube without him says a lot about what we're doing as a team at the present moment.

That's stating the obvious mate.

Of course you can't replace Andrew Johns overnight.

But it would be nice to think the club could spend the Andrew Johns salary ( alot of cash ) on some good buys.

Now Buderus salary too?

Thats combining Johns and Buderus - almost a million bloody dollars salary cap we can spend on at least attemtping to replace them with top line players. The Roosters have done it. The Bulldogs have done it for 2009.

Look, if Knights fans are happy with mediocrity, thats fine.

I don't think its wrong as a fully paid member of the Knights, to put forward my view as to how the Knights recruiting is going. I'm not just sitting there from afar and whinging. I pay my tickets every year, year in year out. So does my entire family.

I have a right to question what is going on for that very reason.

Alot of people on this forum see us as being Top 4 next year.

No f*cking way in the world.