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Jesse Royal and Matt White told to look elsewhere.

Pika

Pika

Bench
Messages
3,641
White had over 60 minutes yesterday.

Played the full first half.

I think he and Dan make a quality starting pair. Dan is great in defence and his carries have been better of late. White has been great.

Faas and Cross would make outstanding impact and both are more than up to the defence.

We have a prop ratation where each player has a good 40 minutes in the tank.
 
antonius

antonius

Coach
Messages
10,104
Pika said:
White had over 60 minutes yesterday.

Played the full first half.

I think he and Dan make a quality starting pair. Dan is great in defence and his carries have been better of late. White has been great.

Faas and Cross would make outstanding impact and both are more than up to the defence.

We have a prop ratation where each player has a good 40 minutes in the tank.
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Exactly, pity Brian Smith doesn't see it that way.
 
Joker's Wild

Joker's Wild

Coach
Messages
17,894
Jono078 said:
I hate the fact that his mind always seemed to be on rep footy AND that his best games werent in the Knights jumpers.
Click to expand...

Read Paul Harragons Autobiography "One Perfect Day". Pretty much all Chief could think about early on was playing for NSW and Australia yet noone can tell me he wasnt 100% dedicated to the blue and reds.

Fact is top line players need to be striving to play rep footy otherwise they wouldnt be top line players would they. Hell even Gids was quoted as saying his goal was to be back for Origin but because he had less injuries through the year and had more paddock time for the Knights no one seems to be accusing him of the same "Rep footy over Knights" attitude.
 
W

Whats Doing

Bench
Messages
2,899
antonius said:
Exactly, pity Brian Smith doesn't see it that way.
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Well hopefully Smithy sees his error in judgement before its too late and signs Whitey. I am sure it would not require us to break the bank to re-sign him

If there was a decision between Royal and Whitey, despite how good Royal has been this year, Whitey would get my nod.
 
Karmawave

Karmawave

Bench
Messages
4,950
Pika said:
White had over 60 minutes yesterday.

Played the full first half.

I think he and Dan make a quality starting pair. Dan is great in defence and his carries have been better of late. White has been great.

Faas and Cross would make outstanding impact and both are more than up to the defence.

We have a prop ratation where each player has a good 40 minutes in the tank.
Click to expand...


I think that is our best option as well, though I disagree about Cross's defence being all that good.

From an intimidation perspective he is a hard hitter, and has real impact in his front on defence. That's nice for Brut big hits. But...

When it comes to lateral movement however, Cross is a defensive liability. He can be slow around the rucks, and a real target in the defensive line for quality hookers/halves.

This was best shown by the Broncos Michael Ennis when he proceeded to carve up the Knights around the rucks in a game where Ben Cross was badly found out to be a defensive liability with his poor lateral movement.

Having said that, it emphasises what you are saying Pika, Cross can be more of use as an impact player off the bench.

From what I've seen all year Tolar has been good, and a bit under-rated. White was very good yesterday, but needs to show that consistency for the rest of the season. I can live with Tolar/White starting with Cross/Faaoso on the bench. Throw in a healthy Steve Simpson for good measure and its more than decent.
 
Jono078

Jono078

Referee
Messages
21,202
Joker's Wild said:
Read Paul Harragons Autobiography "One Perfect Day". Pretty much all Chief could think about early on was playing for NSW and Australia yet noone can tell me he wasnt 100% dedicated to the blue and reds.

Fact is top line players need to be striving to play rep footy otherwise they wouldnt be top line players would they. Hell even Gids was quoted as saying his goal was to be back for Origin but because he had less injuries through the year and had more paddock time for the Knights no one seems to be accusing him of the same "Rep footy over Knights" attitude.
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Fair enough I never knew that.

But it's been like this ever since we announced his signing, he never really seemed keen to come here. So he still has to prove himself to me really for me to change my opinion.
 
H

Hanscholo

Bench
Messages
4,818
Its not like they are actually any good. White has been in good form lately, and Royale has been going ok for 12 months but hardly anything to worry about losing.
 
Pika

Pika

Bench
Messages
3,641
Mate, I would be a lot more comfortable letting them go if the back ups were not Wicks, House, Cirro and Sione.
 
Yosh

Yosh

Coach
Messages
12,012
Cross and Simmo are great starting props I say, and I would have Fao'so and White on the bench. I'm personally a fan of those huge old fashioned props who only know one direction to run
 
KniGhTs BaTTLeR

KniGhTs BaTTLeR

Juniors
Messages
1,699
BG said:
Houston started in the frontrow with Saints, and according to Smith at the media conference to announce his signing, was originally bought as a prop.
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Smith said he didnt realise how big of a motor he had. I'd prefer Houston in the backrow, if you can see past the stupid sh*t he does his actually a top player.

I wouldn't mind losing White and Royal if we signed a decent prop from elsewhere. Someone like a Keith Galloway or Luke Douglas.
 
B

BG

Juniors
Messages
1,075
Jono078 said:
So he still has to prove himself to me really for me to change my opinion.
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Smith and other players in interviews have extolled his attitude to training. Pika has now lent his voice to that.

On the field he has only played three games for us in which he wasn't coming back from injury. Two were very good and he had one poor one against Melbourne. In our win over the Titans his stats were better than his City/Country performance and considerably better than his SOO3 effort(admittedly in a different standard game). His stats in our win against the Chooks were not quite as good, but better than his SOO performances and up there with the City/Country figures. Stats aren't everything but to me he looked the goods in those games, and as I said above maybe it's no coincidence that they were two of our best wins of the season. If you expect Cross to go enormously better than those performances than imho you'd be overating his capabilies. I think we both agree that even at his best he isn't Price or Civenoceva.

Short of getting a talismanic tattoo that wards off any chance of future injury, what more do you expect from him?
 
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