Knights Flegg team for Saints game

[imported_Roopy4246]

It is disappointing to see that the Flegg season will only be very short this year, but I have tremendous hopes for the Knights team.

New coach Rip Taylor will not be satisfied with anything short of winning the title. He is a coach who has a fabulous record in country football, winning titles with Lakes United, Wyong and other teams on numerous occasions.

The team for the Saints game, to be played at Lyall Peacock oval at Toronto, is;

1. Michael Young
2. Michael Doggett
3. Luke Mercer
4. Nathan McLoughlin
5. Blake Tremain-Cannon
6. Brad Tighe
7. Robert Duffy (c)
8. Brendan Worth
9. Murray Parker
10. Matthew White
11. Scott Perrin
12. Dane Tilse
13. Riley Brown

Reserves

1. Brad Wallace
2. Joshua Houlison
3. Ashley Cooper
4. Damien Frize
5. Ryan Woo
6. Todd Mulville
7. Mitchell Parsons
8. Chris Everingham

Players to watch out for are Michael Young who is a fullback who played several games in first div last season and is a fair chance to make first grade by the end of the year - Luke Mercer who was a centre on the schoolboys team that toured England and may also have a chance to play firstgrade before the season is out (he reminds me of Jason Moodie) - Blake Tremain-Cannon is a winger from Broken Hill who is supposed to be as fast as Darren Albert, this is his first season at the club - Brad Tighe was in just about every junior rep team in 2001 but was injured last year, he is pure class (like a young Anthony Mundine). - Brad Wallace is a very clever ball playing hooker/halfback who was also on the schoolboys tour. The forward pack is one that Rip Taylor has pretty much put together himself, so I've not seen many of them play in previous years for the Knights, but Rip Taylor has a reputation for coaching great forward packs and, by all reports, these forwards went really well in the trial games.

 

[ali]

I expect Cronulla will be right up the top of Flegg this season. Our team is argueably one of the most talented on paper that Cronulla has produced is recent years. How we go will probably depend on how keen the club is to give Flegg a shake. In 2001 we held back all our under 20 players and thus made the final of Flegg, whilst other clubs promoted their best youngsters. This years now under 19 squad has far more ability than that team. The likes of prop / second rower Keith Galloway, 5/8 Russell Aitken, and new centre recruit Stephen Ross, all toured with the Aussie schoolboys last season. Another who should excel is David Simmons, who played first grade in the trial against Auckland. Simmons is a great story of a kid who played rep soccer in his early teens and then switched to League. Last year was only his first year on junior rep footy, and he started the year in Ball and finished it in Flegg. He alsoscored a hatrick for CHS andaccording to Russ Aitken, wasextremely unlucky to miss the Aussie schoolboys tour.

This will be a young squad by Flegg standards but Iexpect them to challenge for the title. The majority of the side will be from our championship winning Matthews Cup side of 2 years a go.

 

[ali]

Roopy, I noticed the Knights lost over the weekend which means Cronulla has gone top of Flegg. 6 from 6 so far, and haven't gone close to a loss. The next couple of weeks should be tough though with Wests at home and then you guys away. I noticed they won easily on the weekend without 2 of the above mentioned, Aitken and Simmons. Hopefully they will return soon.
I've now seen the Flegg play twice this year and they are even better than I expected. They have a couple of great players from Western Australia. Bronx Goodwin, son of Lord Ted, has been great outwide, and the prop forward Jon Green has probably been the standout in both matches. Looks definate first grade material, which is good news for Rugby league in WA.

 

[imported_Roopy4246]

Ali,
Wests beat the Knights by two points, but coach Rip Taylor says the Knights were flattered by the score and he described the loss as 'the wake up call we needed.'

I think the two games you talk about - Cro v Wests and Cro v Newcastle - will sort out who deserves to be the top team for the year.

The Flegg player to watch (I shouldn't be telling you this, but you would already know from the stats) is Riley Brown. He is a lock forward who has scored 9 tries in the first 4 games, basically by being too big and strong for Flegg.

The forward pack is good, and the halves, Duffy and Tighe, are clever enough to make good use of the room they create.

I'll make a real effort to get to the Cro v Newcastle game.

 

[ali]

Whats going on? The Flegg comp has been thrown wide open after Cronulla's dismal showing on Saturday against Wests and Newcastle being thrashed by Canterbury. I know injuries have taken toll at Cronulla and I expect it may be a similar story in the Hunter. The above mentioned Simmons and Aitken, the 2 players who combined for the best live try I have seen this season, are virtually gone for the rest of the Flegg season. Without them, we were terrible. The ball control was worse than even our first grade side.
Wests were so fired up for this. It was a flashback to the old days of Roy Masters and Tommy Raudonikis. You could hear them screaming as they chased off the kickoff and some of the hits were ferocious. The ref continually had to tell them to stop sledging. After our skipper, Green, left the field injured we just couldn't match them up front. I think we can beat them if we meet again, but the comp no longer looks the walker over I may have predicted a couple of weeks ago.

 

[imported_Roopy4246]

I think injuries have taken a big toll on the Newcastle team as well.

I believe the score in the Newcastle Canterbury game was 12 all at halftime, but several injured forwards were unable to take part in the second half, leading to the wheels completely falling off for Newcastle.

I heard before the season that Wests had the core of a successful Mathews side and were very keen to go on with it this season in Flegg. It looks like they are making every post a winner. I know that the Newcastle team felt they were the better team against Wests,but lost the game on committment.

 

[ali]

They have lost a couple of guns from last year, Ryan Hoffman a backrower who is 18th man for Melbourne this week, and Albert Hopoate are 2 that come to mind. Cronulla also has a kid who we signed from Westsfield's High, who copped a barrage of sledging from the Wests boys on Saturday. So I guess he also played for Wests once.

 

[ali13]

Well its Grand Final day today for the Flegg boys, and unfortunately its not Nerwcastle vs Cronulla, but Canterbury vs Cronulla. The game is at 3pm at Belmore, and I will be heading over there to check it out.
Cronulla are without Russ Aitken and Bronx Goodwin, but are full strength in the forwards, where this game will be won in the wet conditions. We smashed the Dogs earlier this year, at Belmore, but I think this will be much tighter. Hopefully by 5pm this arvo we will have a trophy to add to our much maligned trophy cabinet.