Knights vs Dogs Trial Game

[Johns Magic]

Clune needs to be buy of the year for us to do anything. Good start. Surprisingly quick…but gee he is tiny. I wince when forwards run at him.

You wouldn’t want many halves tackling NAS on your tryline, but I saw enough competitor in Clune last night not to be overly concerned about his defence at this stage as far as halves go. No misses last night.

Agree I was pleasantly surprised he seems to have a bit of toe. My biggest concern on the snippets I’ve seen at the Dragons is he seems like a pass-first type half. I assumed he was slow. I want halves taking on the line.

 

[Johns Magic]

Crossland was totally anonymous.

Not sure about that. By the time he was given the reins he was playing with the kids. I thought he went ok.

 

[slotmachine]

His stint at hooker was ordinary.
When he moved to half he didn't do anything other than shovel the ball along the line or turn it back inside. Can't remember him running the ball once. Did get a repeat set, that was about it.

Doesn't matter how good he went in the halves though, cause he won't be playing there.

Baker looked pretty good I thought, the neat little play he and hoy put on down the right hand side was the best bit of ball playing in the second half

 

[Knight Tales]

Is he on a contract year?

If so then yeah I’m expecting a big year from him. Question is whether the new age game has passed him. But tonight shows he still has lots to offer.

That pass for Jirah’s try was what I have waited 4 seasons for.

 

[Burwood]

His stint at hooker was ordinary.
When he moved to half he didn't do anything other than shovel the ball along the line or turn it back inside.

It was obvious that the game plan at that stage of the match was to get the ball into Hoy’s hands as much as possible and get out of the way as he works his magic.

 

[EdLondon]

Most pleasing for me was the defence on their line of the young guys. Bulldogs attack was pretty pedestrian but they dug deep and kept turning up. And the way which they tackled with a bit of aggression bodes well for our future.

 

[Burwood]

Liking the $5 fine for last man in to celebrate. Wingers must be feeling pretty dirty about it though- pretty much guaranteed to be last in each time!

 

[mozza91]

Liking the $5 fine for last man in to celebrate. Wingers must be feeling pretty dirty about it though- pretty much guaranteed to be last in each time!

Nice way to back some of the money we wasted on Musgrove.

 

[Johns Magic]

Liking the $5 fine for last man in to celebrate. Wingers must be feeling pretty dirty about it though- pretty much guaranteed to be last in each time!

It’s pretty lame I reckon

 

[Yosh]

I thought Crossland did just fine. Unfair to compare performances because they played different roles and Crossland was mainly playing with the kids.

Crossland seems to play it too safe. He has sound fundamentals but doesn't try anything. Clune definitely made the most of his time on the field. Very happy to see either start.

 

[aqua_duck]

I thought Crossland did just fine. Unfair to compare performances because they played different roles and Crossland was mainly playing with the kids.

Crossland seems to play it too safe. He has sound fundamentals but doesn't try anything. Clune definitely made the most of his time on the field. Very happy to see either start.

i commented last year that Crossland defends well for a half he rarely does anything expected of a half, he kind of just sits back to the point that you could literally throw a back rower in his place and you wouldnt notice much difference

 

[Jono078]

I think he’s suffered during the Covid period and not getting that constant game time in reserves to build his game as a half.

 

[Old dog]

Good comments tks, didn’t get to see game, away for the week, will watch game when back home.

 

[Knight Tales]

Storm trial will be closer to regular season match. Given our draw we don’t have the luxury of throwing two different sides onto the park over 80. Injuries are going to happen one way or the other regardless of the points at stake.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

The difference in our attack was clear. It wasn’t super slick yet which is to be expected but we threw the ball around a lot more with bodies in motion rather than just one out hitups. It will improve as the year goes on.

 

[Jono078]

The difference in our attack was clear. It wasn’t super slick yet which is to be expected but we threw the ball around a lot more with bodies in motion rather than just one out hitups. It will improve as the year goes on.

Yep I agree with this, I thought it was clear we’ve made efforts to adjust our structure and approach to how we use the ball. It will get better in time!

I was actually surprised to see the criticism about our attack when I thought it was clear as day they’re going in the right direction.

 

[Allstar Knights]

I can take the mistiming and errors etc early on when we are trying to build on our attack finally. It's better than not implementing anything different like the last 2 years.

 

[Still Nutty]

I can take the mistiming and errors etc early on when we are trying to build on our attack finally. It's better than not implementing anything different like the last 2 years.

I think we were still clunky with the basics but waayyy better than last year. While we did have bodies in motion, what we will need more of is decoy and multiple line runners, along with more depth to out attack...the two tries we let in in the first half were down to handling errors created by too much lateral ball movement to players who were too flat and not coming on to the ball.

In the second half, one of the slickest plays on the night was the little blind side play put on by Hoy and Mac Baker...reminded me a lot of Reynolds and Cody Walker precision plays that just cut teams up.

I think our attack will continue to build as Joey gets time to work with the squad but my concern there will be the limitations Mann brings as a first receiver if that becomes his key role - he was quite serviceable on the night for simple plays but good defences will make him their target very quickly in the season proper and have tactics that will see him get caught out more often than not and die with the ball or push ineffective passes that will put undue pressure on the receivers because he is not able to play heads up footy.

It will be very interesting to see what defensive tactics the Storm bring to the Trial on Sunday, particularly for targeting Mann.

 

[Yosh]

Just going to put this out there... Am I the only one that thinks Ponga lacks work rate is too low? He seems to stand around and wait for the ball instead of wanting the ball in his hands all the time. If I was as good as he is with the ball, I'd push people out of the way to get the ball into my hands. Is it a structural thing? Cronk was commentating that Ponga isn't getting the ball enough and he should be getting it at first receiver instead of Mann.

 

[slotmachine]

If you're talking about the trial, who cares because half the team never got out of first gear as they know they will be on the team sheet in round 1. Ponga included.

Generally he doesn't do as much of the traditional fullback work the other top fullbacks do. If he needs to be touching the ball four or five times a set he should be in the halves.