Match Discussion: Round 10 vs Wests Tigers @ Suncorp Stadium

[aqua_duck]

The sad thing is the only change AOB will make next week is To'a getting dropped for Edrick or Musgrave

 

[aqua_duck]

We've got in a recruitment Alex McKinnon - a bloke with no pedigree in recruiting but now 'watches' a lot of footy - and Clint Zammit, a bloke who presided over a declining and bottom 4 roster the last few years at the Cowboys. What could he possibly have put on show to indicate he was at the top of his craft. Doesn't fill you with much hope.

To be fair Zammit only came on board at the back end of last year and due to covid hasn't really had a chance to travel around, for what it's worth he's widely regarded as one of the best talent scouts in the game, he scouted the like of Jason Taumalolo, Ponga, Brandon Smith, Viliami Kikau, Cory Horsbaugh, Braden Hamlin Uele, Felise Kaufusi, Hamiso Tabuai Fidow and many others, not his fault Paul Green decided to let most of them walk out the door

 

[mozza91]

I really wanted him to be the coach that Gardner wanted to sell us. But just like Brown, his pressers are full of nothing. Might as well read a teleprompter.

He’s miles ahead of Brown. At least he has a go at the players which is better than 4 seasons of ‘we’re still learning’.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

Didn't see the game but what I did see is this result coming. Losses like these have become a trademark for the Knights since Joey retired. Long suffering fans know what to expect. Sadly, we are playing the same as we always have even with a vastly improved roster (on paper). Imo we don't need to be recruiting for talent alone, we need to be recruiting leaders and culture changing personalities. Start with people who really want to win and go from there.

Also, we need a real top level halfback. Why why why were we never in the race for Reynolds? The club is truly rotten to the core. These types of consistent heartless performances not only ensure the club won't attract new fans but they are starting to push long time supporters away. Why should we care when the players don't? The club has no identity, no direction and no hope in the short-term. Cap money has been wasted on players who are either overrated, not fulfilling potential or players who don't suit the modern game.

I clearly care about the fortunes of this team but I'm definitely questioning why I do/should...

 

[Loose Cannon]

He’s miles ahead of Brown. At least he has a go at the players which is better than 4 seasons of ‘we’re still learning’.

No argument re Brown, but I want to see having a go at the players result in changes come Tuesday. And with our performances, it matters little who subs in. Mann out, Tuala out, a minimum this week.

 

[Alex28]

We possibly need a new coach too, but it hurts knowing how much of an overhaul our roster actually needs again.

We have the most overrated forward pack in the NRL which continue to be dominated by poor teams

We don’t need a new coach. We need players that are going to buy in to the culture he wants to implement.

Why do we have a culture of comfort - comfortable in just being a first grader is enough, and being satisfied with winning the odd game here or there? That is where the problem begins and ends. We don’t want it as much as Penrith and Melbourne do right now.

There is the nucleus of probably 7 players that we can build the team around - in a squad of 30 that means there is a LOT of dead wood.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

Im always surprised when I see a person under 25 in Knights gear at the game. I don't know what would have caused them to bother supporting.

Their Dads who remember the glory days. My son is 19 and has often said over the years "why did you make me support these useless pricks?" Yet he dies as hard as any of us. I just tell him all the suffering will make it that much sweeter when we finally win another Premiership.

 

[AusKnightRKO]

No argument re Brown, but I want to see having a go at the players result in changes come Tuesday. And with our performances, it matters little who subs in. Mann out, Tuala out, a minimum this week.

Tuala out, but boot Mann to the centres, play watson in the 6, wouldn’t be the worst option till Jnr comes back.

 

[aqua_duck]

This is the team I'd go with next week
To'a
Musgrove
Best
Hunt/Shibasaki
Jacob Kiraz
Watson
Crossland
Klemmer
Brailey
Saifiti
Frizzell
Jones
Barnett

Saifiti
King
Fitzgibbon
Mann

 

[PhilGould]

Crazy idea but maybe running out a reserve grade team for 3 years with no expectation to win is detrimental to the players development and mentality, and breeds a culture of losing?

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Crazy idea but maybe running out a reserve grade team for 3 years with no expectation to win is detrimental to the players development and mentality, and breeds a culture of losing?

None of them are there and we had issues long before that.
Years spent going through halves trying to get someone who could come close to what Johns did.
Major rebuild and we are still struggling to get character out there.
We've had rosters that should perform on paper and they train well but don't deliver on the field.
There have been much better days with rosters that look less on paper. I set an indicator that if we do WWL we are going well. We've racked up 4 wins in a row at times (nearly forgotten).

They only thing that holds me together is knowing we have been sh!t before but came good towards the end of one season to get 8 or so straight. Made the semis but bowed out. Different players but I'd love to know who inspired them then. I don't think this team is capable of that.

Maybe they should get Mullo over while on the Sunshine Coast. He should be over his shoulder injury. At least he was there when we had some better spirit. Or is that spirits?

 

[slotmachine]

Crazy idea but maybe running out a reserve grade team for 3 years with no expectation to win is detrimental to the players development and mentality, and breeds a culture of losing?

Brown doing the same thing at the warriors. He came out and said he played RTS on the wing against the storm because they weren't going to win anyway.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Now going through our leaders -
- Brailey - good player, hasn't had time in his career or at the club to establish that aura.
- D Saf - often goes missing, rarely inspirational.
- Ponga - is anyone really worried about letting KP down? He'll probably shout you a strawberry milkshake on Monday anyway. Very laid back, doesn't care too much about footy outside of a profession (my impression anyway).
- Barney - plays hard, but is limited in a lot of ways. Does some dumb shit, can get his defence a bit mucked up at times.
- Pearce - party boy, always has been. Can see that he does give a shit about the result - and that it does upset him when we're not doing well. One of the only blokes in our squad that you can rely on to fire up more often than not. Unfortunately his hard skills let him down - especially at this end of his career. His material contributions amount to a pretty ordinary running half that can move the ball around and generally organises our shape better than anyone else at the club - but doesn't do anything at an exceptional level - and does a lot of things pretty poorly.
- Green - flat out past it. Miles past it. Probably resents the fact that he chose to even run around another year. Journeyman.

And that's it. The rest are clueless or kids.

There were 2 sets of 6 at the start of the second half where Klem took 4 big runs and I thought oh here we go, someone is stepping up. Then nothing. Friz tries hard but he just got here.

Well summarised mate

Just on Klem, the amount of dunces on SM calling for him to be dropped astounds me. Either the average punter has no idea of a props value or I just don't know RL after playing for nearly 20 years and watching for nearly double that

 

[Spot On]

We possibly need a new coach too, but it hurts knowing how much of an overhaul our roster actually needs again.

We have the most overrated forward pack in the NRL which continue to be dominated by poor teams

We certainly do. And no matter how loyal a Knights supporter one may claim to be... it is just futile arguing against this when watching us week to week.

 

[Apey]

Oof I know people are emotional right now but watching O'Brien's press conference, I don't see anything wrong with what he said. I think you're clutching at straws if you're going after his presser. Whether he's the man to fix the issues is another story.

 

[TooheysNew]

He’s miles ahead of Brown. At least he has a go at the players which is better than 4 seasons of ‘we’re still learning’.

Yeah - miles better... the performances clearly indicate that.

 

[mozza91]

Yeah - miles better... the performances clearly indicate that.

Get f**ked.

 

[Knight Tales]

Oof I know people are emotional right now but watching O'Brien's press conference, I don't see anything wrong with what he said. I think you're clutching at straws if you're going after his presser. Whether he's the man to fix the issues is another story.

Nothing wrong with criticising his presser cos he has waited ten rounds and six losses to finally bring up big changes at recruitment level. His cattle is not what he needs if he wants a long career.
Stuart by contrast has already demoted Papa and Hodgson for poor leadership and effort. Granted it hasn’t worked but he at least saw the writing on the wall. Payten demoted JT after one round!
A clear difference in values.

 

[Jono078]

Oof I know people are emotional right now but watching O'Brien's press conference, I don't see anything wrong with what he said. I think you're clutching at straws if you're going after his presser. Whether he's the man to fix the issues is another story.

Yeah not sure I get this either. I thought he said some things that had to be said and I was happy with that, just need him to deliver on those now.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

The problems with the club culture were there way before AOB got here and he’s just another coach who’s having trouble fixing it. Let’s not forget even Bennett couldn’t fix this club so what serious chance does a rookie coach have?