Match Discussion: Round 13 vs Canterbury @ McDonald Jones Stadium, New Lambton / Awabakal

[Woosh]

 

[macavity]

Where is this about Brailey coming from? He's looked mostly very good this year for a player coming back from multiple major injuries.

He distributes mostly adequately and makes most of his tackles.

But he doesn’t threaten the line on quick PTBs and displays very little creativity in his distribution. He doesn’t offer a kicking threat and often makes bad decisions under fatigue (I am sure we could all think of a few game defining ones without much effort).

He brings little energy as he is giving it his all just to keep up after 10 mins. Just look at the difference in line speed when Phoenix comes on.

I love the bloke but he is very obviously physically struggling.

Is he “the” problem? No. But is he able to go some way to compensate for the problem like the better players at his position? Also no.

 

[Knight Tales]

Phoenix should be starting next week. His energy and defence are always up.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

He and Kai were stifled by the shithouse delivery they were getting. If your play the ball speed is garbage your edges might as well be middles. Not saying your point is not valid. But against a defence which resets so well the halves were diabolical. Our forwards IMO worked pretty hard to go with them.

Knights 3.5 sec versus Bulldogs 3.49 sec

https://www.nrl.com/draw/nrl-premiership/2024/round-13/knights-v-bulldogs/

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

Offers nothing whatsoever in what is 50% of the game - attack .

Not the problem but not the solution, no Harry Grant or Api thats for sure.

Brailey is a bottom 8 hooker, as are our halves - that's the problem, alongside an engine room that needs a broom put through it.

 

[macavity]

Offers nothing whatsoever in what is 50% of the game - attack .

Not the problem but not the solution, no Harry Grant or Api thats for sure.

Brailey is a bottom 8 hooker, as are our halves - that's the problem, alongside an engine room that needs a broom put through it.

dont agree on the pack. I know it’s the fashion to lay the boot into them but they hold their own and often are on top - until our shit halves play has us playing off the back foot constantly and they run out of steam. The reason we get run over is the shit kicking and organising not the lack of punch from our pack.

 

[Knight Tales]

So Adam says stay off social media and what have i seen all weekend. Players posting Instagram stories. I guess he cannot control it. But you hear these stories of players all going off the drink or social media bans at other clubs. Apparently we are above it

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

Interestingly, I've seen a lot of fans on LU and elsewhere say that this performance from Newcastle was one of, if not the worst they've ever seen a team play.

We all know we've played worse but it's very telling when the entire Rugby League world notices just how pathetic the team was. I personally had messages from fans I haven't spoken to in years saying how disappointed they were.

 

[Yosh]

I think the issue is that all four spine players yesterday were role players. All hard work no genius. Add Ponga and Pryce to that and it's a good balance of 2 hardworking role players and 2 genius creative types that want the ball and will make things happen.

1. Ponga
6. Pryce
7. Gamble
9. Brailey
14. Crossland

Hopefully we see that line up in a month or so.

 

[Rod]

He distributes mostly adequately and makes most of his tackles.

But he doesn’t threaten the line on quick PTBs and displays very little creativity in his distribution. He doesn’t offer a kicking threat and often makes bad decisions under fatigue (I am sure we could all think of a few game defining ones without much effort).

He brings little energy as he is giving it his all just to keep up after 10 mins. Just look at the difference in line speed when Phoenix comes on.

I love the bloke but he is very obviously physically struggling.

Is he “the” problem? No. But is he able to go some way to compensate for the problem like the better players at his position? Also no.

I don't think you're giving him enough credit, his passing and option-taking is normally spot on. He doesn't have the running game of a top hooker but does still run when the markers aren't square or the defensive line is retreating. As usual with us there normally isn't someone backing him up when he does it. He's also our top tackler pretty much every week.

The issue is that Crossland isn't even spelling Brailey, they're playing together for a lot of Crossland's minutes, and Crossland is playing some sort of weird backrow hybrid role.

I'd go back to straight swapping Brailey and Crossland and give Brailey a proper stint on the bench in the middle so he ends up on around 55-60 minutes.

 

[Rod]

Interestingly, I've seen a lot of fans on LU and elsewhere say that this performance from Newcastle was one of, if not the worst they've ever seen a team play.

We all know we've played worse but it's very telling when the entire Rugby League world notices just how pathetic the team was. I personally had messages from fans I haven't spoken to in years saying how disappointed they were.

It's the attack that makes a team appear that bad to neutral fans. We can talk about the work our backline does and the forwards were pretty good, but at the end of the day we barely looked like scoring all night and that's what normal league fans notice.

 

[Old dog]

Am in agreement with Crosslands relieving Brailey for 20-25 minutes, am not against him relieving others such as 6, 7 & 13 for a further 10-20. The top concern is Brailey gets the brake and additional Crosslands time is bonus

 

[The Axe of Druss]

dont agree on the pack. I know it’s the fashion to lay the boot into them but they hold their own and often are on top - until our shit halves play has us playing off the back foot constantly and they run out of steam. The reason we get run over is the shit kicking and organising not the lack of punch from our pack.

Our packs defence at times this year has been diabolical and that has zero to do with the halves. Zero control of the ruck and both A defenders either not in position or missing their assignments

We must be close to the bottom of the comp on metres conceeded per set

 

[macavity]

Our packs defence at times this year has been diabolical and that has zero to do with the halves. Zero control of the ruck and both A defenders either not in position or missing their assignments

We must be close to the bottom of the comp on metres conceeded per set

Our defence has had some bad moments but overall isn’t horrible.

Our attack on the other hand.

 

[Allstar Knights]

Our line speed in defence has improved considerably lately.

 

[Apey]

Just to rub salt into the wound, every other result pretty much went our way this weekend. We'd have been 6th instead of 11th with a win. Lucky the competition is close, I guess.

 

[Woody90]

Just to rub salt into the wound, every other result pretty much went our way this weekend. We'd have been 6th instead of 11th with a win. Lucky the competition is close, I guess.

I guess the other side of that is that if we’d gone 5 in a row and up to 6th it would have probably kept the attention off the fact that we still need to improve significantly in attack. Even when we were 4 in a row I kept thinking that all a side needed to do was defend well against us and we’d get found out. If we didn’t get found out last week we 100% would have against the Storm/Panthers but then excuses could have been made about how we just weren’t good enough against top sides without our best players etc.

All the attention is on how bad our attack is now so it will need to be a bigger focus. I don’t think we have the halves to improve things considerably, but AOB’s comments before the Titans game where he said that he hopes we keep playing an ugly style have stayed with me. I get the impression we’ve being coached to not throw much at the opposition in order to promote ball security and that obviously needs an overhaul as well.

 

[Yosh]

I think we do have the halves for it. Cogger and Hastings was never going to work because they the same type of player, limited role player types. Don't care who stays but one has to go for Pryce.

 

[Zoidberg]

I think playing in the wet makes us play within ourselves too. Keep playing percentage footy and complete your sets. Unfortunately, that’s not good enough to beat at least half the teams in the comp.

 

[Woody90]

I think we do have the halves for it. Cogger and Hastings was never going to work because they the same type of player, limited role player types. Don't care who stays but one has to go for Pryce.

I think they’ll all be given a chance to redeem themselves next game. We were 4 in a row before Friday. Saying that though if the attack is just as bad again I’d bring Pryce in (very unlikely though given AOB’s comments in the presser - I thought his comments about Pryce were completely unnecessary btw - he makes such an effort to defend the players constantly in the media but then comments on Pryce negatively like that? Not a good look).