Match Discussion: Round 17 vs Parramatta @ McDonald Jones Stadium, New Lambton / Awabakal

[League Unlimited News]

NRL 2024 - Round 17
Newcastle Knights v Parramatta Eels
McDonald Jones Stadium, New Lambton / Awabakal (TICKETS)

Saturday 29 June 2024
NRL kickoff 5:30pm.
Broadcast live on Fox, Kayo.

1. Fletcher Sharpe 2. Enari Tuala 3. Dane Gagai 4. Bradman Best 5. Greg Marzhew 6. Will Pryce 7. Jackson Hastings 8. Jacob Saifiti 9. Phoenix Crossland 10. Leo Thompson 11. Tyson Frizell 12. Dylan Lucas 13. Adam Elliott 14. Jayden Brailey 15. Daniel Saifiti 16. Kai Pearce-Paul 17. Brodie Jones 18. Mathew Croker 19. Jack Hetherington 20. Jack Cogger 21. Krystian Mapapalangi 22. David Armstrong

In: Kai Pearce-Paul (bench)
Changes: Jack Cogger (five-eighth to reserve), Will Pryce (reserve to five-eighth)

1. Clinton Gutherson 2. Maika Sivo 3. Viliami Penisini 4. Sean Russell 5. Blaize Talagi 6. Dylan Brown 7. Mitchell Moses 8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard 9. Brendan Hands 10. Junior Paulo 11. Shaun Lane 12. Bryce Cartwright 13. Joe Ofahengaue 14. Matthew Arthur 15. Makahesi Makatoa 16. Matt Doorey 17. Ryan Matterson 18. Daejarn Asi 19. Joey Lussick 20. Wiremu Greig 21. Jake Tago 22. Charlie Guymer

Out: Kelma Tuilagi (second row)
In: Maika Sivo (wing), Matthew Arthur (bench), Matt Doorey (bench), Wiremu Greig (reserve), Jake Tago (reserve), Charlie Guymer (reserve)
Changes: Sean Russell (wing to centre), Daejarn Asi (centre to reserve), Makahesi Makatoa (front row to bench), Junior Paulo (bench to front row), Bryce Cartwright (bench to second row)

Referee: Peter GOUGH
Sideline Officials: Chris SUTTON, Kieren IRONS
Video Referee: Wyatt RAYMOND

​

HEAD TO HEAD - 1988 - 2023​

	TOTAL	NEWCASTLE	PARRAMATTA	DRAWN
ALL MATCHES	58	30	27	1
MCD. JONES	30	19	11	0

LAST FIVE MEETINGS​

YEAR	ROUND	RESULT	VENUE	CROWD
2020	Round 9	PARRAMATTA 10-4	McD. Jones	6980
2021	Round 13	PARRAMATTA 40-4	McD. Jones	23015
2021	Qualifying Round	PARRAMATTA 28-20	Browne Park	5087
2022	Round 7	PARRAMATTA 39-2	McD. Jones	25169
2023	Round 9	PARRAMATTA 43-12	CommBank	15875

BIGGEST WINS​

YEAR	ROUND	RESULT	VENUE	CROWD
2005	Round 14	PARRAMATTA 50-0	EnergyAustralia	15842
2013	Round 26	NEWCASTLE 54-6	Hunter	23392

NEXT FOUR MATCHES​

	Round 18	Round 19	Round 20	Round 21
NEWCASTLE	CANBERRA (A)	MANLY (A)	BRISBANE (H)	(BYE)
PARRAMATTA	SOUTH SYDNEY (H)	GOLD COAST (A)	(BYE)	MELBOURNE (H)

LAST THREE MATCHES​

	Round 13		Round 14		Round 15
NEWCASTLE	CANTERBURY	L 2-32	MELBOURNE	L 28-36	PENRITH	L 18-26
PARRAMATTA	CRONULLA	W 34-22	CANTERBURY	L 18-22	SYDNEY	L 18-28

STATE OF PLAY: 2024 SEASON​

	POSITION	PLAYED	BYES	W-L-D	FOR	AGAINST
NEWCASTLE	12th	14	2	6-8-0	248	303
PARRAMATTA	17th	14	2	4-10-0	283	404

 

[Knight Tales]

All indicators point to a Pryce debut alongside Hastings. When they played together in NSW Cup Pryce played his best game of the year easily. If he does, I hope he and Sharpe make a point of supporting each other’s half breaks all day. Those big Parra forwards can be gotten to of you are brave enough to keep going at them with pace. They’ll monster you but they are not the fittest specimens going around this year:

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

Pryce to debut this week.

 

[ryan.a87]

SuperCoach related, I’ve held into Armstrong. Any chance he will get a wing spot soon? Or sell him to Sharpe? (Via Garrick)

 

[Rod]

Just my opinion but I'd be surprised.

 

[League Unlimited News]

1. Fletcher Sharpe 2. Enari Tuala 3. Dane Gagai 4. Bradman Best 5. Greg Marzhew 6. Will Pryce 7. Jackson Hastings 8. Jacob Saifiti 9. Phoenix Crossland 10. Leo Thompson 11. Tyson Frizell 12. Dylan Lucas 13. Adam Elliott

14. Jayden Brailey 15. Daniel Saifiti 16. Kai Pearce-Paul 17. Brodie Jones

18. Mathew Croker 19. Jack Hetherington 20. Jack Cogger 21. Krystian Mapapalangi 22. David Armstrong

Injury & suspension (Tue 9am): Tyson Gamble, Kalyn Ponga (R22)

Since last game:
In: Kai Pearce-Paul (bench)
Changes: Jack Cogger (five-eighth to reserve), Will Pryce (reserve to five-eighth)

NRL TEAMS - 2024 Round 17 » League Unlimited

leagueunlimited.com

 

[Zoidberg]

Obviously I don’t want it to happen but if Pryce has a shocker of a game I wonder what the reaction will be of all the people who have been calling for him to be in the team from day 1.

 

[slotmachine]

It will be hard for him to have a game worse than what Cogger produced against the Panthers.

 

[perverse]

Obviously I don’t want it to happen but if Pryce has a shocker of a game I wonder what the reaction will be of all the people who have been calling for him to be in the team from day 1.

I kinda think we're beyond worrying about how well he goes, and just accepting that we need a change and to roll the dice. That's where I'm at anyway, but I'm sure the knives and outrage will come out pretty quickly again from facebook groups.

There's a lot to like about Pryce, but yeah he's an unknown quantity. Maybe he'll rise to the occasion. The only real risk in it for me is if we set Pryce's own development back by ruining his confidence. I don't see him playing worse than Cogger as a realistic risk, because it's difficult to be worse as slots said above..

 

[Allstar Knights]

Credit to AOB for the change. Other than possibly giving Dsaf too many chances (you can argue we don't really have better options), I feel like he's made changes when needed generally. He seems less stubborn about sticking with players then he has in the past.

 

[perverse]

Credit to AOB for the change. Other than possibly giving Dsaf too many chances (you can argue we don't have many better options too), I feel like he's made changes when needed generally.

A bit slow on them sometimes from the outside looking in, but yeah when changes have needed to be made, they've generally been coming.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

Obviously I don’t want it to happen but if Pryce has a shocker of a game I wonder what the reaction will be of all the people who have been calling for him to be in the team from day 1.

As long as he's not somehow worse than Cogger, I'm happy for him to stay there until Gamble is back

 

[Zoidberg]

I have little doubt he will be better than what Cogger has been offering but obviously O’brien has held him back for reasons.
Hope he can just be solid and do his job. The rest of the team, mostly, has been doing their part.

 

[Woody90]

Credit to AOB for the change. Other than possibly giving Dsaf too many chances (you can argue we don't really have many better options), I feel like he's made changes when needed generally. He seems less stubborn about sticking with players than he has in the past.

Yeah, I’m usually pretty quick to criticise him but IMO he’s selected Pryce at exactly the right time. After the Bulldogs game I was happy with him giving all of the side another shot as we were so bad across the park it wouldn’t be fair to single out a few players, then Cogger was a bit improved against the Storm so I would have given him another shot too. He was so individually bad against the Panthers though, paired with Pryce’s improvement in Cup, it was the right time to make the change.

 

[perverse]

I have little doubt he will be better than what Cogger has been offering but obviously O’brien has held him back for reasons.
Hope he can just be solid and do his job. The rest of the team, mostly, has been doing their part.

He's held back because his form has been shaky and his defence very questionable. I haven't seen much cup this year, but from reports it has sounded like he's been trying to do too much and pull off the hero play with every touch. Could get us in a mountain of trouble in first grade, or he could win us the match.

Having said that, by the sounds of things he has at least started to string it together lately, so we'll see. I dunno if excited is the right word, but i'm very interested to see how he goes. AOB's hand has been forced to have a crack before the season is completely in the bin.

 

[Apey]

He's going to let in points, it will be an absolute miracle if he doesn't or perhaps just awful coaching/decision making from Parra. What we need to hope is that he provides enough in attack to make up for it. We know Cogger doesn't, let's hope Pryce does.

 

[Woody90]

On the game, we’re obviously going to struggle - our 1 and 6 have 2 FG games between them. I’m looking forward to seeing how we go though.

 

[Yosh]

Has Crossland overtaken Brailey as our first choice hooker? Is Brailey being phased out even? With his cap space surely we can get an upgrade in the hooker spot.

 

[perverse]

Has Crossland overtaken Brailey as our first choice hooker? Is Brailey being phased out even? With his cap space surely we can get an upgrade in the hooker spot.

I would say the benefits of Braileys service gap over Crossland have become questionable when he's such a non-player in every other area now. Basically, I think it's 6 one way, half a dozen the other at this point. What Crossland brings that Brails can't is energy. Brails at this stage looks like exactly what he is - a talented bloke that's had his best years robbed from him through too many injuries.

Crossland is no world beater as a dummy half, but he's now built his game around energy, good defence and being reliable. He's seemingly cut a great deal of stupid and errors out of his game, and what you do get out of him is 1000% effort for as long as he's on the field.

I dunno, I think we get different things from both of them but Brailey just doesn't offer enough more than Crossland to outweigh the benefits that Crossland gives anymore. That's how I see it anyway. Brails is looking over the hill and a spent force, and is far more expensive than Phoenix.

Having said all of the above, I think if we moved Brailey on and stuck with Phoenix as our main #9, within 6-12 months we'd all be talking about how we're lacking a quality hooker in the team.

 

[Knight Tales]

Obviously I don’t want it to happen but if Pryce has a shocker of a game I wonder what the reaction will be of all the people who have been calling for him to be in the team from day 1.

Cogger has had multiple shots at establishing a starting spot at four different clubs. This kid is 21 on debut. If there is any blow back it falls squarely on O’Brien. I think the timing of his debut carries a lot of pressure he is not ready for. He could thrive on it. He may be one of those kids who phones it in while playing NSW Cup. Sharpe has played way better than anyone ever anticipated this early on.