Match Discussion: Round 2 vs Manly @ 4 Pines Park, Brookvale / Cammeraygal

[The Axe of Druss]

f**k em, switch over to the F1. Don't need to hear from those dribblers.

lol and just listen to the Sky sports commentators dribble on about the British drivers and ignore everyone else? What a refreshing change

 

[perverse]

lol and just listen to the Sky sports commentators dribble on about the British drivers and ignore everyone else? What a refreshing change

Yeah they are insufferable pricks too.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

I think we'll win this well.

34-16

I was close lol

 

[mozza91]

I was close lol

You got the powerball numbers for Tuesday?

 

[Mr_Knightside]

That’s a good win under the circumstances. Super frustrating though that just when we start looking good we lose 3/4 of our spine. But at least we’ve got some quality guys to fill those spots which we haven’t had for a few years.

I wonder what our spine will look like next week…

I’m thinking either:

1. Sharpe
6. Smith/Crossland
7. Smith/Crossland
9. Graham/Arthur

or

1. Hunt
6. Sharpe
7. Smith
9. Crossland

I suspect it’ll be the second option given it means a bit less shuffling but jeez I want to see Sharpe at FB.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

That’s a good win under the circumstances. Super frustrating though that just when we start looking good we lose 3/4 of our spine. But at least we’ve got some quality guys to fill those spots which we haven’t had for a few years.

I wonder what our spine will look like next week…

I’m thinking either:

1. Sharpe
6. Smith/Crossland
7. Smith/Crossland
9. Graham/Arthur

or

1. Hunt
6. Sharpe
7. Smith
9. Crossland

I suspect it’ll be the second option given it means a bit less shuffling but jeez I want to see Sharpe at FB.

We've also got Gamble too if need be

 

[Wizardman]

Well done Knights fans. I will temper the excitement in that you probably played the two worst teams in the comp.
Despite that, you played very well against some injury adversity today. I think your boys controlled the match....but the six man bench certainly was a helping hand today.
One of the more pleasing things is Mooney. I doubted him in the trials but no longer. You have a good front-rower to back up Jacob's work now. I think he will improve out of sight with more grade experience. I think the Raiders will live to regret losing him.
I hope your spine heals up soon. Good luck for the rest of the year.

 

[mozza91]

That’s a good win under the circumstances. Super frustrating though that just when we start looking good we lose 3/4 of our spine. But at least we’ve got some quality guys to fill those spots which we haven’t had for a few years.

I wonder what our spine will look like next week…

I’m thinking either:

1. Sharpe
6. Smith/Crossland
7. Smith/Crossland
9. Graham/Arthur

or

1. Hunt
6. Sharpe
7. Smith
9. Crossland

I suspect it’ll be the second option given it means a bit less shuffling but jeez I want to see Sharpe at FB.

1-Sharpe
6-Gamble
7-Smith
9-Crossland
Makes the most sense. Gamble was quiet in Cup in the 1st half today but stood up set 3 tries in 10 minutes when it mattered in the 2nd half. I think this spine is our best option.

 

[Knight Tales]

I think Sharpey plays 6. Hunt will start at fullback. And if it goes to shit Gamble will go to the halves. Sharpe drops back to FB.

 

[Woody90]

I think we need to keep Crossland out of the halves whatever we do.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Yeah Id think Hunt comes in at fullback and Sharpe goes to 6. Its the option that offers the least amount of disruption to the spine and given how well Hunt played yesterday I think it makes the most sense.

Big shout out to Hunt too. Great to see the kid start growing into his talent given not many were convinced he would make an adequate NRL player. Also Haz Graham stepped up and took his opportunity. Dolphins loss is our gain

 

[Yosh]

Looks like we will have both Graham and Gamble on the bench with 4 forwards. I'd stick with Sharpe and Smith in the halves.

 

[perverse]

Yeah Id think Hunt comes in at fullback and Sharpe goes to 6. Its the option that offers the least amount of disruption to the spine and given how well Hunt played yesterday I think it makes the most sense.

Big shout out to Hunt too. Great to see the kid start growing into his talent given not many were convinced he would make an adequate NRL player. Also Haz Graham stepped up and took his opportunity. Dolphins loss is our gain

I'm still not sure he is much chop anywhere but fullback (perhaps ok as depth, but he's not anywhere close to being a a real replacement for Gags for example), but yeah he can tip his cap for yesterday. It was a tremendous effort and his best contribution so far.

 

[Woody90]

Play Hunt at FB and Sharpe at 6 but Sharpe can take some FB runs too.

I don’t want Sharpe’s development to be f**ked up because of Ponga and Brown’s injuries. He’s too talented.

 

[Woosh]

Positive football. God we've been begging for it for years. AOB-ball is negative footy and it's old fashioned.

“A big focus for us, we got a lot of talent in the team and it was about using that. My first day back of pre-season, we were doing edge v edge. I can’t remember the last time I have ever done that. It was based around footy conditioning, and at the back end of sessions, if we needed a top up we did a bit of fitness.”

 

[Frederick]

Words cannot describe how much I want to see the Bulldogs crash and burn with AOB there. He wasted so much potential in this squad with his boring, outdated styles

 

[Rod]

Interesting moment I noticed in the presser...there was a question about how much time was spent in the off-season remodeling the attack. Holbrook and Ponga looked at each other and Ponga had a kind of half smirk.

Not sure if I'm reading too much into it but to me it looked like "yeah we had to start the whole fkn thing from scratch".

 

[Zoidberg]

Heard Cronk say during the game, which I found very interesting, that the Vegas game Ponga had 50 ball touches, which was a career high. That’s crazy. It always felt like we weren’t going to him often enough in years gone and we often thought it was Ponga’s fault. Obvious now it was O’brien’s gameplan to keep the ball away from our best player.
I was never an O’brien hater but his style is extremely out of touch with the current game.

 

[Rod]

I was never an O’brien hater but his style is extremely out of touch with the current game.

This is it in a nutshell. You could see what AOB was trying to do (set completions, opponent constantly starting sets from inside their own 20, grinding them down) however the game has just gone completely in the other direction. The game is so fast it's a massive challenge for even the best defences - one little slip-up is a 6 again, so all that work winning the territory battle etc is immediately gone with it. Essentially, if you're not scoring points you're screwed because the other team will be.

 

[Woody90]

This is it in a nutshell. You could see what AOB was trying to do (set completions, opponent constantly starting sets from inside their own 20, grinding them down) however the game has just gone completely in the other direction. The game is so fast it's a massive challenge for even the best defences - one little slip-up is a 6 again, so all that work winning the territory battle etc is immediately gone with it. Essentially, if you're not scoring points you're screwed because the other team will be.

Thing is, there’s 3 teams in the comp who do this “old fashioned” game plan and extremely well… but you can’t do it unless you have the right players to execute it.

We’ve never had that sort of team. Our squad make up couldn’t be any more different to Penrith’s if we tried.