Robson, Tautai & Lowrie

[ParraFan09]

yeah your probalbly right but still hes got woeful hands though
the only good thing ive seen him do was when he gave that nice ball to reddy when he scored on the weekend.

 

[Eelementary]

Like I said, he's not a great player. But if the rest of the pack was playing half decently, I doubt it would be an issue.

We saw him play fairly well against Souths in round 2. That night our pack stood up and played well. If they do it on a more regular basis, Lowrie wouldn't be noticed for playing poorly as much imo.

 

[ParraFan09]

well i dnt know maybz ur right ill pay attention nxt time our pack stands up and plays sum footy if that eva happens.

 

[K-Man]

Why not?

Newcastle:

Hit-up #1: Simpson
Hit-up #2: Paterson
Hit-up #3: Prop
Hit-up #4: Taia

By hit-up 4, each of the guys has made10 metres and the defensive line is backpedalling.


Parramatta:

Hit-up #1: Moimoi
Hit-up #2: Cayless
Hit-up #3: Hindmarsh
Hit-up #4: Lowrie

Moimoi gets gang-tackled; Cayless gets manhandled; Hindy is buggered from 50 tackles. Leaving Lowrie - who runs straight into 4 guys who have ample time to smash him. He promptly loses the pill.

Not saying Lowrie is a world-beater, but I guarantee you he would play far, far better in a decent pack.

This is the weirdest logic I've ever seen. Shouldn't it be easier for a decent forward to stand out in an ordinary pack? How can you possibly blame the fact that Lowrie struggles to roll over the advantage line and is simply not big enough or powerful enough on the fact his teammates are just as bad? That makes no sense.

Also your example of how it works at the Knights has probably never even happened so it's a rather grasping-at-straws theory - Paterson and Simpson have barely played this season let alone together; Cross and Tolar are both out injured; and Taia often takes takes one of the first hit-ups of the set anyway.

And apart from all that Taia is simply a million times the player that Lowrie is in every facet of the game.

 

[strider]

taia would probably be nothing if he had stayed at parra - another weller .... he has been given opportunity and confidence and has grown as a player

 

[Gronk]

taia would probably be nothing if he had stayed at parra - another weller .... he has been given opportunity and confidence and has grown as a player

Wow, then there is really no reason for any decent player to either stay at or come to our club. :sarcasm:

 

[yy_cheng]

Why not?

Newcastle:

Hit-up #1: Simpson
Hit-up #2: Paterson
Hit-up #3: Prop
Hit-up #4: Taia

By hit-up 4, each of the guys has made10 metres and the defensive line is backpedalling.


Parramatta:

Hit-up #1: Moimoi
Hit-up #2: Cayless
Hit-up #3: Hindmarsh
Hit-up #4: Lowrie

Moimoi gets gang-tackled; Cayless gets manhandled; Hindy is buggered from 50 tackles. Leaving Lowrie - who runs straight into 4 guys who have ample time to smash him. He promptly loses the pill.

Not saying Lowrie is a world-beater, but I guarantee you he would play far, far better in a decent pack.

You have a slight point in that if the first 3 have made a dent, then the defense is back peddling and he won't be hit as hard.

But as someone else pointed out, then why doesn't caylo, ffmm and hindy drop the pill and only todd?

 

[strider]

Wow, then there is really no reason for any decent player to either stay at or come to our club. :sarcasm:

seriously - over the period of time since he left, I am pretty confident he would not have been given the right environment to improve his game (not saying that can't be put in place now DA is here)

I'm so f'n jealous of Newcastle's current roster - honestly, there are a couple of good players with a bunch of no names making names for themselves, putting in every week, with the right attitude .... for all his flaws, smithy certainly knows how to get a club up and running

 

[Stagger eel]

Newcastle in 2009 is definitely Parra in 2005.

I still believe Smithy will win a comp and something tells me this could be the year.

 

[fish eel]

taia would probably be nothing if he had stayed at parra - another weller .... he has been given opportunity and confidence and has grown as a player

The ironic thing is that Zeb hardly got a run under Brian Smith at Parramatta.

The other ironic thing is opportunity is the exact thing Weller has been given.

 

[TheParraboy]

Newcastle in 2009 is definitely Parra in 2005.

I still believe Smithy will win a comp and something tells me this could be the year.

How could Newcastle win it this year , when we didnt in 2005 ;-)

 

[forward pass]

Newcastle in 2009 is definitely Parra in 2005.

I still believe Smithy will win a comp and something tells me this could be the year.

Me too - I can smell it already.

 

[strider]

The ironic thing is that Zeb hardly got a run under Brian Smith at Parramatta.

The other ironic thing is opportunity is the exact thing Weller has been given.

yeah, but zeb was still young ... ppl love to bag smithy for not giving kids a go, but I think he just has his views on whether they are ready or not and whether there are more experienced players available who can do the job he wants done

I reckon zeb would probably look like weller in our current team - zeb is benefitting from having a bunch of other forwards putting in around him and a decent set of halves giving him the ball - I reckon weller could be in the same position had he been taken to newy

 

[strider]

btw - i don't think Newy will win this year - they'll get to the finals and do ok - but i still think they are a year or 2 from a possible title ... and there is still the brian smith GF question mark - but hopefully brian has learnt some stuff about handling a GF also

 

[cgee221]

I can see the similarities in Newcastle to us in 2005, however I will say this. Their side is a lot less experienced then our side of 05. To be honest, I couldn't believe we were being written off the way we were in 2005. We were predicted to finish 9th (by Big League and other sources) despite buying a lot of talented and experienced players. At the start of the year I tipped us to be a top 4 side and optimistically had us winning the minor premiership, as it so happend to eventuate. I understand the perspective that we didn't have a so called, established halfback leading us around (before Tim produced the mother of all seasons) but I thought our forward pack/bench was the best/one of the best leading into that comp, and many of the previous seasons showed that we were more than competitive without an established halfback.

I think the thing with Newcastle is, they don't have many finals hardend players. In that if they're under the pump in the pressure of sudden death football, I'm not sure how they'll perform, hopefully for their sake this year Smithy isn't a negative influence in that area. However, in saying that, neither were the Tigers of 2005 and we all know how that ended, so it could work in their advantage also. Time will tell.

 

[Eddie_T]

Zeb is the only knights forward who has started every game this year and since he's been moved out wide to cover the loss of Paterson and Simpson (not to mention their 1st choice props Cross and Tolar) has been carving up. I read somewhere that Zeb was the leading line breaker out of all forwards in the NRL. Zeb always had alot of potential, he's big, strong and athletic, all the things Todd Lowrie isn't, and unlike Weller, Zeb didn't mind the dirty work

 

[ROGUE]

Faaoso has played well under smithy up there, and i realise he had the knock on habit for a while but it appears smithys persistance will him has worked wonders

 

[strider]

from what i've seen faoso still had the droppsies at times, just that smithy seemed to see that he could provide something to that team and persisted and, while he might still drop the occaisional ball, he f'n makes up for it with the rest of his game cos his confidence is way up

 

[oldmancraigy]

from what i've seen faoso still had the droppsies at times, just that smithy seemed to see that he could provide something to that team and persisted and, while he might still drop the occaisional ball, he f'n makes up for it with the rest of his game cos his confidence is way up

Yeah - Faaoso is worth the odd dropped ball because of the meters that he can make.
I'm glad we never really gave him a shot, and then got rid of him - Cordoba is so much better...

 

[The Colonel]

1. McKinnon
2. Williams, D
3. Delaney
4. Graham, A
5. Williams, J
6.
7. Hodkinson
8. Fa'aoso
9. Morris
10. Mannah, J
11. Taia
12.
13. O'Dwyer

14. Farrar

The most recent losses still in the NRL and those attributed to Hagan or close to his time would be helpful around now.