Round 8 | Knights 34-14 Panthers @ Hunter | Monday 7pm

[Burwood]

We can't play with Hilder at dummy half for 80 minutes next week. There has to be someone else in the club other than him?

 

[Mr_Knightside]

I think tonight showed us two ends of the spectrum:
1. What this team can really do
2. What this team really needs to work on

I haven't seen it mentioned too much in this thread, but our kick chase was amazing tonight! We seemed to be there in numbers all the time, very enthusiastic and that first try probably was a reflection of that.

Mullen especially seems to be the first one there more often or not, he really is stepping up as a leader by doing those sorts of things right. His kicking game gave us an advantage tonight as well. I really think he has simplified his game, he only has to touch the ball once or twice a set but is putting the finishing touches on our sets really well, I honestly don't remember a single one of his kicks being caught on the full by the Panther's back three.

Boyd showed how classy he can be a couple of times. The tip-on to Tahu in the lead up to Zeb's try was brilliant, and his late game pass to give Uate a little space on the right was fantastic (I think it was Boyd who threw it, if not then Mullen I guess)

Kurt was rocks and diamonds, really made a fool of himself a couple of times but did a couple of nice things. His ball to Zeb for that line-break was one of the best plays of the game IMO, just behind the Boyd tip-on. The injury didn't look good though, he might be out for the year if it was the same shoulder he did a few weeks back.

Hilder was directly responsible for us scoring 2 tries, he was really good tonight, I don't know if I have ever seen him make a clean line break like that, Crack on Waltsing! Crack on!

Tahu was absolute class! and he is fast making our left edge our go-to side in attack, his intercept was at the perfect time to swing the momentum, Penrith had dominated for about 15 minutes up until then. Jimmy seems to have a bit more pace this year and very importantly makes the right decisions both in attack and in defense, quite a nice combination with Tahu there, they must have put on close to a line-break a game together this year.

Big Willie, did what I hoped he would in his first game, a couple of good runs, earned us 2 penalties and got an offload or two away (something which we seem to struggle with) I doubt we will get big minutes out of him for another 4-5 weeks but if he can increase his game time by say 5 minutes each week and still produce the same quality then he will be a great value signing.

Also just quickly, Nev was great tonight, was rock solid in defense and made a couple of really good runs up the middle when we needed someone to, he wears the 13 but seems to switch between lock and prop a bit, leave the edge running to someone like Zeb, Nev is made for the middle of the park.

No one has mentioned him here but I thought Eddie had a real go tonight, his running game is still fairly poor but he seemed to take on a lot more work tonight and on NRL.com his stats are 8 hit-ups for 96 metres, which is pretty good reading for a bench forward. Got a bit of his bite back in defense as well.


However...

Our ball handling was a disgrace at times, we really did seem to put huge amounts of pressure on our goal line defense (which was pretty good for most of the contest) and we have truly mastered this new play, I think it's called "Drop the ball on tackle 1" I think we are using it so much because we want other teams to start copying it.

Wes was below his normal standard, both in attack and his tackling, Jennings made him look silly a couple of times. But I'm prepared to accept this for his first week back and Jennings is a top centre, looks like his goal kicking will be a very important asset to us in the weeks to come. In a way Kurt getting injured isn't so terrible because it probably means Sau won't get a run as Wes will need to be in the team as our goal kicker.

Wasn't happy seeing Newton score, and score twice at that. But to his credit he didn't get up and make a big show about it, he just got on with the game. What Patto did last year after scoring against us was a bit of a joke.

Anyway my conclusion is that we showed in patches why we might be a finals team and showed in patches why we might not. I'm happy with the score line but obviously would have liked to see a bit more composure from us at times, if we can play like that next week but just cut the errors down I'll see it as an improvement.

 

[K-Man]

You mean Wes Naiqama right?

Absolutely not, I mean Kev.

Wes at fullback is solid, but that is all he ever will be. People fell in love with the fact he ran the ball back with aggression fairly often, but that's not a fullback's most important job in the modern game.

Wes is the guy you put in the number one shirt as a stop-gap measure, but not if you want to win a premiership.

At least his little brother brings the fundamentals of what you want from the position these days - speed, agility, playmaking skills, and the ability to capitalise on a half-break or off-load by turning it into points.

Obviously it would be up to Kev to prove he can do it in first grade, but there has to be a reason he is being played at fullback consistently in reserves. I would say that reason is almost certainly that he is being groomed for this possible scenario.

I'm not saying that Kev is Ben Barba, but he plays enough like Barba to deserve a shot at it. He has a lot more skill than people give him credit for imo - check out some nsw cup games this year, the guy is more than just a fast runner.

Wes at fullback for a long period of time would be a giant step into the past for mine.

 

[K-Man]

Albert Kelly's stocks are rising by the day...

I completely forgot about him, but you're right.

Wouldn't surprise if Wayne has had a little chat with him by tomorrow. Something along the lines of "train hard, play well, and make me pick you - you're next in line if you're good enough".

 

[mozza91]

Absolutely not, I mean Kev.

Wes at fullback is solid, but that is all he ever will be. People fell in love with the fact he ran the ball back with aggression fairly often, but that's not a fullback's most important job in the modern game.

Wes is the guy you put in the number one shirt as a stop-gap measure, but not if you want to win a premiership.

At least his little brother brings the fundamentals of what you want from the position these days - speed, agility, playmaking skills, and the ability to capitalise on a half-break or off-load by turning it into points.

Obviously it would be up to Kev to prove he can do it in first grade, but there has to be a reason he is being played at fullback consistently in reserves. I would say that reason is almost certainly that he is being groomed for this possible scenario.

I'm not saying that Kev is Ben Barba, but he plays enough like Barba to deserve a shot at it. He has a lot more skill than people give him credit for imo - check out some nsw cup games this year, the guy is more than just a fast runner.

Wes at fullback for a long period of time would be a giant step into the past for mine.

Fair enough, I haven't seen much of Naiqama over the past couple of years just the odd NSW Cup game and his few FG appearences, my view towards him tends to negative after what I saw from him in NYC in 09, he ball handling was horrendous.

 

[aqua_duck]

Whether Gidley's there or not doesn't matter, what does matter is this continuing theme, we just have absolutely no respect for the ball, a better team would've put 40 on us last night given the amount of quality possession Penrith had.
The bottom line is our ball handling has been diabolical this season. To me an 80% completion rate is a good standard to aim for, we've only achieve that once this season against the dogs. 4 times this season we've been 70% or under in our completion rate, which to me is just nowhere near good enough when we're trying to play the way Bennett likes his teams to play i.e controlling possession, territory, grinding the opposition into the ground. The thing that infuriates me most is how we drop the ball, it's deadset under 10s stuff. I could excuse all the knock ons if it was a result of playing razzle dazzle football but its not, I'd say 90% of our knock ons this season have been from just regulation hit ups or dropping simple passes, the only forward who doesn't seem to drop the ball every game is Houston.

 

[Frances the Mute]

How did Timana not get MOTM?

I thought he was great. Looked dangerous in D and A.

Houston?

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Nice Knights gave me a good collect on -8.5/Over 36.5 Total match points.

 

[Joker's Wild]

We can't play with Hilder at dummy half for 80 minutes next week. There has to be someone else in the club other than him?

Youre kidding right? Waltzing was excellent last night, looking sharper than ever. Its clear he has not had his head in the game over the 1st few rounds this year but certainly looked like he has put that behind him last night. Maybe all he needed was some headgear

I thought he was great. Looked dangerous in D and A.

Houston?

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Nice Knights gave me a good collect on -8.5/Over 36.5 Total match points.

House was massive last night and was the best forward on the park. Im going to be interested in his defencive stats because he seemed to be in just about every tackle.

A well deserved MOM imo

 

[aqua_duck]

Youre kidding right? Waltzing was excellent last night, looking sharper than ever. Its clear he has not had his head in the game over the 1st few rounds this year but certainly looked like he has put that behind him last night. Maybe all he needed was some headgear



House was massive last night and was the best forward on the park. Im going to be interested in his defencive stats because he seemed to be in just about every tackle.

A well deserved MOM imo

he made 45 tackles but our forwards weren't the reason we won that game, we won that game because our backline is infinitely more potent even though the panthers had more possession

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Hilder did ok last night. He didn't get the same go-forward from the forwards that Bedsy did but I think they slacked off in general in the 2nd half.
Gidley had a huge impact despite messing up a few times. He'll be missed. I reckon he should have had any surgery needed long ago but he took the risk to play on and that decision was his.
Costigan gets a lot of criticism here but I've always noticed he is capable of a great running and passing game. We have plenty of forwards who can offload but not many who can run, draw defenders and pass to supports the way Costigan can. I hope he keeps it up.
Mason was worth it just for the penalties we got from him. He'll be a target and attract a lot of defenders trying to shut him down. Madog was the same and Mason will take over in the fwds. We saw a little bit of Union in Mason too when he spun and looked for someone to pass the ball to.

 

[Big Tim]

Absolutely not, I mean Kev.

Wes at fullback is solid, but that is all he ever will be. People fell in love with the fact he ran the ball back with aggression fairly often, but that's not a fullback's most important job in the modern game.

Wes is the guy you put in the number one shirt as a stop-gap measure, but not if you want to win a premiership.

At least his little brother brings the fundamentals of what you want from the position these days - speed, agility, playmaking skills, and the ability to capitalise on a half-break or off-load by turning it into points.

Obviously it would be up to Kev to prove he can do it in first grade, but there has to be a reason he is being played at fullback consistently in reserves. I would say that reason is almost certainly that he is being groomed for this possible scenario.

I'm not saying that Kev is Ben Barba, but he plays enough like Barba to deserve a shot at it. He has a lot more skill than people give him credit for imo - check out some nsw cup games this year, the guy is more than just a fast runner.

Wes at fullback for a long period of time would be a giant step into the past for mine.

I agree. Kev to FB if needed.

He has taken the Bennett style and nailed it in NSW cup. Showing alot more skill than I knew he had.

Pete Mata'utia is an option in the halves also if it gets to that point.