Rumoured Targets 3

[Knight Tales]

Toohey's News has been posted early:

Once again no news. Gives his opinion on a few things, a rehash of his podcast from the week, and rewords the same news we heard about the Knights wanting KPP early again in the Telegraph yesterday with no further insight or information given.

He’s basically doing it cos the Herald beg him to. He’s more or less retired.

 

[Alex28]

He’s basically doing it cos the Herald beg him to. He’s more or less retired.

Max McKinney leaves a little to be desired. Doesn’t seem to be able to get the news Baz used to, and Baz isn’t all that driven to get the scoops.

I paid for a subscription last year - haven’t bothered this year.

 

[PhilGould]

Toohey's News

- Kalyn Ponga's trip to Canada not viewed as 'career-defining' and he's expected to be back on the field sooner rather than later.
- Bailey Hodgson had statistically his best game as a Knight last week but he's facing an uphill battle to be re-signed with a couple of fullbacks already on the books and more coming through the juniors.

 

[ryan.a87]

Toohey's News

- Kalyn Ponga's trip to Canada not viewed as 'career-defining' and he's expected to be back on the field sooner rather than later.
- Bailey Hodgson had statistically his best game as a Knight last week but he's facing an uphill battle to be re-signed with a couple of fullbacks already on the books and more coming through the juniors.

Surely Hodgson is our next best option for fullback after Miller gets a typical “new knights player showing promise but gets an eventual season long injury”

I onow Pryce is incoming, but Hodgson might go alright on the wing or something

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Toohey's News

- Kalyn Ponga's trip to Canada not viewed as 'career-defining' and he's expected to be back on the field sooner rather than later.
- Bailey Hodgson had statistically his best game as a Knight last week but he's facing an uphill battle to be re-signed with a couple of fullbacks already on the books and more coming through the juniors.

I honestly can't see a future for Hodgson at the club and I doubt he'd sit it out in reserves.

 

[macavity]

Have we seen anything from Pryce that definitively says he is a better prospect than Bailey?

Looks like he has the type of build that he could put on 5kg and play the Kurt Mann role...

 

[Yosh]

Hodgson, very unlucky. Terrible luck with injury and COVID... He looks too small to play anything other than fullback. He is tiny compared to Young and Marzhew for example. If he doesn't work out here, I hope he goes onto become a good first grader elsewhere!

 

[ryan.a87]

Hodgson, very unlucky. Terrible luck with injury and COVID... He looks too small to play anything other than fullback. He is tiny compared to Young and Marzhew for example. If he doesn't work out here, I hope he goes onto become a good first grader elsewhere!

What’s the bet Melbourne sign him after papi goes into early retirement and he becomes the next slater

 

[Mr_Knightside]

What’s the bet Melbourne sign him after papi goes into early retirement and he becomes the next slater

I think there’s a betting market for that. TAB are offering $1.01 odds.

 

[perverse]

Have we seen anything from Pryce that definitively says he is a better prospect than Bailey?

Looks like he has the type of build that he could put on 5kg and play the Kurt Mann role...

Well, Pryce is putting in some eye catching moments in the SL, whereas Hodgson is wasting away in our reserve grade side with a handful of games to his name in the past 3 years.

So I'd say we've seen a lot more from Pryce at this stage. Hodgson may be a prospect, but Pryce is putting way more runs on the board. It's unfortunate timing really because we have Pryce on the books now, and we're not going to have the amount of gametime under Hodgsons belt to make any sort of real plan to bring him through by the time we'd have to re-sign him or not. Betting anything on Hodgson, given the signings we have already, is just a pure speculative gamble in a position we probably aren't that pressed in.

I don't mean to say in any way that Hodgson can't kick on and become a real player, just that in the particular position we find ourselves in - unless we can keep him on a development contract we might not be in a position to keep him with the information available.

 

[ryan.a87]

3 months ago we were so desperate to sign a fullback we let go a promising young forward

now we are apparently so flush with fullbacks we are cool with letting a good one go. And are in desperate need for forward depth

 

[perverse]

3 months ago we were so desperate to sign a fullback we let go a promising young forward

now we are apparently so flush with fullbacks we are cool with letting a good one go. And are in desperate need for forward depth

How much evidence do we have that he's a good one? He might be... but picture the future in which he does an ACL again a month from now and everyone is bitching about how we re-signed a guy with no track record except for the fact that he's perpetually injured.

Hodgson and the club are, unfortunately, in an awkward spot right now where we have a pretty cheap bloke there that's doing the job well right now, another guy with big wraps and doing well in the ESL coming in next year, and a marquee player that can drop back there in a pinch too.

The very very best you could say about re-signing Hodgson right now is that it would be a calculated risk. And honestly that's being super charitable.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

3 months ago we were so desperate to sign a fullback we let go a promising young forward

now we are apparently so flush with fullbacks we are cool with letting a good one go. And are in desperate need for forward depth

We needed a first grade fullback, we went and got one

Hodgson is at this moment a reserve grade player until he proves otherwise. No way would i have wanted an unproven, injury prone kid to start the season in the NRL. Id like to see him stay and develop though

 

[Knight Tales]

The whole Hodgson situation has been difficult to take as a big supporter of his. Persisting with him is still worth it on my book. He doesn’t turn 21 till the finals. Injuries or not he has plenty of time on his side as do we.

 

[PhilGould]

The juniors that Toohey singles out are David Armstrong, Fletcher Sharpe & Connor Votano. Hodgson has kept Armstrong on the wing for every NSW Cup game so far this season, but Armstrong is still signed for next year while Hodgson obviously isn’t. Votano is the captain of our Harold Matts side and has been good but would be 3 years away at best. If it’s because they want Sharpe to make the step up to being the NSW Cup fullback then it’s hard to argue against it, I believe he’s a better prospect.

Working against Hodgson is his size & lack of versatility. Players of his stature are basically fullback or bust at NRL level, you’re simply giving up too much size if you’re trying to squeeze him in as a winger or centre. Makes it’s hard to justify keeping him around if he’s not even going to be the second choice fullback, and wouldn’t make much sense for him to agree to that either.

 

[HarVeeGee]

What’s the bet Melbourne sign him after papi goes into early retirement and he becomes the next slater

I reckon they’d just put Hughes back to fullback. In fact if Papi comes back I would be very surprised if Pezet sees out his current deal with them. By playing him in first grade they’re really putting him in the shop window. Eventually Souths will realise Ilias isn’t the answer for example, and that would be a very attractive club to go to…

 

[SamSepi0l]

Munster more likely to go back to 1 if they want to squeeze Pezet in. He's been open about perferring it.

 

[HarVeeGee]

Working against Hodgson is his size & lack of versatility. Players of his stature are basically fullback or bust at NRL level, you’re simply giving up too much size if you’re trying to squeeze him in as a winger or centre. Makes it’s hard to justify keeping him around if he’s not even going to be the second choice fullback, and wouldn’t make much sense for him to agree to that either.

This is 100% it.

Pryce is a little bit bigger than Dane Gagai I think. From what I’ve seen fullback is his best position, but he has had success at 6, and I could see him becoming a centre (similarly to half the other centres in the comp seemingly, so many who would prefer to play fullback) or starting as a 14 if there isn’t a spine spot for him. He’s also a very highly regarded player at a level of the sport which is a bit higher than NSW reserve grade.

Hodgson is the fullbackiest fullback I can remember having at the club. Pryce does not have the same natural fullback instincts (though he certainly hasn’t looked *bad* back there) but from what I’ve seen he has a more varied and impressive suite of ball playing abilities (so maybe Bailey gets in better positions more often, but at this stage Pryce has shown more ability to actually create something out of the positions he gets himself into).

Also there’s an argument that of all the Cup spine players so far this season, Rivett deserves a top 30 deal more than Hodgson (and he plays two positions - halfback AND five-eighth).

 

[Old dog]

If Hodgson isn’t being resigned for next year then at some point they need to play Armstrong at f/b. Other spine positions need attention for 2024 and beyond our backups 6 Rivett, 7 Clune and 9 Crossland leave us a bit short and adding long term injuries Maps and Sasagi although good are yet to prove themselves

 

[The Axe of Druss]

I reckon they’d just put Hughes back to fullback. In fact if Papi comes back I would be very surprised if Pezet sees out his current deal with them. By playing him in first grade they’re really putting him in the shop window. Eventually Souths will realise Ilias isn’t the answer for example, and that would be a very attractive club to go to…

Ilias is a great player, how are you getting to South's looking to replace him?

Bold take