Rumoured Targets 3

[Knight Tales]

AOB would be stoked it is done. But smart enough to know it means nothing right now.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

IF Sharpe does play 7, playing alongside an elite 5/8 in Brown will make the move all the more easy.

Fletcher looks quite the prospect, I'm going to enjoy watching his career.

 

[Yosh]

Who is ESL? McEwan is a backrower right? I reckon we still need a good/great prop forward addition.

 

[Woody90]

360 tonight was something else….

- The club is going to lose its identify because we have 2 outside players in Ponga and Brown (I can’t even)
- Criticising AOB for not wanting to talk about Brown while there’s still a cooling off period and we have a game tomorrow with 2 different halves.
- A Ponga being disgruntled chat with no evidence in there for good measure….

Honestly why do I keep watching this shite?


Gus spent a lot of time defending us again on his podcast again today. He’s literally the only one in my media I think. Everyone else have lost their collective minds over this signing.

 

[Woody90]

Who is ESL? McEwan is a backrower right? I reckon we still need a good/great prop forward addition.

We need a replacement for Leo…but a worker is fine. It’s not smart to break the bank on props unless they can basically play a full game.

I’m a bit more worried about lock if Elliott’s going unless Frizz suddenly develops some ball playing at his age.

 

[Zoidberg]

360 tonight was something else….

Cannot win with media.

Negative news gets those clicks.

 

[perverse]

360 tonight was something else….

- The club is going to lose its identify because we have 2 outside players in Ponga and Brown (I can’t even)
- Criticising AOB for not wanting to talk about Brown while there’s still a cooling off period and we have a game tomorrow with 2 different halves.
- A Ponga being disgruntled chat with no evidence in there for good measure….

Honestly why do I keep watching this shite?


Gus spent a lot of time defending us again on his podcast again today. He’s literally the only one in my media I think. Everyone else have lost their collective minds over this signing.

A bunch of absolute dribble. We seem to have legitimately offended a really good chunk of the league world with this.

 

[mozza91]

Who is ESL? McEwan is a backrower right? I reckon we still need a good/great prop forward addition.

Elijah Salesa-Leamoana. Big strong back rower who’s good on both sides of the ball.

 

[perverse]

360 tonight was something else….

- The club is going to lose its identify because we have 2 outside players in Ponga and Brown (I can’t even)
- Criticising AOB for not wanting to talk about Brown while there’s still a cooling off period and we have a game tomorrow with 2 different halves.
- A Ponga being disgruntled chat with no evidence in there for good measure….

Honestly why do I keep watching this shite?


Gus spent a lot of time defending us again on his podcast again today. He’s literally the only one in my media I think. Everyone else have lost their collective minds over this signing.

Curiosity got the better of me and I popped it on. I have a couple more notes.

- Apparently now the "mystery 3rd club" never existed now. It seems like the narrative just shifts to whatever makes us look worse at any given moment.
- Ominous spooky music playing during Dylans press conference footage. Tabloid shit. The big scary Knights came and offered him an offer poor Dylan just couldn't refuse and is stripping him from his Parramatta family (actually another aspect of the deal that i suspect has ruffled some feathers).
- Old men babbling on about how certain halves in the 80s and 90s didnt gel well together when the game was played completely differently.
- 4 blokes sitting around discussing the limitations of a player (Sharpe) that they've probably seen play footy half a dozen times.
- You rarely see 4 blokes sit around a table being so confidently and smugly wrong about something. Somehow these guys seem to think replacing Jack Cogger with Dylan Brown in our team list makes us worse.

And lastly... it is actually insane how badly the media want Kalyn to leave us. Their thirst for it is unquenchable.

 

[mozza91]

If great minds like Gordon Tallis and James Hooper think it’s a bad idea I’ll be booking my 2026 Grand Final tickets the second they’re released.

 

[Woody90]

And lastly... it is actually insane how badly the media want Kalyn to leave us. Their thirst for it is unquenchable.

I constantly find this insane too. In what universe would you want a player like Kalyn, who has played basically all of his FG football here, to leave the Knights to go to a club like the Roosters? In what possible way would that be good for the game?

Is it because they speculated about it a few years ago and now they want to keep bringing it up so they can say they called it if he does eventually leave some day?

Is it because the media are obsessed with him because he gets clicks and now he’s matured they have to make stuff up because there’s less and less cubicle gate issues?

It’s so tedious.


Credit to Tallis who said it doesn’t sound believable rumours.

Also I’d missed the criticism of Sharpe. I can’t think of many 20 year olds who could debut at fullback down in Melbourne, learn how to play wing in a week then move to the halves. He’s obviously a work in progress and isn’t going to be the final product but I would not be writing him off and saying he could never become a good halfback.

 

[Knight Tales]

AOB will not play their game. I’d hate to play poker against the bloke.

 

[perverse]

Also I’d missed the criticism of Sharpe. I can’t think of many 20 year olds who could debut at fullback down in Melbourne, learn how to play wing in a week then move to the halves. He’s obviously a work in progress and isn’t going to be the final product but I would not be writing him off and saying he could never become a good halfback.

Mate, I put a ceiling on Phoenix f**king Crossland and the f**ker smashed through it. I am miles away from stating with any confidence that Sharpe couldn't do something in this game. He seems to be a very rare type of footballer.

AOB will not play their game. I’d hate to play poker against the bloke.

He's done nothing except wheel out the same pre-baked lines that every coach does. The media just get upset that they're not getting the soundbites they want.

As for the Ponga obsession, it's just good drama for the most part I think - they want the big headline. The media is a bit weird with us, they'll always say out of one side of their mouth that they want Newcastle to do well. It's like they enjoy the "idea" or "theory" of Newcastle being a strong team... but out the other side of their mouth - any time we make an attempt to better ourselves it feels like we're heavily scrutinized and/or criticized for it.

 

[mozza91]

I think it’s a mix of a media darling club losing a star player and an afterthought club signing said player that’s really infuriated everyone so much.
If the Roosters signed Brown with a similar offer mouth breathers like Hooper would be sucking them off and talk about their shrewdness.

 

[HarVeeGee]

IF Sharpe does play 7, playing alongside an elite 5/8 in Brown will make the move all the more easy.

Fletcher looks quite the prospect, I'm going to enjoy watching his career.

In his presser today Dylan said he was very open to playing 7 & sounded keen for the challenge. All he had to say about his previous stints at 7 for Parra is that he hadn’t trained a lot for a lot of aspects for it & it’d just be a bit of an adjustment. Which makes sense - why would he devote all his training time to those aspects when Moses is there?

Gave me a bit of confidence. I maintain that I don’t think there’s anything “wrong” with his long kicking, it’s just not one of the main things he works on.

Either way I don’t think the numbers on his and Fletcher’s backs actually matter all that much. I’m not imagining either of them morphs into an Adam Reynolds or Nathan Cleary clone. I’m sure he’ll kick more, but he won’t be like a Jamal Fogarty where he’s basically just a sentient boot whose whole role besides kicking is pretty much just counting tackles, pointing and shouting.

Brent Read’s article today makes it quite clear the thinking here is more that between Kalyn, Fletcher and Dylan you have three dangerous and dynamic playmakers with skill and vision. They’ll play together and all be the more dangerous for playing off one another. The answer to “who is 6 and who is 7?” re: Fletcher and Dylan may actually simply be “who cares?”

 

[Allstar Knights]

I'm honestly surprised AOB hasn’t ripped the journos to shreds at this point. It seems like every week he’s continually criticised about last year for changing halves combinations. I personally thought his changes were reasonable on the most part but people in the media love to keep flogging a dead horse. He was bagged in that interview for keeping his cards close to his chest on who the halfback will be (it’s fair enough through trials). He’s bagged for signing Brown and he’s bagged for not talking about it today. The guy can’t win honestly and he has the patience of a saint

 

[Lynoman]

I think it’s a mix of a media darling club losing a star player and an afterthought club signing said player that’s really infuriated everyone so much.
If the Roosters signed Brown with a similar offer mouth breathers like Hooper would be sucking them off and talk about their shrewdness.

I thought exactly this. It's more about the audacious, upperty, country club taking away from a city club that has most of the media hot under the collar. We're supposed to feed the Sydney clubs, not the other way around. We're supposed to only get the scraps!

 

[Rod]

- A Ponga being disgruntled chat with no evidence in there for good measure….

My favourite part was when Braith said "we're not just making this up....it's been in the newspapers!"

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

The answer to “who is 6 and who is 7?” re: Fletcher and Dylan may actually simply be “who cares?”

Exactly, either way we're in a far better position than we presently are.

In regards to the Brown deal - "It's not the cost of buying him, what's the cost of missing him" - Phil Gould.