Sack Adam O'Brien

[Yosh]

A lot of us just venting I think.

But yeah leaving aside the recriminations: I just want to see genuine long-term planning from the club. I want to be able to look back 5-6 years from now, look at the moves that were made, the players developed, and think, wow, things really came together didn't they?

Kalyn and Pearce arriving in 2018 felt like the start of that, but you look back on the years since and it all just looks so foolish. Every decision short term, reactive, or when there was some element of future planning, getting massively over-excited and jumping the gun (eg signing Dylan Brown to that deal based on how awesome they thought Kalyn and Fletch looked together... on the training paddock). Always chasing the quick fix, the shortcut.

I want a Knights Halfback Academy. I want investment in that on a level to rival Penrith's investment. However much money that takes, whatever cherry of inducement the club has to come up with to bring the right kids in. I want the best young talent we can identify on that front put in a competitive situation & given the best education on the principles of halves play money can buy. For me that's the #1 most pressing issue the club needs to address - not who's playing halfback next year, but what it will take for us to have the best halfback in the NRL 5-10 years from now.

No matter what the perception of the Knights is as a club, Penrith are the proof of concept: If you build it, if you invest in it, if you really really want to do whatever it takes to get it... you can find it. Nathan Cleary is not a talent on the order of Johns or even Thurston. What he is is a combination of physical attributes, insatiable work ethic, and literally the best junior coaching any half in NRL history has ever received (along with the education guys like Luai and Katoa got).

Perhaps the most storied jersey in NRL history, the Knights #7, has not had a truly worthy occupant since 2007. We won't fill it sitting around & waiting for another Cessnock miracle baby, or overpaying for a very good five-eighth. We'll only get there if we build the infrastructure to create it.

To be fair, Sharpe might be that 7. Very different type of player to Joey but hopefully he can turn into a 7 that plays 18 seasons in the Knights colours!

 

[slotmachine]

What on earth makes anyone think Sharpe is a 7? He's still learning to play 6 and looks a fair way off that at present.

 

[macavity]

Really? Either you're a bit dim or you're being deliberately obtuse

really dim

 

[The Axe of Druss]

What on earth makes anyone think Sharpe is a 7? He's still learning to play 6 and looks a fair way off that at present.

Cause Bellamy did it with Hughes

AOB worked with Bellamy

AOB does it with Sharpe??!

 

[HarVeeGee]

Fletcher has phenomenal instincts for playing fullback. He'd be really good there very quickly.

The halves, he's years away. Decision making further in, how much to engage the line, steering a side around & deciding where sets end, that's the hardest stuff in footy pretty much. Kalyn's not very good at that stuff either.

Not that fullback is easy, but it's just different, and your success there is more dependent on the calibre of athlete you are. That's why fullbacks tend to get really good at a younger age than halves, by and large.

Will be watching Sharpe at 1 again with interest this weekend.

 

[perverse]

What on earth makes anyone think Sharpe is a 7? He's still learning to play 6 and looks a fair way off that at present.

Because people can't wrap their heads around how Sharpe and Brown are going to work in the halves, and see it almost as likely that a fresh rookie could be moulded over time into the role as much as Brown could be - given he's deeper into his career and a bit more set as a player.

We've seen 2 current halfbacks that made their way there from the #1 jersey in recent memory, too. Hughes and to a lesser but still effective extent Hynes have done it. I feel like Hynes probably had some experience in the juniors in the halves... but there's another bloke who has a similar resume. Fletcher Sharpe.

So yeah I mean I dunno if that's how it will play out, but I don't think it's an increduluously stupid thought either. I tend to share the sentiment that Brown isn't a 7, and I don't know that Kalyn can or should bear any of the responsibility either. This whole hybrid spine-without-a-7 plan is... dicey from a coach that has never proven he can coach anything aside from 1-out runs and predictable shapes with no variation.

 

[HarVeeGee]

AOB talks about how he wants a more dangerous & dynamic footy team with a lot of variety in attack, and I believe that's what he wants, and that's what I hoped the thought was with signing Brown, but also has them playing in a straitjacket. And seems to believe "sometimes Kalyn is at first receiver, sometimes he's at second or third" counts as that variation on its own. But that means jack shit if the shapes are all the same!

I feel like Adam thinks he can control the game situations which will arise on the weekend in training during the week. I guarantee it's a team where they're rehearsing full sets in training and getting very detailed instructions for when & where they can offload, etc etc etc. This is how I think we end up with this very tentative team. The stuff they trained just doesn't work when they're being hit too hard. This leads to some players overplaying and some underplaying their hand.

The coaching staff's structures only work if the other team literally just rolls over and allows a training gallop. If you want dynamic attack, players need to learn to embrace the chaos a bit more.

 

[Yosh]

What on earth makes anyone think Sharpe is a 7? He's still learning to play 6 and looks a fair way off that at present.

Our head coach and head recruitment guy for one...

 

[HarVeeGee]

Our head recruitment guy has explicitly stated that he signed Brown to play 7.

I’m getting deja vu here.

 

[Old dog]

I don’t think next year is settled yet, Ponga leaves anything could happen, Sharpe to 1 , Brown to 6, use Ponga money to but a 7.
Nothing is out of the question at this time, we are all guessing and hoping, lots of guesses and hopes.
I‘m hoping that I have guesses right about my hopes for my guesses to be somewhere near my hopes, I guess

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

Our head coach and head recruitment guy for one...

That hardly fills me with confidence on the idea

 

[aqua_duck]

I've never argued against the point of AOB failing to develop some of those players, in fact i made that very point myself.

Whether they were here or not at the same time is irrelevant really so nit picking on the details doesnt mean much. Would we have been able to keep the likes of Best, Lucas, Sharpe etc if they were kept on is the crux of it. You keep your best prospects as you see it at the time and others will get moved on. Id have the 3 I mentioned in my side over the ones not here if it came down to it.

Whether those 3 were given a proper chance is up for interpretation. Starford was given 20 games here and was average at best. I remember him having some outright shocking games in there and not many railed against us showing him the door. I dont think the other 2 even had a 1st grade game here from memory.

If we keep looking back we'll never look forward in the end.

Again you’re missing the point, this isn’t about whether we would be able to keep Best, Lucas and Sharpe, that’s another story, it’s about how we have failed to get the best of guys who were here, in any case on current form Kiraz would be our best winger by a mile, Barnett would be our best forward by a mile.
In the case of Toa, yes he was given 20 games but all of them out of position. Toa came through as a fullback/centre, never played on the wing yet was only ever picked on the wing by AOB, though we did have a pretty handy winger in NSW cup in 2021 named Jacob Kiraz but AOB didn’t rate him.