Team 2016

[PhilGould]

The club has offered Holland a contract for next year (top squad I'm assuming) but he is weighing up his options. I get the impression he's gotten offers from one or more other clubs. This is via Paddy Killmurray from NBN.

 

[isaiah]

Get the check book out for 3 or 4 from the Ipswich jets because they are obviously better than the fringe NRL players you have now. Mcconnachie, pandia, and Martin barba would be a good start.

 

[Swarzey]

Hopefully we hold onto him. A full preseason should do wonders; he's shown enough that there's something there to hold onto. Wouldn't surprise me if he's got another offer somewhere; I expect us to lose one or two over the off season tbh.

 

[Noname36]

We need to hold onto Holland. He's been very good at centre and we'll need one of those when Mamo inevitably kills somebody and we need to move Gags to fullback.

 

[slotmachine]

holland in the NRL scares me. he'd get murdered. brown needs to go out and buy an NRL experienced centre because holland/the shitty matautias aren't going to cut it.

 

[Joel-22]

So are we all seeing Dane as our fullback at the beginning of 2016?

 

[PhilGould]

Don't really mind if it's Gagai or Mamo or even Jaelen Feeney. All of them have their positives and negatives. Just pick one of them early, let them have a full preseason at fullback and give them time to develop at fullback.

 

[aqua_duck]

Get the check book out for 3 or 4 from the Ipswich jets because they are obviously better than the fringe NRL players you have now. Mcconnachie, pandia, and Martin barba would be a good start.

The jets team was also a lot older, we had 3 or 4 guys who are still eligible for NYC, and plus about half a dozen who were in the NYC side from last season. I was impressed with Rod Griffin but he's already 28 years old and McCowardly would get cleaned up during the first training session

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

The jets team was also a lot older, we had 3 or 4 guys who are still eligible for NYC, and plus about half a dozen who were in the NYC side from last season. I was impressed with Rod Griffin but he's already 28 years old and McCowardly would get cleaned up during the first training session

Plus Tigers have already signed them both.

 

[slotmachine]

Rod Griffin it way too small, there's a reason he's 28 and never made NRL

 

[Tom155]

NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS

Leaky entertainers: At times in 2015 the Knights were one of the most exciting teams to watch purely because you knew there’d be plenty of tries scored at both ends of the park.

But when Rick Stone’s men got stuck in a shootout, they invariably fell onto the wrong side of the scoreboard.

Newcastle lost a staggering nine matches when scoring 20 points or more in the 2015 season, just one loss shy of the all-time record.

The challenge for Nathan Brown is to find a way to limit opposition scoring without stifling his side’s free flowing attack at the same time.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...season-kicks-off/story-fn2mcuj6-1227586653496

 

[Gravy]

I'll admit I've been guilty of being over optimistic in the past about the Knights prospects for the season, but Brown has some serious potential to work with next year.

We basically have a brand new halves pairing with Mullo being as good as a signing with the amount of football he's played. Going from Roberts/Gidley combo to Hodkinson/Mullen combo is a massive upgrade. Same can be said for Rocco coming back. Losing gids is also as good as a signing. If the young guys, Mamo, Tapine, Levi, Feeney all have break out years and we can snag a good prop from the super league I think we will be the big improvers.

If these players can suit Brown's style, which I think they will, I won't be too surprised to be knocking on the door of the top 8.

 

[The Showstopper]

Mullo and Hodko get some room then our backline all of a sudden becomes exactly what it is. One of the fastest and most mobile in the game. For the first time in a decade Mullo gets to play wider and chime in when his instinct allows as opposed to him being the go to man on the sixth tackle and our attack fizzles out. Instead we will get a ball running Mullo. Is there anyone more dangerous when his game is on there? Just want to see us have a red hot go and be safe in the knowledge we can put points on. There are certain media 'experts' who feel under Brown we will be a very different prospect. Houston will be lucky to see first grade IMO. Brown let him go without a whimper in 2007. Let us not forget the very impressive Jack Stockwell. Tapine, Rochow and Stockwell along with the obvious Tariq walk up start means we get a good rotation there with Smith a bench player you would think. Paea is no mug front rower either. There is plenty to be positive about. Korbin needs to find a new level. If he does we will be going just fine.

 

[perverse]

At least if we fail, it should be a different failure this year. They've let me down too many times now for me to get overly excited in pre-season. Our squad has improved at the top end a bit, but our depth is shattered. We're still nowhere near the calibre of the top teams in the comp on paper. We might compete on potential and "on our day", but our youngsters need to really kick on - and I'm skeptical about some of them - and the older blokes we do have left need to have a good look at themselves in the mirror.

I'm more enthusiastic about years 2 and 3 to see what Brown will do with our slackers, tbh. Could be some growing pains... it wouldn't be our club without them. Hopefully the presence of Hodkinson will improve the attitude of our squad a bit. NSW halfback, and has only played at legitimately professional clubs. I can't imagine him being too impressed if his teammates don't put in. In the back of my mind I think it's more likely that we'll ruin him, rather than him improve us. I don't even rate the bloke that highly to begin with... in a shit team, he could be absolute pants. Will probably either end up buy of the season or dud of the season.

 

[Jono078]

NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS

Leaky entertainers: At times in 2015 the Knights were one of the most exciting teams to watch purely because you knew there?d be plenty of tries scored at both ends of the park.

But when Rick Stone?s men got stuck in a shootout, they invariably fell onto the wrong side of the scoreboard.

Newcastle lost a staggering nine matches when scoring 20 points or more in the 2015 season, just one loss shy of the all-time record.

The challenge for Nathan Brown is to find a way to limit opposition scoring without stifling his side?s free flowing attack at the same time.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...season-kicks-off/story-fn2mcuj6-1227586653496

This is a shit stat because it's not providing context. A lot of the times we would score 2-3 tries in a game.. When we were completely out of them..

 

[macavity]

Took the words out of my mouth. Seems every second game we are behind by 20 after 20 minutes and go on to mount an honourable comeback.... To lose 44-22

 

[Yosh]

1. Hayne
2. Ross
3. Gagai
4. Mata'utai
5. Mamo
6. Mullen
7. Hodkinson

Looks class.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

McManus is pretty much gone, looks like he will be retiring, which we all saw coming.

 

[PhilGould]

Dylan Walker is a much more likely option than Hayne. I hope we at least make a play at him if Souths release him to fit Burgess in.

 

[Noname36]

Not a fan of Walker. He's pretty average out of South's system IMO. Wouldn't be nearly as good here.

Neither are happening anyway.