Team 2025

[HarVeeGee]

Hastings will be gone end of the year.

Gamble and Cogger are depth. (just)

Brown is a must signing at 6 and I'd go for a Te Maire Martin at 7.

If we are chasing brown to play 6, I don’t see the value of putting sharpe there for an entire season

I’m pretty sure the idea would be Brown at 7 with Sharpe at 6. I know the prevailing narrative was that Brown played badly at 7 but I honestly think he was just in a shitty team and being asked to do way too much on his own, and honestly he and Moses - aside from Moses doing most of the general play kicking - have been a very equal duo who take care of a side of the field each, like a Munster/Hughes type of duo rather than a Mam/Reynolds style one. No one would say that Munster can’t play halfback.

If Sharpe’s not panning out at all as a 6, that’s when they might think about recruiting another half. So yeah a few possibilities there:

- TMM is a really good shout. Valuable, versatile squad member, great defender, who did perform very well for the Wahs at 7 - he’s really good as the first receiver in attacking shape, a lot of deception and subtlety in his ball playing. Would give us a lot of flexibility in how we can set up. Both him and Brown can play either side of the field equally well. He’s got a very weak boot so you’d probably want Brown on the right as the main general play kicker, but it’s something that could be tinkered with until the best fit is found.

- Alternatively they might look at players who’d be a big upgrade for our general play kicking. I’m really not a Jamal Fogarty guy for example but I know he has his fans & there is a very big chance he’ll be looking for another club next year.

 

[slotmachine]

Sure would be nice to have cogger/gamble as our Cup halves

 

[Old dog]

What if Brown only wants to play 6 might cause him to knock back offer no matter how good

 

[HarVeeGee]

What if Brown only wants to play 6 might cause him to knock back offer no matter how good

So be it. Sign him anyway. Figure it out later.

AOB has said he was really impressed with Fletcher’s communication & footy smarts when they mic’d him up in training so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that the two of them could work as a duo with Fletch wearing #7. The numbers don’t matter.

But yeah if the result of signing Brown is that we’re in a situation where we’re scratching around for capable do-a-job players at 7, that’s a lot like the situation we’re in now, except we’d have the New Zealand test five-eighth partnering Fogarty or Sexton or whoever it is, and Sharpe playing centre/wing and serving as the back up fullback. Sounds like a much better spot to be in to me.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Fogarty would do a good job alongside a dangerous & dynamic 5/8 like Brown. He’s a proper organiser with a good long kicking game which we’ve been needing for a decade. He doesn’t have to be a dangerous ball runner if he’s got Brown and KP to give the ball to. A halves combo of Fogarty + Brown would be strong imo.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Fogarty would do a good job alongside a dangerous & dynamic 5/8 like Brown. He’s a proper organiser with a good long kicking game which we’ve been needing for a decade. He doesn’t have to be a dangerous ball runner if he’s got Brown and KP to give the ball to. A halves combo of Fogarty + Brown would be strong imo.

Fogs is also 32yo this year

No thanks

 

[Yosh]

Fogs is also 32yo this year

No thanks

I think halves can play into their mid 30s these days. I think it's better to get a ready made half and use him for 2 to 3 years while developing one from our youngsters. Fogs is better than Cogger/Hastings right?

 

[HarVeeGee]

I think halves can play into their mid 30s these days. I think it's better to get a ready made half and use him for 2 to 3 years while developing one from our youngsters. Fogs is better than Cogger/Hastings right?

He is, but it's debatable how much better. He's not a match winner but he gives a very consistent and reliable floor. The Raiders always miss him a lot when he's out. He's destined to always be the band-aid solution while the team he's at searches for their next great #7.

 

[Apey]

Someone like Fogarty really depends how much you want to pay him as a short-term solution. I sure as hell wish he was our short-term half for this year rather than Hastings, Cogger, et al. He's more competent than those two (and has a much better kicking game) but you wouldn't want to be forking out for that.

 

[HarVeeGee]

Fogarty makes something between $5-600K I believe & he’s got a mutual option at the Raiders where I’d imagine if the club picks it up it’s for about what they’re already paying him, and if it’s less if he enforces it (hence his request to be able to talk to other clubs, I’d imagine he wants to be able to say to the Raiders “look at what club X is willing to pay me, I shouldn’t have to take a pay cut to stay”).

I think Toby Sexton is on about $450K at the Dogs & personally I think he’s about as good as Fogarty but with more room to grow, it’s just people judge young halves more harshly for their shortcomings, which is very backwards if you ask me.

Sexton where I’d go if it becomes clear this season that we’re unfortunately still looking for another half even after we (hopefully) sign Brown. Jamal would also be acceptable even though I’m not a fan.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

Fogarty makes something between $5-600K I believe & he’s got a mutual option at the Raiders where I’d imagine if the club picks it up it’s for about what they’re already paying him, and if it’s less if he enforces it (hence his request to be able to talk to other clubs, I’d imagine he wants to be able to say to the Raiders “look at what club X is willing to pay me, I shouldn’t have to take a pay cut to stay”).

I think Toby Sexton is on about $450K at the Dogs & personally I think he’s about as good as Fogarty but with more room to grow, it’s just people judge young halves more harshly for their shortcomings, which is very backwards if you ask me.

Sexton where I’d go if it becomes clear this season that we’re unfortunately still looking for another half even after we (hopefully) sign Brown. Jamal would also be acceptable even though I’m not a fan.

Sexton is high on my list, young, plenty of tomorrows and havent seen the best of him yet. At 450K he'd be a worthwhile investment in the future. The only reason I'd go for Martin over Sexton is to play alongside Brown and start to have success from the get go.

Cogger and Gamble have reached their ceiling, and will be 28 and 29 years old this year. Why they were signed in the first place is a mystery. Both are sideways investments with no vision or ambition on the Knights behalf.

 

[Woody90]

Cogger was signed as a backup half to play in NSW cup. He was never meant to be a first choice for FG but then his 20 minutes of GF time for Penrith and our current halves losing form complicated it. All of a sudden the media were screaming for him to be FG half just because he happened to be on the field for 20 minutes while Cleary was having a career best game.

He was never signed to be a FG half here.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

Cogger was signed as a backup half to play in NSW cup. He was never meant to be a first choice for FG but then his 20 minutes of GF time for Penrith and our current halves losing form complicated it. All of a sudden the media were screaming for him to be FG half just because he happened to be on the field for 20 minutes while Cleary was having a career best game.

He was never signed to be a FG half here.

if the Knights were Penrith with Cleary having a mortgage on the NRL 7 I'd understand

The Knight don't have a Cleary.

The target signing should have been a up and coming kid = vision for the future and ambition to build towards sustained success.

We had Pearce for how many years and still had no vision and ambition to sign a young player to learn and inherit the 7 jumper while playing alongside him.

At the moment Raiders and Bulldogs have a couple of gun young fellas to deliver a potent team in the coming years. Same Dolphins.

Hence my comment why Cogger was signed is a great mystery. No logic , ambition, or vision. Astounding.

 

[HarVeeGee]

if the Knights were Penrith with Cleary having a mortgage on the NRL 7 I'd understand

The Knight don't have a Cleary.

The target signing should have been a up and coming kid = vision for the future and ambition to build towards sustained success.

We had Pearce for how many years and still had no vision and ambition to sign a young player to learn and inherit the 7 jumper while playing alongside him.

At the moment Raiders and Bulldogs have a couple of gun young fellas to deliver a potent team in the coming years. Same Dolphins.

Hence my comment why Cogger was signed is a great mystery. No logic , ambition, or vision. Astounding.

Revisionist history. That’s what Jake Clifford was supposed to be. It didn’t work out. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a plan.

 

[Woody90]

if the Knights were Penrith with Cleary having a mortgage on the NRL 7 I'd understand

The Knight don't have a Cleary.

The target signing should have been a up and coming kid = vision for the future and ambition to build towards sustained success.

We had Pearce for how many years and still had no vision and ambition to sign a young player to learn and inherit the 7 jumper while playing alongside him.

At the moment Raiders and Bulldogs have a couple of gun young fellas to deliver a potent team in the coming years. Same Dolphins.

Hence my comment why Cogger was signed is a great mystery. No logic , ambition, or vision. Astounding.

We can say whatever we want about Hastings and Gamble, but at the end of the day at the end of the 2023 season we’d scored more tries than any other team in the competition at the end of the regular season. That was with Ponga out for a long of the season. Your halves are obviously doing a good job if you’re doing that.

As such when Cogger was signed it was obvious that Gamble and Hastings were seen as the main halves and Cogger was brought in as he was seen as an improvement for NSW Cup in Clune after being in Penrith’s system. When he was signed it was widely reported it was for NSW Cup/back up to Hastings/Gamble. Tbh I never rated Cogger here, even as a junior and didn’t see the hype and I would have kept Clune. He wasn’t meant to come into FG calculations though.

 

[Woody90]

Revisionist history. That’s what Jake Clifford was supposed to be. It didn’t work out. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a plan.

Man I’d forgotten about the Clifford saga. What a mess. Pearce leaving suddenly without warning the club didn’t help planning either.

 

[HarVeeGee]

Yeah and initially we wanted to replace him with Brooks, and you can see some logic there with a potential Brooks/Clifford pairing.

Then I have heard it pretty reliably reported that we basically had a deal to get Brooks in place for the 2023 season, but there was a bit of quibbling around freight etc to sort out. Parr nixed that because the plan had also become to play Ponga at 6 because it’s arguably easier to find a good fullback (hence the signings of Miller and Pryce), and he didn’t like the look of a Brooks/Ponga combination (which I think is a justifiable take, given Brooks has just had his best season in first grade as a five-eighth) and pivoted to Hastings.

Then Hastings & Gamble were surprisingly effective as a combo and Cogger was brought in as proven capable depth.

I think it’s fair to question the decisions & the process followed, but acting like there was never at any stage a plan and the club from the beginning planned to replace Pearce with old NSW Cup players is just not accurate.

There’s also the matter that those young halves prospects at other clubs tend to be expensive to prise away, and it’s easier to justify a gamble like that when your club is at rock bottom (see: Wests Tigers) than when you’re trying to balance a cap around an expensive elite fullback + continue to compete year on year. Hence getting Pezet back being the plan, likely years in advance, given he’s in his 20’s and seasoned enough to give an educated guess as to whether he’s up to it, rather than dropping $500K on an 18 year old who’s a huge question mark.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

Revisionist history. That’s what Jake Clifford was supposed to be. It didn’t work out. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a plan.

All NRL clubs have plans, some better than others.

If the Knights have had a good plan or a bad one is pretty much self evident.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

We can say whatever we want about Hastings and Gamble, but at the end of the day at the end of the 2023 season we’d scored more tries than any other team in the competition at the end of the regular season. That was with Ponga out for a long of the season. Your halves are obviously doing a good job if you’re doing that.

As such when Cogger was signed it was obvious that Gamble and Hastings were seen as the main halves and Cogger was brought in as he was seen as an improvement for NSW Cup in Clune after being in Penrith’s system. When he was signed it was widely reported it was for NSW Cup/back up to Hastings/Gamble. Tbh I never rated Cogger here, even as a junior and didn’t see the hype and I would have kept Clune. He wasn’t meant to come into FG calculations though.

yes as my post suggests, I'm fully aware of that, a sideways investment. A young player with potential for the future is where I would have spent that money.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

Revisionist history. That’s what Jake Clifford was supposed to be. It didn’t work out. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a plan.

oh and the answer is 3.

3 years Pearce played with the Knights before they went after a young playmaker in Clifford. No doubt after the realization Pearce was well past his best.