The Dureau/Mullen combination

[roopy]

It was like turning back the clock to the 2004 SG Ball team today.
Dureau makes the bullets, and Mullo fires them.

I've often said the Mullo we have seen in firstgrade isn't the same guy who tore the SG Ball comp apart with his running game, but i can see half the reason is that he hasn't been getting the quality of ball that Dureau has always given him.

Dureau can go for a run himself, but why would he bother when he can feed Mullo all game.

 

[Jono078]

It was great to watch.

The best was seeing the ball going sideline to sideline and not getting stuck up in playing up the middle because of not having anyone with a quality passing game.

Dureau looked solid for the most part. Especially defence, he had a real dig and didnt get steam rolled.

His attacking options were ok, couple times he done the wrong thing, just pushed things a bit too much.

But I like the way the team is heading if these 2 stay as the halves and build upon their game.

 

[aqua_duck]

Having someone like Dureau takes alot of pressure off mullo

 

[Newie is God's Country]

They are going to carve it up this year. Maybe we release Walshy for salary cap space?

 

[jhonny bravo]

It was a rubbish game of football with a the worst pack of forwards in the game so please do dont read too much into it. Yes we were good when we needed to be but it all broke down when under pressure. wait till next week when up against a very good pack in Manly. Mullo and Dureau have a very good combo (capable of winning a comp) but it was honestly one of the worst games of footy i have seen in about 5 years. I love the Knights but please lests not get carried away with things, as the first half showed we deserved to be almost favourites along with Canberra for the spoon. And yes i know it was only the first game, and i did tip these blokes for the top 4 so please dont shoot me down i am being very realistic atm.

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

tell us what you really think jhonny.lolIts was down on pace from the titans/cows but was a vast improvement from some stuff dishd up last yr

 

[Karmawave]

Come on guys, the combination has massive room for improvement.

They played a Canberra team that were pathetic, couldn't hold the ball, and seemed to lack commitment.

While there were positives to come from the Dureau/Mullen combination, they still managed to produce a few cringe worthy moments such as when Dureau grubber kicked behind the line on the 3rd tackle while on attack 10 metres out where spinning the ball wide through the hands would have led to a try.

They can't get away with mistakes like this against better teams.

There is massive room for improvement.

The team won't be able to rely on so many tries from kicks against other teams the way they did last night.

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

I liked what i saw..and will grow.i liked it better than the walsh combo.Though mullen has to do the long kicks

 

[Spike]

Manly next week will really show us where we are at. If we can beat Manly or at least push them all the way, we should be in for a solid year. I would not get too excited yet until we go up against some quality opposition.

 

[roopy]

I must have been watching a different game.
I saw dangerous attacking players all over the park - Kidley, Mullo, Wes, Doogs, Houston, Pato, Wicks, Vuna, Simmo before he went off, Bedsy - all of them were asking questions of the defence and all of them were getting good ball from the Bedsy/Dureau/Mullo ball distributing network.
They weren't as slick as they will be, with a few of them nervous and some pretty rusty, but we have the most dangerous attacking side since 2001 and all the work on defence is paying off as well.
I saw a top 8 side, and when they go out and really click they will rattle up some very decent scores.

 

[Karmawave]

It was adequate. Thats the only word for the halves combination.

There was one reason and one reason alone we won the game last night, and it was the massive improvement in the marker defense and the commitment to defend in general.

 

[Johns Magic]

I think we were lucky we were playing the Raiders...

 

[Karmawave]

I must have been watching a different game.
I saw dangerous attacking players all over the park - Kidley, Mullo, Wes, Doogs, Houston, Pato, Wicks, Vuna, Simmo before he went off, Bedsy.

Kidley was making his own space most of the night. Doogs was making his own space as well ( mostly sideways running :lol: ) including the bust at the end of the game that sent Houston and Vuna away.

Houston is going to be a great player for us.

Wicks - what can I say - we need a bloke like him in our team for his enthusiasm. He busts his ass 110% and I love the bloke. At the end you can hear him screaming " no more points, no more points " even though the Raiders were packing a scrum 20 metres out from their own end with 15 seconds left. He has the potential to be a real cult figure at the Knights and I think he along with Houston are our buys of the year.

Bedsy, well he is just Bedsy. He is a champion. I believe the Knights will find it life tougher after he leaves than it was when Joey left.

 

[orochimaru]

anyone know where i can download replays

 

[Pika]

anyone know where i can download replays

Same.

Torrent sites?

Next replay on Fox is Thursday, far to long to wait.

 

[Spike]

The NRL site usually has the games here after about 24 hours after they've been played.

http://www.nrl.com.au/Video/VideoLibrary/tabid/10637/default.aspx

At the moment though, it doesn't seemto be working. Have been watching a few of last years games over the summer.

 

[Spitty]

The kicking game from Mullo especially was poor in the 1st half and Scotty early on struggled a little bit with the speed of the game. But when Faaso and Wicks came on they started dominating in the forwards which created room for Mullo and Scotty and quick passing saw many opportunities open up.

Lets not forget that early on Canberra defended there line very stoutly. I think Mullo and Scotty weren't at there best but were able to create enough opportunities for us to win by even more. Just a little bit more cohesion in the team and those opportunites will convert to points.

 

[strewth_mate]

It was good to see them working together to push the ball from one side of the field to the other - but I would have liked to see more purposeful passes to players running lines rather than just hoofing it out to the centres, making them do all the work. They just didn't look like they were confident enough creating options in the middle of the park, but I suppose I would have to see a replay to get a better idea.

Good signs though if they can get that together, because there's some size and speed in our pack.

 

[Pika]

It was a rubbish game of football with a the worst pack of forwards in the game so please do dont read too much into it. Yes we were good when we needed to be but it all broke down when under pressure. wait till next week when up against a very good pack in Manly. Mullo and Dureau have a very good combo (capable of winning a comp) but it was honestly one of the worst games of footy i have seen in about 5 years. I love the Knights but please lests not get carried away with things, as the first half showed we deserved to be almost favourites along with Canberra for the spoon. And yes i know it was only the first game, and i did tip these blokes for the top 4 so please dont shoot me down i am being very realistic atm.

Two tries out wide on poor reads and a great effort from dummy half inches from the line.

This is a side breaking under pressure?

It was a rusty first hit out, some positives, but an unpolished performance.

Canberra play a quick one out style that makes yards against most sides. They have an under rated pack, and as they showed last year, they can upset many teams.

Our pack countered this OK, but needs improving.

Scott was excellent. Didnt over play his hand, defended well, kicked well, and passinf was superb.

 

[Burwood]

I just thought it was great to finally see our team put some points on the score board, regardless of the opposition. I look back to last year and I can only remember 1 game where they managed to score 30+ points. Looks like the team this year will be able to punch their way out of a wet paper bag.