I went to the Roosters/Knights game and here were my thoughts during and just after the game. A couple of days refelection has affirmed my stance.
The absence of Joey for the last few games will reap major benefits next year, both through increased confidence and a lightening of the workload on Joey (this is essential to get him through the rep season).
The Knights should aim for more consistency next year and the cornerstone of consistency is defence. Do the Knights have a defence coach? If not, this explains a lot of what went wrong this season. If so, he (or she) should be sacked. When Luke Ricketson sets up 2 tries against you with his minimal ball-handing skills you know your defence is woeful.
If Hagan is responsible for defence, then he needs a new strategy and/or should hire a decent defence coach. Once the defence is right, the enormous attacking potential will be even more potent as we will not have to rely on razzle-dazzle stuff every time to get us out of trouble.
We need a 2 to 3 year plan (think Panthers) - any success next year is a bonus. It is time to jettison the deadwood, but our depth is terrible. How is this possible with our junior nursery? Robbie-O has been great value but it is time to go. Parsons is close to useless, Perry goes missing way too often and Rudder's move to the UK is a bonus. We need forwards that other forwards respect. BK, Simpson and Burderus definitely command respect and Abraham and Woolnough had a go against the Roosters and look promising. Given we will not have any major signings next year we need to bring the youngsters through next year and look at buying some forwards with grunt for the following year.
The absence of Joey for the last few games will reap major benefits next year, both through increased confidence and a lightening of the workload on Joey (this is essential to get him through the rep season).
The Knights should aim for more consistency next year and the cornerstone of consistency is defence. Do the Knights have a defence coach? If not, this explains a lot of what went wrong this season. If so, he (or she) should be sacked. When Luke Ricketson sets up 2 tries against you with his minimal ball-handing skills you know your defence is woeful.
If Hagan is responsible for defence, then he needs a new strategy and/or should hire a decent defence coach. Once the defence is right, the enormous attacking potential will be even more potent as we will not have to rely on razzle-dazzle stuff every time to get us out of trouble.
We need a 2 to 3 year plan (think Panthers) - any success next year is a bonus. It is time to jettison the deadwood, but our depth is terrible. How is this possible with our junior nursery? Robbie-O has been great value but it is time to go. Parsons is close to useless, Perry goes missing way too often and Rudder's move to the UK is a bonus. We need forwards that other forwards respect. BK, Simpson and Burderus definitely command respect and Abraham and Woolnough had a go against the Roosters and look promising. Given we will not have any major signings next year we need to bring the youngsters through next year and look at buying some forwards with grunt for the following year.
