What Have We Become?

[Tom155]

If anyone wants to see 2 blokes who we should be trying to sign, get there early to the game on Sunday and watch the Manly Under 20's halves , Daly Cherry Evans and Keiran Foran.

No reason at all why the Knights shouldn't be chasing either of those 2 guys to join the Knights to give them a first grade opportunity.

Beau Henry from the dragons u'20s is better

 

[perverse]

Peter Matautia is not ready for first grade.


No way in the world.


And reality is, he is the most first grade ready of the lot of them , which doesn't say much about the rest.

said this weeks ago. i don't think any of them are remotely close. if there's anything i'm worried about with our club more than the administration at the moment, it is our toyota cup team.

 

[Karmawave]

I don't think any of them are remotely close. if there's anything i'm worried about with our club more than the administration at the moment, it is our toyota cup team.

Tell me about it.

This is meant to be our future running around , and the reality is, they are a shambles.

The tries they bombed with huge overlaps today due to sheer individual player greed was appalling.

I know I've been critical of the appointment of Rohan Smith, but all bias aside, they look incredibly poorly coached.

 

[perverse]

Tell me about it.

This is meant to be our future running around , and the reality is, they are a shambles.

The tries they bombed with huge overlaps today due to sheer individual player greed was appalling.

I know I've been critical of the appointment of Rohan Smith, but all bias aside, they look incredibly poorly coached.

poorly coached and not overly skilled either in my opinion. our halves seem very "vanilla"... our backs hardly excite me... and our forwards seem slow and disinterested. con mika is a myth too. i had heard the bloke had big wraps on him and was very excited about seeing him in our colours this year. by the wraps i had heard he could have even made a first grade berth this year. i can't see that being any further from the actual truth of it all at the moment.

one thing i will say though. kevin naiqama is bloody quick. real bloody quick.

 

[Karmawave]

one thing i will say though. kevin naiqama is bloody quick. real bloody quick.

Yes he is, but he learns his ball retention skills from Richard Faaoso.

I just find it disappointing, that after playing awful in 2008 for the vast majority of the year, nothing has changed in 2009.

They are making the same mistakes, and are as woeful as 2008.

I am yet to see any improvement in them at all.

 

[keeney]

Just a suggestion but could our future be seen as a little less important considering the incredible youth of our top 25? Not condoning it, just saying it could be a reason?

 

[perverse]

Just a suggestion but could our future be seen as a little less important considering the incredible youth of our top 25? Not condoning it, just saying it could be a reason?

a fair assessment... although we did buy a lot of the youth in our top grade team.. and there's no reason why more good youth shouldn't follow the previous batch. i don't think it's really much of an excuse.

 

[Karmawave]

a fair assessment... although we did buy a lot of the youth in our top grade team.. and there's no reason why more good youth shouldn't follow the previous batch. i don't think it's really much of an excuse.

Agree. It's no excuse at all.

The heart and soul of the Newcastle Knights should always be the development of our juniors.

They have a HUGE area all to themselves after all - the ENTIRE Hunter Region!

Only Parramatta and Penrith here in NSW can even remotely rival the Knights for the size of junior region.

 

[keeney]

Yeah, I didn't really think of it as an excuse or even as a reason. More, a factor that makes me slightly less worried about the terrible state our NYC team is in.

 

[perverse]

Yeah, I didn't really think of it as an excuse or even as a reason. More, a factor that makes me slightly less worried about the terrible state our NYC team is in.

the problem is though.. if this team does breed success in the next year or two.. which i still believe it can.. then we're going to start losing blokes to the salary cap, and will need promising young'ins to step up into those gaps to keep us competitive.

 

[Serc]

I'm worried but not worried as per what keeney said - and in any case, Smithy will buy some more project players anyway

 

[keeney]

the problem is though.. if this team does breed success in the next year or two.. which i still believe it can.. then we're going to start losing blokes to the salary cap, and will need promising young'ins to step up into those gaps to keep us competitive.

I think that's going to happen with or without success. We haven't lost anybody we would die to keep yet, I'm talking your Patersons or Saus, but it will happen soon. Smith is turning a number of these guys into legitimate stars and clubs will start hunting them.

Why is there such a dearth of talent in our U20's atm? It's not like a huge amount have been poached is it? I know some have, but it doesn't seem like we initially had any bonafide stars in this crop? Hangover from the preceding batch?

 

[macavity]

our ball and matts teams have some talent.

no doubt the cream will get skimmed by other clubs.

 

[Karmawave]

Hangover from the preceding batch?

I think that, and some poor outside recruitment - namely the obsession with finding way too many islanders from NZ etc for sheer size and strength who actually don't really have any football skill.

Great athletes, ordinary footballers. ( And cement f*cking hands )

 

[keeney]

While it's a sign of the times, it's also a very Smithish trait. I was thinking about this watching the game today. Look at the marked difference in racial variation in our NRL team now as compared to a few years back when Milton Thaiday was pretty much the only Non-Anglo in the team. Or before that when it was simply Tahu.