By @KeithSheldon
Another week, another Monday night game which makes 3 in the first eight rounds. Granted this week there are three Monday games because of ANZAC day, but it still bothers me, because it means another short turnaround next week. Anyway we are coming off a rather disappointing loss to the Parramatta Eels. We were in the game for 65 minutes, in fact I thought we were the better team for a while there. We faded out of that game in the last 10-15 minutes and let the Parramatta side score three easy tries on us. And just like in the Rabbitohs game our attack was disjointed in the opposition twenty. It was painfully obvious how badly we need DCE back, because despite our forwards rolling over Parramatta for a fair amount of the game, we didn’t have the polish to capitalize on it. However the loss was disappointing because we were playing well for most of that game, there were a lot of positives there. Our forwards once again stood up after a disappointing first few rounds and Matai has suddenly burst back into form, and his playing quite well. Now we are heading to the Novocastrian home territory, trying to lay more beatings into the weak Newcastle side.
Meanwhile, the Knights were destroyed by the Broncos. If I were to sum up that game, I would just quote the Simpsons with ‘Stop! Stop! He’s already dead!’ The Knights were woeful and injury ravaged, whilst the Broncos were great and fully fit. Their defence, especially on the edges is just so bad, it is actually shocking. And Hodkinson has dropped off of the planet since 2014, the cool and calm former Manly halfback has vanished and been replaced by a useless body double. And now they are hobbling their way back to their home ground, out to try and win their second match of the year against Manly.
Team Lists:
The Newcastle Knights
1. Dane Gagai
2. Nathan Ross
3. Sione Mata’utia
4. Pat Mata’utia
5. Akuila Uate
6. Jarrod Mullen
7. Trent Hodkinson
8. Sam Mataora
9. Danny Levi
10. Daniel Saifiti
11. Tariq Sims
12. Korbin Sims
13. Jeremy Smith
14. Tyler Randell
15. Josh King
16. Jacob Saifiti
17. David Bhana
18. Mickey Paea
The Manly Sea Eagles:
1. Brett Stewart
2. Brayden Wiliame
3. Jamie Lyon
4. Steve Matai
5. Tom Trbojevic
6. Dylan Walker
7. Apisai Koroisau
8. Darcy Lussick
9. Matt Parcell
10. Nate Myles
11. Tom Symonds
12. Martin Taupau
13. Jake Trbojevic
14. Lewis Brown
15. Addin Founa-Blake
16. Brenton Lawrence
17. Siosaia Vave
18. Blake Leary
After suffering concussions and other recent injury related woes, Mullen, Randell, Ross and Levi are all under an injury cloud for Newcastle. Also they have just signed Pat Mata’utia from the Dragons effective immediately, making this the 23rd Mata’utia in their roster and means that we may see a backline reshuffle before the game to get him in the side.
For us, Matt Parcell returns from injury a week ahead of schedule, which pushes Lewis Brown back to the bench and Blake Leary out onto an extended bench. However there are still some questions over his fitness which is why Blake Leary remains an 18th man for the side. Meanwhile the return of Brenton Lawrence pushes Josh Starling out of the side, meaning Addin Founa-Blake maintains his first grade spot after an impressive debut last week.
Analysis:
I don’t think I have seen a side with so many unproven young players in it. Don’t get me wrong I have certainly seen worse squads (not many though) but so many of the players in that side are on their first two or three seasons. Dane Gagai may have debuted in 2011, however he has played like 10 games at fullback. Now Gagai is a dangerous ball runner but his defence is under 12s level, it is rather tragic. Defence is a very underrated part of a fullback’s game, look at how far RTS has dropped in the eyes of people now that he has shown he can’t defend to save his life. Stewart is so much better than Gagai.
Just like literally every other club in the game, the Knights have better halves than we do. Let’s be real here, a dummy half and a centre playing in the halves isn’t helping us at all. And no matter how far Hodkinson has fallen, and no matter how meh Mullen is they are better than Koroisau and Walker. I do actually think that Hodkinson and Mullen do have a good contrasting sort of game, they would be a decent halves combination if they were actually better than average players. They may be standard players, but they are halves and our halves aren’t, so that’s lousy.
Danny Levi v Matt Parcell will be fun to watch. They are both young, fast and exciting players that like to dart from dummy half and look to have very long careers ahead of them. I think Levi has a habit of darting from dummy half a bit too much, also I think Randell will probably play at least half an hour at dummy half, which might give Parcell the edge here I think. However it is a close match up.
As for the Newcastle forwards… I don’t actually know. I watch most NRL games every week, maybe missing out on one or two so I am usually fairly knowledgeable about players but there are so many new faces in the prop rotation for Newcastle I am struggling to evaluate if they are good or not. Mataora is a good player, I think we can safely say that, he has been good this year but apart from that… I don’t know, these guys are too young and inexperienced. I thought Daniel Saifiti was a second rower like his brother, and I have no idea about Josh King or David Bhana, since King debuted last week and Bhana has played three games. This is really awkward but I have no idea what to write about here, I don’t know how our forward packs compare, so I will just talk about Addin Founa-Blake. He was pretty good last week, 100 metres from 8 runs and 21 tackles was pretty good for a debutant bench prop, which are some decent stats. A lot of people on this forum are divided on him because of his history but I believe that if you take a year off NRL and sort out your life then you should be entitled to your second chance, which I believe he did.
Yay, now I know what I am talking about again with the Newcastle second row. The Sims brothers are hard hitting, hard running players. Tariq is prone to the odd brain explosions but they are fine players. I think they are better than Tom Symonds (then again he is in great form) but not as good as Taupau. And then there is Jeremy Smith, who if I recall correctly is the oldest player in the game seeing regular first grade time. He has won premierships, but he is certainly on the backend of his career. His defence is still fine but he is struggling to make metres now, he is totally outclassed by Jake Trbojevic.
As for backs, theirs suck defensively, ours aren’t as bad. The Mata’utias are overrated and Uate is a useless player these days, having average attack and horrible defence. I do think Nathan Ross is a decent player, but Matai, Lyon and Turbo all outclass their backs. Yes I know I ignored someone, shoosh.
We have an edge here honestly, now that I think about it our forward pack is better than theirs, mainly because decent props on debut are rare. As much as we all criticize Nate ‘old man’ Myles he is going to be better than a 1 and 3 game veteran forward.
The Knights got completely trounced last week, which should mean positive stuff however I always fear the bounce back, especially when teams are at home. Actually here is a fact, the Knights are yet to lose this season at home despite their woeful start. They won their game against the Tigers there, and they tied with the Raiders there. I was surprised when I heard that as well. They are undefeated at home.
But speaking of undefeated streaks, Wiliame has an undefeated losing streak. I have said it already but is he is ever breaking his curse it is this week. How the hell do you lose 13 games from 13 appearances? It has to be horrible luck, because he isn’t that bad. He is a fine to above average NSW cup player, but for some reason whenever he enters first grade his team capitulates and loses. I am not one to believe in curses, but let’s just say that I wouldn’t be surprised if he had flipped of a gypsy on the way to his debut game if you know what I mean.
You know, this side is reminding me of the 2009 and 2010 Manly. The Manly that would just give up in the second half of games. Remember those times, they were fun right? They actually make me roll my eyes whenever people bring up how we were so much better with Hasler, when really we had a lot of issues fitness wise between our two premierships. Unlike that Manly we only clock off for like 15-10 minutes these days, however unlike that Manly we don’t have the attacking ability to put cricket scores on opponents early on and then hold off. We can’t afford to have these lapses where he collapse in a heap anymore, but we have done it a lot. We did it against the Roosters, we did it against the Rabbitohs and we did it against the Eels. We were the better team for a lot of that game, but we just couldn’t stay in the arm wrestle, which is what we are going to need to be able to do if we want to make the 8. It is really concerning to see us just go to sleep like that.
Conclusion:
You know, I am tempted to tip against us. You know why? Wiliame that’s why. I am not joking. But then when common sense takes over I realize he is competing against people like Uate so he should be fine. I just think our side is too good, and after how well we played for 65 minutes against Parramatta, we should be able to beat a hapless side like Newcastle. Not only am I tipping Manly to win and for us to be at 4-4, but I am also tipping Wiliame to score a try as he does it at all. I do however think it will be a little tighter than most on this forum think. I predict Manly win will by 12 points.
KeithSheldon, Today at 12:31 PM EditReportReply
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Another week, another Monday night game which makes 3 in the first eight rounds. Granted this week there are three Monday games because of ANZAC day, but it still bothers me, because it means another short turnaround next week. Anyway we are coming off a rather disappointing loss to the Parramatta Eels. We were in the game for 65 minutes, in fact I thought we were the better team for a while there. We faded out of that game in the last 10-15 minutes and let the Parramatta side score three easy tries on us. And just like in the Rabbitohs game our attack was disjointed in the opposition twenty. It was painfully obvious how badly we need DCE back, because despite our forwards rolling over Parramatta for a fair amount of the game, we didn’t have the polish to capitalize on it. However the loss was disappointing because we were playing well for most of that game, there were a lot of positives there. Our forwards once again stood up after a disappointing first few rounds and Matai has suddenly burst back into form, and his playing quite well. Now we are heading to the Novocastrian home territory, trying to lay more beatings into the weak Newcastle side.
Meanwhile, the Knights were destroyed by the Broncos. If I were to sum up that game, I would just quote the Simpsons with ‘Stop! Stop! He’s already dead!’ The Knights were woeful and injury ravaged, whilst the Broncos were great and fully fit. Their defence, especially on the edges is just so bad, it is actually shocking. And Hodkinson has dropped off of the planet since 2014, the cool and calm former Manly halfback has vanished and been replaced by a useless body double. And now they are hobbling their way back to their home ground, out to try and win their second match of the year against Manly.
Team Lists:
The Newcastle Knights
1. Dane Gagai
2. Nathan Ross
3. Sione Mata’utia
4. Pat Mata’utia
5. Akuila Uate
6. Jarrod Mullen
7. Trent Hodkinson
8. Sam Mataora
9. Danny Levi
10. Daniel Saifiti
11. Tariq Sims
12. Korbin Sims
13. Jeremy Smith
14. Tyler Randell
15. Josh King
16. Jacob Saifiti
17. David Bhana
18. Mickey Paea
The Manly Sea Eagles:
1. Brett Stewart
2. Brayden Wiliame
3. Jamie Lyon
4. Steve Matai
5. Tom Trbojevic
6. Dylan Walker
7. Apisai Koroisau
8. Darcy Lussick
9. Matt Parcell
10. Nate Myles
11. Tom Symonds
12. Martin Taupau
13. Jake Trbojevic
14. Lewis Brown
15. Addin Founa-Blake
16. Brenton Lawrence
17. Siosaia Vave
18. Blake Leary
After suffering concussions and other recent injury related woes, Mullen, Randell, Ross and Levi are all under an injury cloud for Newcastle. Also they have just signed Pat Mata’utia from the Dragons effective immediately, making this the 23rd Mata’utia in their roster and means that we may see a backline reshuffle before the game to get him in the side.
For us, Matt Parcell returns from injury a week ahead of schedule, which pushes Lewis Brown back to the bench and Blake Leary out onto an extended bench. However there are still some questions over his fitness which is why Blake Leary remains an 18th man for the side. Meanwhile the return of Brenton Lawrence pushes Josh Starling out of the side, meaning Addin Founa-Blake maintains his first grade spot after an impressive debut last week.
Analysis:
I don’t think I have seen a side with so many unproven young players in it. Don’t get me wrong I have certainly seen worse squads (not many though) but so many of the players in that side are on their first two or three seasons. Dane Gagai may have debuted in 2011, however he has played like 10 games at fullback. Now Gagai is a dangerous ball runner but his defence is under 12s level, it is rather tragic. Defence is a very underrated part of a fullback’s game, look at how far RTS has dropped in the eyes of people now that he has shown he can’t defend to save his life. Stewart is so much better than Gagai.
Just like literally every other club in the game, the Knights have better halves than we do. Let’s be real here, a dummy half and a centre playing in the halves isn’t helping us at all. And no matter how far Hodkinson has fallen, and no matter how meh Mullen is they are better than Koroisau and Walker. I do actually think that Hodkinson and Mullen do have a good contrasting sort of game, they would be a decent halves combination if they were actually better than average players. They may be standard players, but they are halves and our halves aren’t, so that’s lousy.
Danny Levi v Matt Parcell will be fun to watch. They are both young, fast and exciting players that like to dart from dummy half and look to have very long careers ahead of them. I think Levi has a habit of darting from dummy half a bit too much, also I think Randell will probably play at least half an hour at dummy half, which might give Parcell the edge here I think. However it is a close match up.
As for the Newcastle forwards… I don’t actually know. I watch most NRL games every week, maybe missing out on one or two so I am usually fairly knowledgeable about players but there are so many new faces in the prop rotation for Newcastle I am struggling to evaluate if they are good or not. Mataora is a good player, I think we can safely say that, he has been good this year but apart from that… I don’t know, these guys are too young and inexperienced. I thought Daniel Saifiti was a second rower like his brother, and I have no idea about Josh King or David Bhana, since King debuted last week and Bhana has played three games. This is really awkward but I have no idea what to write about here, I don’t know how our forward packs compare, so I will just talk about Addin Founa-Blake. He was pretty good last week, 100 metres from 8 runs and 21 tackles was pretty good for a debutant bench prop, which are some decent stats. A lot of people on this forum are divided on him because of his history but I believe that if you take a year off NRL and sort out your life then you should be entitled to your second chance, which I believe he did.
Yay, now I know what I am talking about again with the Newcastle second row. The Sims brothers are hard hitting, hard running players. Tariq is prone to the odd brain explosions but they are fine players. I think they are better than Tom Symonds (then again he is in great form) but not as good as Taupau. And then there is Jeremy Smith, who if I recall correctly is the oldest player in the game seeing regular first grade time. He has won premierships, but he is certainly on the backend of his career. His defence is still fine but he is struggling to make metres now, he is totally outclassed by Jake Trbojevic.
As for backs, theirs suck defensively, ours aren’t as bad. The Mata’utias are overrated and Uate is a useless player these days, having average attack and horrible defence. I do think Nathan Ross is a decent player, but Matai, Lyon and Turbo all outclass their backs. Yes I know I ignored someone, shoosh.
We have an edge here honestly, now that I think about it our forward pack is better than theirs, mainly because decent props on debut are rare. As much as we all criticize Nate ‘old man’ Myles he is going to be better than a 1 and 3 game veteran forward.
The Knights got completely trounced last week, which should mean positive stuff however I always fear the bounce back, especially when teams are at home. Actually here is a fact, the Knights are yet to lose this season at home despite their woeful start. They won their game against the Tigers there, and they tied with the Raiders there. I was surprised when I heard that as well. They are undefeated at home.
But speaking of undefeated streaks, Wiliame has an undefeated losing streak. I have said it already but is he is ever breaking his curse it is this week. How the hell do you lose 13 games from 13 appearances? It has to be horrible luck, because he isn’t that bad. He is a fine to above average NSW cup player, but for some reason whenever he enters first grade his team capitulates and loses. I am not one to believe in curses, but let’s just say that I wouldn’t be surprised if he had flipped of a gypsy on the way to his debut game if you know what I mean.
You know, this side is reminding me of the 2009 and 2010 Manly. The Manly that would just give up in the second half of games. Remember those times, they were fun right? They actually make me roll my eyes whenever people bring up how we were so much better with Hasler, when really we had a lot of issues fitness wise between our two premierships. Unlike that Manly we only clock off for like 15-10 minutes these days, however unlike that Manly we don’t have the attacking ability to put cricket scores on opponents early on and then hold off. We can’t afford to have these lapses where he collapse in a heap anymore, but we have done it a lot. We did it against the Roosters, we did it against the Rabbitohs and we did it against the Eels. We were the better team for a lot of that game, but we just couldn’t stay in the arm wrestle, which is what we are going to need to be able to do if we want to make the 8. It is really concerning to see us just go to sleep like that.
Conclusion:
You know, I am tempted to tip against us. You know why? Wiliame that’s why. I am not joking. But then when common sense takes over I realize he is competing against people like Uate so he should be fine. I just think our side is too good, and after how well we played for 65 minutes against Parramatta, we should be able to beat a hapless side like Newcastle. Not only am I tipping Manly to win and for us to be at 4-4, but I am also tipping Wiliame to score a try as he does it at all. I do however think it will be a little tighter than most on this forum think. I predict Manly win will by 12 points.
KeithSheldon, Today at 12:31 PM EditReportReply
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