2019 NIB Knights

So what are Newcastle's biggest problems?

Props
Matora - has been 100x better than anyone expected this year, is still only like 25 too. He will keep
getting better, but still cant play more than like 35 mins.
Sims - he will be good, but Im still not convinced he is a Prop. Not yet anyway. I always thought he was a back rower, but he is still very very young, and will be a very good forward when he is ready. Ideally, he would be coming off the bench to play front or back row, but because he have no props, he is starting most weeks at prop.
Pauli Pauli - has been excellent coming from the bench for us. Its where he belongs at this stage in his career. Still gives away far too many penalties.
Daniel Safiti - looks like he will be good too, but is still so young. You just cant be 19 and playing front row in the NRL. We need a reserve grade.
WE NEED SOME GOOD OLD PROPS to guide the young blokes and so the younger guys can develop in NSW cup. The prob is, other clubs will poach the young blokes if they arent happy playing reserve grade.
Snowden - he has always been a plodder, but he is experienced and isnt a foetus, so why not give him a run? A few weeks in reserve grade might have changed his attitude a little, he would be worth giving a jersey too at least for a little while.
I would love for us to sign one of the bulldogs plethora of props. Browne, Tolman and co. I would be making Tolman my main priority if I was Nathan Brown. Could even play Tolman at lock. Would also like for us to have a crack at Ashton Sims.

Hookers
Levi - looks to be a good option for the future, but at the moment he is not good enough to be a starting NRL hooker week in week out.
Randall - he is just OK. Just tackles a lot, is fit. Is an OK bench option for hooker/back row cover if you have a good starting hooker. David Bhana? Who? No thanks.
I would have loved for us to sign Ballin, who when fit, could soak up some of the defence at the start of the game and that would allow us to use Levi where he is best suited at this stage of his career - Bench running hooker.
Craig Garvey looks to be pretty good, hes better than anything we have on our books at the moment. Cook isnt getting much of a run at souths either, he could be a decent pickup for newcastle too. Would have loved for us to sign Ballin.

Back Row
Rochow is an OK plodder, honest good guy who I like. He can stay.
Smith - he is the oldest bloke in the NRL isnt he? Still going ok, but still, as he always has, gives away so many penalties. Hopefully its his last year with the club.
Jacob Saifiti - again looks like he will be a gun but is just too young to be a consistent forward in the NRL. Sims coming back should drop Saifiti to the bench and he will benefit from it in a major way.
T Sims - is almost a great footy player. Almost. He is too inconsistent, gives away too many penalties and drops the ball too much. If he got the junk out of his game he would be a rep back rower but he cant.
We are really lacking depth in the back row too - forwards are such a big concern for the knights.

Halves
Hodkinson - useless without his forwards dominating, just like most halves would be. But with the money he is on, we would have been better off chasing Ash Taylor or someone. Hodkinson will be gone in 3 seasons and unless something drastically changes, he will have been a huge waste of money.
Mullen - at his inconsistent best. Again, would benefit from some decent go forward from the piggies.
Feeney - if Brown loves him so much, why not just play mullen at 7 and feeney at 6 and instead of wasting the best part of 700k on Hodkinson, we could have signed a good prop or 2.

Centres
Gagai - is a great right centre, not a great fullback though. He just cant ball play. Hes a gun and is our only attacking weapon at the moment.
Sione - persist with him either at left wing on left centre. With the way Uate has been playing I would even consider him on the right wing outside of Gagai.
Chanel - dont know much about him, but looks ok?
I dont even know the other ones name - but looks ok... outside backs arent really a priority at the moment.

Wingers
Uate - he is terrible now. A shadow of his former self and I bet they cant wait to get him off the books now. He was once one of my fav players but he is just a joke now. He use to make up for his defensive fuck ups with brilliant runs and try scoring. He doesnt do any of it now.Would benefit from a change of scenery IMO.
Ross - he is a goer, not very talented but tries hard which is what we need. Goes hard but is more of a stop gap winger than anything.
Denniss - looked good in his first game, looked rubbish in the centres in his second game. Too early to say anything either way.
Mamo - goes a million miles an hour but forgets to catch/do the little things. He is nothing more than a winger in this league - but has inconsistent hands and a fucking horrible haircut and attitude. He could become a very good winger if he loses the attitude and realises that you dont have to do everything at full speed all the time. Worth persisting with. Was shocked when Ross got the nod over him, but with Mamo's debut game being a disaster I can see why now.

A wing pair of Mamo and Denniss could be good. Or Mamo and Sione Matutia with Chanel and Gagai in the centres.

Fullback
One of the teams biggest problems because we literally do not have a fullback on the books.
Gagai is serviceable there, but a centre long term. His positioning in defence is woeful though. Mam-no. Feeney was a disaster there. It might be worth giving Sione another go there, but jeez we need a FB.
Lachlan Coote is a realistic option, would love to sign him. Class all round.

I would love for us to throw a good offer at Karmichael Hunt. He is stuck in a shit team in a shit sport, wont make the Wallabies, so why not come back to the only sport he is good at - League. He could possiblly, and quickly, return to being an elite 1 and it would solve a fairly big problem at newcastle.

Our starting pack is full of blokes that would be better suited (at this stage in their careers) to coming from the bench - so bench isnt really an issue.

I hope we persist with Brown for 3 years - he needs time.
I wish we went with the Walker Bros though - if we are going to lose games, at least the team would be exciting to watch.

i couldn't cope if we kept picking a guy like mamo, he is as error prone as any other player in the comp

knights should have cap space and lots of it right ?

i think they need to sign in some great playesr, persists with the talented juniors but sign a few guns to help them

http://www.zerotackle.com/rugby-league/players/off-contract-2016/#KAB50afOeKppIVDf.97

pay whatever it takes to get coote and gillett imo, they'll both make newy more compeitive now and both still have heaps of footy ahead of them

then maybe sign hannant to be the experienced guy up front

1. Coote
2. ross
3 Gagai
4. Sione
5. Deniss
6. Mullen
7 Hodko
8 Hannant
9 Levi
10 Mataora
11 Gillet
12 T Sims
13 Rochow

14 Pauli Pauli
15 K Sims
16 D Saifiti
17 J Saifiti

still not a top 8 team but first step is becoming more competitive and then hoping these young players can grow and go to another level

I dont mind mamo if he gets the bloody drops and stuff out of his game. Its painful as fuck watching him just drop sitters. His speed and attacking instinct tho are a few reasons to keep him around.

I like where you are headed, but I dont think Hannant would come to newcastle at this stage in his career - nor do I think he is any better than who we currently have, at this stage in his career.

Tim Browne, Klemmer, Tolman - both guys who we should be chasing hard.
Would love the Gillett signing but cant see him leaving QLD, let alone Brissy.
I wouldnt mind signing Paul Carter too - hes got so much mungrel in him, we need someone like that. I wouldnt mind Sam Moa too.

But yeah, a good Prop, a vet hooker and an elite fullback should be the top 3 players we are chasing.
Coote should be top priority.

The knights apparently have 500k a season tied up in Uate, and a shit load tied up in Tariq sims, and both are pretty rubbish. Mullen and Hodko would be soaking up around 600-700k each I reckon too.

I too wish we signed Ashton Sims, I feel we could have put a decent offer in and with both his brothers there he would have gone for it.

We need solid props - our backs are good enough to get the job done. We need solid props that will put in and not get pushed around. We're getting beating badly in the middle of the ruck and then they shift the ball wide and we're too compressed, I've never seen so many easy tries scored on the flanks as what we have let in this year.

tolman is locked up till 2017, klemmer should re-sign soon. for whatever reason we never have to talk to browne till late in the year and he re-signs for peanuts

missed Sam Moa, i'd actually go him over hannant, he'd be unreal for the young forwards


there is never many hooker available, i would stick with what you have for now and spend elsewhere, agree re coote, would be a huge signing for newy

Before Newy works on being a premiership force, they need to work on being decent.

It seems to me that there is plenty of good young talent coming through at the Knights, so hopefully that can build a core that might be a premiership force in 5 years. I reckon they got to get guys who can help those guys improve, even if themselves they're not that great. Guys who will show these guys they need to have a strong work ethic to make the most of whatever talent they have. Perhaps that's why guys like Jeremy Smith and Beau Scott were brought to the club in the first place.

Guys that spring to mind as players who are better than their talent level, not a year off retirement, and who are the types of players they should be looking at include (with no idea what their current contract situation) Josh McGuire, Gavin Cooper, Kane Linnett, Jamie Soward, Gareth Widdop, Joel Thompson, Ben Hannant, Lachlan Coote, Jack Reed, Jordan Kahu, Sean Fensom & Brett Stewart. I don't care if these are not the most talented of players. I'd back some of the Knights young guys like Feeney and the Matautai brothers or a couple of others I've not heard of to step up rather than trying to buy guys and pay huge premiums.

Guys like Tariq Sims and Uate would go, as would Mullen (unfortunate for him but just too injury prone).

I'm not sure how long Brown signed for, and having him I'd definately keep him, but if he gets hit by a bus tomorrow I'd try to through as much as I could afford at someone like Hasler or Bellamy. I'd definately keep Buderus around somewhere as I think he is exactly what image they are trying to show - that if you work hard you can be a great player even if you are not the most talented. By all means get Andrew Johns involved, but make sure everyone knows how hard he worked, and it wasn't all match day and Pingas for him. I'm not sure but I'm guessing he was probably the sort of guy who stayed back after training every tday to practice his kicking, but instead everyone is told what a larrikin and natural talent he was.

Get the hardest trainer in the world to sort them out in the off season, a Kelvin Giles type. Make the players run, lift weights and push themselves until they vomit. If they quit then so be it. The ones that remain will be better as a result.

Knights need to sign Coote. Simple. Let Uate go and use that money and whatever it takes to sign him.

Bren wrote:Knights need to sign Coote. Simple. Let Uate go and use that money and whatever it takes to sign him.

Maybe they will chase Elijah Taylor.
He could help sure up the D in the middle and is an OK cover for hooker when desperate. Would happily take him to start in the back row immediately.

Segyaro is off contract - a hooker partnership of him and Levi would be pretty unreal. But then again, its not good having a good attacking hooker if your props are getting bashed every week and cant get a quick play the ball.

Maybe we need to chase Tim Mannah, hey Ice?

A bloke like Sam Moa would do wonders for Newcastle.

If we managaed to offload Uate and Jeremy Smith you would think we could sign a good prop and a good fullback. Would be happy for us to pay 6/700 for Coote too.

Pick up Elijah Taylor, Coote, Sam Moa and all of a sudden we look like a top of the bottom 8 team.

Pick up ET, good idea

Maybe we can get Skirtis Sironen now?

Would he make the knights first 17 ?

Your Name wrote:Would he make the knights first 17 ?

Ben Czislowski could come back from retirement and make the knights 17

classic Mamo

leaguegod wrote:classic Mamo

haha yeah

Deadset that is one of the most appropriate meme's I've ever seen. I also saw one of the most insightful comments ever on the weekend: "How bad are the Warriors going this year? They are below the Tigers on the ladder. Just take a moment to get your head around that."

It reminds me of when you're learning to play a video game like Fifa, and the defender or goalie you control just runs past the opposition with the ball. haha.

So Snowden was on 500+ (wow, Tinkler..) ..
He has retired from an injury so now does that mean what he hasnt been paid comes off books?

So say thats 300k or so extra Newcastle have floating around

Surely there is a decent prop in the comp who isnt getting much of a run, that would sign for that or a little more... surely.

Pieman wrote:So Snowden was on 500+ (wow, Tinkler..) ..
He has retired from an injury so now does that mean what he hasnt been paid comes off books?

So say thats 300k or so extra Newcastle have floating around

Surely there is a decent prop in the comp who isnt getting much of a run, that would sign for that or a little more... surely.

Not sure if he is injured but you blokes should chase David Fifita.