UTK

Harry Rushton named to make his NRL debut off the bench with Emre Guler dropped. Ryan Sutton starts at lock again. Oliver Gildart named in the reserves again - bit unlucky with them getting their first win and Starford To'a being one of their best.

On that video it starts around 42:30, he gets in the clear and begins to motor away but slows up as he's summing up the situation. He's well marked by Teddy and cover defenders but still manages to get a quality offload away.

I think there's some valid cause for concern in Herbie's case unfortunately, looking back to last season Wane made that bizarre statement to drop only Farnworth from that massive England WC squad the week following one poor performance he had for the Broncos. Really hard not to draw parallels with the Connor situation where for whatever reason some individual players appear to be held to a certain standard that others are not. I hope for England's sake that both these cases aren't just hills Wane has chosen to die on.

Dom Young lives up to the hype in the Knights win over the Roosters, came up with some absolutely brilliant defensive plays on opposition winger Daniel Tupou and was a consistent threat in attack including a very high quality finish to seal the game. His best all-round game in the NRL so far and clearly demonstrated that he's worked very hard on his game during the off-season.

Hymel Hunt's knee injury ended up being worse than first thought so his timeline for return is now 12 weeks, as a result Dom should have that period to establish himself in the side without fear of being dropped which should help his confidence early on (we don't really have anyone below that to feasibly oust him). Unfortunately Bailey Hodgson is also out for at least 12 weeks, poor kid has had a terribly unlucky run down here so far.

I can definitely empathise with some dismay at losing English talent from SL but its definitely not as if all the best players are jumping ship. In recent times blokes like Walmsley, Roby, O'Loughlin, McGilvary and Clark would've all fielded large offers to head to the NRL but obviously had no intention of doing so. More antipodeans head to SL each year than the opposite and while some are definitely more successful than others it's hard to argue that the likes of Maloney, French, Coote, Hastings, Tanginoa, Kasiano, Sio, Barba, Naiqama, etc haven't added value/increased the strength of the competition over the last few seasons. Huddersfield receiving a decent transfer fee for Pryce would have to soften the blow of losing him especially considering it has appeared a matter of when rather than if he would move to the NRL at some point in his career.

Supposedly our recruitment manager at the Knights has spent the last fortnight in England on a scouting trip with the main intention of signing Will Pryce. Suggestions are that we will be more than willing to pay a transfer fee to get him here for 2023. Local journalist who is generally a very reliable source for the Knights also stated that Pryce is definitely not the only player our recruitment manager is looking to sign from over there. Certainly indicates to me that O'Brien has been very satisfied with our acquisitions of Young/Hodgson and we could well become the new Canberra over the next couple of seasons. Interesting ramifications for Bailey Hodgson here though, the intention of signing Pryce would almost certainly be to play him at 6 so if Ponga stays he will block Hodgsons path to fullback (Ponga won't move to 6 as had been mooted). Alternatively if Ponga does leave for the Dolphins we could well end up with Hodgson and Pryce in the same spine.

Yeah really hope we're planning to have Young take over from Gagai in the centres once his 3 year contract ends, until then he definitely has the right athletic qualities to be a top tier winger. Bailey Hodgson in our reserves as well, I'd expect Ponga plays the first half and Hodgson finishes the game. Could potentially get a run earlier as we won't want to be risking injury to Ponga and we have another trial against Melbourne next week.

Dom Young named to start on the wing in the Knights first trial, the side named reflects a full-strength first team that is only missing a few players recovering from off-season surgery. Young appears to have overtaken Hymel Hunt who has also been named but is on the extended bench/reserves side, this appears to confirm training pictures over the last few weeks that seemed to indicate Young had been running in the first team during opposed sessions. I was fairly confident Young would be our starting winger by the end of the season (albeit I definitely had him replacing Tuala rather than Hunt) but he must've continued to impress during pre-season to get the nod this early. Fingers crossed he kills it and we can lock him into a wing slot for the season. Will be interesting to see whether he plays on the left or the right, Tuala finished last season on the left so I suspect he'll be with Gagai on the right.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/nrls-fastest-man-newcastles-dominic-young-tipped-to-run-down-the-foxx/news-story/d9fbdebcdf9afc7277a1f256a8398fea Article about Dom Young that provides some really positive insight into his work ethic. We recently poached the Panthers/NSW Origin Head of performance and he makes a few comments about his potential. His obvious speed aside, the element in that article that has impressed me the most is Dom coming 4th in our initial pre-season fitness testing and being only one second behind first. A 6'7" 107kg bloke leading the way in fitness testing would be extremely rare and indicates to me that Dom clearly has the work ethic to make the most of his talent. Very excited for him to hopefully get a full season of footy in next season.

As a Knights fan I can't see us budging on him for 2022 as there aren't any decent halves on the market to replace him. The only way I could see it happening would be locking Bailey Hodgson into the 1 and moving Ponga to 6, as Hodgson has only played a handful of games in the last few seasons I think this move would be long odds to happen for 22. The uncertainty around Pongas future at the club further clouds this long-term depth so I don't think it'll happen. Think Cats could dodge a bullet there too, Pearce is okay but his best days are well behind him and his athleticism is decreasing fairly rapidly. Though he's not actually that old he's been in first grade since he was 17 and his game relies that aforementioned athleticism to a decent degree. I definitely don't think he'll be with us from 23 onward.

I'm a Knights supporter through and through but if I had the opportunity to pick between the much lauded Bradman Best and Herbie, I would almost certainly take Herbie. I truly believe the sky is the limit with respect to where he can end up in the game and I look forward to seeing what he can do in what should be a much improved Broncos outfit next season.

Herbie absolutely would be, he's top 5 at least. He's registered in the top 5 fastest speeds of the round in 7/12 rounds he's played, with only Josh Addo-Carr and Xavier Coates exceeding 7 top 5 places. The only players to register faster speeds are Addo-Carr, Coates, Saab, Tabuai-Fidow and now Young, the former four are all quite well accepted as being among the fastest in the game. Anecdotally, Herbie possesses very strong acceleration as opposed to the likes of Coates and Saab who appear to take more time but reach extremely high top speeds. Young has obviously had few chances to prove his speed but the chase on Aitken demonstrated how quickly he can gain ground on an opponent and already places his top speed within that top 5. Will be interesting to see if he can do this consistently as it looked like he had more in the tank.

As mentioned previously I got to watch Bailey Hodgson go around in reserve grade this week, was quite happy with what I saw. He didn't really get the chance to inject himself into many attacking plays as our side kept making easy linebreaks through their middle in the first half, however he was continuously sniffing around the ruck and supporting every time someone broke through the line. In addition to his workrate, other elements of his performance that were really impressive included his strength and footwork. Yet again he topped the tackle bust count with 7 as stepped or shrugged off defenders all game, as a particular example he managed to bump off an opposition prop to get out of our in-goal at a crucial time in the game where they were making an unlikely comeback. There's been talk this morning from the main local journalist that covers the Knights saying Bailey may be named in the first-grade squad next week as cover for Ponga who attempts to return from a groin injury. On Dom, as I'm sure many of you saw he was excellent out of his favoured position on the weekend. Always keen to take hitups coming out of our end and he put up probably the best defensive performance from a winger we've had this season. I'm fairly sure that will be his spot to lose now until Edrick Lee comes back (which may not happen soon if ever), and he looks like he'll improve each week as his fitness increases.

He got shifted there last week after Jamayne Isaako got hooked but Herbie has been named for his first start at fullback for Brisbane this week. On the Knights youngsters, Hodgson was eased back into things by only playing one half in his first reserve grade game (tactic we've used with a few players this year for whatever reason). In his second game he ran for 182 metres, while topping tackle busts count with 6 and Young also scored another try. Haven't been able to get to the games over the last few weeks so I'm yet to see Hodgson play but this week the reserve grade game is televised so I'm looking forward to getting a look at both in action together.

Both Bailey and Young are named at Fullback and Centre respectively in reserve grade this week. Would've been nice to have Bailey back playing reggies a few weeks earlier as we'll be in need of a replacement fullback next round and potentially round 14 as well. Current replacement Tex Hoy has really struggled throughout the time he's spent there this season, the next couple of round might be deemed too soon for Bailey but i'm hopeful he can end up first drop as the season progresses. Harry Rushton also named in the Raiders 21 man squad again.

Pretty much spot on. Plenty of things to work on but some good signs too. Yeah he's out for an indefinite period at the moment and Shibasaki had an abysmal game on the wing so I suspect Young will keep his spot next week. Hopefully he can build on those few defensive issues and grow in confidence during that time.

It has been confirmed Dom Young will debut this afternoon for the Knights against the Tigers. Position will be announced an hour before kick off but I am hoping we play him in the centres.

https://www.nswrl.com.au/news/2021/03/13/knights-v-mounties-nsw-cup-round-1-highlights/ Worldy is indeed the right way to describe that offload (0:15 in the link above). What has really impressed me is in both the trials and that first reserve grade game he's shown his ability and intention to put away his winger. Without having seen much of him before coming across I was apprehensive he may be reliant on his size and running game as such a big kid but he's already demonstrating that is not the case. Bradman Best is under an injury cloud heading into this week so if he's ruled out I wouldn't be surprised to see Young named in the 21 man squad (Shibasaki is still likely first drop to take Bradman's spot). Edit: Rumours now that Star To'a could also be ruled out. Dom could end up getting a run earlier than previously anticipated.

Luke Thompson looks likely to cop a fair few weeks on the sideline next year after what appears to be a pretty clear eye gouge against the Panthers this afternoon.

Thompson cut from the squad 24 hours prior to the game due to calf soreness. Feasible to think this may be something he's been struggling with after being thrust in the deep-end following the 2 week quarantine and months without games. Shame as he was quite strong last week.

While he hasn't set the world on fire, he also hasn't really done anything wrong. Appears to me he's a bit of a victim of circumstance in this case as the interim coach appears to enjoy rearranging the deck chairs by resting different players and trialing new halves/centre/backrow combinations just about every round. I can't see the Dogs troubling Canberra too much this week so I daresay he'll be back in the rotation in whatever capacity that may be next week.

Luke Thompson has been left out of the top 17 this week and named 18th man with the Bulldogs stating he is being rested after playing 7 straight matches following his time in quarantine.

James Tedesco ruled out of the game tonight v the broncos due to a temperature. Ryan Hall is the only back in the remaining 19-man squad so will likely start on the wing with Morris or Manu to move to fullback.

No authority provided in this article to back up the proposition, but alleges there's a rumour the Panthers are in talks with Liam Watts for next season and beyond. Concedes he's still under contract in the article but I suppose considering the Covid-19 impact on finances clubs may be more lenient in letting players walk if they're compensated correctly - First i've seen of it however so i'm not sure if I would put too much stock in it just yet. https://westernweekender.com.au/2020/06/masked-panther-panthers-eye-uk-prop/