Brits in the NRL

[AB90]

1 hour ago, ELBOWSEYE said:

Yet he still scored 20 tries in a injury started season in the top six for the NRL.

Yeah I don’t get some of the Dom Young criticism on here. Yeah, he may have an error in him (like many great players do) but he’s clearly one of the best wingers in the NRL/World.

[NRLandSL]

11 hours ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

Because I explicitly said 'of those who've come from SL' - which part of that did you struggle with? And you can kid yourself on all you want that Herbie is a product of British RL (whatever that even means?) but he's played all his academy and first grade games in Aus. Smithies and KPP both had okay first seasons - I hope they both kick on this year, but the idea clubs are lining up to pay 'big money' is laughable. And just to round things off - why is Dom Young, who scored 20 tries in his first season at the Roosters, 'under the most pressure'? You really do spout utter nonsense. 

Smithies finished the year with 96.8% tackle efficiency, the second highest in the whole competition, only beaten by Issah Yeo. He is an incredibly consistent performer and is still young. Many clubs would be racing to sign him.

KPP also had a great season, he is a massive threat on the edge, with a world class offloading game and strong defensively, he is also still young and can improve massively. Clubs would certainly pay big money for him.

Dom Young has struggled defensively last year, and though very athletic he has lots to improve on.

[NRLandSL]

39 minutes ago, AB90 said:

Yeah I don’t get some of the Dom Young criticism on here. Yeah, he may have an error in him (like many great players do) but he’s clearly one of the best wingers in the NRL/World.

I think he is a phenomenal player, and still under very little pressure to maintain his spot. He is one of the most athletic players in the world. But among all of the British players in the NRL it is fair to say Dom Young is under the most pressure. He is constantly receiving criticism from the fans and public about his defensive ability.

[Damien]

1 hour ago, AB90 said:

Yeah I don’t get some of the Dom Young criticism on here. Yeah, he may have an error in him (like many great players do) but he’s clearly one of the best wingers in the NRL/World.

It almost exclusively comes from a single person.

[AB90]

5 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

I think he is a phenomenal player, and still under very little pressure to maintain his spot. He is one of the most athletic players in the world. But among all of the British players in the NRL it is fair to say Dom Young is under the most pressure. He is constantly receiving criticism from the fans and public about his defensive ability.

I just don’t buy he’s under pressure to hold his spot. Who’s going to take it? Junior Pauga who is essentially a journeyman squad player?

Over the past 2 seasons no one has scored more tries in the NRL than Dom Young……...the main thing wingers get paid to do.

[AB90]

5 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

Smithies finished the year with 96.8% tackle efficiency, the second highest in the whole competition, only beaten by Issah Yeo. He is an incredibly consistent performer and is still young. Many clubs would be racing to sign him.

KPP also had a great season, he is a massive threat on the edge, with a world class offloading game and strong defensively, he is also still young and can improve massively. Clubs would certainly pay big money for him.

Dom Young has struggled defensively last year, and though very athletic he has lots to improve on.

Both Smithies & KKP had solid debut seasons and are primed to both improve in year 2.

Smithies while a great defensive player and tough as nails doesn’t really offer anything in attack or yardage so he will likely never reach the top echelon on locks on the league (Yeo, Radley, Carrigan, Murray, Cotter etc). But he will always be a dependable ‘mid tier’ starting lock imo.

KKP was solid and particularly strong defensively which was actually somewhat surprising. I was personally a bit underwhelmed by his attack as he only made 3 line breaks in 25 games which for someone as athletically gifted as he is, is pretty poor (if those were his numbers at Wigan, fans would be saying he’s terrible, over rated etc!). But I appreciate that Newcastle’s poor halfback play and overall poor attack didn’t help.

[StandOffHalf]

11 hours ago, back in the day said:

Don’t the roosters see him as a centre?

Don't know. I'd have Young in the centres and Na######nitawase on the wing.

[graveyard johnny]

41 minutes ago, StandOffHalf said:

Don't know. I'd have Young in the centres and Na######nitawase on the wing.

opposition would be scoring tries willy nilly down that side!

[NRLandSL]

5 hours ago, AB90 said:

I just don’t buy he’s under pressure to hold his spot. Who’s going to take it? Junior Pauga who is essentially a journeyman squad player?

Over the past 2 seasons no one has scored more tries in the NRL than Dom Young……...the main thing wingers get paid to do.

Perhaps if worded it wrong, I don’t think anyone will take his spot. But Dom Young certainly has the most pressure put on him to perform among all British players in the nrl.

Personally I am massive Dom Young fan I think he is one of the best wingers in the NRL, though it seems the NRL media and fans are not big fans of him and they are very quick to criticise him.

Edited February 21 by NRLandSL

[NRLandSL]

5 hours ago, AB90 said:

Both Smithies & KKP had solid debut seasons and are primed to both improve in year 2.

Smithies while a great defensive player and tough as nails doesn’t really offer anything in attack or yardage so he will likely never reach the top echelon on locks on the league (Yeo, Radley, Carrigan, Murray, Cotter etc). But he will always be a dependable ‘mid tier’ starting lock imo.

KKP was solid and particularly strong defensively which was actually somewhat surprising. I was personally a bit underwhelmed by his attack as he only made 3 line breaks in 25 games which for someone as athletically gifted as he is, is pretty poor (if those were his numbers at Wigan, fans would be saying he’s terrible, over rated etc!). But I appreciate that Newcastle’s poor halfback play and overall poor attack didn’t help.

I think KPP’s limited attacking threat and line breaking is almost entirely his team’s fault. They hardly utilised him throughout the season, Passing to Bradman Best seemed to be the option they took everytime. IMO Adam O’Brien has to go, he has been doing a very poor job at Newcastle. The constant changes in the halves have been a joke. 

[StandOffHalf]

3 hours ago, graveyard johnny said:

opposition would be scoring tries willy nilly down that side!

Possibly.

[Futtocks]

Not a great day at the office for Lewis Dodd. He struggled to create chances as Souths conceded 34 unanswered points in the first half hour. Substituted after his sin-binning, and his replacement had a much better performance.

Plus he wasn't a Wayne Bennett signing, and the coach may have a different opinion of Dodd than his predecessor.

[Worzel]

1 hour ago, Futtocks said:

Not a great day at the office for Lewis Dodd. He struggled to create chances as Souths conceded 34 unanswered points in the first half hour. Substituted after his sin-binning, and his replacement had a much better performance.

Plus he wasn't a Wayne Bennett signing, and the coach may have a different opinion of Dodd than his predecessor.

Yes just watched the game, he looked very slow (in his decision-making) when he did get the ball, and Souths system with right/left split halves didn't give him that much opportunity either. That said, it's a hard shift playing half-back in a team that only had one set of six in possession in the first 25 mins 

[AB90]

10 hours ago, Worzel said:

Yes just watched the game, he looked very slow (in his decision-making) when he did get the ball, and Souths system with right/left split halves didn't give him that much opportunity either. That said, it's a hard shift playing half-back in a team that only had one set of six in possession in the first 25 mins 

It’s going to be pretty hard for Bennett to not start the Humphries kid based off that performance. But with Cody Walker out for the first few rounds they may elect to go with Dodd at 7 & Humphries at 6.

It could be pretty rough viewing for Souths fans in the early part of the season with no Mitchell, Walker & Murray. That’s potentially $3m of salary cap sitting of the sidelines in the most crucial positions!

[graveyard johnny]

a total thrashing for the roosters today against the knights, both teams fielding near full strength teams - only a pre season game but some of the defending all across the line was terrible (not just on youngs side) 

[Damien]

On 22/02/2025 at 11:54, Futtocks said:

Not a great day at the office for Lewis Dodd. He struggled to create chances as Souths conceded 34 unanswered points in the first half hour. Substituted after his sin-binning, and his replacement had a much better performance.

Plus he wasn't a Wayne Bennett signing, and the coach may have a different opinion of Dodd than his predecessor.

This year was always going to be difficult coming off the back of a really poor Saints season where he was dropped. Its hardly great preparation for a career in the NRL.

[graveyard johnny]

1 hour ago, back in the day said:

Roosters and souths are going to struggle this year for me.

wouldnt at all surprise me to see them finish in the bottom 4 along with the likes of Newcastle and Canberra.

how long before Roosters and Souths come knocking for Mikey Lewis?

[bobbruce]

On 22/02/2025 at 11:54, Futtocks said:

Not a great day at the office for Lewis Dodd. He struggled to create chances as Souths conceded 34 unanswered points in the first half hour. Substituted after his sin-binning, and his replacement had a much better performance.

Plus he wasn't a Wayne Bennett signing, and the coach may have a different opinion of Dodd than his predecessor.

Wasn’t a great day for him plus up against the lad let go by Souths so he could come in. He absolutely was a Wayne Bennett signing though who asked Souths to bring him in after conversations with Woolf. 

[JM2010]

I’d like to see all the English players succeed in the NRL but I think Pryce will be back in SL next year

[Futtocks]

John Bateman was looking a lot more like himself today, getting busy and aggressive and geeing up his team-mates.

[Click]

9 hours ago, JM2010 said:

I’d like to see all the English players succeed in the NRL but I think Pryce will be back in SL next year

I wouldn't be surprised to see Pryce back in SL this year.

[Damien]

 

 

[hunsletgreenandgold]

It'll be an interesting press conference from Hudson Young and Smithies later that's for sure. The fact they're fronting a press conference tells me it wasn't that deep though. A bad look nontheless but both will play at the weekend and this will all be put to bed.

[Welshleaguelover]

Matty Nicholson hasn't made the Raiders side.... not heard that he's injured.

[hunsletgreenandgold]

6 hours ago, Welshleaguelover said:

Matty Nicholson hasn't made the Raiders side.... not heard that he's injured.

Yeah that is a shame. To be fair I don't think he starts back row at the moment anyway, over Young and Hoskings, but I thought he'd be named on the extended bench at least, especially with Hoskings only just returning from injury. Hopefully get his chance soon enough.