The One New Zealand Warriors have named their strongest side of the season so far with frontline players Dylan Walker, Marata Niukore and Wayde Egan all set to return from injury for Sunday’s fourth-round NRL clash against Newcastle at Go Media Stadium (6.05pm kick-off)
Team List Warriors vs Knights [Round 4, 2024]
- Thread starter mt.wellington
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Warriors vs Knights
Warriors
Kickoff In:
Go Media Stadium
Sunday
Night
18:05
Knights
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Nah. RTS was looking more and more comfortable at centre. CNK slots right back in out the back.
I’m looking forward to see how Pompey plays. He needs to make a statement. Good luck to him. Hope he smashes it.
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Jaysis the reserve's ain't too bad
No way we’re letting him go, would be horrendous
Disagree. Pompey is a seasoned first grader who is being kept out by two players who are going extremely well. Berry in particular has gone up a couple of gears with the competition. No doubt Ali is the future - but a year or two in reserves against professionals will help his development.
Is he blocked? At the moment, yes. But he is only an injury or two away. The squad this year is stacked and some of those young guys are starters in the 2026 team with a couple of years of development.
Reggie’s have a few challenges in front of them too after being spanked last week.
Let’s be patient and stay the course. He’s got to earn his place and be patient for the opportunity - it will come. Until then, he has a job to do in Cup.
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Pompey has been Dane Gagais Father every time they match up.Mean line-up! Not looking forward to seeing Pompey get smoked on the outside. Yes, Have a cry. I don't care!i am patiently waiting for the arrival of Heyzeus Leiataua!!
Kinda a bonus for us that Pompey is in, he always aims up in defence against the NRLs best centers.
Yea don't quite understand that sort of post.
Berry is probably one of the most improved players in the entire competition - and he's only 22.
Got his own write up on NRL.com last week and was singled out in the post-match press conference.
If Ali could produce a similar trajectory that is very scary
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Berry also had to put up with a couple of years of nathan brown with his development. so its incredible that he is anywhere near this good right now
Bunty isn't the guy you'd focus on watching a game because you'd get bored, or just mesmerised by his beautiful hair.
But that man is an absolute rock in defence, in terms of hit & stick, plus tidyness he is right up there in the NRL.
Throw in the aggressiveness of Niukore on both sides of the ball and it's not a bad combo to have coming off the bench.
Both Niukore and Walker coming on brings footwork and some leg speed through the middle, so Webby having Afoa on there as the glue on defence works well enough.
But that man is an absolute rock in defence, in terms of hit & stick, plus tidyness he is right up there in the NRL.
Throw in the aggressiveness of Niukore on both sides of the ball and it's not a bad combo to have coming off the bench.
Both Niukore and Walker coming on brings footwork and some leg speed through the middle, so Webby having Afoa on there as the glue on defence works well enough.
Breaking news: Dane Gagai is out for Sunday’s clash! Dylan Lucas looks like the clear replacement for him.
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The Warriors made top four in 2023 off their defence. Go look up the Stats for that side. The one stat where they were better than most of the NRL was their defence.
Rugby league is a defensive sport, it has always been a defensive sport going back to the rugged miners and farmers from the North of England that broke away from the toff pussies that played Union.
Every single title holder in the NRL has been a top defensive side.
Center is the Apex of Rugby league defence. Most Try's in Rugby league are scored out wide, most Try's that are stopped in Rugby league are stopped by the work and communication of Centers.
This is why, when clubs have injuries to their centers, they play back row forwards at Center.
Think about it. You have no Center to fill the void, every single Professional Rugby league coach reaches into his best tacklers from his forward pack to fill the void....not the backline...the forwards...Center is the only backline position that the automatic gap filler is a forward.
You think Centers should be attacking players first, which as I have painstakingly just explained is the complete opposite of how a Real NRL coach views that position when he loses his Center options.
Hey, if you were right, NRL coaches would put block busting attackers from other backline specialties in at Center when they are short.
But no, none of them do. All of them plug a hole at Center with a tackle bot forward, meaning they understand the attack side of Center is not important compared to the defence.
Adam Pompey deserves a lot more respect from posters on this forum than he gets.
The cold truth of why Ali (who I love and rate) is not playing this weekend is that 2023 defensive Adam Pompey set the defensive bar way to high to justify Ali starting.
The best Centers this country has ever produced in the modern era, Dean Bell, and Ruben Wiki, were hit men out wide, the likes of Toopi, McKraken, Blackmore, Iro, Dean Whare, were good, but the reason Dean Bell and Wiki are remembered as the GOAT Centers is the way smashed the three quarter line and dominated through their defence.
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run_it_str8_again
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RTS is set to capitalise off Addins dominance. He is set to rip Newcastle's pack a new one and I respect their pack. But Addin is going to score maybe twice. Barney looks like a midget next to his Saifiti bros but he's going to score an all strength try. Addins will be prettier.
But yeah RTS as link that CNK can and TT can't be yet is going to click this week. Rogey knows how to link and will execute the catch and pass to sublime perfection that most will want him to stay at the back but I'm still in the RTS back to centre cohort.
Getting the pre game vibes now.
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