Playing with confidence after coming off of a wooden spoon cannot be an easy feat. And it must have been a draining campaign for the Newcastle Knights last season, especially after starting so well.

The “Nice job Wayne how’s Rick doing?” signs were very ironic come October when Wayne Bennett’s Brisbane Broncos were preparing to play in the grand final. Newcastle were instead cooking with a fancy new wooden spoon and Rick Stone was fired.

It was all going so well, they were grinding out wins for the first few rounds before they lost a game and the wheels fell off. The injuries then started to pile up, players stopped caring and before they knew it they were destined for the bottom.

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When a team wins a wooden spoon, things need to change, which fortunately for Newcastle fans the club has done. They cut deadwood like Tyrone Roberts, Joey Leilua, Adam Clydsdale, Beau Scott and Chris Houston from their side as well as replacing Stone with former Dragons coach Nathan Brown.

I think Stone’s sacking was a good move. It may have seemed a bit too soon, but you could tell he wasn’t getting any passion from his players, nor was he making them fear for their positions.

He was too matey with the players and most of them knew he wasn’t going to drop them no matter what. They stopped caring and so he had to go. He really was creating a culture of laziness and indifference.

However, when you remove faulty piping in your house, you need to replace them before the situation gets worse. Did Newcastle buy suitable replacements for the talent that they culled? Or have they replaced their deadwood with even more deadwood?

Let’s find out by listing their best side and providing analysis!

(Joseph Tapine has not been included in the squad. If he is still with Newcastle by Round 1 despite signing with Ricky Stuart’s Raiders I will eat a shoelace.)



1. Jake Mamo

2. Ben Ross

3. Sione Mata’utia

4. Dane Gagai

5. Akuila Uate

6. Jarrod Mullen

7. Trent Hodkinson

8. Kade Snowden

9. Tyler Randell

10. Korbin Sims

11. Robbie Rochow

12. Tariq Sims

13. Jeremy Smith

14. Danny Levi

15. Micky Paea

16. Pauli Pauli

17. Sam Mataora

Strengths

First of all the Knights have a very good halves combination, in fact probably the best Newcastle have had in almost a decade.

Trent Hodkinson is a huge upgrade over Roberts, who I don’t rate. I’ve rated Hodkinson since he made his debut back in 2010, which was actually a while ago now. He is essentially an old head on relatively young shoulders.

Hodkinson may not be the flashiest halfback around but he does a very good job organising a side and comes with an amazing kicking game. However, the greatest advantage will be the effect he has on his halves partner, Jarrod Mullen.

Mullen has been one of the most unfortunate players of the modern era, crippled not only by injury but by having no real halves partner. Remember how good Mullen was when he debuted, back when he was partnered with Andrew Johns?

The only time he has ever come close to recapturing that form was in 2013-2014, which was the same time that Roberts demonstrated some decent levels of form.

Mullen is not an organising half, however thanks to a lack of decent halves partners over the years he has been forced into the role of the team’s organiser. This has stopped him from playing the style that he is more naturally suited to, which is a more off-the-cuff and loose style with a focus on his amazing running game.

Yet now that he has a decent organising half paired with him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he re-enters the State of Origin frame again, especially with Mitchell Pearce unlikely to feature.



I rate that starting second row a lot as well. Robbie Rochow is an absolute gun and will be a future captain of Knights, no questions about it. He only played five games last year and was sorely missed, but I predict a huge year for him in 2016 to make up for lost time.

Tariq Sims, while he has a lot of discipline issues, has grunt and mongrel. He was one of the few Knights players who didn’t give up after five rounds. He kept going and going, putting in effort when no one else really did.

And finally Jeremy Smith. He may be old and he may lack some of the starch he used to have back when he was with Melbourne and the Dragons but he is still very good and was another player that Newcastle sorely missed last year.

That backline is also quite good. Jake Mamo is fast, but most importantly he also has a very good running game and puts in a lot of effort. He just needs to stop trying to start fights and he will be an excellent fullback in the Josh Dugan sort of mould.

Ben Ross didn’t play too many games last year but he made a lot of good metres and exuded passion. I will always remember his celebration when he scored his first try in first grade. He looks like a bloke that just loves being in the first team and is willing to try his hardest to stay there.

Sione Mata’utia suffered horribly from second-year syndrome last year, but I wouldn’t be worried about that. Many quality players suffered similar problems, such as Daly Cherry-Evans, Matt Gillett and Hodkinson. Mata’utia will recover and will be back into the rep frame in a year or two.

Finally, Dane Gagai just gets better and better each year. He may have problems in defence but his offence rips opposition teams apart, and it is no wonder he was promoted into the Queensland State of Origin team last year. You may have noticed I have ignored one of the backline members, we will get to him later…

Nathan Brown was an excellent coaching appointment in my opinion. He brings what Stone lacked. The problem with Brown during his time at the Dragons was that he was thrust into the head coaching job far too soon. I don’t think coaches should coach players that they played with, which is what Brown had to do in his original six-year reign.



And while he didn’t do badly, the lack of a premiership is a bit of a disappointment since some of those early and mid-2000s St George teams were stacked, like 2008 Manly and 2013 Roosters levels.

However, he went to Super League after Wayne Bennett replaced him, winning the 2013 Super League with Saint Helens. So Brown has the ability to coach, and unlike Stone he has no personal connection to these players. He would be more than willing to drop the underperforming ones, forcing Newcastle players to improve their performance and attitude.

Newcastle have a lot of promising young names coming up and are having a lot of success in the lower grades. While they may have just lost Tapine, they have promising youngsters like Jaelen Feeney, Danny Levi, Will Pearsall, Jacob Saifiti, the rest of the Mata’utias and (reportedly) Addison Demetriou all pushing up for first-grade spots.

This gives them incredible depth, but more importantly guarantees a strong side is being built. Levi in particular is one to watch in the future, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is in Origin contention in a few years.

Weaknesses

I left Akuila Uate out of the previous backline discussion in the strengths section of this preview, mainly because he hasn’t played well since 2013. It’s time he stepped up or got shipped out.

He has always had defensive issues, but he used to have the attacking ability to cover that deficiency. Well, not anymore. His powerful runs that used to cause nightmares for sides have lost their impact. He used to be in the Semi Radradra tier for wingers but it seems like he doesn’t care anymore.

Additionally, his defensive problems are only made worse by the fact that Gagai partners him, who also sucks defensively. I don’t have the stats on me, but I would not be surprised if the Uate-Gagai pairing leaks the most points and metres of any centre-wing paring in the competition.

Uate needs to improve massively to show that he deserves to stick around, especially with his $500,000 salary.



While the starting backrow is strong, the props leave a lot to be desired. Korbin Sims is OK, but he is not a prop and is probably the least talented of the Sims brothers.

Kade Snowden needs to wake up and start putting in effort. His form at Cronulla was amazing, but the second he slipped on the red and blue uniform it is like he fell asleep. His form improved at the start of last year, but surprise, surprise it was a contract year. After he re-signed his form plummeted again.

His form picked up again later in the year, but he needs to keep it up for a whole season. He is supposed to be the team’s premier prop and he doesn’t do enough to justify that title. Also, the bench props are very meh. Micky Paea was a disappointment in his first NRL stint and Pauli Pauli dropped the ball a lot while at Parramatta, which is not a very positive sign.

While I praised Levi earlier he is not ready for a first-grade, 80-minute dummy half position and probably needs someone to mentor him. Unfortunately, the only other option for Newcastle is Tyler Randell who is a rather average player.

The Knights would have benefitted signing Matt Ballin so that he could help guide Levi into first grade. Because Randell isn’t the calibre of player who can do that. It would have made a lot more sense than the Tigers signing him anyway.

The bench is also a little iffy. Most of those bench players are promising but they are also young and inexperienced, meaning no one knows if they will sink or swim in first grade, or even if they are ready for it.

The bench is a very important part of a team because you need people to be able to maintain the intensity of the starting forwards. It will take a few rounds before Newcastle have their bench sussed out. Until they sort it out, their forwards will drop off late into the halves, and considering their props aren’t the best to begin with that isn’t good.

Expectations

The Knights are currently building towards a strong squad. They have culled dead weight, tried their best to fix a culture problem and are on the right track to become real contenders in a few years. But that is the problem, it will arrive in a few years.



Right now I don’t see them coming very high on the ladder, they just don’t have the cattle at the moment. They will have a few years in bottom eight limbo, waiting for their young players to graduate to first grade and gain experience.

They have a good backline, good halves, a good second row and a good coach so fortunately there is no way they will win back-to-back spoons barring an insane injury toll.

Conclusion

At the start of this preview, I asked if Newcastle had brought players to replace the deadwood they cut. Technically, they haven’t. However, they replaced them by delving into their junior stocks and have improved their squad.

Newcastle have always been a club that refuses to buy too many players, they are the opposite of Manly. They make a few purchases here and there, usually going after small names with the occasional big name splurge. However, they mostly stick to their own backyard for talent, which is commendable.

Now that they are focusing even more heavily on junior development, fans can only sit and wonder if this plan will work. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if it does.

It won’t help them this year, but in a year or so the Knights will be a top eight threat.