CAS 2019

[J Dog Fenton]

J Dog,

I was very upfront about how well Knox played v the Waves and well and truly deserved their win, no question at all.
But IMO the Waves played their worst game all year, and of course you play as well as your opposition let you, but in many cases the opposition had nothing to do with it.

This Knox team is pretty good but no where near as good as the winning teams in 2017 and 2018, nor the Knox team of 2017.
This is NOT a juggernaut team by any stretch.
I do believe the Barker pack, in particular, will probably prove too good for Knox, so careful about 1 win.
Can Cranbrook beat Knox, don't know, probably not, and maybe that's due to a weak pre-season.Time will tell.

Across the board I believe there have been much stronger teams in recent years, not that it matters now, except that this comp is still wide open, imo.

I think we can all agree that there won't be a team as good as the 2017 Waverley side for a long time. It's interesting you mentioned that the class of '19 isn't as good as '17, but 2017 came 3rd overall purely due to having no go about them whatsoever, and lacking consistency throughout the team. That team had a few stars (Cutrone, Pavlakis, Woodcock, Frost), but the rest were average, even having 5 of the '19 boys play 1st XV that year aswell to give them a helping hand. I genuinely think that if Knox show up, they have the potential to put 20+ on all CAS schools. IF.

I guess only time can tell how the results will play out

 

[runningrugby1]

I wouldn't say that Knox dominated Waverley runningrugby1 - every time Knox scored some points, Waverley came back at them, to be just 4 points shy at the end. It was a great contest.

What was interesting was that Knox changed their game plan against Waverley, compared to the other games they have played this year, keeping it in the forwards more. It will be interesting to see which gameplan they bring this Friday.

Interesting P.Parker, my apologies I wasn't there just kept an eye on the score updates which obviously arent a completely accurate indication.

It seemed to me that Knox swamped them in the first half and then Waverley woke up, much like the Joeys game. Knox have tended to play up the guts a lot with the same structure regularly, but effective it definitely is.

 

[Snort]

Cranbrook Lineup:

1. H Hayman
2. L Christopher
3. P Tagg
4. J Ryan
5. P Tasker
6. L Bible
7. O Carroll
8. A O'Reilly
9. T Smith (c)
10. W Clunies-Ross
11. D White
12. A Pakutoa
13. J Taylor
14. P North
15. A Kourembanas

This Cranbrook line-up, posted last night, looks odd to me. As far as I know, Paddy Tagg has always been in the back row, so naming him as a prop looks wrong. If he is, however, in the front row, that's bad news for Cranbrook, as it suggests that they have an injury problem in the forwards already. Anyone know the story?

 

[axel]

Thanks Axe. Will be there if ours cancelled. Are you going?

Yep, will be there this week mate.

 

[bobs bunker]

J Dog,

I was very upfront about how well Knox played v the Waves and well and truly deserved their win, no question at all.
But IMO the Waves played their worst game all year, and of course you play as well as your opposition let you, but in many cases the opposition had nothing to do with it.

This Knox team is pretty good but no where near as good as the winning teams in 2017 and 2018, nor the Knox team of 2017.
This is NOT a juggernaut team by any stretch.
I do believe the Barker pack, in particular, will probably prove too good for Knox, so careful about 1 win.
Can Cranbrook beat Knox, don't know, probably not, and maybe that's due to a weak pre-season.Time will tell.

Across the board I believe there have been much stronger teams in recent years, not that it matters now, except that this comp is still wide open, imo.

I think we all look at pre-season results and try and get a comparative form-line from these games (which can make us all look silly at times) but it is interesting that Cranbrook is being given a reasonable chance against Knox and yet they beat Aloys 2 tries to one (one being a late chargedown) only a couple of weeks ago? Does that mean if Aloys were playing Knox this week , would the punters also give them a reasonable chance against Knox? ...... don't worry it was a rhetorical question.

 

[SonnyDillWilliams]

pre-season form is often misleading

as the absence (or presence) of key players ... makes such a massive difference in schoolboy footy

Sualli (14) plays in Kings side ... and their hopes rise hugely. Gibbs (10) doesn't play in Joeys and they suddenly become beatable

that is one thing that hasn't changed since the old days ... marquee players are so important in schoolboy footy

in sometimes feels like it is 6 players, and the rest making up the numbers ... and then of the 6 key players, there is normally 1 key player

and beating teams sometimes as Cranbrook knows is to shut down that key player

in terms of Knox's keyplayer ... in my estimation it's either their 8 or 12 .... and for Cranners it is 9 or North (14?)

 

[rod skellet]

The CAS sides are selected this weekend with the clash with GPS being held at Knox on Tuesday 25th June. 2nds at 4.45pm and 1sts 6.15pm.

The make up of this years team will be very interesting.

 

[Flavio]

I think we can all agree that there won't be a team as good as the 2017 Waverley side for a long time.

Barker 2018 wasn't too shabby, losing 1 game all season

 

[runningrugby1]

The CAS sides are selected this weekend with the clash with GPS being held at Knox on Tuesday 25th June. 2nds at 4.45pm and 1sts 6.15pm.

The make up of this years team will be very interesting.

Rod, agree the team would be very interesting, but does anyone else believe that the selections seem to be very early?? The trial games involved boys playing out of position, being rested or perhaps a head knock ruling them out for 2 or 3 of the games - suddenly they miss so much opportunity to press their name.

This makes me believe that then the team will be selected more so by the name and their previous representations eg Gen Blue, and not necessarily their form this season. In schoolboy rugby particularly, you get boys come out one season and are absolute stars, even if they werent much the year before. Therefore, I believe it is imperative to watch a few games closely, particularly in the CAS/GPS season and see which boys are playing the best footy.

Perhaps it's just how the season runs with regards to the selections down the track, so maybe there's nothing that we can do about it, just sounds very flawed - haven't matched up players fighting for selection and see how they go against each other. Makes it difficult for valid, form based selections.

 

[Snort]

"does anyone else believe that the selections seem to be very early?"

Yes, but for some years now selections have been made at that time. Go back twenty-odd years and the representative games happened when competitions were finished (plenty of players began the season in a school 2nd XV but ended up playing CAS). But for quite a while the representative games have been played in the mid-year holiday which has meant that CAS teams have been picked after two rounds. It's maybe not ideal, but there's no perfect answer to this (in the past, a player who had a great season could get injured in the final round and miss the representative games altogether - which happened quite often). And the selectors have a pretty good idea who the players are.

The main disadvantage is that you might have a guy who's a bit of a late developer, who possibly played 16Bs or 2nd XV last year, who has come on a lot this season but hasn't had the chance to show enough people what he can do. But not very many of those players are likely to be CAS candidates.

 

[WLF]

I think we can all agree that there won't be a team as good as the 2017 Waverley side for a long time. It's interesting you mentioned that the class of '19 isn't as good as '17, but 2017 came 3rd overall purely due to having no go about them whatsoever, and lacking consistency throughout the team. That team had a few stars (Cutrone, Pavlakis, Woodcock, Frost), but the rest were average, even having 5 of the '19 boys play 1st XV that year aswell to give them a helping hand. I genuinely think that if Knox show up, they have the potential to put 20+ on all CAS schools. IF.

I guess only time can tell how the results will play out

Fair summation J Dog between the Knox 17 v 19 team, there's no doubt that you know more about the fabric of these Knoxs teams than me. I was including last years Barker side as a special team as well.
Just don't get the feeling our CAS comp has 1 of those sides this year.

Yes time will tell. I do hope your last game v Barker at Barker is a decider.
The local derby with a bright sunny day, imagine the crowd!

 

[runningrugby1]

"does anyone else believe that the selections seem to be very early?"

Yes, but for some years now selections have been made at that time. Go back twenty-odd years and the representative games happened when competitions were finished (plenty of players began the season in a school 2nd XV but ended up playing CAS). But for quite a while the representative games have been played in the mid-year holiday which has meant that CAS teams have been picked after two rounds. It's maybe not ideal, but there's no perfect answer to this (in the past, a player who had a great season could get injured in the final round and miss the representative games altogether - which happened quite often). And the selectors have a pretty good idea who the players are.

The main disadvantage is that you might have a guy who's a bit of a late developer, who possibly played 16Bs or 2nd XV last year, who has come on a lot this season but hasn't had the chance to show enough people what he can do. But not very many of those players are likely to be CAS candidates.

Yes I understand this and yes there's not much anyone can do about it, I'm aware it's been happening for years, but I believe with the new format of the combined long preseason, the selections are compromised. Before, teams would've all played each other once already so we'd seen match ups 1v1 who plays better kinda thing, don't have this as much anymore.

For example, would love to see Volkman, Fitzgerald and Vuki all play against each other to see who's the better 10, or Rechner, Spalding and Hutchinson-Walters, or Lamens, Griffiths and Vass. I guess its just one con of the new system, it has way more pros, just an observation I've made.

 

[Peabody]

Actually there is a race-based comment in this discussion that I thought would cause uproar. Why aren’t all the Waverley Irish up in arms about the designation “backgrounds other than English”?

Likewise the Knox Scottish.

 

[Michael_Pooper]

Thats right! Free entry, a heap of cover if it rains and most importantly.. Beers will be flowing!

Looks to be a great night for a bit of footy and a laugh. Looking forward to watching the spectacle it promises to be!

 

[rod skellet]

Fair summation J Dog between the Knox 17 v 19 team, there's no doubt that you know more about the fabric of these Knoxs teams than me. I was including last years Barker side as a special team as well.
Just don't get the feeling our CAS comp has 1 of those sides this year.

Yes time will tell. I do hope your last game v Barker at Barker is a decider.
The local derby with a bright sunny day, imagine the crowd!

Hi WLF. The Barker v Knox game is at Knox this year.

 

[Rugby League]

Anyone know the price for a schooner down at easts?

 

[WTF?]

I watched the Aloys v Trinity game and thought both teams played very well. As Piglet pointed out, the result could have gone either way but Trinity probably made the cleaner and more frequent breaks on the day with the Trinity 10 always threatening. I thought the forward clash was great to watch with both packs full of hard workers I know there is a lot of football still to be played but I would be very surprised if the the Trinity No 9 is the not the the CAS 9, he was outsatnding.

Does anyone have the 16A's result between Trinity and Alloys?

 

[Snort]

Anyone know the price for a schooner down at easts?

No, but the Moet is $69.99 a bottle.

 

[Jason_phillips_Knox]

Lamens out?!

Cranbrook lose a lot without their normal 15.

Knox seem closer to full strength.. although would have to be a few niggles. not convinced Rechner is 100%.

Really struggle to see Brook beating this team . then again it's schoolboy rugby.

Where Brook could win it . through Tas Smith (9) and testing Knox on the edges . and running the big Knox pack into lumbering mode. Who is the referee?

Where Knox should win . just too big in the forwards . and if Cranbrook get on the backfoot, it could get ugly. in terms of scoreboard.

Yeah not too sure what the decision there was, could be injured. I think Knox will be way to classy for Cranbrook on Friday. With Rechner not training at Knox during the week, may not be playing... this could be huge

Knox by 10 prediction

 

[bring back rucking]

Rechner would be a huge loss. He looked ginger late in the first half against waves. Knox are significantly better with him and Grobbler in the side, last week was the first time since 10 mins into the Oakhill game in March that they have been on the park at the same time.