Sione Katoa
It’s always nice when a team has a super clear weakness to just one position, and that’s just one of the reasons I reckon the Newcastle Knights are sick cunts. They have been nice enough to make analysing their matchups a breeze this year by just being godawful against right wingers in particular. They have been scored on at least five more times by opposition right wingers than any other position, including the first try for the last two weeks in a row. The Sharks right winger has scored 8 fucking tries in ther last 6 games, including the first try in three of those matchups. Solid indication that Katoa will be flying by Marzhew at some point.
Dom Young
Newy’s defence might be predictable, but their offence is just fuckin weird man. The Knights wingers have scored an even 30 fuckin tries between them, but have just managed to score one each in their last 6 games. The threat is always there however, and the Sharks have been scored on by right wingers with the most frequency out of any other positions. Put it this way; they managed to go two games in a row without conceding a try to a right winger just once this year, and it remains a weird anomaly on their stats.
Briton Nikora
Weirdly, a left opposition edge runner is yet to score against the Knights this season. While Steiglitz could very well become their first, the data doesn’t really support it as much as it does for Nikora to knock them off. Right side edge runners have scored 7 tries against Newy, including the first or last try 4 times. They have also been scored on by them in 3 of their last four matches. Sharks do an above average amount of scoring through their edge runners and their right side has scored just as many as the Knights have given up in that same period.
Kalyn Ponga/Dylan Brown
This is a downright fkn interesting one here Punters. While fullbacks and halfbacks have only been responsible for 11 total tries against the Sharks, on 6 of those occasions they have been the first opposition try. That’s noteworthy because at 3 a piece, that is more first tries against Cronulla than all CTW positions combined.
Dylan Lucas
Yeah this cunt has scored the first try in three of the last 6 Knights games. Third highest scoring position for Newcastle. Goes without saying really…