{"id":381979,"date":"2024-04-05T03:09:57","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T03:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=381979"},"modified":"2024-04-05T04:03:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T04:03:01","slug":"joey-calls-out-knights-for-bizarre-halves-gamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=381979","title":{"rendered":"Joey calls out Knights for bizarre halves gamble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newcastle<\/a> legend Andrew Johns<\/a> has cast doubt over coach Adam O'Brien's latest halves shake-up.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Knights will trot out a third halves pairing in five games when they host the Dragons<\/a> at Hunter Stadium on Friday.<\/p>\n

Jackson Hastings<\/a> has been recalled to the line-up a fortnight after being dumped, and he will partner Jack Cogger in the team for the first time.<\/p>\n

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Cogger replaced Hastings two weeks ago but played only two games alongside five-eighth Tyson Gamble before the latter was axed this week.<\/p>\n

\ufeffO'Brien has chopped and changed his spine despite beating the Storm in round three, and losing two games by a collective nine points either side of that.<\/p>\n

\"Jackson<\/p>\n

His call to combine Hastings and Cogger raised eyebrows for club legend Johns, given both are typically game-managing halfbacks.<\/p>\n

\ufeffJohns worked with Newcastle last year but has since left any official role with his beloved club.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffRemember Australia in the 90s, two dominant halves pairings were Ricky Stuart and Laurie Daley (at Canberra) and Alfie (Langer) and Kevvie (Walters, at Brisbane)," Johns told Wide World of Sports' Freddy and The Eighth's Tips<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"Occasionally (Australia picked) Alf\ufeff and Laurie – they just didn't go together.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI don't see how Hastings and Cogger complement each other.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThey are both first receivers, both out-and-out halfbacks.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Knights<\/p>\n

"I really don't know… I'm really interested to see how those two play together, and how the Knights go in attack with those two in the halves."<\/p>\n

Newcastle has scored the second least amount of points in the NRL this season.<\/p>\n

The Knights were criticised last week for failing to get superstar fullback Kalyn Ponga the ball in attacking space in the second half, when they were beaten by the Warriors.<\/p>\n

The knock has been the team struggles for creativity when it doesn't come from Ponga.\ufeff<\/p>\n

O'Brien will be hoping his latest halves shake-up is enough to punch some holes in the Dragons defence, which has leaked 100 points in four games this season.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newcastle legend Andrew Johns has cast doubt over coach Adam O'Brien's latest halves shake-up. \ufeffThe Knights will trot out a third halves pairing in five […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=381979"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381983,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381979\/revisions\/381983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/329976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=381979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=381979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}