Matt King does not deserve selection. A couple of poor handling errors, a blown chance for putting Penny in for a score and a succession of poor decisions and executions in the defensive line.

Gidley made him look like an amateur.

How the hell was he an Australian international?

I had a long, long hard think about King last night, having defended him a fair bit last season.
I have now come to the conclusion that he was selected for Origin and and test footie due to his physique, that he looked good thanks mainly to players around him making him look good and, in reality, he isn't very much special individually.

It's not just Kev, the whole left side doesn't fill me with confidence to be honest, especially King.

I just feel that we're going to concede every time a side go at us down that left side, that's why I said I'd like to see Johnson and Reardon.

I think Kev has a massive future in the game, and it's clear for all to see that his tackling technique has improved, he's still not the finished article, though, and for me, Reardon would be a safer option.

It would be disappointing to see Penny dropped against Catalan and King not, since King was very poor.


I really don't get it with King. I remember when we announced his signing, I'm sure I remember seeing Aussie pundits saying how great he'll be, and a mate of mine spoken to a few Aussie's when he went on holiday, and they were saying he's twice the player of Lyon, at the moment, he doesn't even look like a half decent winger, I'd sooner see Hicks at centre if King carries on this form.

As much as King is gash, and I really am close to having had about enough of him now, there's something niggling at me that it must be the way that we are set up which is causing this. I just can't get my head around how he wouldn't have been exposed in the NRL. It's a defence driven competition, he would have been defending against some pretty good centres, we could all name 10 quality Australian right centres off the top of our head, so how did he cope ?

He must have been faced with quality opponents one on one, week in week out and must have held is own, if you don't in the NRL, there's a rookie waiting in the wings who will take your spot. Is it just simply that they had 12 other better defenders so he wasn't exposed anywhere near as much as he is for us ? Something is wrong, big time.

He looks like a cross between jesus and a geography teacher

I don't really know much about religion, I know that Jesus turned stuff into fish & loaves of bread, King turns overlaps & breaks into handovers, so I think he may well be Jesus.

i've made the same point about penny, if he's sooooo defensively bad and inexperienced, hwo come it wasn't spotted, pointed out and exploited in 2007 when he made his debut, it had to take 12 games and an off season for other coaches to work out he's allegedly suspect in defence.

If he was that bad it would have been horrendously obvious from the that leeds game, and the following games when he was defending with a right winger playing at left centre.

That's the only explanation I can think of.
Gidley's try from Gardner's offload, for example, I don't understand why he and AN Other (couldn't make out who it was) had to over-run themselves and line up behind Penny, leaving Gidley in the proverbial acres of space. Perhaps he has such little faith in Penny he predicted an easy walk over for Gardner and felt he had to prepare for such an eventuallity. Even so, what happened to good old fashioned communication between he and AN Other?

It's really really sad that Matt King is taking up about 12% of your salary cap but is underperforming so badly. Gidley made him look like a rank amateur last night. That said, Gilmour did the same to Johnson.

It's not all doom and gloom though for you Wolfs. Mickey Higham had a very good game, and when he was on the field, Rauhihi caused us problems. Riley's got plenty of spirit and you've got another yard dog in Carvell (but what more do you expect from Hull).

The consensus from the Stains trolls we've had today seems to be that Carvell is a bit of a rough house/dirty player? I don't understand where this has come from? He seemed to hit hard, but fair to me last night. Certainly no more of a 'yard dog' than Cunningham, Graham or Marie.

[size=50Am I in your keepnet now?[/size

Didn't King jack the game in early in his career, before coming back to it?

His performances for us on the whole would suggest that he has in fact jacked it in again. Except he's getting paid very nicely for it now.

I'm suprised no one has mentioned when Leon Pryce used his knees late in a tackle on Hicks in the 2nd half on the Saints line. The linesman or ref didn't spot it but Hicks gave him a little slap after the event. If the Saints fans want to point the finger at Carvell as being dirty they should look at there own players first.

Haven't read all of this thread, would I be correct in thinking people are pointing out that we have the highest paid (allegedly) centre in the world that can't offload, sidestep, fend and has no sense of defensive positioning? I've defended him too long, i've had enough now: KING OUT

He looks a little something like this:

Minus 100% of the ferocity. His tackling reminded me of a poor actor.

I thought Mat King did a good impression of Mervin King....

I don't want to sound like a Matt King sympathiser, but if we are prepared to defend the team with the line 'it was only the first game', then surely King deserves similar.

Admittedly, this is a big year for the guy. His performances have got to improve, otherwise he will deservedly get stick from the public, but one game at Saints isn't the time to totally give up on him.

Must admit though, I'd seriously be thinking of giving him an extended run on the wing just as a possible way of restoring obvious confidence loss.

Darts player, crown green bowler or the Governer of the Bank of England?

I noticed this, Hicks gave Price a slap and somebody pushed Hicks from behind with his leg out causing him to trip.

How long do we continue to make apologies for him? He isn't a 17 year old rookie.

How long do we make apologies for the team?...They aren't rookies...



Seriously, I agree he's on borrowed time, but one game at Saints is a bit harsh to be singled out.

Since we live in a situation where we are unable to ship out players mid-season, I think it makes more sense to actually give the guy a real chance, rather than bag him for what was a pretty dis-jointed effort all round.

The thing is if he wasn't brought in with so much expectation as a star player (with a salary to match) there wouldn't be as much pressure on him to perform. But pressure comes with the territory and you would hope he would realise that.

He was definitely impersonating a banker on Friday night.

Complete donkey, and I'm sick of people defending him and putting the blame on Penny for King's ineptitude.

feel sorry for him tbh. You guys need to realise that on Fri he was facing a genuine world class centre. Many others would have ended up looking as stupid.