Head to head: Old dogs battle and kicking pros

Knights v Dragons. A matchup that rates highly on the appealing scale!

It’s good to be back at home for Round 4, with the anticipation building to see whether the Knights can bring back the Alex McKinnon Cup.

And along the way is some mouth-watering individual clashes to feast our eyes on.

Pearce v Hunt

These two are no stranger to each other.

At club and Origin level, Mitchell Pearce and Ben Hunt have matched up on several occasions.

Both have notched up more than 200 NRL games in their careers so far and played pivotal roles in the no. 7 jersey.

Both known for their kicking prowess, Pearce has notched up 41 and gained 1027 metres this year.

That’s a lot more of the boot than Hunt’s 24 kicks at 758 metres.

But one thing Hunt does have on his side is the ability to deceive his opponents. This season he’s racked up eight tackle breaks to Pearce’s four.

And it seems Pearce can attract a penalty. So far, he’s been awarded four, Hunt only two for the season.

Let’s see what happens Sunday.

Klemmer v Graham

Workhorse v workhorse. Two big units with a fearless attitude.

It should be a reunion to watch when top dog James Graham takes on his protégé David Klemmer who he nurtured back at the Bulldogs

At 33, James Graham is a seasoned veteran of the game with plenty of international caps to his name for England.

But at just the age of 25, Klemmer is hitting his peak. Both an Australian and NSW representative and busting out some impressive stats.

Klemmer clearly has Graham beat in the all run department, with almost 200 more than his former mentor so far this season.

It’s even stevens with two tackle breaks for 2019 but Graham has just snuck ahead with 114 tackles made to Klemmer’s 107.

And both can’t go wrong with tackle efficiency at more than 90 percent.

Ponga v Dufty

The match-up between these two young guns is set to be a spectacle.

Both known for their pace and evasion capabilities, it’s sure to be the ultimate no. 1 battle.

It will be a relatively fresh challenge for the duo.

Kalyn Ponga hasn’t yet played at fullback this season, while Matt Dufty has only notched up 31 minutes on field since Round one.

With Dufty’s limited minutes Ponga is smashing it on the stats front.

The 21-year-old has 221 all run metres, a whopping 10 tackles breaks, and a try assist in there too.

But kudos to Dufty he has recorded an honourable six tackle breaks already.