Match Discussion: Round 25 vs Rabbitohs @ Hunter Stadium

[League Unlimited News]

NRL 2016 - Round 25
Newcastle Knights v South Sydney Rabbitohs
Hunter Stadium, New Lambton (TICKETS)
Sunday 28 August 2016

Gates Open 11:30am / ISP NSW 11:45am / U20s NYC 1:45pm / NRL 4pm

1. Jake Mamo 2. Cory Denniss 3. Dane Gagai 4. Peter Mata'utia 5. Brendan Elliott 6. Jarrod Mullen 7. Trent Hodkinson 8. Sam Mataora 9. Tyler Randell 10. Korbin Sims 11. Sione Mata'utia 12. Mitchell Barnett 13. Jeremy Smith
Interchange: 14. Josh King 15. Daniel Saifiti 16. Jacob Saifiti 17. Pat Mata'utia

1. Greg Inglis 2. Alex Johnston 3. Hymel Hunt 4. Aaron Gray 5. Joe Burgess 6. Cody Walker 7. Adam Reynolds 8. George Burgess 9. Damien Cook 10. Thomas Burgess 11. John Sutton 12. Kyle Turner 13. Sam Burgess
Interchange: 14. Jason Clark 15. Jack Gosiewski 16. Angus Crichton 17. Nathan Brown 18. Cameron McInnes 19. David Tyrrell 20. Zane Musgrove

Referees: Henry Perenara, Jon Stone
Sideline Officials: Dave Ryan, Clayton Sharpe
Video Referees: Bernard Sutton, Ben Galea

ISP NSW
North Sydney v Canterbury @ North Sydney Oval, Sat 3pm
Newcastle v Wests Tigers @ Hunter Stadium, Sun 11:45am

Head to Head
Overall 38 - Knights 25 Rabbitohs 13
At Hunter 19 - Knights 16 Rabbitohs 3
Last 5 - Knights 0, Rabbitohs 5
Knights last win v Rabbitohs - 2011 Round 26

Last meeting
2016 Round 2 - Rabbitohs 48 Knights 6 at ANZ Stadium

Biggest wins
1999 - Knights 60 Rabbitohs 0 at Hunter Stadium (60 points)
2015 - Rabbitohs 52 Knights 6 at ANZ Stadium (46 points)​

 

[Burns]

What's our worst defeat on Old Boys Day?

 

[Glendale]

I think we'll fire up for this one. If we lose I don't think it will be by much. Rabbits also have nothing to play for so we might be more fired up then them.

Hearing some talk Uate might be given a final game in this one and then announce he's signing with Warrington.

 

[perverse]

It would be nice to be able to farewell Aku. For all the bad sentiments today, he lit our team on fire during some dark years. In another thread someone was trying to tell me that 2006-2013 wasn't that bad for the club... well the middle of it would have been truly abysmal without Aku.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

I was having a chat about this with a mate the other week, he was pointing out how many tries Uate has let in over the years and that he has always been rubbish.

I had a think about it and replied that although we would have been a better team defensively without Uate we would have scored far less tries over those years without him. He scored some tries that literally no other winger at the time would have been capable of scoring, not to mention the number of times he would break the line and set up good field position for us to score afterwards. I would say he won us at least 10 games on his own during his best years.

So to be fair to Aku although his defence has been abysmal throughout his career he has provided so many good moments for me as a fan that I don't think I would have traded him during those years, we sure as hell wouldn't have scored many points without him.

He deserves a send off especially given we don't have anything other than pride on the line for this game.

 

[Glendale]

If we were a good well coached team for all those years his bad defence wouldn't even matter... It's hard to hide bad defenders in the centres or further in but it's not too hard to hide a bad defender on the wing. Is he even that bad? Elliot and whoever has replaced him has made the same sort of errors. He's a liability for the money he's on but he's also been a bit of a scapegoat.

 

[Noname36]

It would be nice to be able to farewell Aku. For all the bad sentiments today, he lit our team on fire during some dark years. In another thread someone was trying to tell me that 2006-2013 wasn't that bad for the club... well the middle of it would have been truly abysmal without Aku.

People have short memories. Aku has provided so much for the club. He was literally the only good thing we had going for us for a few seasons there. Yes he for lazy and I think it's the right time for him to leave now but how "bad" he apparently is has been well and truely blown out of proportion. The wingers he's been replaced by are defending just as poorly - what does that tell you?

 

[Hawkins]

serious question which team did the knights beat this year. I forgot.

 

[macavity]

serious question which team did the knights beat this year. I forgot.

Tigers in multiball extravaganza!

 

[Knight76]

People have short memories. Aku has provided so much for the club. He was literally the only good thing we had going for us for a few seasons there. Yes he for lazy and I think it's the right time for him to leave now but how "bad" he apparently is has been well and truely blown out of proportion. The wingers he's been replaced by are defending just as poorly - what does that tell you?

How bad he is playing now hasn't been blown out of proportion. He is playing horrendously. He may have been the shining light in years gone by, but for 500k per year we should be able to expect more.

Scapegoat, maybe. But this club is in a dire salary cap position at the moment, we need to reclaim as much as we can. We are not likely to get rid of Mullen or Hodkinson. Uate is the key position that is A) being paid a motsa, B) not performing and dropped to reserves with next to zero chance of making it back to 1st grade as a regular player.

I don't agree the wingers he's been replaced by are defending as badly. Not at all!

 

[Caped Crusader]

People have short memories. Aku has provided so much for the club. He was literally the only good thing we had going for us for a few seasons there. Yes he for lazy and I think it's the right time for him to leave now but how "bad" he apparently is has been well and truely blown out of proportion. The wingers he's been replaced by are defending just as poorly - what does that tell you?

No way have Pete, Ross, Mamo, Dennis or Eliott defended as badly as Aku at his worst. Not even close

 

[mozza91]

No way have Pete, Ross, Mamo, Dennis or Eliott defended as badly as Aku at his worst. Not even close

Pete and Elliot have been just as bad. Bar last week our left edge defensively has been atrocious.

 

[slotmachine]

Not to mention Pat.

 

[Burns]

Ross Dawg has taken early guilty plea, will miss 1 week. Uate was seen in a moon boot at training today as well, has he played his last game for us?

I would imagine Cory Dennis will get called up.

 

[Knight76]

So how many are we going to get to old boys day this year you reckon?

Break 20k?

 

[Burns]

Its our first home against Souths in yeeeeears. But given how their well and truly fell apart this year, it'll just be the hardcore Bunnies fans there.

We'll scrape 15,000/16,000. No way at getting above that unless there is free tickets/50% tix all week.

 

[Hawkins]

Tigers in multiball extravaganza!

If they don't win again its an amazing record really.

Not something to be proud of but something to marvel at.

 

[Knight76]

Its our first home against Souths in yeeeeears. But given how their well and truly fell apart this year, it'll just be the hardcore Bunnies fans there.

We'll scrape 15,000/16,000. No way at getting above that unless there is free tickets/50% tix all week.

Surely the excellent chance Souths are going to win the game will bring out some more Souths fans.

We get 10k playing interstate teams. about 13k playing sydney teams. Old boys day as well as a good expectation of a win from Souths fans we may push near 20k.

The atmosphere last game was a bit lackluster. A few times the Newcastle chant started but petered out pretty quickly as the crowd was resigned to losing.

 

[Knight76]

What happened to Mickey Paea? Played last week, didn't get injured. Not named in reserve grade, not mentioned on injured list?

 

[PhilGould]

Brown said Paea has a high ankle sprain and won't play again this season.