Knights v Storm Post Match Thread

[antonius]

I didn't think Quigley went that well, didn't play bad but didn't play that well. Went the wrong way at some crucial times.

What about our Jerseys? The numbers kept ripping off!!

He was one of the few players making metres especially from dummy half, he did the job he had to I thought.

 

[IanG]

I don't think I can add anything to everyone's views really. Except just one thing. Don't go slashing ya' wrists over it. Let's just hope this is just a minor setback.

 

[Nuffy]

Witt should be banished to PL for the rest of his career at Newcastle (which I hope is short)

Hughes is a liability at FB, his positional play is getting worse, his defence is woeful and he offers nothing in attack. Whoever is the PL fullback should get a game.

Kennedy has been a joke for a couple of years now, hes a mistakeathon who doesn't even make a dent in the defensive line when he runs.

Hall should be a bench player if in the team at all. Gidley and Carmont should be hammered by Hagan for the non existence defence.

What does Tighe and Spiteri have to do to get a game?

Todays game showed that after another 6 months of preparation, plenty of blokes in that team have not improved at all and there needs to be a mass cleanout of the club.

For all the Hagan defenders out there, perhaps you can explain to me how he manages to get such a high level out of his players, they really are keen to put their body on the line for him and the club.

Plus, we don't have a pattern in defence, in the last 4 years, our defence has managed to get worse every year. Now thats some effort.

Previously I was called a passionate cynic, alas it seems after today my previous comments would have branded me an optimist.

We were embarassing and unless Hagan starts putting blokes into the team on form, we are cannon fodder.

 

[Whats Doing]

I didn't see the game but I kept saying that Witt and M.Kennedy are not of a 1st grade standard.

It sounds like there is no pride in the club or the jersey and as I have also said previously that Hagan has a lot to answer for the demise in the club's performance. Will he finally get up the players and bring in players who have pride and not keep the mates in the top grade if they are not performing.

 

[thuganomics]

We cant have Hughes at fullback, I was willing to give him a chance but now he has blown it. Im also worried about Seage, i mean that was a serious injury and im not sure if he will be able to come back to the form we last saw him in.
Either we move Cooper at fullback, or I smell a possible Robbie O comeback on the cards. Anything to get Hughes out of the fullback position.

 

[Ben]

although we played crap...i didnt expect much more...the team is new, but what i dont understand that after months and months of training, they still dont seem to know each other...as if all of them were strangers...however, it was the first game of the year and im expecting more for next week, also is kidley back next week?

 

[IanG]

So anyway peoples what would you think is our strongest 17 now?

 

[Ben]

what happened in the good old days when opposing players would get smashed by our forwards...isn't harragon the forward coach? what has he done, i didnt see much of an improvement from last year if at all...also, for the people who watched the game, what is going on with our jerseys and the numbers on the back...we must be cost-cutting or something but all the numbers keep falling off

 

[Swampy]

Like I've said bring back Warren Ryan as coaching director or as a consultant.He is definateley not afraid to make the hard decisions calling a spade a spade.

 

[Johns Magic]

Reynoldsen was awful.

Very harsh

 

[Alex28]

playing your former team should have been an opportunity to lift and have a big game. instead he got hit hard on a regular basis, didn't appear to make alot of ground and was dominated all day. i didn't see him drop much (if any) ball, but then again i didn't see him do much besides get tackled and miss tackles.

maybe awful was harsh - lets call it not good enough. for the highest paid forward in the team, we should expect much much better. we are talking similar money to the likes of Bailey, Ryles, Webcke, Priddis etc - he needs to play to a similar standard to justify the money...

 

[mat_parsons]

In Japan a coach would certainly committ a suicide after game like this.

Instead Hagan was very calm, just bit white.

Today's game wasn't consequence of bad day but of poor management, recruitment and selection, training and so on for years.

And it's not going to change unless we have top people who do their work not because of money but because of pride and passion as well.

We need our own Russell Crowe.

 

[Misanthrope]

A disappointing result, but I'm not surprised or particularly stressed. Understrength, underdone, and most importantly, against a red hot Melbourne side.

Rather than repeat the same analysis others have, I've just done my ratings of those who played.

1: Mark Hughes- 1/10 Is not a firstgrade fullback, and arguably not even a top grade player

2: Anthony Quinn- 4/10 Defensively inadequate and offered nothing in attack

3: George Carmont- 7/10 Arguably our best. The only threat in attack

4: Matthew Gidley- 4/10 Not his finest game, and his defence was shaky

5: Craig Hall- 4/10 Aside from one good tackle, didn't offer anything

6: Steve Witt- 1/10 Not living up to his potential, not by a long shot

7: Andrew Johns- 4/10 Off the pace, but he did show some glimpses

8: Adam Woolnough- 3/10 Didn't see him. Made some bad errors

9: Luke Quigley- 6/10 Was impressive, and has the makings of a good hooker

10: Matt Kenned- 2/10 Where was he?

11: Steve Simpson- 6/10 Returned strongly, and tackled well

12: Reegan Tanner- 3/10 Was surprised he started. Not awful

13: Kirk Reynoldson- 5/10 Made a solid debut, and handled the pressure well

14: Matt White- 6.5/10 Looks like a star in the making

15: Kade Snowden- 5/10 Tentative debut, made some good offloads. Did he see much game? I barely noticed him.

16: Dustin Cooper. 6/10 Was a great injection to the game. Should start next week

17: Daniel Abraham- 5/10 Solid off the bench. Played a lot more than I expected

 

[TownMarra]

I never saw the game this morning, it was on SKY TV at 10.30am, but i did see the final score on teletext yesterday and by going off what you guys have said, i dont think i missed much!! I know we havent had much luck lately with injuries but there is no excuse for us to play as crap as we did, (going off you guys reports) i honestly thought before the game we would have beaten the Storm easily, afterall they are not exactly one of the better sides. I know we lost a lot of decent players over the last 2 years, and losing Timana Tahu to the Eeles is another big loss, he was a prolific try-scorer for us. Are we going to have another season like 2004? I know i cant judge after one game but, i honestly think with all the injuries etc its going to be another long season of struggle. Come on lads where is your pride????

 

[astrogirl]

I want to know what happened to us defensively.

Just to put some perspective back into the match though - we played essentially a first choice Storm team (I can't think of anyone who was missing), whereas the our team had players unavailable through injury and players coming back from injury, including our star no less.

I liked the look of Dustin Cooper - big strong bloke who took advantage of the opportunities put to him. I'd like to see in in the starting 13 next week. I can't fully defend Hughes for the sinbinning, but at least he showed some desperation in defence.

If we had been blown away for the entire 80 minutes I'd be shattered. However I truly believe (and I know this is obvious) that if we can improve our defense and get better field position we'll be able to see what we can do in attack. At the moment we're too stuffed to do anything.

 

[Jobdog]

A few words, u cant win if u dont hav the ball. In the first 20 mins by my calculations, we had the ball for a total of 8 or 9 tackles and yes i know its their fault for losing the ball, but i mean if u hav the ball for say 9 tackles, the other mob r gonna hav it for almost 109 tackles at least. Before they knew it it was 22-0 and the game was essentially over. But if u dont hav the ball u cant score and u also cannot win the game.

 

[antonius]

Those first twenty minutes we were pedestrian (and that's being nice) We had zero intensity, and butter fingers. No structure when we had the ball, and our defence was none existant. Apart from that we were good.

 

[Jobdog]

Pedestrian is a little harsh, i think the words ur looking for are "rusty" which, holy sh!t i dunno why that coulda been, its not like it was the first game of the year or anything. :roll: Combined with the fact that there were about a thousand players missing, and joey cant do it all by himself, however i dont think Matt Kennedy is a starting prop, he would be best used coming off the bench and from what i saw, Matt White should start on Saturday.

 

[antonius]

Pedestrian is a little harsh, i think the words ur looking for are "rusty" which, holy sh!t i dunno why that coulda been, its not like it was the first game of the year or anything. :roll: Combined with the fact that there were about a thousand players missing, and joey cant do it all by himself, however i dont think Matt Kennedy is a starting prop, he would be best used coming off the bench and from what i saw, Matt White should start on Saturday.

So it wasn't the Storms first game??? a Thousand players out? who? Buderus, and maybe Seage are the only ones I'm looking at making a difference. I repeat they were pedestrian, first game of the year is no excuse, it's also no excuse for them merely going through the motions, The Storm were up for the game we weren't simple as that. Nobody was expecting Johns to do it on his own except maybe 13 or 14 of the other players out there.

 

[Jobdog]

No it was the storms first game as well, but lets see, they were at home, had almost a full strength side, were playing against a team who had their main playmaker back from 12 months on the sideline,missing buderus and kidley who would hav both helped joe out in attack as well as defence. I mean what im saying is its not quite wrist-slashing stuff just yet