Match Discussion: Finals Week 2 vs Warriors @ Go Media Stadium, Penrose / Aotearoa

[Woody90]

The Warriors themselves don't worry me hugely. They've been absolutely fantastic this season, but I don't think I've seen a game where I thought wow, they're a lot better than us.

The reasons I think we'll struggle to win are more to do with fatigue from our last game, less recovery time than the opposition and limited training opportunities with travel to NZ. I feel like they might get the edge physically and we won't be able to contain their forwards.

I love how we're such heavy underdogs though. Will suit the boys a lot better I'm sure. Would love to see them hold out and win another week as unlikely as it might be.

 

[Old dog]

Am happy with the new inclusions, bad luck for Hastings and Fitz to miss due to injuries they have played well throughout the season

 

[perverse]

The Warriors themselves don't worry me hugely. They've been absolutely fantastic this season, but I don't think I've seen a game where I thought wow, they're a lot better than us.

The reasons I think we'll struggle to win are more to do with fatigue from our last game, less recovery time than the opposition and limited training opportunities with travel to NZ. I feel like they might get the edge physically and we won't be able to contain their forwards.

I love how we're such heavy underdogs though. Will suit the boys a lot better I'm sure. Would love to see them hold out and win another week as unlikely as it might be.

Yeah I suspect the middle is where we lose it, too.

 

[Yosh]

Both the Warriors and us got battered last week but we came out with the win and I think that's what will get us the win on the weekend. The experience gained from that game last week should see us through.

 

[jason taylor]

I think the Knights will win. Warriors will of course be tough at home, but a lot of their top players (Johnson, Tohu Harris ect) have been struggling with injuries of late. They'll need those players to be fit and firing and to play out of their skins to have any chance of going any further this season.

 

[Haffa]

Rewatched the game from the weekend. We really let ourselves get steamrolled through the middle like I haven’t seen since the Parra game. We need to find a way to prevent teams kicking from 20m out from the line after starting their set in their own 10m area. Some of that was from kicking (which will hopefully be helped by Clune) but I mostly seemed to come from easy forward meters.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

We both got rolled through the middle and were less effective with 1 up hits against Canberra.
We persisted with the 1 up and they seemed to get tired and we were able to spread it.
I expect the same against Warriors.

 

[SamSepi0l]

Last week you could see the nerves kicked in. We played within ourselves for all but about 20-25 minutes. Back to one out style play that unfortunately is what the Raiders excel at as it's all their subpar coach understands. As soon as we played a bit of football we rolled. Then we made a mistake and went back into the shell. If we play one out vs the Warriors we will lose. If we play like we have the majority of this 10 win streak, I'll be asking if there are any Knights fans I can borrow a membership code from as we prepare for the Broncos.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

If we aim up the way Canberra did against us, we'll do them easily.

That's a huge IF though.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

Last week you could see the nerves kicked in. We played within ourselves for all but about 20-25 minutes. Back to one out style play that unfortunately is what the Raiders excel at as it's all their subpar coach understands. As soon as we played a bit of football we rolled. Then we made a mistake and went back into the shell. If we play one out vs the Warriors we will lose. If we play like we have the majority of this 10 win streak, I'll be asking if there are any Knights fans I can borrow a membership code from as we prepare for the Broncos.

I seriously cannot understand why we would go revert back to one outs?? Maybe we did it to take a bit of pressure off of Hastings but if that's the case, why play him?

 

[Knight Tales]

Clune to be frank, would be my preference till the end of the year. Jackson is a very smart and elite team organiser and motivator but his leg is shot. I actually wonder how much he has left in the tank. Cluney has pace that can trouble tired rucks and catch lazy markers. It is those moments where finals are won and lost.

 

[SamSepi0l]

I seriously cannot understand why we would go revert back to one outs?? Maybe we did it to take a bit of pressure off of Hastings but if that's the case, why play him?

Especially against the Raiders. It was a losing strat and almost got us. I think it was just playing super conservative after they made a ton of errors but part of the "trust the process" kind of mentality is wearing the mistakes and lining up and keep playing. We can shred the Warriors edges, but I would hate to go toe to toe through the middle.

 

[Woody90]

I seriously cannot understand why we would go revert back to one outs?? Maybe we did it to take a bit of pressure off of Hastings but if that's the case, why play him?

Wondering if maybe fatigue related. The Raiders smashed us in the forwards and had a heap of possession on our line with a breeze at their backs. We couldn’t get into any sort of shape after that in the first half.

 

[perverse]

I think we just got caught with our pants down in the physicality/enthusiasm department in the first half, and that resulted in errors, which resulted in pressure and it snowballed. We expected it all to just happen, and the Raiders had other ideas.

Also just exposed in the middle in general. Sadly we don't have the forward pack to really bully another team - which on paper is the biggest reason I don't think we can compete with Penrith and Brisbane this year, and also what concerns me most about the Warriors.

 

[Yosh]

It's good we got that game out of our system. Don't think we will play in our shell again this year. Apparently SJ is in serious doubt so I see us winning this quite easily.

 

[ryan.a87]

It's good we got that game out of our system. Don't think we will play in our shell again this year. Apparently SJ is in serious doubt so I see us winning this quite easily.

Where you get that from? Webster said either today or yesterday he is confident he will play?

 

[Zoidberg]

Gotta target SJ if he is playing.

 

[mozza91]

Where you get that from? Webster said either today or yesterday he is confident he will play?

Hasn’t trained all week apparently. I doubt he’ll be 100% if he plays.

 

[Loose Cannon]

I seriously cannot understand why we would go revert back to one outs??

I hope it wasn’t because AOB was offered his extension.

It’s a joke, people.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

The coach must've been pretty confident SJ would play on Tuesday when he named the team as he didn't name a single half on their extended bench