2001 was not a choke, the Knights had a very good side lead by the best player ever.
I call 1998 and 2005 as the choke years. We should have never lost those pre finals, with 2005 being the major dissapoinment. At least 1998 we lead for most of the game, in 2005 the side just didn't show up.
But I must admit the first and only time I met Smith he has a true champion, it was after a game and he was more then willing to hang around and talk to the fans, on that occasion 1-2 of the fans questioned his team selection and he was only to willing to give his reasons for selecting the players he did, not something he needed to do. Very approachable and nice bloke.
He got us from doghouse to as least be premiership contenders most years
I've never looked at 2005 as a choke, Hindy didn't play, Parra without Hindy were similar to Newcastle when Johns didn't play. When he was ruled out I had a feeling we were going to lose.
2001 I knew all season that if we made it JT would be targeted, and he was. They ran at him early on and got on a roll with some tries. Then you compare the teams, we were very young and they were full of SOO and international players.
1998 was a massive choke, it is the epitome of the word.
1999 was also a choke.
Smithy OVER ACHIEVES with his teams, rather than CHOKES...His time will come, and I hope it is this year...
This.
People are too quick to throw the word choke out there, most of the time the better team wins on the day. To me choking is like our 1998 game, you have what should be a big enough lead to win but snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I really hate how whenever a team loses a finals game the word choke gets it's usual run.
