Round 5 | Broncos 17-6 Knights @ Suncorp | Monday 11th April 2011

[SadShark]

Wasn't that same guy from SOO last year?

 

[Snappy]

Nah f**k that. The refs can eat my c**k those Broncos loving jizzmops if they think that's forward.

:lol: Im assuming your talking about the no try. The pass was thrown behind the 10 metre line and caught in front of it. Clear as day foward. Keep sooking though. Its amusing.

 

[Jobdog]

a) Chicken Hunter - how'd you go in Row 5 just before kickoff?

b) we were rather poor, probably the worst we've played this year

c) Doogs looks like he may have played one season too many - sure the pass from Lockyer was superb, but Beale went around him like he was standing still

d) Calling for Mullen to be dropped and/or piss him off altogether? Remember a few weeks ago everyone was talking him up? You can't have it both ways ...

 

[Jobdog]

Oh and the pass for the Fa'aoso "try" was definitely forward. The Edwards one could have gone either way, but I was happy enough for it to be a play-the-ball, Doogs looked like he got a hand to the ball before forcing it in the corner and Mullo perhaps should have held onto Gids pass just before halftime.

Simple fact of the matter is we're just not getting the rub of the green at the moment. Everyone knows the saying - what goes around comes around; lets just hope it doesn't happen too late.

 

[perverse]

our forwards got dominated. again. sick of it happening. we then made an immense amount of errors, and finally didn't capitalize on our chance that we were given. we were pretty much poor across the board aside from one or two exceptions, singling players out is harsh... but geez Mullen just knows when to have a bad game, doesn't he? it really must be a pressure thing with him.

so yeah, business as usual i guess. pack gets dominated -> ruck is lost -> back foot -> pressure -> another loss. it's the same old sh*t. our backs cannot do much when we are slogged that comprehensively up the middle, and when you've got a low completion rate with it you give yourself no chance to win a football match. unless our pack plays above it's natural ability, it seems to get dominated, which was probably expected. Costigan would help, and we need the aggression of a Mark T out there too.

we're lucky the broncos completed almost as poorly as we did, otherwise we would have been thrashed. poor concentration and poor discipline in wet weather footy is another way to lose a match with ease.

i feel criticizing the backs is harsh, they weren't given room to work with at all. Mullens long kicking game did not serve anywhere near as well as previous weeks and it hurt us badly. Gidley tried hard... can't believe Mullo dropped that pass. the entire moment typified his career thus far... so close, then splat.

oh and lastly, i think that's our first really bad game of the year. against Manly we got physically ommitted from the contest, and we took the Dragons to the wire. tonight we were physically dominated AND played very poorly, too. i couldn't find many positives out there tonight, aside from Brisbane being below par as well.

 

[evil_p091280]

I thought you guys got the rough end of the stick, and I am neither knights or broncs fan.

As for the no try, all I will say is that if Benji Marshall or Cooper Cronk threw the ball, it wouldn't of been pulled back...

 

[Johns Magic]

our forwards got dominated. again. sick of it happening.

Kaufusi with an epic 24 metres.

 

[League_God]

I've said this for a while now, but Mullen needs to go.
Not because he is sh*t (far from it), but for his own good. Mullen is a naturally better footballer than pearce, wallace etc. he just needs a solid consistent team. if he went to the titans, he would look like Benji f**king Marshall playing outside princey. He is a 5/8. still. He needs more bodies in motion, more quality players around him. the service hilder and gidley give him is poor.
I really want to see the knights win. To be honest though, i care more about the individuals. Certain players deserve better conditioning staff, a better coach, better teammates.
Our current forward pack is easily the worst in the comp.

Kafusi is pathetic.
Tolar is pathetic.
Ciraldo is pathetic.
Mika is pathetic.
Evarn is mediocre.
Faaso is a great impact prop, but shouldnt be the "star" in any forward pack.
Houston is mediocre.
Patterson goes missing.
Edwards is a good young player, but is made to look like superman in our current forward pack.

Zeb and Neville are the only guns in our side. And their both second rower/locks.
We NEED Bennett.

 

[Serc]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/...o-e6frf3ou-1226037487918?subcat=1225914658670

Press conference with Stone and Gidley

Might get himself a fine for what he says with 1:38 left (4:15 into)...lol

"That's probably the theme for the game, you know, Knights weren't going to win today as far as the refs were concerned, and it was pretty consistent throughout"

Edit: Our seats were perfectly in line for Gidley's pass to Fa'aoso and I called it out as forward live...and you can tell on the TV footage too...so not sure what he's talking about!

Like I said last week, the roll of the dice will at some point come our way...and after tonight I hope it doesn't come too late or our season will be over! So many injuries and no luck whatsoever with the refs 2 weeks in a row!

 

[Silent Knight]

I was at the game. Here's some observations:

• Towards the end of the first half Gidley put through a grubber kick, recollected the ball and then threw it inside to Mullen who was in the clear but dropped it. If Mullen managed to hold on to the ball I'm fairly certain it would have led to a try and that would have changed the entire tempo of the match. The Knights would have gone into the second half with a defensible lead and perhaps our forwards would have found some way to lift for it.
• As much as it pains me to say it, Mad Dog was far too slow in moving across to cover that scrum movement that was started by Lockyer and led to a try. I expect better from him, but perhaps he just doesn't have the pace anymore.
• There is no way on Earth when we have a full complement of forwards again that Dan Tolar should get picked over Joel Edwards. The kid has heart and never stopped trying. That is what it means to be a Newcastle player. Dan Tolar inspires nothing.
• The Broncos will have nothing in 2012 once Lockyer retires. All those consecutive sets on our line and they couldn't break us. It said more about their attack than it did about our defence. Corey Norman won't save them, my prediction is they are in for a number of very lean years when their champion retires. After Bennett's decision not to return home, it makes me very happy to know not everything is going to go their way in the future like they always expect, and their fans will finally get to experience what failure feels like. I sat amongst some of them and they are exceedingly arrogant and petulant. And it hasn't been the first time either.

Finally I don't care about the penalties. A champion team would find a way to rise up above the controversy and would just focus on getting the little things right, like mounting pressure and getting repeat sets. At the moment we are not that champion team. The thing I loved about players like Buderus and Johns was that no matter how much trouble we were in, they could turn the whole momentum of a game on its head. I loved how we were hated because of that. I want us to be hated like that again, and we can just laugh off the odd dud ref call against us because it won't matter.

 

[K-Man]

The biggest things I took out of the game were:

1. Mullen will probably never be an Origin halfback. After all the hype over his start to the season he showed again tonight that he can't consistently take control of a game. He looks lost when the going gets tough. His kicking was awful. Even his playmaking looked very deliberate and slow.

2. We miss Henry. Amazing to say that at this point but I think it's true. All the structure and control has gone out of our game since Gidley went to the halves. The Gidley/Mullen combination is not working at all and our attack has digressed by the minute since the change in spine with Henry out, Gids to half, and Wes to fullback.

3. Discipline, penalties, all the little things in a wet weather game that really count. Not good enough. I put a lot of this down to the coach. It's his job to make sure the players are switched on, focusing on their discipline, not being lazy in the ruck, no forward passes, the list goes on and on... we lose a lot of games through doing the basics poorly.

I don't think the Eagles, Dragons, or Broncos have been anywhere near their best against us, but they still won. What does that say about us? In my opinion we lost all three because we were either out-muscled or were not as composed under pressure as our opponent. We certainly weren't carved up through superior attacking footy by any of them.

 

[perverse]

those ripping into Mullo all have fair criticisms (although some of you wanting to get rid of him, after one bad game, are dead set losing the plot)... but Johns himself probably couldn't have turned that one on its head. tonight would have been one of those games that we lost with Johns playing. remember those? they did happen, and the great man himself had the odd shocker... especially when we got beaten in the middle.

we were smashed up so bad in the middle, and dropped the ball so much, blaming it all on Mullen is a bit rich. his biggest sin was the drop ball that would have almost certainly seen him in for a try. very greasey conditions, but those are the ones you catch, plant under the posts and change a game with. he didn't. unfortunate, but onto next week. he is our halfback, he has plenty of talent and we will move forward with him. Gidley is hopeless as a halves partner, too... he can muck around and do whatever he wants (take on the line time after time after time) from fullback, we need more everything (kicking, organising, distribution, etc) from our 5/8th, expecting Mullen to do it all is bollocks. we are missing Henry - definitely. his subtle contributions are actually being missed.

 

[Pumba]

Knights blast refs after Bronco defeat

FOR the second straight week, a coach has blasted the standard of refereeing for costing a victory on the road.

Seven days after Canterbury coach Kevin Moore took a pot- shot at video referee Chris Ward, Newcastle mentor Rick Stone took aim at the whistleblowers, saying his Knights "weren't going to win tonight as far as the refs were concerned".

Stone had a real gripe with a five-minute passage of play in the second half when the Knights trailed 12-6 and crossed the tryline three times without scoring.

Joel Edwards was held up over the line, Adam MacDougall was deemed to have knocked on while Richie Fa'aoso latched on to what was called a forward pass from Kurt Gidley.

"That forward pass, they [officials] will go back and have a look at and they'll [realise] it was a fair pass," Stone said.

"We had a couple of decisions go against us back to back, there was probably three in a row. I thought at least one of them should have been given the nod.

"At that time I reckon [we were coming to get them]. We defended our line strongly, we got the ball back down their end and when we had a couple of decisions go against us in that five-to-10-minute period, I thought the Broncos did look a bit wobbly.

" At one stage the Knights trailed 6-1 in the penalty count, and while the margin ended up 8-6 in favour of Brisbane, Stone said the damage had already been done.

Captain Kurt Gidley said there was nothing wrong with the pass to Fa'aoso, who planted the ball under the sticks in a move that would have levelled the score.

"I thought it was fine, of course I'm going to say that, but you get a fair indication of whether the ball went forward or not, I was going sideways when I threw it, at times it looks forward, but it was fine," the skipper said.

"They're the breaks in the game, and we needed one of those to go our way. We were coming home strong and if we got the green light on one of those decisions, the momentum would have shifted more."

The Edwards and MacDougall efforts were sent upstairs to Ward - the man in the firing line last week for a dubious obstruction call during the Bulldogs-Storm clash - who sent the first decision back to Phil Haines, then denied the "Mad Dog".

While Stone will today seek clarification from referees bosses Stuart Raper and Bill Harrigan, there was no denying another brilliant second-half defensive display by Brisbane, even though there was a touch of luck.

For the fifth straight week, the Broncos failed to concede a point. Broncos coach Anthony Griffin was delighted, but was sure the record would soon come to an end.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...e-denies-knights/story-e6frexnr-1226037454541

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Agree with most of these comments.
Mullen: Fell to the pressure of being a potential rep candidate . The only real pressure is what he puts on himself. A lot of talented players are like that - perfectionists. I'd say he's lost his chance at being NSW rep. He needs to enjoy the game more and let it come naturally.
Gidley: I thought he played well but was too much in the line and didn't give much in the way of leadership.
Houston and Patto: Both stepped up at times.
Doogs: Lacked passion we have seen from him in the (even recent) past. Even when tackled with players laying all over him he'd still kick and fight in the past. That was lacking tonight and his heart wasn't in it. Maybe that is understandable but it's that passion we need from him.
DeGois: Huge difference when he was on. Metres gained. He wanted to win. Well done.
Tolar: Good plays progressing, pass to Tolar, Play is dead. No way he should be in the team.
Edwards: I was impressed by him at times.
We needed the forwards to set a platform in conditions like this but they failed. General lack of structure and discipline. We needed leadership.
Having said that, I thought the major difference between the 2 teams was Lockyer.

The disallowed try by (was it?) Edwards: looked like a no-try to me but nobody seemed to pay attention that he had an arm wrenched up around his chin pulling his head backwards. Extremely dangerous and no way you can expect a player to be able to event attempt to force the ball when someone is trying to rip your head off.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

We arent being judged on our merits, the refs seems to ref us to a different standard to the opposition, just like they did last year.

Everything we did in the game, the Broncos did exactly the same, but count went to 6 to 1.

We just aren't copping a break.

One issue is that the refs just don't seem to listen to Gidley as Captain. Gidley has said it himself. He can go up and question a call and just gets told to go away. Questioning doesn't get him anywhere but it does relate to the respect towards him as captain and whether that might influence a later call.

 

[Pika]

The biggest things I took out of the game were:

1. Mullen will probably never be an Origin halfback. After all the hype over his start to the season he showed again tonight that he can't consistently take control of a game. He looks lost when the going gets tough. His kicking was awful. Even his playmaking looked very deliberate and slow.

2. We miss Henry. Amazing to say that at this point but I think it's true. All the structure and control has gone out of our game since Gidley went to the halves. The Gidley/Mullen combination is not working at all and our attack has digressed by the minute since the change in spine with Henry out, Gids to half, and Wes to fullback.

3. Discipline, penalties, all the little things in a wet weather game that really count. Not good enough. I put a lot of this down to the coach. It's his job to make sure the players are switched on, focusing on their discipline, not being lazy in the ruck, no forward passes, the list goes on and on... we lose a lot of games through doing the basics poorly.

I don't think the Eagles, Dragons, or Broncos have been anywhere near their best against us, but they still won. What does that say about us? In my opinion we lost all three because we were either out-muscled or were not as composed under pressure as our opponent. We certainly weren't carved up through superior attacking footy by any of them.

He can reinforce these things all week. He can train for it all week. At the end of the day, its up to the players to execute it on the night.

A lot of the criticism is justified in regards to last nights game. But for 75 minutes last night we hung in there with the competition leaders on their home patch on a miserable night. A few tough things went against us that may have cost us, those are the breaks.

Seriously, right now, Brisbane, Dragons and Melbourne are the best in the comp. We went down by 2 against the Dragons with a few contreversial calls against us. Tonight (late try excluded) we were down by 6 when a forward pass was incorrectly called that saw us under the sticks.

We start getting a share of these tough calls we are beating the best in the comp.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Seriously guys, like Serc said we were perfectly inline with the Gidley pass and all 3 of us cold see it went forward. It was the correct call.

The Maddog "knock on" however.....

 

[Pika]

He passed it on the 10m line and Fuss caught it on the 10m line.

Replay showed it clearly. Flat, not forward.

 

[The_Joey_Show]

I didn't realise how much work Taia gets through.

Take him away and all of a sudden blokes like Kaufusi, Houston, Tui and Faas look decidedly second rate. Pato and Eddie were the only two who cracked a sweat last night.

If he is out for a long time, or god forbid, it's all over for him, we are royally f**ked for this season.

Tinks, forget Idris and Boyd. Buy us some f***ing forwards.

 

[knights girl]

I think Mullen needs a rest and bring someone up form centurions. If he thinks he has to actually has some competition for the half back spot then he may actually perform. Seems like Stone does not drop players who are in bad form....if we get Bennett I'm sure he will drop them on poor performance. Mullen has not for 2 years performed well consistently.