Are we playing finals in 2021?

[Jono078]

So you all know how shit our season has been?

What if I told you that we are only outside of the top 8 on for and against!

I know - truly mind blowing! As of right now I couldn't be more confident of making the top 8 haha.

 

[perverse]

Long way to go mate, but there's at least a path forward to that possibility now. They need to believe, they need to want it bad enough and they really need and injection of skill in the backs to continue on with it. I'm at least interested in watching us play again.

Did anyone get a glimpse of Hodgson in reserve grade? Keen to know how he went.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Closer after that win. 10 points but not good in f/a. We have to be better than the rest that are contesting to scrape into the 8.

 

[mozza91]

Realistically I can’t see us losing another game ever.

 

[mozza91]

Did anyone get a glimpse of Hodgson in reserve grade? Keen to know how he went.

Only played the first 40. Didn’t see a lot of ball because we seemed to drop it every set.

 

[slotmachine]

As garbage as we have been 5 wins, 7 losses at the halfway point leaves us well in the frame for finals because the comp is full of suck from 6th-16th

Warriors (home)
Cowboys (home)
Raiders (home)
Broncos (home)
Sharks (away)
Bulldogs (away)
Titans (home)
Broncos (away)

Will have Pearce back, Clifford and Lodge. Win 7 of those 8 and we're in I reckon.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

As garbage as we have been 5 wins, 7 losses at the halfway point leaves us well in the frame for finals because the comp is full of suck from 6th-16th

Warriors (home)
Cowboys (home)
Raiders (home)
Broncos (home)
Sharks (away)
Bulldogs (away)
Titans (home)
Broncos (away)

Will have Pearce back, Clifford and Lodge. Win 7 of those 8 and we're in I reckon.

Guarantee we'll win about 2 lol

 

[Mr_Knightside]

As garbage as we have been 5 wins, 7 losses at the halfway point leaves us well in the frame for finals because the comp is full of suck from 6th-16th

Warriors (home)
Cowboys (home)
Raiders (home)
Broncos (home)
Sharks (away)
Bulldogs (away)
Titans (home)
Broncos (away)

Will have Pearce back, Clifford and Lodge. Win 7 of those 8 and we're in I reckon.

A team that’s not the Knights would win 7/8 of those but unfortunately we’re the Knights...

 

[Old dog]

As garbage as we have been 5 wins, 7 losses at the halfway point leaves us well in the frame for finals because the comp is full of suck from 6th-16th

Warriors (home)
Cowboys (home)
Raiders (home)
Broncos (home)
Sharks (away)
Bulldogs (away)
Titans (home)
Broncos (away)

Will have Pearce back, Clifford and Lodge. Win 7 of those 8 and we're in I reckon.

Mathematically if we win 5 of those 8 we are in with a show especially as most are in same predicament we are and must play the likes of Penrith, Storm, Roosters and Eels, it’s a case of beating those just above and below us, winning all 8 should be the aim.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

What the stats say about our season so far. Obvious but interesting.
https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/05/30/stat-attack-numbers-behind-knights-regression/

 

[Jono078]

What the stats say about our season so far. Obvious but interesting.
https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/05/30/stat-attack-numbers-behind-knights-regression/

Solid read.

What I take from that is our kick returns/defusals have been our biggest downfall and apply pressure to other areas of our game such as regular metres and gaining that running momentum.

Also the lack of support to runners or the playing one-out football allows us to easily be targeted and bashed. Basically Conor said this himself so why are we doing it?

The team could also afford to be a bit more adventurous with ball in hand, Watson added.

"We're a bit tight with our shifting of the ball. We need to throw more footy and our back five can't be afraid to play a bit more with tip-ons," he said.

"We're getting bashed because we're running one-out."

 

[Jono078]

Ok so this is the run home;

We have 9 games remaining and history suggest 12 wins will get you a top 8 spot, this year however 11 or even 10 might scrape you in, either way we're looking like we need to win 6/9 to at at least not be limping into the finals. Can we go 6-3 to finish the season?

Cowboys (H) - W
Storm (A) - L
Roosters (A) - W
Raiders (H) - W
Broncos (H) - W
Sharks (A) - W
Bulldogs (A) - W
Titans (H) - L
Broncos (A) - W

I can see 2-3 losses but the rest are really winnable.. The last two games are huge dangers. Titans on their day can do anything and maybe with no pressure there they'll play a good game. Broncos might be in the same boat there, no pressure so will throw the ball around.

 

[Old dog]

Think we are a big show in 7 of those games if injuries cease and virtually full side in.
Losses likely to be Storm and Roosters both away

 

[Yosh]

If we can keep our full strength side on the field from our next game onwards, can't see us losing any games apart from the Storm and Roosters ones.

Possible see us even high as 6th right?

 

[PhilGould]

Optimistic bunch

 

[NK Arsenal]

I feel we are gonna need to win at least 7 games cause our points difference is the fourth worst in the competition and our attack isn’t good enough to pile points on anyone to eradicate it

I’m resigned to losing against the Storm and the Roosters and any other loss is going to end out season.

The rest are winnable but we are the knights so we are due to lose at least half with at least one second half implosion and get a few season ending injuries. We will finish around 10-12.

 

[ryana87]

With a little hope.... Melbourne will be resting their stars for our match as it's 3 days after origin 3.......so we should only be missing ponga and they will be missing Munster, Grant and addocar (fox the most likely to back up)

So we should only get beat by 20

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

We should win about 6 or 7 of those games but realistically we'll probably only win about 2

 

[Jono078]

What's the worst case scenario looking at that schedule, and anticipating we have close to a full strength squad for the remainder of the year?

I think for me it's 3 wins, which absolutely will not be enough. 5 is so doable and should be enough, but that'll be us just making up the numbers in the finals. We win 6 and I assume we'll have some sort of momentum and form and be capable of causing an upset in week 1.

 

[slotmachine]

As garbage as we have been 5 wins, 7 losses at the halfway point leaves us well in the frame for finals because the comp is full of suck from 6th-16th

Warriors (home)
Cowboys (home)
Raiders (home)
Broncos (home)
Sharks (away)
Bulldogs (away)
Titans (home)
Broncos (away)

Will have Pearce back, Clifford and Lodge. Win 7 of those 8 and we're in I reckon.

The rest of the comp still sucks so I maintain some shred of confidence we can do this.
Reflecting on the nine losses:

Lost to good sides
Panthers
Roosters
Eels
Rabbits

Lost to a side that turned up and played well on the day
Dragons

We never beat QLD sides in QLD (Lost last 14 or something stupid)
Cowboys
Titans

WTF
Tigers
Tigers

Those Tigers losses are the ones that will f**k us in the end.