Knights lose the winning feeling

[Frederick]

Knights lose the winning feeling
By BRETT KEEBLE

AFTER winning five from five the previous week, the Knights could not crack it for a win in any grade at the weekend.

The Eels pipped Newcastle 24-23 in extra time in the NRL game at Parramatta Stadium on Friday, having beaten the Knights 18-10 in the National Youth Competition curtain-raiser.

Parramatta backed up the next day by thrashing the previously unbeaten Knights 50-10 in Harold Matthews (under 16s) and 24-22 in SG Ball (under 18s) in the NSW Rugby League junior representative games at The Gardens.

The Central Newcastle Knights suffered their first loss of the NSW Cup competition on Saturday, going down 44-18 to Auckland Vulcans at Henham Park.

Knights operations manager Warren Smiles said prop Mitchell Sargent continued to make steady progress in his second game back after a double bout of pneumonia in the pre-season.

"Sarge got through plenty of minutes, and him and Mark Taufua went well up front for us," Smiles said.

"[Centre] Junior Sau came off a bit early with a tight hamstring but that was mainly precautionary. Apart from that there were no real injury dramas."

LINK

That last sentence is a refreshing one to hear. Lets just hope we don't have a repeat of last years BIHK kerfuffle

 

[Serc]

Don't mention the war Freddo

 

[Hanscholo]

Im not concerned, we hit the club champions this weekend. And despite a couple of heavy losses we did pretty well imo. 1st grade in particular was a really outstanding performance.

I didnt see the jnr grades play but i suspect they ran into a load of players playing above that level. Its a hallmark of the parramatta jnr teams.

If it wasnt for a rampant Mateo, and a couple of poor handles under pressure we wouldnt have just beaten parramatta we would have destroyed them. I was hesitant to get excited after the first two rounds but now im happy. We have a very creative, hard working and honest team this year. There were glimpses of some real free flowing football on Friday night, and at times parra couldnt go with us. Our kicking game was sublime as well. Houston, Ciraldo, Tolar, Lulia, Vuna and McManus are all newish names in our squad, and i am just glad that they have so much raw ability. In years past we have taken players out of premier league and asked them to step up a lot further than their ability allowed them too. Lately it seems we are putting complete players into grade and we are just asking them to do a job well within their ability.

 

[darkness]

i'm suprised you thought the kicking game was average. I think our kicking game is one of the best in the comp from what I have seen. With the two halves showing so much confidence in that department and then wes, patto and gids also being able to kick, we sure have alot of depth in that area. But yeh, I am no kicker myself mind you, but it's interesting to see other peoples perspective on that.

 

[Pika]

I agree.

Kicking has been on song.

 

[roopy]

We have so many kicking options.
Patto is a decent goal kicker, has a great kickoff, and used to do a pretty handy dribble into the ingoal in the lower grades.
Wes is a very good goal kicker.
Scotty does it all - good goal kicker, great tactical kicker both short and long, really good at gaining metres kicking for touch - but i once saw him kick out over the dead ball line 2 times in a row.
Mullo is decent tactical kicker.
Bedsy is a fair tactical kicker.
Gids is good and getting better at goal kicking and fair at tactical kicking.

As far as i can see our only problem with kicking is that we won't be able to give all the guys a go so some may lose skills.

 

[Karmawave]

To me the two most noticeable improvements in our game this year has been the marker defence, and our kicking game.

Its been a major improvement on last year, and I think the kicking can improve even more.

Of course, the attitude and commitment seems to have improved tenfold too - which leads to better defence naturally.

 

[roopy]

The Harold Mathews side are the ones who came crashing back to earth.

It was a funny game.

Our huge forwards completely owned them in the middle with big Jermaine and Jeremy making huge runs, but they were scoring at will down the sidelines. They were as good as under the posts as soon as their big centres and wingers started running at our little guys.

Our guys can turn their season around still, they just need to replace two or three weak defenders i think.

 

[antonius]

Kids is the goal kicker, please keep him away from general play kicking he's terrible. I think the inclusion of Dureau in the side has lifted our kicking game considerably, he can produce from anywhere, and is very good close to the line. I prefer Mullen as a long kicker, he doesn't seem to have the touch for a deft kicking game.

 

[BG]

I prefer Mullen as a long kicker, he doesn't seem to have the touch for a deft kicking game.

His grubbers to the wingers were pretty impressive last year. Even Doogs old legs carried him onto one of them to score, Mullo had found so much space.