KNIGHTS V. COWBOYS: RD 6 ~ Post Match Discussion

[Gene Krupa]

Hard to get good field positon when the ref piggybacks the opposition all the way to your goal line.

 

[The_Joey_Show]

Assuming the Johns isn't too badly hurt and we can get the wheels back on the track next week down in Melbourne, this could be the best thing that has happened to us. The injustice of losing this game based on bad refereeing decisions will provide plenty of motivation for the boys the next few times we play the Cowboys.

And I, for one, get the feeling that one of those next few clashes will be at Telstra Stadium in October.

 

[antonius]

Just wanted to add another point after watching the replay this morning, and thinking it yesterday. We had the perfect plan on Thurston, our big guys ran at him from the word go, and for around 60 minutes it worked, it was only when we ran out of puff that Thurston got some room and energy to play his norm game. Have to add that the penalty against Carmont for passing off the ground was a dead set joke, he was in the motion of passing as he was going down, and at no time did the ball carrying arm hit the ground. The call back for a scrum after they had knocked on was also a disgrace, should've played advantage. No use crying about it though, those two rulings may or may not have changed the game, we had our chances, but unlike last week they came unstuck this week.

 

[astrogirl]

stupid tony de las heras

no wonder hes a f**ken flegg ref

That's a bit rough - it's clear he was thrown in the deep end. I agree with whoever it was that made the analogy that it's like throwing a flegg player into first grade, having made him play a flegg game first.

 

[Misanthrope]

Just finished watching the first half replay on Foxtel (and missed our third try during my piss break) and I've got to say I was very happy with how we played. Our defence was superb and our attack was threatening in almost every set of six. Reminded me of the good old days. Des La Heras' injection had two negative effects on us - the lack of advantage in the 32nd minute and the questionable penalty for passing off the ground on Carmont.

That said, it's not really his fault. The NRL should be called on their lack of preparation. A very good game was weakened by the absence of a qualified replacement official. They should have had plans in place for the injury of a referee. I'd hate to see this kind of c**k-up happen in a final.

 

[Jobdog]

Why did they make the Flegg ref referee the first grade game for anyway after Simpkins broke down? Why didn't they throw the whistle to Matt Cecchin, although he's pretty ordinary too and hav the other bloke running the line?

 

[Misanthrope]

Cechin at least has first grade refereeing experience. The fact is, the NRL screwed up. I'm not going to say it cost us the game or piss and moan - but they need a better plan than throwing in an inexperienced Jersey Flegg referee.

 

[astrogirl]

That said, it's not really his fault. The NRL should be called on their lack of preparation. A very good game was weakened by the absence of a qualified replacement official. They should have had plans in place for the injury of a referee. I'd hate to see this kind of c**k-up happen in a final.

Me too but I doubt it would happen - in an ordinary round they need 7 first grade refs, whereas in week one of the finals they need 4. Surely they have a backup first grade ref at each games for the finals.

 

[Misanthrope]

They should have a qualified back-up at every game. A very, very good game was weakened yesterday by poor refereeing. The referee himself can't be blamed, he's used to refereeing a much slower paced game in front of a much smaller crowd.

 

[Boxer]

Couple of questions to mull over.
Will "coach" HAGAN have the balls to drop Perry & Carmont to reserves and promote Davico and Seage
Considering Thiaday's experience as a 5/8, should he play there, then Kidley play alongside Midley. Seage playing Fullback.

 

[~knights~]

What was the penalty count in the game????????

 

[antonius]

Couple of questions to mull over.
Will "coach" HAGAN have the balls to drop Perry & Carmont to reserves and promote Davico and Seage
Considering Thiaday's experience as a 5/8, should he play there, then Kidley play alongside Midley. Seage playing Fullback.

Why would he want to drop Perry or Carmont? Both have been in good form this season. Davico will get called up anyway to replace Reynoldson.Penalty count was 12-6 Cowboys favour.

 

[troll]

Couple of questions to mull over.
Will "coach" HAGAN have the balls to drop Perry & Carmont to reserves and promote Davico and Seage
Considering Thiaday's experience as a 5/8, should he play there, then Kidley play alongside Midley. Seage playing Fullback.

Thaiday 5/8
Dump Gidley
Seage fullback
Tighe Bench

 

[Ben]

Perry has been our best front-rower and there is no need to drop him. What Hagan needs to tell Perry that every time he takes the ball up, don't stick his arms out waving it for the opposition to knock out. Sticking his arms out just invites tacklers to knock the ball out while disguising it as part of making the tackle.

 

[Azkatro]

Where's Brad Tighe?

 

[Misanthrope]

In Premier League along with Dustin Cooper and Trent Salkeld

 

[Doctor]

The replacement referee had a tough ask -- easily the biggest game in six weeks and, just his luck, Paul Simpkins does a hammy. What a debut to be given, with such short notice and with so little experience. My main objection isn't that he made a handful of mistakes (which, in all fairness, probably didn't sway the match as much as other factors), it's that he was even put in there. Why not put someone more experienced in there? Surely they had a more qualified bloke.... anyone, it's spilt milk now.

To the game itself: We probably lost it in the 60th minute. I was at the game, but heard what Phil Gould was saying with about 15 minutes to go. He said the Knights were gone, and the Cowboys were coming to get them -- they did. Our mob looked pretty stuffed, while the Cowboys seemed to still have a bit of wind in their sails. Put two and two together and you get a feeling of inevitability, no matter how much our team scrambled to prevent it.

The penalty count was a bit of a worry -- firstly that we conceeded so many penalties late in the tackle count; second that we didn't do as we said we would prior to the game (plenty of talk about possession, and yet we still managed to hand it to the Cowboys at particularly inappropriate times); and thirdly that the referee seemed to give a couple of duds. Truth be told, we deserved to be on the end of A lopsided penalty count for the simple fact that the Cowboys were more disciplined, but perhaps some of the penalties against us were a bit unfortunate.

It's difficult to pinpoint the reason we lost. Probably a combination of handing over ball at the wrong time, a lopsided penalty count, struggling for possession at the right end of the field, inability to get past being a 70-minute team / being tired about 10 minutes too early and the Cowboys having played pretty well.

I don't think it's anything to be too worried about -- we could have done better, but losing by 2 probably indicates where the two teams are in respect to form. It puts the Cowboys out there for all to see -- plenty of people will expect them to turn this into a premiership now, which is a lot of pressure for a team once considered easy-beats. I for one am pretty comfortable with a top 5 position, hopefully building towards peak form by September.... whether the Cowboys will maintain this form for that long is a question we will have answered in September/October. Good luck to them though -- they have a pretty handy sort of team when Thurston is there.

 

[antonius]

In reality we lost by a goal-kick. All of Johns kicks were from the side line, all of Thurstons were in front. The kick that Johns missed was about a balls width off target. Three tries each, and I'd suggest the extra tackling we did because of some dodgy penalties was a big factor in our forwards being spent at the end. All in all both teams were fairly evenly matched.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Don't be too disapointed people. The game changed completely when Simpkins was replaced, I'm sure a more experienced ref wouldn't have made some of those calls. A couple of them were downright blatent mistakes, the penalty for passing off the ground was a joke, the players arm (in fact neither arm) didn't touch the ground, fair pass. He didn't play advantage twice when we recovered the ball from Knock-ons, instead calling up play for a scrum. Thaiday was off and running in one of those. I'm not making excuses, just saying I think a more experienced ref would have seen us not soaking up so many raids on our line to the point where pur guys were spent, Thurston scored and that was the turning point, That was after about 4 penalties in a row for them. Reyno going off didn't help in the fitness side of our game at the end either. I was speaking to Mac on the phone afetr and like I said to him, although I'm disapointed, I'm by no means shattered, we played well, the cowboys got us this time, but we'll live to fight another day. I thought Quinn was fantastic for us, best game by him for a long time, Buderus played his arse off, and all the forwards defended brilliantly against a very lopsided penalty count. Have to say that Carney needs to start running forward more, he is too much of a cross field runner for mine, makes a lot of hit-ups, but doesn't go forward enough IMO. Kidley looks lost when he gets the ball on the last, he still panics when it's left to him for the last play, Mullen should be in the side now. Davico will fit in nicely for Reyno,(I doubt he'll play next week) Fingers crossed Johns is OK, he seemed to finish the game OK, no sign of limping, Tommorow will tell, NBN3 said nothing about an injury. Look I reckon we played well, just didn't get the rub of the ball, we are still right in this comp.

Fantastic summary regardless of all thats happened there's nothing to be shamed about by being beat by the best team in the comp @ the moment by a mere two points and comming within a stones throw of the win.

We had plenty go against us and still took them to the wire and no doubt the boys will be better off then they would if they had of had another walk in the park.

This win is now in the past and its how we handle it and come back from it that matters now.

 

[thuganomics]

Thing i'm most worries about is our ability to close out tight games. We couldn't do it against the Warriors and we didn't do it against the Cowboys. We have proven that we can run in cricket scores this year, but I would love it if the boys could win a close one in the very near future.

I'm not dissapointed at all because I know it's early in the season. If we had lost this game in round 24 I would be more concerned. Our defence was excellent for the most part but our ball handling was shocking. When we needed to complete our sets we didn't, and the Cows punished us for that.