Knights v Dragons Post Match Thread

[Serc]

I had the good fortune to be sitting right behind the left side of our line for the first half so i could see what our terribly weak backs are supposedly like...and I can say that Carmont was not the useless player that he has shown at other times this year, that little intercept he got about halfway through the first half was pretty cool too! Defense was much improved, and no 'turnstiles' from either centre as i have heard in the past

Mullen - well i was biased by one of his mates from home sitting two people away from me, but that didn't influence me seeing the potential this guy has...great stuff from him, all the good points of his game have been covered by others already

Newton, what i managed to see of him was tops, great stuff again and well covered by everyone else in here so far.

Negatives

I also had a good view of Hughes in the first half, and nothing inspires me much any more about him.
Perry is a dead set fool - nothing more to say.
The amount of ball that was dropped was a bit too high.

I would have to say that only a lack of experience and time spent as a combination stopped the team winning last night, there was a lot of spirit there and if they had've been better in the 1st half, then we may have won by a somewhat comfortable margin.

I'm a proud Knights fan today - I was worried that we were going to be embarrased by a half-strength Dragons lineup, but I now can see the potential for a 10th place finish or better by the end of the season.

 

[Jobdog]

Nothing inspires u about Hughesy ??? Have to agree, however he did play 60 mins with a broken ankle. F@rk me thats a fantastic effort.

 

[The Little People]

Nothing inspires u about Hughesy ??? Have to agree, however he did play 60 mins with a broken ankle. F@rk me thats a fantastic effort.

No thats an effort of stupidity. It wasnt a grand final and we werent down to our last man on the bench. All playing injured did was meant that he didnt inject himself into the backline in attack so probably cost us the game. Well done Boosey.

 

[TooheysNew]

And who would you replace him with. We had no backs on the bench. He did what he had to do. The guy can't win can he...

 

[Jobdog]

Exactly Dilly, who would we have put in the backs??? We will put Matt White at fullback will we ? :roll: pllllllleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaase

 

[TooheysNew]

We didn't even have Simpson to stick in center to push someone out...

 

[borat]

I was also at the game and I thought the refereeing was atrocious to both sides. The 10m was absolutely a farce in the 2nd half for both teams. It was more like 5m and this I thought was the telling factor as to why the game was pretty ordinary.

I don't think Hayne made a decision himself all night. He seemed to wait for calls from his touchies and upstairs before making any decision. My opinion on the so called high shot on Mullen was right in front of me and there was absolutely nothing in it, thomspson hit him around the shoulder and swung him down. Anyway, what does Hayne do, he deadset stands there doing nothing and I swear was watching the replay on the screen before he made a decision. Why bother having a ref on the field if he can't make his own mind up on anything.

The Knights I thought just shot themselves in the foot with repeated dropped ball on halfway or in there own half just running the ball up and without any real pressure. I haven't seen many Knights games this year but have they been dropping this much ball every week? The dragons had their fair share of bad calls like the knights, including the first Knights try which came off an obvious rake from Carmont.

Mullen and Thaiday both impressed me the most. Mullen I thought was a gun and I reckon will be awesome if he gets the chance to play beside Johns.

The Dragons were very very pedestrian and boring. The Ref didn't help but I am sure Browns instructions were to keep the ball up the middle and kick to the corners or bomb, just mistake free football and let the Knights implode with mistakes. This seemed to work up until the last 15 when the Knights got their act together. It didn't look pretty but I thought the Dragons were in control for 60mins.

The two high shots on Henderson from Perry and Smith were atrocious. Smith's was very bad but probably unintentional but Perry's I reckon was intentional. From where I was sitting it looked like he actually jumped off the ground to get a shot at henderson's head.

This is what SMH had to say about them.

http://smh.com.au/news/League/Dragons-withstand-surge-from-Knights/2005/05/21/1116533583940.html

Dragons forward Lance Thompson was also placed on report for a high shot, but will be unlucky if he's charged after appearing to merely clip rookie Knights five-eighth Jarrod Mullen.

Both Smith and Perry's tackles were on young Dragons replacement forward Michael Henderson, who was helped from the field on both occasions suffering concussion.

Smith - playing against the club he once proudly captained - might not be as lucky as Thompson.

His high tackle on Henderson two minutes after Thompson was called up is likely to earn greater scrutiny from match review commissioner Greg McCallum. Replays showed that Henderson was knocked out before he hit the ground.

 

[Jobdog]

Thompson hit Mullen on the shoulder??? U are kidding - he stuck his arm out and clipped his ear, which last time I checked is part of the head. Smith's tackle on Henderson, nothing in that, not too dissimilar to Thompson's one, hit the shoulder and bounced up. However, Perry's hit on Henderson - not good at all - 3-5 weeks IMO.

 

[borat]

Mate I was sitting right inline with the tryline on that corner and I don't think he got near his head. Thats my opinion from what I saw and the paper seems to back it up which is why I posted the quote.

Smith's is unintentional but as bad as they come. Henderson was knocked out before he hit the ground Jobdog, you don't get any worse than that.

 

[Jobdog]

He may well have been, but Smith's forearm was across his chest in an affort to "Swing" the player down. He did not touch his head !!!!!

 

[antonius]

Up until the last 20 minutes I thought the game was pretty lack-lustre, and in fact we were considering going home. However I'm glad we didn't the last twenty was pretty nail biting stuff. Have to agree on Newton being best out there, Perry again cost us big time, not sure but wasn't one of the Dragons penalty goals a result of an indiscretion by him? Gutsy effort by Hughes to stay out there, it was pretty obvious before halftime he was struggling with some sort of leg injury. I really don't know what we have to do anymore, the game was close but in reality we played a side with a lot out and struggled to get near them for 75% of the game. The result didn't send me home with much optimism.

 

[borat]

He may well have been, but Smith's forearm was across his chest in an affort to "Swing" the player down. He did not touch his head !!!!!

And he was knocked by what? I like Craig Smith, he was a loyal saints player who was pushed out by the judiciary. He is as tough as nails and just who the knights needed when they signed him. As I said, unintentional but I think he will have a case to answer at the judiciary.

 

[Jobdog]

Yes but Tony, u have to realise the players we had out. Sure they had 5 origin players out, but that was about it I think, bar Head. Compare that with our 12 or so players out, basically our premier league side playing the dragons first grade side and I found some positives to suggest we still will not get the spoon.

 

[The Little People]

And who would you replace him with. We had no backs on the bench. He did what he had to do. The guy can't win can he...

Well I didnt select a FG team with 4 forwards on the bench did I? Matt White would have been able to cover more ground than Hughes did. Shouldnt the coach have learnt from lasr week when Simmo was in the Centres that maybe we need some backs on the bench too?

Me thinks that the Knights have given up hope of getting anywhere in 1st Grade so they are "stacking" the Reggies side with the better options like Brad Tighe.

Well we could have put Robbie O there - he's offered to play for nothing. But our stubborn ego maniac management are on a vendetta all because Robbie O told a few home truths about them in the media. Looks like he turned out to be spot on!

 

[The Little People]

Yes but Tony, u have to realise the players we had out. Sure they had 5 origin players out, but that was about it I think, bar Head. Compare that with our 12 or so players out, basically our premier league side playing the dragons first grade side and I found some positives to suggest we still will not get the spoon.

Sure we have got 12 players out but there aren't 5 SOO players out of our team. Lets stop making excuses for injury's - its something we have to live with and has to have something to do with both our training and rehab methods and facilities etc. Its the 3rd year in a row - so it cant be bad luck more than bad managment.

 

[God-King Dean]

Smiths head high was careless, & partly due to being wrong footed. But I don't buy into that 'hit him on the chest first then slipped up' garbage. His arm shouldn't have been that high as it is & got him around the neck

 

[TooheysNew]

Well I didnt select a FG team with 4 forwards on the bench did I? Matt White would have been able to cover more ground than Hughes did. Shouldnt the coach have learnt from lasr week when Simmo was in the Centres that maybe we need some backs on the bench too?

Me thinks that the Knights have given up hope of getting anywhere in 1st Grade so they are "stacking" the Reggies side with the better options like Brad Tighe.

Well we could have put Robbie O there - he's offered to play for nothing. But our stubborn ego maniac management are on a vendetta all because Robbie O told a few home truths about them in the media. Looks like he turned out to be spot on!

You're sidestepping the point. Irrelevant of the fact we had the unbalanced team chosen, you were suggesting Hughes was an idiot for staying on the field.

I'm assuming you were suggesting we play without a fullback for the 60 minutes, just so hughes didnt further injure himself.

I'm sorry, but I fail to see your logic.

 

[Doctor]

A couple of interesting issues:

Shouldnt the coach have learnt from lasr week when Simmo was in the Centres that maybe we need some backs on the bench too?

I think the problem is a lack of fitness in our forwards. He can't rely on some of our blokes to be able to play the full 80, hence we have to keep an extra forward on the bench. We also don't have a utility player anymore, so it's difficult to cover all positions.

The issue relates directly to this:

That's now 5 games this season we've lost by 4 points or less. If we'd won all of those games, we'd be on 12 competition points heading into next weekend's bye. That would put us in about 7th or 8th position. Our heads and confidence would be up, and all this negativity would be non-existent (well, a lot of it anyway).

We're losing by close margins because effort keeps us in the games, but they just run out of energy. The Knights often stay in the game for 70 minutes or so. They might switch off before the end of either half, but either way it usually works out that the damage is done in bursts.

The Knights are carrying four forwards on the bench because week after week we're losing by close margins. It indicates they just need a bit more petrol, or a couple more players still with petrol left at crucial times. With a fitter team they could have come back last night -- they lacked the knock-out blow.

 

[Jobdog]

There aren't 5 state of origin players out of the team hey ???? Hmm lets see, maybe not quite, but the last time I checked, Johns, Simpson, Buderus are all state of origin players, not to mention Abraham who will be in the next few years, combined with Kurt Gidley who was 18th man last year I think it was.

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

Well was at the game last night and we offered up very little until the final 15.In fact i thought maybe a booing from the crowd might be on the cards
Shayne Hayne is a disgrace...He called play on for the smith and woolnough incidents..clearly heard thro the sports ears
he sent the wrong player to the bin
Smith is takes the ball up and while he is tackled ..he gets 3 forearm rakes across the face ..gets up holding the bloke..doesnt play the ball cause dragons come from everywhere..and smith GETS a penalty against him!Its on the screen for all to see and he doesnt see it!!!..for christs sake..whats the video ref doing????.Essentially that was our chance gone to mount an attack...Altho toooo much cheap ball didnt helpStuipid mistakes that you see in under 12s on sat morning that the forwards made cost us big time.
Cant wait for Capt.Cranky to get out there and tell some of the forwards the way to go..Instead of.".oh well..doesnt matter "from michael hagan