Knights v Roosters Post Match Thread.

[antonius]

For your after match thoughts.

 

[m0j0]

Walker was a dickhead and a show pony. Just thought I'd throw a few Nostradamus predictions in here.

 

[Jobdog]

Just got home, and once again, the all too familiar feeling of losing is being felt. Once again, we had our chances, but although the players tried their hardest, were just not good enough. For mine, the turning point of the match was undoubtedly the Kimmorley-like pass thrown by Campbell when we trailed 16-10. If Finch doesn't take the intercept, we score through Price and its most likely 16-16. But instead the Roosters race 90 metres and increase their lead to 22-10. Its a 12-point turnaround.

This was after we had FOUR consecutive sets at their line, and just lacked the polish to our attack (however bad it may be this year) that one A.Johns brings to the football team. Once again Newton tried his heart out, and Smith was tireless, but we just cant seem to score points (and lots of them).

 

[Jono078]

Tried hard, nothing too bad to come out of it besides the fact we struggled without the big guns... But, what team doesnt...

And I also thought the intercept was the turning point, I was almost certain he would have grubbered when he saw Finch up that close.

 

[Ben]

The effort is there but there just isn't enoough natural talent and the ability to finish tries off that is killing us. We lacked variety in attack and on the one play where we actually had some decoy runners and cutout balls we scored, its something that i reckon we should've done more, but the field conditions could have constrainted our attack. We held onto the ball well throughout most of the game, but as fatigue crept in, so did the errors. All in all, i wasn't expecting the win but it was great Salkeld to get his hatrick.

 

[antonius]

I thought the forwards were great ( get Smith for another year) But as said our attack lacks variety, again Thaiday was found wanting under the ball, but gee he's exciting with the ball in his hands, made a couple of great tackles as well, he needs to get his positioning right, a bit of protection under the ball from team mates would help also. As said though our attack lets us down we just can't convert possession into points. Lost in all three grades as well, made for a very dissapointing, and cold night. Anyone watch Flegg? The roosters 14 was an Adrian Morley understudy, he got done three times for high shots, was lucky to stay on field I reckon. Oh yes, what did you think of Smith the ref? Some of his rulings were mystifying to say the least.

 

[rock_on_knights]

I thought the defence was good, Newton, Smith, Woolnough were great. Salkeld's tries were great, well deserved too. Milton Thaiday, he really needs to practice catching the ball under a high kick, otherwise put him in the wing.
We really could have won, Finch's intercept try was stupid play of Cambell (i think it was him)
Carmont wasn't too bad yesterday, i thought his tackle that saved a try was great, him and Thaiday both did well. Carmont was also unlucky to not get his try as it slipt out of his hands, but was also lucky that Salkeld was there to catch the ball he missed which went to a try .
Last week we won all three grades, and this week we lost all three, that was dissapointing
But i thought our boys weren't too bad, considering the weather. Atleast it wasn't a smashing.

 

[Jobdog]

Hav to congratulate the nearly 15,000 brave souls who turned up to watch the boys play. Great stuff

 

[rock_on_knights]

Yeah, it was freeeeeezing! I couldn't feel my toes or my fingers! My skin was peeling cause it was so cold And those bloody ponchos were useless :lol:
And poor CWB was going blue! Hope you're feeling better today!

 

[antonius]

I saw the crusade sitting over in that corner, with their banner and flags, great effort to sit out guys, it looked pretty miserable over there. Wife and myself were in the western stand, my young bloke and his mate were on the hill, and they were frozen and soaked, I managed to get a security lady to let them in the stand at hafl time, real nice of her I thought.

 

[RABK]

I saw the crusade sitting over in that corner, with their banner and flags, great effort to sit out guys, it looked pretty miserable over there.

:LOL: It was but it was alot of fun.

 

[snapper]

Can't fault the effort especially in defence. We seemed to scramble a lot better than what we have been doing. A couple of times we were caught short on the edges but the inside men made the effort to get across in cover.

Have to agree with comments on Newton and Smith. I'm starting to get a little bit excited with how Newton's playing. His enthusiasm is great, always seems to to get over the advantage line and his defence is very solid. It was good to see him chase down Finch when he took that intercept.

Looks as though Perry might sign with Nth Qld, so hopefully the Knights will see sense and re-sign Smith. He has something that Perry has failed to show in the last couple of years, heart.

Yeah the boys did look a bit flat in attack, but the try that Salkeld scored when he marked the ball on the full from Mullens kick across field showed that the side is capable of playing quality football without 'you know who.' They made 64mts from 5 tackles in that set and then went another 20 to score the try. I think that's probably the best set I've seen from the boys in about 20 games.

It was good to see Carmont make some solid tackles aswell, we all know his defence is a bit suspect when under pressure so to see him punishing the odd rooster player last night should do his confidence a bit of good.

 

[TooheysNew]

The thing i've noticed with Carmont is that when he knows where to stand he can pull off a tackle. It's moreso his positional play in defence that gets him caught out.

Last weekend I watched him string together a number of back to back tackles, shoulder tackles - not shirt grabs - and the reason for that was because he was tackling players running straight at him. Its when the players run away from him that we get into trouble and he attempts shirt grabs.

 

[Ben]

Can't fault the effort especially in defence. We seemed to scramble a lot better than what we have been doing. A couple of times we were caught short on the edges but the inside men made the effort to get across in cover.

Our defence as times was quite good, but at other times it was very suspect. When the Roosters put in their backline plays with walker hanging back for the second man play, it looked like they were going to break the line every time. Fringe defence has to be worked on, but that is mainly due to the inexperience of our outside backs. Our defence down the middle was generally quite good.

 

[astrogirl]

Does anyone know what the crowd figure was?

 

[Ben]

roughly 15000...i was expecting a bit more after the Knights first win, but the rain and the weather discouraged people to go

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

good effort..lacked polish..and variety.Maybe seeing the post Johns era>How come other teams juniors seem so much better than ours..the tigers have young lions and the roosters seem to always have us covered with there players..oh money ok

 

[Jobdog]

Holla, I hav said this in an earlier post, but yes we did lack polish and variety, but I said it once and I'll say it again, our halves had only had a combined total of 11 games between them. So of course there isnt going to be much variety because they are only getting their footing in the top grade.

 

[The_Joey_Show]

Does anyone know what the crowd figure was?

14,950 according to today's Newcastle Herald. Wouldn't surprise me if they've added a few... didn't look to be many more than about 12,000 there to me. That said, even 12,000 would be a great effort in that weather.

 

[Jobdog]

TJS, dont forget the new stand holds roughly 12,500 and i reckon it was maybe a little more than half full, so thats say 7,000 in there. On the hills was roughly about 2 on each one which takes the figure up to 11,000 and there would have been about 3,000 in the western stand. All up thats roughly about what they said.