This post is long, but I think you will find it far more convenient with the use of bold and the spacing. Overall I thought it was a game of two halves - the second half being very impressive when compared with a scrappy first half.
The Players:
O’Davis – simply brilliant tonight. His sole mistake, a forward pass, should not be allowed to distract from what was an impressive display. He did the basics of the fullback role by taking the bombs, making metres on his kick-returns and defusing any half-breaks made by Souths. The icing on the cake was his support play: he was the only Knight within a cooee of a kick down field which hit the left upright padding and dribbled around in the in-goal. He held the attacker up long enough for his teammates to finish off and force a drop-out. His defensive effort to deny Souths another try was also impressive – as he and teammates took the attacker into touch. His eventual try, once again through the simple task of support-play, came because of a Buderus dummy-half raid. 9/10
Quinn – Caught a good bomb nearing full-time, and generally made the simple things look simple. He is an effort player who is rarely made to look hopeless. Another good effort from him despite being fairly quiet. 6.8/10
M.Gidley – He still seems a bit under-done. Some silly penalties creeping into his game and he doesn’t seem to involve himself as much as other leading centres. Personally I wasn’t really blown away by his performance tonight, which is a shame because he is a fairly skillful player. 6/10
Carmont – Practically scored two tries – he set up one after standing up two defenders. Then later on after Abraham busted through, he was there (with Ennis) to receive the offload before crashing over to score. He was keen all night, and came up with a pretty solid performance. Good work. 7.2/10
Hall – Not much to report, he worked hard and was rewarded with two tries – the first try more a test of his skill than the second. He made good metres from dummy half again, but wasn’t tested by Souths under the high ball. His main weakness is his height – thankfully this wasn’t pressured and he came away with a pretty solid game. 7/10
Witt – Fairly quiet, but still made a small mark. He made a line-break off a kick (not sure whether it was Kidley or Witt that kicked it) that nearly resulted in a try. He also worked fairly hard to link up the offloads with the backline. His kicking was reasonable, but I still don’t think we’ve seen the best of him yet. Still building towards something 6.5/10
K.Gidley – His kicks were straight to the catchers, a few went dead in-goal and his hands may have been secretly caked with a greasy substance. Not the best performance from Kurt Gidley tonight, especially given the opposition. He didn’t strike me as very keen to get involved, and it showed in his performance. Kurt is a good player, especially for a 21-year-old, but he may need to re-assess some of the things he is doing out there. Some scrappy passes entered his game (while he produced some excellent passes during the game also), and his kicking was again sub-standard. He looked to me like he was over-confident, especially when he nearly scored towards the end – he didn’t see the second defender and ended up losing the ball. Hopefully he won’t lose all his confidence, because essentially it is his kicking and intensity that is letting him down. 5.5/10.
Perry – If Robbie O’Davis hadn’t played so well, Perry would have had the MOTM hands down. Perry produced what I would call a “mistake free match”. Quite seriously folks, it was Josh Perry’s best game since the first bread was sliced. He made the metres, made some good strong tackles (even on backs that were running away from him), and stood up when he was required. My usual complaint is: “yes Perry made metres, but he gave away penalties and knocked-on” – not so today. I didn’t see a penalty against Perry, nor did he drop the ball, nor did he play the ball incorrectly. I hope someone gives Perry a pat on the back for an excellent game. If last week’s match played him out of a Country jersey, then tonight’s match has played him back into it. I never thought I would say this but: Perry was disciplined. Great performance. 9/10
Buderus – Started slowly, but exposed Souths for their patchy defence in the second stanza. Buderus is easily the game’s best rake, and he proved it tonight. He makes tired defenders look second-rate by ceasing on sloppy marker-work and linking up with support players. Another great performance, but for once overshadowed by others around him (namely O’Davis and Perry) – 8.4/10
Woolnough – Fairly quiet overall, but did fairly well at the territory-making work. He seemed to work hard, but was overshadowed by his fellow forwards. Not a bad performance 6.5/10
Newton – Very keen early. Spent the first 20 minutes taking the ball forward and even played 2nd-receiver for a brief moment. Later mistakes hurt his overall performance, but his work-rate was Peden-esque. 7/10
Lowrie – He probably spoiled what was otherwise a good performance by letting Souths in for their sole try because he wasn’t watching where he passed the football. Otherwise he was fairly solid, keen and performed credibly. His defence was quite good too. 7/10
Abraham – Another solid performance from the lock-forward. He confirmed his claims for a Country jersey with good support play and metre-gaining. He defended well, even making a break or two, one of which lead to a try. Top stuff 7.5/10
Parsons – Continued his good form from last week, attracting defenders and looking to run at the defence instead of slowing down. Worked hard in defence, and came away with another fine effort. 7/10
M.Kennedy – A great performance overshadowed by the bigger name players. He produced probably his best first grade game ever because he was keen to take the ball up. I don’t know how many hit-ups he made, but if we had 17 Matt Kennedys like that every week we’d be making metres. Top stuff. 8/10
Price – Quiet, but didn’t seem to be on the field for as long as his fellow benchies. Like Newton and Kennedy, he worked hard and produced a good performance. 6.5/10
Ennis – Tried hard, but didn’t get much work because of limited game-time. He isn’t doing much wrong, that’s for sure. Probably needs more game time to show his true form. But he tried hard, supported the line-breaks and didn’t make any mistakes. 6.5/10
Shayne Hayne – Spent much of the game maintaining an authoritarian tone. He strikes me as a referee who likes being in control. Unfortunately he seemed to allow his dictation to creep towards over-confidence. Some interesting calls included; the pulling of Kurt Gidley off the attacker and the no-shepard call that led to the Knights’ first try, Witt being called off-side when all he had done was take a run-up instead of being level with the ref, Matt Gidley being hindered in his attempt to get into dummy-half – a high tackle against Price made this decision hit Newcastle hard just when they looked like scoring etc. Not his best game, but he did make some good decisions (i.e. Matt Gidley’s hand between the attacker’s legs = penalty). 5/10
