Knights want fans to help end slump

[Frederick]

Knights want fans to help end slump
Todd Balym
August 10, 2009 - 8:44PM

The desperation is obvious at Newcastle.

After three successive losses to plummet out of the NRL's top eight, the Knights are refusing to acknowledge the fallout from coach Brian Smith's imminent walk out to the Sydney Roosters as the reason for their freefall.

Instead, they've called upon the club's fanatical fan base to lift them out of their funk.

Newcastle host Melbourne at EnergyAustralia Stadium on Monday night, the first of three home games over the final four weeks of the season.

"We need a kick start and I am sure it will come from our fans," said Knights CEO Steve Burraston, adding the club would discount tickets to the final three games of 2009.

"Everyone's asking me how we are going to turn things around. Well I'm prepared to go on the record and declare that the people of Newcastle will turn things around.

"The Novocastrian spirit has pulled the town through an earthquake, floods, unemployment and the like. And they were there to pull their team through a 13-game losing streak.

"It's not the town's spirit to kick you when you are down, I know they will rally behind the team and get us over the line.

"We're on the brink of making the eight, we have a clear home ground advantage and I have confidence that the Novocastrian spirit will rise to the surface again.

"We are one win away from getting our confidence back and again becoming the real premiership threat we are.

"With three of last four games at home, I firmly believe the Newcastle crowd will lift the roof and get us into the finals.

"At our best we can beat anyone, we just need that spark to get back on track and I'm sure it will come from fans.

"The boys love winning for our supporters and I know our home town support will be the tonic we need right now."

Burraston has guaranteed that Smith would see out the year, despite increasing pressure for the coach to quit or the club to sack him and install assistant coach Rick Stone for the rest of 2009.

Burraston said vocal home crowd support was part of the reason the Knights were emphatically belted 40-8 by the Eels at Parramatta Stadium on Sunday.

"The Eels supporters were so vocal it was intimidating. It started in the warm up," he said.

"They played a huge role in influencing decisions and lifting their team. When they worked together you could see Parramatta step up to another level.

"I'm that certain that a packed house for the final three games will be the difference (for us).

"It will have the same effect on the Knights as it has had on Parra's form reversal over recent weeks."

LINK

 

[Apey]

There were fans at Gosford, Parramatta and EAS..

I don't really like this article. I'm finding it hard to explain why - I guess it's because it's hard to be supportive and care when they don't look like they share the same passion at the time being.

I've been to the last three games and although I don't feel like going next Monday, I probably will end up going. It's not the losses that will turn the fans away - it's how they are losing.

 

[Nuffy]

Burro has jumped the shark.

He's asking supporters (presumably the same poor souls who sat through the Roosters debacle) to do the heavy lifting for the team.

Is this the same bloke who said the players had a dig on Sunday at Parra? Even the most casual observer of league would have seen a team who didn't give a rats about "turning it around".

Burro, turn your attention to the only blokes who can turn it around, the players.

Heres a sobering thought, Sundays high farce cost the club approximately $160k in player wages alone..................surely thats worth an effort from the team.

 

[PrideKnight]

I find the article and quotes within insulting to say the least, like there haven't been fans there in numbers every frakkin week

 

[Hanscholo]

Burro...go f**k yourself mate.

 

[Nuffy]

Apey

You hit the nail on the head, its the lack of passion and commitment, not the losses.

One of my all time favourite games was the 1998 final against the Bulldogs. Half the team needed needles to play, blokes got injured in the game and we didn't get a penalty for 80 minutes (in a 100 minute extra time game)

They hung in and eventually got overrun, but they gave everything they had.

Pity this team doesn't.

 

[roopy]

No point in shooting the messenger.
Burro has been pushing sh*t uphill with a stick for a few years now, and he seems to be getting it there.

 

[Jono078]

They need the fans for a money boost to ease the pain.

If fans mattered we wouldve beat roosters comfortably.

 

[Misanthrope]

I find it insulting that they manage to imply that the fans aren't there already and that the team has done anything to deserve the support of the fans.

 

[hgfds]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...through-the-gate/story-e6frexnr-1225759987236
Sydney centric nrl the local derby draw of the last 2 years means that sydney teams play each other 2x whilst knights play tits,cows,warriors,storm,raiders x2 which means more travel and lower drawing home matches ,also ch9 likes sydney games so knights get monday night games and the short backup .With the reduced travel due to the derby draw mon nights should be played in sydney

 

[Karmawave]

How offending can the Knights get. What a bunch of bullsh*t. " The Knights fans can turn us around ". Right.

They've taken their fans for granted for the last 5 years, treated most of us with contempt, and then try and patronise us with this crap.

As Hanscholo said, go f*ck yourself Burro.

 

[antonius]

How offending can the Knights get. What a bunch of bullsh*t. " The Knights fans can turn us around ". Right.

They've taken their fans for granted for the last 5 years, treated most of us with contempt, and then try and patronise us with this crap.

As Hanscholo said, go f*ck yourself Burro.

Completely agree, Knights have the most loyal fan base in the comp, and have for years, trouble is Steve they're taken for granted. It aint the fans that are your problem Burro, it's that bunch of nuffies that need to turn up and make some noise!

 

[Newie is God's Country]

Burraston, time to go mate. No backbone in the Smith drama so you clearly don't want to help the club. We need Shane Richardson but he is on a packet at Souths.

 

[macavity]

"It will have the same effect on the Knights as it has had on Parra's form reversal over recent weeks."

Burro, mate, you have your chicken mixed up with your egg.

Parra's fans became so vocal because of the revival - the revival didn't happen because of their (until recently, absent) fans.

It is hard to be vocal when your team is displaying no effort or interest and getting smacked.

From someone on the coalface, trying to get people making noise - trust me - it is impossible to get anyone to cheer a pathetic effort.

 

[Jobdog]

Honestly, what do they take us for? So if we somehow pack the joint on Monday night (won't happen btw) all of a sudden we have an impact on the attitude of the players and all of a sudden they care again?

 

[Serc]

Not surprised to see the reaction in here...I know what Burro is trying to say/do, but the impression he is giving is poor.

I know its hard right now (and I was depressed as I have been for a long time on Sunday night) but we've gotta stick by them, we managed to do it in 05 and 07!

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Burro as usual comes across as an arrogant dickhead who is out of touch with the fans. No thankyou for people like myself who made the effort to travel to Parra for the hiding we copped........ His a joke.

 

[cram]

I think the fans are sticking by them, but to suggest that the Parra fans were some how responsible for their teams great peformance and our teams poor performance is way out of line.

 

[Hanscholo]

No point in shooting the messenger.
Burro has been pushing sh*t uphill with a stick for a few years now, and he seems to be getting it there.

I agree he has been doing a good job. But he has with one bad decision made a mockery of all of that work. You cant tell me giving the coach permission to talk to other clubs 3/4 of the way through the season is a decision made by a bloke that has a clue. At best, you tell smith he has one week after the knights finish up for 2009, in the mean time you start lining up replacements. At worst, you tell him to go read his contract. Then he has the hide to call on the supporters, who are extremely loyal to do something to pull the side out of the sh*t, when the side havent been putting in? Clearly the side havent been playing for the supporters. Its not a matter of turning on them, I would never do that, but i am not about to do a 4 hour round trip to watch a bunch of guys waiting for the season to end try to trick there way around sides playing semi final football. To watch a side totally disinterested in trying to dominate a game. No thanks, ill spend the time and the money with my family where their loyalty deserves it far more.

Burro mate, how about addressing the side before they run out next game and remind them that pensioners on a 100 bucks a week are sitting out there in the freezing cold to watch you play for the pride of the city and the jersey. The people at the ground, most of whom have it a hell of a lot worse than they do deserve better. The club is about the supporters, it seems smith did nothing to instill that.

 

[cram]

Burraston wriggles out of trouble after press release opens a can of worms

YOU know you are struggling when even a simple press release, urging fans to support your under-fire team, lands you in hot water.
After three straight losses and with pressure mounting on Sydney Roosters-bound coach Brian Smith, the Newcastle Knights were censured last night after a press release yesterday - spruiking the fact that ticket prices had been slashed for the club's three remaining home fixtures - appeared to imply referees in Sunday's defeat to the Eels at Parramatta Stadium were influenced by the home crowd.
"The Eels supporters were so vocal it was intimidating,'' Knights chief executive Steve Burraston waxed. "They played a huge role in influencing decisions and lifting their team.''
An hour after the offending quote was released via the AAP wire news service, a correction was issued in which the quote then read that Eels fans had ''played a huge role in winning decisions and lifting their team''.
The initial release prompted NRL officials to seek a clarification from the Knights, with a breach notice a distinct possibility, while the clarification still had them scratching their heads. But Burraston told the Herald last night he had not been directing his comment towards the on-field officials, rather simply lauding the crowd.
''What I meant by it was they would not let us get away with anything. If we were offside, they would let the referees know. If we had a small knock-on, they made sure the refs knew about it,'' Burraston said.
''I'm not saying the referees are crook, I'm just saying how good the crowd was. It astounded me how good they were … I'm saying the crowd was so influential in the whole game - I'm not saying they were influencing the ref, I'm saying every time they got inside the 30, the crowd lifted their blokes up. That's how our crowds used to be.''
The NRL spokesman later said he was ''satisfied'' with Burraston's explanation, saving the Knights from a fine; a reprieve for a club under siege.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/lhqnews/burraston-wriggles-out-of-trouble/2009/08/10/1249756257394.html