I'm still not convinced about Newcastle.
I feel the tinkler Bennett thing could blow up
Realisitically, this season, we should've finished around 4th/5th had we been able to capitalise and close out those close games that we lost this year. The last two seasons under Stone have been a big case of "what if?". We have, to an extent, relapsed into the mentality we had during the Hagan years: blowing big leads (e.g. vs Bulldogs), playing brilliantly in the 1st half and then struggling to hold on in the 2nd, making stupid errors from playing fancy, razzle-dazzle football when percentage play/doing the fundamentals is what is required etc. Also, our defence has been haphazard during the Stone years, letting in some very soft tries. Under Smith, sure enough, we weren't going to win the premiership (although we will never know about 2009, as we were set for a top 4 finish before Smith announced his departure to the Roosters and the players' attitude really went to crap after that. I believe we were 2nd on the ladder halfway through that season). However, we were able to close out the close games, find a way to win after trailing for most of a match etc.
I am not expecting instant overnight success and hope that Sir Wayne is going to be the saviour of the Knights and will win us the premiership in his first year at the Knights (unlike some delusional 50uff$ fans who think they're going to win the comp every year, even after breaking a 7 game losing streak, acting like they have won the comp). However, I think over time, what Bennett will be able to instill in the players is some of the football we were playing during the Smith years. The QF vs Melbourne highlights everything I just said: we are more than capable of matching it with the big guns (even though we don't have any star players of the calibre of Johns/Fittler/Daley etc.), but stupid errors at critical moments in the game, cheaply turning over possession and having to do more defense as a result, low completion rates, impatience (i.e. Gidley grubbering early in the tackle count of the Storm's 20m line when not needed) pretty much sealed our fate. We became our own worst enemy. Even though the scoreline was a respectible 18-8 in the end, I knew we were going to lose once the Storm scored that first try after we butchered two chances in the first 13 minutes thanks to Neville Costigan. We more than matched them in the first 13 minutes, and had 2 golden opportunities before Costigan bombed the 2nd time and the Storm scored against the run of play, and it all went downhill from there.
Finally, I will say that I do expect Darius Boyd to have a big impact at the Knights. I was very impressed with his performance in the Broncos SF, played outstanding in a losing side. He is undoubtedly our best signing since Ben Kennedy back in 2000 (the Knights recruitment team is another group of ppl I have been very critical about, but that's a rant for another thread). With the exception of Uate, we have had a lack of speed and pace in the backline since the late 90s/early 2000s when O'Davis, Albert, MacDougall, Matt Gidley and Tahu were fit. I don't expect Tahu to have much of an impact and don't expect him to play much next year, given how injury-prone he was. I still cannot believe we signed him (not to mention the falling out between him and some of the other players like Gidley during Origin last year)
That's the end of my long rant. Time to go to bed. However, that was an honest assessment of what I think of my team's chances over the next few years.
