Match Discussion: Finals Week 1 vs North Qld @ Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville / Wulgurukaba

[Mr_Knightside]

TBF to AOB he has managed to get us playing a really tough brand of football at the right time of the year. We may not love how it looks a lot of the time but the game plan was perfect for the game we were in and we forced the Cowboys to play our game. A few errors are what cost us really.

Realistically, we need to be winning more regular season games and challenging for top 4 so that we can get home finals and hopefully a second bite of the cherry. Not just scraping into the top 8 and playing tough away games. For that to happen our team needs to be more dynamic, and fixing up our problems at half and hooker will go a long way towards that. The forwards do a pretty good job most of the time and we’ve got some pretty elite players in our back 5 so I’m not feeling like a massive overhaul is necessary but it really comes down to guys in key positions. Honestly, we don’t need elite guys in those positions necessarily, we need a hooker who can threaten and manipulate the ruck a bit more and a half with a decent kicking game.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

And from here on, ladies and gents, I could not give two s#!+s who wins any further game in 2024. I don't care. Season over.

When's the cricket start?

I hope it's another Panthers Premiership. A fitting reward for a club that invests in, and develops its juniors ......anyone so long as it isnt the Roosters

 

[Haffa]

I hope it's another Panthers Premiership. A fitting reward for a club that invests in, and develops its juniors ......anyone so long as it isnt the Roosters

Or the cowbs. f**k those grubs.

 

[Alex28]

As much as I would hate it if KP moved to another club, if he feels he need to do that to win a premiership, I don’t blame him.

In a way he has done it to himself as well though. Insisting his extremely large salary is all in the cap puts the club to a disadvantage, means we have less calibre around him and means he has to do more of the work.

Rework the contract, take some third party money and get some better players around him.

 

[Woody90]

In a way he has done it to himself as well though. Insisting his extremely large salary is all in the cap puts the club to a disadvantage, means we have less calibre around him and means he has to do more of the work.

Rework the contract, take some third party money and get some better players around him.

I actually see this similar to you do. KP and his Dad negotiated that salary, and insisted it all be under the cap knowing full well it would impact on the squad we could put around KP. To me he definitely deserves his salary how he’s playing at the moment, and I’m so happy he’s a Knight, but when he wanted that contact he and his Dad took higher pay for Kalyn over what could be built around him. Unfortunately we made some really bad recruitment and retention decisions on other players that have exacerbated that. Hopefully POS can get us out of it - judging by DSaf’s IG story looks like we’ve been able to move him on at least!

 

[Apey]

TBF to AOB he has managed to get us playing a really tough brand of football at the right time of the year. We may not love how it looks a lot of the time but the game plan was perfect for the game we were in and we forced the Cowboys to play our game. A few errors are what cost us really.

Realistically, we need to be winning more regular season games and challenging for top 4 so that we can get home finals and hopefully a second bite of the cherry. Not just scraping into the top 8 and playing tough away games. For that to happen our team needs to be more dynamic, and fixing up our problems at half and hooker will go a long way towards that. The forwards do a pretty good job most of the time and we’ve got some pretty elite players in our back 5 so I’m not feeling like a massive overhaul is necessary but it really comes down to guys in key positions. Honestly, we don’t need elite guys in those positions necessarily, we need a hooker who can threaten and manipulate the ruck a bit more and a half with a decent kicking game.

We lost the forward battle last night though. Couldn't get into their 20 at all in the second half.

Anyone know what the tackled in opposition 20 stat ended up being?

 

[Old dog]

Am feeling down, was strong effort but marred by a couple of silly mistakes, season over, let the rebuild begin

 

[Zoidberg]

Am feeling down, was strong effort but marred by a couple of silly mistakes, season over, let the rebuild begin

Yeah same. Best way to describe it is, I feel defeated.
We didn’t lose due to attitude or effort. We showed up and played close to our best footy. A few errors cost us big.
I’ve always known we don’t have the team to compete for a premiership, but you always have a glimmer of hope. Today I feel it’s 100% true, changes needed.

 

[ryan.a87]

I would rather loose by 30 than get my hopes up by being in front at half time and loose in the last 10mins

it’s so deflating….

 

[Zoidberg]

We lost the forward battle last night though. Couldn't get into their 20 at all in the second half.

Anyone know what the tackled in opposition 20 stat ended up being?

Fox post game talk someone said 3 tackles. If that’s accurate it certainly feels like it.
Our kicking game was ok but theirs was really good. We were constantly coming out of our end.

 

[slotmachine]

About the result I expected given our record in Townsville, no Best and the worst halves pairing in the comp.

 

[Apey]

I would rather loose by 30 than get my hopes up by being in front at half time and loose in the last 10mins

it’s so deflating….

Heh, it hurts now, but I'd much rather see us give it a red hot go than get Warrior in NZ'd again.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Yeah despite the disappointment of last night I’m feeling pretty up-beat given we were potentially a couple of plays from winning that game.

If Cogger doesn’t give them a 7 tackle set (which lead to a try after Feldt beat about 3 tacklers on the next play) and Gags holds that pass then it’s likely we’re up against the Sharks next weekend with a red hot crack at a prelim.

It was a great game of football and definitely the most competitive game of the finals series so far.

We definitely need to improve in some areas for next year but there have been some encouraging signs lately.

 

[Woody90]

Heh, it hurts now, but I'd much rather see us give it a red hot go than get Warrior in NZ'd again.

Especially when there were a few teams fighting for that 8th spot. Last thing you want is to get flogged and then everyone saying “team X, Y, Z” would have done much better etc.

They seemed to understand finals footy a lot more yesterday which is good. Just talent and luck let us down.

 

[Yosh]

We need someone with a big boot in the halves. Look at some of Clifford's kicks tonight. Huge bombs 40m out from his own line that gave his players time to tackle our player on our 10m line. Been missing a big kicker like that all season.

 

[Nuke]

Was DSaf's last touch in the game that slight knockon in the Cotter try?

Pretty apt way for him to leave the club, if indeed that ends up happening.

 

[Apey]

Was DSaf's last touch in the game that slight knockon in the Cotter try?

Pretty apt way for him to leave the club, if indeed that ends up happening.

And missing the tackle for the last try along with Cogger I think, but the game was lost already.

 

[Apey]

Especially when there were a few teams fighting for that 8th spot. Last thing you want is to get flogged and then everyone saying “team X, Y, Z” would have done much better etc.

They seemed to understand finals footy a lot more yesterday which is good. Just talent and luck let us down.

Yeah we showed we earned our spot. Not much in it in the end.

 

[Burwood]

Was DSaf's last touch in the game that slight knockon in the Cotter try?

Pretty apt way for him to leave the club, if indeed that ends up happening.

Last touch was probably him looking to offload but not a single player was there in support. Would have scored and locked up the scores if anybody else was doing their job.