Because in theory we should be able to lose by 10 or 20 instead of 50 or 60 if we play the best team we can, and it's important for us as far as the 8 goes - and our general mentality needs to be scrapping for every point and win that we can right now.
At least, that's the theory. We have too many passengers and pretenders in the team still.
Right, we shouldn't get destroyed like this with the line-up we have tonight but most long-suffering Knights fans knew it was coming once Pearce and D.Saf were out. That may be a pessimistic view but this side has done nothing to make me believe otherwise. Of tonight's side, around half of the players aren't good enough to compete with the best. The roster is indeed in worse shape than most realise.
I just think that it's worse for the players and the fans to get pumped by 60 when they look around and see Ponga, Klemmer, Frizell, Clifford, Brailey etc than it is without them. It seems like an odd, even negative ploy but given that Melbourne are that good and any side would get belted without 2 or 3 of their best players, I think you have to limit the damage to the confidence of the team and the fans.