Match Discussion: Round 2 vs Wests Tigers @ Leichhardt Oval

[Silent Knight]

After our last encounter with the Tigers...

 

[Tom155]

Gotta say we gave Fitzy crap for his efforts last year & the trials but he's been strong the past 2 weeks

 

[Yosh]

Gotta say we gave Fitzy crap for his efforts last year & the trials but he's been strong the past 2 weeks

Upped his work load and aggression. Can't ask for anymore from the lad.

 

[Bring it home Knights]

What a great win. 2 or 3 of the Tiger's trys could be considered as lucky trys. Throw in Ponga's poor goal kicking and the score could have been far more one-sided.

My thoughts on the players performances:

1. Kalyn Ponga - 7 Played a tough game. Safe as houses and climed in nicely.
2. Edrick Lee - 8 Consistently got quick play the balls and scored some nice tries.
3. Enari Tuala - 6 Solid game.
4. Gehamat Shibasaki 8 Great game. Ran hard and made good metres.
5. Hymel Hunt 8 See above ^
6. Kurt Mann 7 Good in attack and defence.
7. Mitchell Pearce - 7 Decent all-round game.
8. David Klemmer - 7 Did his job
9. Jayden Brailey - 7 Busy in attack and defence. Controlled the ruck well.
10. Daniel Saifiti - 8 Ran hard and made good metres
11. Lachlan Fitzgibbon - 7 Played with a lot more aggression than he did in 2019. Made good metres out of our end.
12. Mitchell Barnett - 6 Solid until he went off
13. Herman Ese'ese - 8 Great in attack and defence. Highly involved and made a number of valuable runs.
14. Connor Watson 6 - Played well. Would like to see him offload and pass the ball more.
15. Jacob Saifiti - 7 Ran hard and was good in attack and defence.
16. Tim Glasby - 6 Solid game. Highly involved. Didn't offer the same impact as other forwards
17. Aidan Guerra - 6 See above ^

 

[aqua_duck]

Looking at the stats, Jacob Saifiti had 122m from just 9 runs to back up the 117m he had last week, honestly he's never looked better to the point that when he's comes on for Daniel we don't lose anything

 

[Johns Magic]

I think Dan is going great but Jacob is going better. Post-contact metres incredible. Love seeing a big forward try and drive through the line.

 

[Yosh]

Don't want to disagree too much but Pearce and Brailey were brilliant. Mann was average at best I thought.

Also, Jacob and Watson brought so much off the bench.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

I thought Mann was good. Again

 

[Spot On]

When was the last time a Knights hooker got a kicking try assist? Seriously??

Umm, never.

Nice isn't it.

Takes the pressure off the 7 and keeps the defense guessing near the line. More attacking options for us as well.

Inexcusable that we have gone so long without it.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

I only saw the highlights, but that seemed like a perfect early season game...

They only really broke the line to score once. The rest were luck and that Josh Reynolds pass was just brilliant, no stopping that. A lot of dumb mistakes, but good that they are happening now, so we can fix them up

Our attack looked clinical and awesome. IIRC all of our tries came from good set plays and line breaks. The best easily our support play (Fitz breaking through and setting up Mann, etc). I dont remember seeing that kind of support from us in about a decade

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

I have to say, Guerra looked awful today. He is in slow motion compared to the rest of the team and his lateral movement is non-existent. He got exposed in defence a few times today and better sides will expose him even more. Literally anyone would be better than him at this stage, he's totally cooked. Carrying him and Glasby is crazy. Saulo in for Guerra regardless of the Barnett injury outcome imo.

 

[Yosh]

I have to say, Guerra looked awful today. He is in slow motion compared to the rest of the team and his lateral movement is non-existent. He got exposed in defence a few times today and better sides will expose him even more. Literally anyone would be better than him at this stage, he's totally cooked. Carrying him and Glasby is crazy. Saulo in for Guerra regardless of the Barnett injury outcome imo.

Saulo isn't a wide back rower though... I reckon Sione will eventually take Guerra's spot.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

It was a weird game. We were quite clearly the better side but the Tigers were still in it at half time mainly because they jagged a couple of tries against the run of play.

I thought we showed some good resilience to weather a couple of rough patches there where things were going the Tigers’ way. We definitely had opportunities to capitulate like we probably would have over the last few years but we held firm and finished the game off really strong, in fact we really dominated the final 20 mins which we do rarely did last year.

Overall I thought it was another good team effort where everyone did their job.

There’s been debate around how Mann went today but I thought he was pretty solid again. He definitely isn’t scared of running the ball into the teeth of the defence, he seems to bounce off defenders a lot and spin out of tackles which makes him a bit awkward to deal with and he kicked pretty well I thought. In fact I can’t remember us giving up a 7 tackle set all match right? If so that must be a first for us you’d think.

Ponga wasn’t spectacular but I’m glad that we’ve got a good team around him so that he doesn’t need to always come up with a magic play anymore which seemed all too common over the last couple of years, in fact the one long pass he threw lead to a try up the other end which was unfortunate but he was really safe at the back which was good.

A couple of things he needs to iron out in his game though. Firstly his goal kicking is pretty poor and he especially struggles to kick them on that left side of the field. Assuming Lino won’t be in the side for the time being maybe Barnett should be considered? He seems to strike them well. If we don’t address the goal kicking either with Ponga getting better or someone else doing it then it’s going to cost us a game or two down the track.

Secondly he needs to get that shoulder charge out of his game. It didn’t cost us in this game but he seems to just throw his body recklessly at people at times. Last year he was sin-binned for doing it in the ingoal which I thought was harsh at the time but he will get a reputation for it soon if he keeps it up and I don’t want him costing us a game or getting suspended for stuff like that which is unnecessary.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

Saulo isn't a wide back rower though... I reckon Sione will eventually take Guerra's spot.

Absolutely if he's available. Anyone but Guerra at this point for mine.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Any news on Barnett?
If he's out I reckon Sione will take his place provided he is fit.

 

[Haffa]

My coach doesn't lose football games.. I'm enjoying this season which will inevitably end early

 

[Yosh]

Did it look like Ponga changed the way he was kicking goals? Did we get a new coach who is working on a new technique with the lad?

 

[Knight Vision]

Did it look like Ponga changed the way he was kicking goals? Did we get a new coach who is working on a new technique with the lad?

Looks a very short run off, pretty sure it looks different. On the positive side he is running the ball more and more kick return mtrs .....much more.

 

[General Knight]

We seem to have real technique and intent now in our tackles. We get numbers in. You can see the wrestle and the intent to put the ball player on their back and theres just general agressiveness in each tackle.

Such a big improvement from the lazy tackles, arm grabs and solo tackles from the past.

 

[Yosh]

It's good to see an ex player come back and get smashed instead of having the game of a lifetime against us.