Match Discussion: Round 21 vs Dragons @ McDonald Jones Stadium

[League Unlimited News]

NRL 2017 - Round 21
Newcastle Knights v St George Illawarra Dragons
McDonald Jones Stadium, New Lambton (TICKETS)
Saturday 29 July 2017

Gates 10:30am / NYC 10:45am (Fox) / ISP 12:40pm (Fox) / NRL 3pm (Fox)

1. Nathan Ross 2. Ken Sio 3. Dane Gagai 4. Peter Mata'utia 5. Shaun Kenny-dowall 6. Brock Lamb 7. Trent Hodkinson 8. Daniel Saifiti 9. Jamie Buhrer 10. Josh King 11. Sione Mata'utia 12. Joe Wardle 13. Mitchell Barnett
Interchange: 14. Danny Levi 15. Luke Yates 16. Lachlan Fitzgibbon 17. Mickey Paea 18. Jack Cogger 19. Sam Stone 20. Brendan Elliott 21. Jacob Saifiti

1. Matthew Dufty 2. Nene Macdonald 3. Josh Dugan 4. Timoteo Lafai 5. Jason Nightingale 6. Gareth Widdop 7. Josh McCrone 8. Leeson Ah Mau 9. Cameron McInnes 10. Paul Vaughan 11. Tyson Frizell 12. Joel Thompson 13. Jack de Belin
Interchange: 14. Tariq Sims 15. Jacob Host 16. Russell Packer 17. Kurt Mann 18. Blake Lawrie 19. Taane Milne 20. Luciano Leilua 21. Jake Marketo

Referees: Gavin Badger, Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski
Sideline Officials: Ricky MacFarlane, Clayton Sharpe
Video Referees: Ashley Klein, Luke Patten

NYC - Sat 10:45am at McDonald Jones

ISP - Knights v Illawarra (Dragons) at McDonald Jones, Sat 12:40pm​

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

We got dis

 

[Zoidberg]

Def got dis. Gonna play the Dragons out of form

 

[Caped Crusader]

We are screwed.

Another close loss coming up. Probably on the back of a shit ref/vid ref decision or 2

 

[Scar Tissue]

Whatever happens I hope SKD is named in centres, wasted last week on the wing outside of clueless centre who only passes as a last resort in the worst possible position for outside man. SKD would be much superior in attack than either of the pair & straighten the attack rather than the headless chook impersonation we see, week in week out.Could not possibly be worse defender than either of the current 2 either. Also what the hell is it with so many of our players doing the Benji bunny hop when they get the ball?.Looks ridiculous & never works, takes away all momentum from your run, particularly when big forwards are doing it, must be really scratching for ideas to resort to this crap. Only ever worked for Benji once every blue moon in his heyday(which lasted about five minutes) & years before Slippery Morris used it sparingly(not every 2nd time he touched the ball) to great effect because he had blinding pace off the mark, not a trait we see much of now!

 

[Caped Crusader]

Pete had an off week last week but for most of the year he has been our most solid back in defence. Bit harsh on him there mate

I think we all agree Gagai belongs on the wing though

 

[slotmachine]

I dunno, Pete is a pretty ordinary defender. He's only missed about 10 less tackles that the human windmill on the other side this season.

 

[Still Nutty]

Funny....I just did a 'Bing' search for www.newcastleknights.com.au (I was interested in looking up Pete Mat's stats and this is the 'Wikipedia link' that shows up in the right hand frame.

MY LOLs came from the photos captioned as 'former player' and player' below and the stadium name is a little dated too (it is not how the wiki website displays when you select the link though)

 

[Still Nutty]

I dunno, Pete is a pretty ordinary defender. He's only missed about 10 less tackles that the human windmill on the other side this season.

I'm not saying stats lie Slots but I'd have to wonder how many tackles 'the human windmill' didn't get registered as missed because he didn't even make the effort to try...and that was particularly evident when he was completely out of position playing fullback....I reckon I'd see 3-5 of those per game from Gaigai regardless of which number he had on his back, whereas Pete is at least generally busting his gut trying to get there.

 

[Sydney Knight]

Hopefully Dugs takes Frizell and most of the dragons forward pack out for drinks on Friday night

 

[Spot On]

Oh don't worry, Pete can give Dane a run for his money in the MT stats.

I'll be sure to put the knife in Pete about it when he gets 8 or 9 origin games under the belt and a fat 700K plus contract. But until then, pffft.

No point playing well unless you have a QLD jersey on. Can't let Cam, the boys, the family, the home town or the state down.

 

[Old dog]

Rushing up to make a tackle is better than standing back and directing traffic with the wave of an arm, rather miss four trying than miss three waving goodbye

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

I hope Cogger gets another run this year

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

If hokko is staying I'd like to see hokko try and have a few good games to end the season so he can start next season with some confidence.

 

[Pedge1971]

I think at home we can trouble this Dragons team but their fwds worry me.

If we can hang tough we can def put points on them. I think the scoreline flattered them a little last week in that Manly were awful and down in key positions, and the Drags got some soft points from kicks.

Hoping the new signings and Browny can get them up for a good showing at home.

Can we do something different in the ht break ffs?

 

[slotmachine]

If hokko is staying I'd like to see hokko try and have a few good games to end the season so he can start next season with some confidence.

He was great against Dogs and Broncs. Best play from a half we've seen all year.

 

[Still Nutty]

He was great against Dogs and Broncs. Best play from a half we've seen all year.

I really hope Lamb can regain some confidence and also find some form and combination in this game with Hokko...the needs to get some confidence and some of that early season spark to his game this weekend

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

I really hope Lamb can regain some confidence and also find some form and combination in this game with Hokko...the needs to get some confidence and some of that early season spark to his game this weekend

Lamb just needs to concentrate on his strengths, he has a good passing game and can throw nice short balls, has good sleight of hand. He has a decent long kicking game if not under pressure but god damn he is a hopeless ball runner.

 

[Bartwah]

Dufty is going to have a field day

 

[Caped Crusader]

Dugan is back so i think Dufty will be dropped to the bench at least