Match Discussion: Round 24 vs Titans @ Hunter Stadium

[Glendale]

Gidley. Never dealt with Brown.

That's interesting then. Can you enlighten us on what he's doing behind the scenes?

 

[Knight76]

Some interesting stuff to come out of the presser.

Browny mentioned how Tyrone Roberts was the fifth highest paid Knight on the field today and then was asked whether there was a plan to stop paying players to play against us and he answered back: 'We've got a plan in place which I'm not going to tell you what it is' with a big old cheeky grin on his face.

Yeah, and he said better off telling you when "it" happens. Clearly there is something in the works. Must be something pretty good for the cheeky grin.

I wonder why Hodkinson wasn't at the presser? Maybe he is on the outer for the captaincy?

 

[macavity]

That's interesting then. Can you enlighten us on what he's doing behind the scenes?

Not my place to be talking about commercial-in-confidence stuff in an open forum.

What I will say is the off-field stuff should be looking much better this time next year.

We will probably still suck on the field though.

 

[Burwood]

Gidley will be gone once the club is sold at Christmas, so that alone should be a big positive for 2017.

 

[mozza91]

Saw Joey running past me out of the stadium at full time. Highlight of the day.

Anyway today I at least remembered Gagai still plays for us. We look like we could have 30 sets in the opposition's 20 and probably still not score unless they just got bored and let us over (aka our try last week) or the defence collectively fell over.

I saw Matty Johns on the way out. Assuming they went on a bender in Newy tonight.

 

[slotmachine]

disgraceful performance from senior players

roberts still hopeless but would have been better off paying him 400k than hodko 600k. what a joke.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

It's a shame because we were competitive for about 60 mins but that first 20 was rubbish. Problem is once we get down by a few tries everyone knows we just don't have it in us to score enough points to win.

Still a few positives to take out of today.

- Ross was awesome again, scored our only try and made really good ruck metres out of trouble, I don't think there could be any argument that he's been a shining light this year

- Elliot has improved a fair bit since we got him, seems safe under the high ball and came close to scoring a couple of times, also he's got a good offload in him, better than a lot of wingers I would say. Needs to improve his yardage game though to lock away a first grade spot imo. That being said its looking likely he'll be a starting winger again next year because Chanel has fallen off the face of the earth and Brown seems to want Denniss to develop a bit more in the lower grades.

- Our young forwards are pretty decent, the Saifiti's both put in good performances and Jacob had his best game to date. It's a shame that the starters allowed themselves to be dominated and we fell so far behind on the scoreboard.

- Our right side attack made some good little breaks during the game, when Dane gets early ball he's really dangerous and he's pretty good at putting his winger away down the sideline.

- Our offloading game is pretty good to watch, under Bennett it just didn't exist but at least brownie has loosened the reigns on the team this year.

Unfortunately the negatives are:

- Our attack in the 20 metre zone is disgusting, we look absolutely hopeless and then when we get to the 5th tackle we inevitably go for an all or nothing play when we should be just rolling the ball into the in goal to get a repeat set.

- Hodko is deplorable at the moment, I've been a bit of an apologist this year with all that's happened but imo he's gotta be on very thin ice with the coach by now. He just doesn't seem to grasp the basics of what his job is, and he's completely stopped taking the line on as well which makes him virtually a non-threat in attack. We should have just stock piled a few younger/cheaper halves and hoped that a couple of them came good rather than putting all our eggs in one $600K per year basket which has turned out to be an utter failure.

- Why can't we just play well for the full 80 mins???? Please!!! That's all I'm asking for! If we're not good enough over the 80 mins I can cop it if we lose. We always seem to have some 20-30 min period every week where we just clock off and the opposition racks up a score on us. The rest of the game then gets spoiled by it. If I could watch the last 60 mins in isolation it was a pretty good effort but by then I knew we weren't going to win so it all felt like a consolation performance by then really.

 

[Sydney Knight]

It would be interesting to see the stats on metres after contact for Ross. Everytime he gets to the defence he seems to have this great combo of footwork and acceleration to poke his nose through and either make a break or at least a few extra metres.

This seems to be Gagai's worst area if there's no gap he usually ends up driven backwards.

 

[Glendale]

Well the stats from yesterday tell the story:

Mitch Barnett- 80 minutes, 18 runs, 124 metres, 54 tackles, 5 offloads, 6 tackle breaks
Jacob Saifiti- 59 minutes, 18 runs, 134 metres, 41 tackles, 2 offloads, 2 tackle breaks
Daniel Saifiti- 56 minutes, 11 runs, 94 metres, 39 tackles, 1 offload, 3 tackles breaks

Korbin Sims- 59 minutes, 6 runs, 45 metres, 17 tackles, 1 offload, 0 tackle breaks

And we wonder why we suck when our experienced players are putting in efforts like that... Absolutely disgusting. As of right now, Korbin is our most experienced forward signed for 2017. God help us all.

 

[slotmachine]

If we are still a disgrace in 2017 I'll personally drive the Saifitis to Sydney on November 1st to sign with a good club.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Sims is just lookin for brown to shop him around.

 

[Glendale]

And he'll suddenly find a heart at a new club just like his brother.

 

[Knight76]

How about this one.

Trent Hodkinson: 80 minutes, 2 runs, 12m, from 58 receives, 22 tackles
Tyrone Roberts: 80 minutes, 8 runs, 80m, from 62 receives. 20 tackles

Good ole catch and pass Hodkinson. Talk about no heart.

 

[perverse]

Hodko was absolutely shocking, I would have come close to hooking him yesterday. Such sustained apathy.

Was very glad to see Gags at the press conference.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...tried-to-shake-things-up-20160820-gqx7od.html
Sims brothers may reunite

Should Newcastle attempt to shed players to ease salary cap pressure expect Cronulla to have a crack at Korbin Sims. Sims is on a lucrative deal, although the Knights have indicated they have no intention of letting him go at this stage.

Newcastle have already released Sims' brother, Tariq, mid-season to St George Illawarra and it wouldn't surprise if the Dragons attempt to reunite them at some stage.

The Knights are hoping to gain approval for an Anthony Watmough-style career-ending insurance payout for injured forward Kade Snowden.

obviously doesnt seem like there is any substance to this but not suprising.

 

[perverse]

Geez, the NRL could do us a real solid by just greenlighting Snowdens retirement. Would love to know what the hold up is there.

 

[Apey]

I thought Korbin must have been injured. There was a set in attack in the 2nd half where he was out on the wing, lol. Having a bludge?

 

[slotmachine]

Geez, the NRL could do us a real solid by just greenlighting Snowdens retirement. Would love to know what the hold up is there.

We weren't systematically rorting the cap for years so don't deserve any assistance.

 

[Knight76]

Geez, the NRL could do us a real solid by just greenlighting Snowdens retirement. Would love to know what the hold up is there.

I doubt the NRL has a lot of say in it directly, it would be up to insurance companies to determine I would think.

Just watching the replay now, and I know we all said the Knights had a shit opening 20. But really their first 10 was pretty solid. We worked ourselves in to a good attacking position through a penalty and at the end of that set put in a grubber that was blocked which earned us the repeat set. Unfortunately we took the all or nothing option of spreading it to the wing on tackle 1 of the new set and got bundled out.

The Titans then worked their way downfield and got a kick away leading to another of those 50/50 calls not going our way when Pearsall appears tackled but is heaved in to touch from about a meter in. There was a held call from the ref simultaneously with the titans starting to throw him out. The thing is, Pearsall momentum had stopped. Should have been a penalty.

Even with that bad call, we held them out for a set of 6, and after a repeat set the Titans score. King and Sims both went low on a player close to the line was never going to work.

The next set for the Titans ended with a penalty, which we defended and recovered the ball, some good sliding scrambling defense to rush out and cover the wing after an offload. In a lot of games earlier, that would have been a try.

Another set, for the Titans ends in a penalty with a dangerous position tackle from Ross. Barnett got good contact but Hodkinson got nothing more than a slap on his jumper on the way through.

The set from the restart mcqueen runs straight at Hodkinson, Hodkinson makes good contact directly front on and manages to fall off creating a break. Titans get penalty for an offside in this set leading to another try.

That was the 19th minute. The poor period for us started in the 10th minute. So really only a poor 10 minutes that overall were not that poor, a few penalties and a bad call cost us. The poor play came from the defense close to our line.

From here the side didn't cave and competed for the remainder of the match.

 

[Sydney Knight]

Ross just got a week unless he fights it. Will be ever get close to full strength? As soon as someone is due back another gets injured or suspended.