Match Discussion: Round 4 vs Dragons @ McDonald Jones Stadium

[Burns]

Fun stat I'm seeing do the rounds - we were 3 from 5 last year.

Have we gone backwards, with a better team?

 

[Knight Vision]

I thought King played possibly his best game for the Knights

he played really well.

When we got a roll on at times, we didn't utilise the outside backs

I feel for Ramien, must be very frustrating for him. He was being talked about SOO before he came to the Knights....we have a Ferrari parked in the garage every game.

 

[Matt23]

Pearce thought he was back playing for NSW for those last few minutes

 

[K-Man]

I feel like just giving on caring at this point. We are so idiotic in the little things that win you football games. Having new better players doesn't ever seem to fix the lack of mental capacity that permeates the Knights.

Why did Ponga kick it on the 2nd tackle? Why did Lee kick it again instead of stepping inside when a field goal was all we needed? Why does golden point still even exist when no referee is willing to blow a penalty and the entire concept can and has been exploited for years?

There's no way we should be in a 1-3 kind of position, but we are. It's already going to be a struggle to get into finals contention. Yet we're clearly a superior football team to last season. But we are also just as dumb and error prone when it counts.

Were the Dragons better than us? No way. Did they do a few things a little bit smarter than us to win the game? Absolutely.

Honestly, after watching that and based on our start to the season, I think we finish 10th. Brown will be lucky to see the season out.

 

[Knight Vision]

I wasnt happy with how we started the game, started it the same as the last 2, no fire in the belly, no intent.. We were bullied again. Our boys need a Michael Maguire type spray IMO. No excuses they just arent having a crack as far as I can see. .

 

[Knight Vision]

https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/04/07/sims-injured-in-big-collision/

There should have been a LOT more of this stuff.

 

[aqua_duck]

Fun stat I'm seeing do the rounds - we were 3 from 5 last year.

Have we gone backwards, with a better team?

Absolutely, last year was abit of a honeymoon period, not much expectation, Ponga was abit of an unknown quantity and Pearce was motivated and hungry, this year there's expectations and I think they believed their own hype abit, Ponga is also getting targeted more and the concerning thing is hes the only one who looks like doing anything. Attack is so one dimensional.

 

[Volcom6685]

Geez you are all so negative . Would you rather us get flogged by 40 than lose in a goal kick shoot out. Yeah our attack is quite there yet . But our defence is light years better than it has been in a long time . We’ve lost 3 games by a combined total of 10 . Even 3 tries we’ve conceded have had a lot of luck involved. Pen try against sharks . Bat back from panthers and one on one strip on Pearce . I’d rather us be in every game we play than sitting here after a flogging . The way you carry on you would think it’s easy to win in the nrl . Think I need a brake from the forums . Makes a loss worse hearing morons whinge and bitch

 

[Frederick]

Fun stat I'm seeing do the rounds - we were 3 from 5 last year.

Have we gone backwards, with a better team?

Yes and no. Defense is a million miles better this year, especially on-line defender. However our attack has gone backwards. No-one is standing deep enough, no-one is running onto the ball with a head of steam. Game plan seems to be give it to Klemmer and let hih make the metres, which he does, and lots of them, but we rarely get a speedy play the ball off it.

What we really missed tonight is Watson imo. The energy he brings is undeniable. Sure he didn't look great at fullback, but that was mostly with his positioning for kicks. Put him back at 5/8 and more often that not he's able to use his speed to get on the outside of the man marking him. Lino may be a good playmaker, and did look good at the warriors, but that was playing behind a monster forward pack that was able to get over the advantage line and get quick play the balls, which we just don't have. Watson at least has the ability to create something out of nothing.

Another big piece missing is Griffin. He didn't have the speediest service, but his balls were spot on when he did pass. Having him starting allowed Levi to play off the bench and use his energy to gain extra metres around the rick. Maybe Levi and Mann switch to replicate that as best we can? Mann is no griffin, but tell him to get out there, make as many tackles and just put the balls on the chest, then bring Levi on to take advantage of a tiring defence?

 

[aqua_duck]

Geez you are all so negative . Would you rather us get flogged by 40 than lose in a goal kick shoot out. Yeah our attack is quite there yet . But our defence is light years better than it has been in a long time . We’ve lost 3 games by a combined total of 10 . Even 3 tries we’ve conceded have had a lot of luck involved. Pen try against sharks . Bat back from panthers and one on one strip on Pearce . I’d rather us be in every game we play than sitting here after a flogging . The way you carry on you would think it’s easy to win in the nrl . Think I need a brake from the forums . Makes a loss worse hearing morons whinge and bitch

Bye felicia

 

[K-Man]

I really have wanted to support Brown this whole time. He's done some amazing things. There is no part of me at all that wishes anything but success for him and his project.

However, I'm increasingly fed up with how he actually prepares this team. We are diabolical in some aspects of the game, and that's not on the coach then what is? We have better calibre players now but we are so stupid, so clueless at game management, so utterly devoid of those little one percenters that get you a close win. If a team is consistently poor at the fundamentals, decision making, strategy, organisation etc, at what point do you accept the coach wears the blame?

I had really high hopes for this season. 3 tight losses on the trot and honestly I feel like our season is done already. What a disappointment. Did we believe our own hype? Turns out Gallen was right to suggest Brown should be focusing on his job not having a go at Gallen. Get points on the board. Win games of football. Just survive the early part of the season and give yourself a chance. But nope, we've imploded already. And when we go 1-4, it's as good as over.

 

[Burns]

Look, yeah.

Our loses have been close, we are only -4 F/A. For a Newcastle Knights team. That is unheard of.

But it’s the manner the losses have happened. This year feels a lot like when we had Wayne the first year as coach. All the hype, all the expectations “Newy is back!”

Bar Ponga moments of brilliance and Ramien’s tru last week - I’m not seeing the signs there in attack that we can threaten teams like the Melbourne or Easts.

 

[Silent Knight]

We’ll start seeing 40 point losses when we serve that dross up to the Roosters and Storm.

 

[aqua_duck]

Look, yeah.

Our loses have been close, we are only -4 F/A. For a Newcastle Knights team. That is unheard of.

But it’s the manner the losses have happened. This year feels a lot like when we had Wayne the first year as coach. All the hype, all the expectations “Newy is back!”

Bar Ponga moments of brilliance and Ramien’s tru last week - I’m not seeing the signs there in attack that we can threaten teams like the Melbourne or Easts.

Good teams can score points across the park, our attack is like under 10's, pass to Ponga and see what he can do.

 

[K-Man]

Look, yeah.

Our loses have been close, we are only -4 F/A. For a Newcastle Knights team. That is unheard of.

But it’s the manner the losses have happened. This year feels a lot like when we had Wayne the first year as coach. All the hype, all the expectations “Newy is back!”

Bar Ponga moments of brilliance and Ramien’s tru last week - I’m not seeing the signs there in attack that we can threaten teams like the Melbourne or Easts.

And unfortunately, it does look like a poorly coached team. We look like we have one way to score - get all nicely set up and structured to get the ball to Ponga and hope. We don't seem capable of just scoring because the momentum becomes too much for the opposition defence to handle. We're not really dominating the ruck or hitting the ball at speed and basically 'winning' the little battles that lead to points in attacking situations. We're pedestrian. Pearce has been awful, absolutely awful.

 

[K-Man]

Good teams can score points across the park, our attack is like under 10's, pass to Ponga and see what he can do.

Exactly. Good teams score not necessarily an awesome try, but a try built on previous good play. We're the opposite.

 

[Burns]

Wonder what the Wests board are thinking about owning us?

 

[aqua_duck]

And unfortunately, it does look like a poorly coached team. We look like we have one way to score - get all nicely set up and structured to get the ball to Ponga and hope. We don't seem capable of just scoring because the momentum becomes too much for the opposition defence to handle. We're not really dominating the ruck or hitting the ball at speed and basically 'winning' the little battles that lead to points in attacking situations. We're pedestrian. Pearce has been awful, absolutely awful.

All this talk about Pearce and origin, well Pearce is playing like the origin version at the moment

 

[K-Man]

All this talk about Pearce and origin, well Pearce is playing like the origin version at the moment

I think he's been the single biggest factor in our poor start to the season. It's not just the big plays, it's all the little plays over 80 minutes and he's just not helping us at all.

 

[aqua_duck]

I think he's been the single biggest factor in our poor start to the season. It's not just the big plays, it's all the little plays over 80 minutes and he's just not helping us at all.

Yep I said that with all this attention around Ponga's switch to 5/8th, Pearce's form has been ignored abit