Match Discussion: Round 4 vs St Geo Illa @ McDonald Jones Stadium

[Tom155]

Toa is limping too I think

 

[K-Man]

Hahahahahahahaha you are joking. The Dragons absolutely threw two forward passes in the lead up to tries. Just go away refs.

 

[Jono078]

Makes these days so much harder to cop when the refs pile onto the bullshit.

 

[K-Man]

There will be a thousand passes like this all season at least. It's not even close to forward.

 

[Tom155]

how do you f**k that up touchie?

not close to forward

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

The thing is it will go down as a brave loss, but I think we started losing this even before the injury crisis. There was very little ambition when we did have our spine on the field, there was no discipline whatsoever, and we allowed ourselves to be dominated. Then we got unlucky, but the signs were already bad and I don't think that can be ignored.

Agreed. We are lacking a genuinely good spine. Pearce isn't the answer, Green is a stop-gap, Mann isn't a spine player, Hoy just isn't good at all. The pack is good. We need that top tier 7.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

Same year, same old sh*t

 

[slotmachine]

With all the injuries our play at the death was actually pretty decent.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

I don't think we were that bad. We couldn't get a roll on. They did. Part of it was being knocked off the park and they should get credit for that.

 

[Jono078]

Absolutely gutting game.

Well done to the Dragons - they did well missing some key players too and defending plenty.

Also f**k the hi-vis jerseys again - they all need to be burnt.

 

[Zoidberg]

The thing is, a lot of tries against us, today included, don’t come from lack of effort or missed tackles, they’re from our stupid mistakes eg. drop bomb by Hoy, charge down by Simms.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Pearce and Hoy will be out.
Do we give Simi Sasagi a go with Mann at FB?
Simisagi made the extended bench so would be knocking on the door.

 

[Jono078]

The thing is, a lot of tries against us, today included, don’t come from lack of effort or missed tackles, they’re from our stupid mistakes eg. drop bomb by Hoy, charge down by Simms.

Conversely, we also got 2 of the easiest tries ever today, we didn't create anything.

But point taken - we aren't far off being really solid, just need to clean a few areas up and get some troops back and have some luck with injuries. Hopefully it all happens before it affects us mentally and our effort starts to drop.

 

[AusKnightRKO]

What a performance in that 2nd half, absolutely brilliant to hold on like that, this is a performance that will help is going forward, in years gone by we leak 20+ in the last 20 there.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Hopefully it all happens before it affects us mentally and our effort starts to drop.

That's the risk. We'll be playing to make the 8 now. AOB will treat it as a week to week thing.
We could spiral down.

 

[Yosh]

Can't fault the effort out there today. Lost all direction when three spine players went down but the lads hung on and didn't give up till the last second.

Barnett showing some play making out there. I hope we see some more of that in the future. It'll really vary up his game and could be lethal out there with Best.

Connor showing his best and worst. Dynamic but some dumb plays as well. At least he was trying to win it till the last play. I hope he stays injury free because he is a great option at 14.

David Klemmer really showed why he shouldn't be captain today. I think in the future we need Dan Saifiti to put Klemmer in his place when Klemmer gets too stupidly aggressive.

Thank God we still had Brailey out there. Has been asked to do too much lately but when Ponga is back, should be even better.

Mann looked like he had been knocked back to last week but thankfully got up. Was real worried for a second there. Problem with Mann is, Barnett showed more play making ability out there in twenty minutes than Mann has shown all season... I think we need both Green and Pearce fit or we're going to be in for another long frustrating season.

Sue and Frizell showing how much our recruitment has improved in recent seasons. Both excellent additions. Sue would be on peanuts but is exactly the player we want rotating with Watson in the middle. Frizell should be next in line for captaincy. It really shows the big picture O'Brian and the club have planned out.

If Pearce is out, we need to see the real Crossland stand up. He has around a 5 to 6 weeks to really earn a contract. No better chance than this. Green will take more of a back seat compared to Pearce I think and let Crossland try his hand. Obviously I hope Crossland takes this opportunity by the scruff of the neck but ain't going to hold my breath.

O'Brian must be pulling his hair out. Might be regretting taking on the cursed role of being a Knights head coach. Lol.

Overall, not happy about the loss but not really angry at the effort either. Very worried about the injuries piling up though...

 

[Mr_Knightside]

As much as we all hate to call it a “brave loss” I gotta say i don’t know how else to describe this game.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

I'd love to see the stats on how many games (as a percentage) we've had our first choice spine on the field over the past 5, 10 and 20 years to be honest. It can't be too high I wouldn't think.

I would put money on us having the lowest percentage. I feel that a Premiership or 2 went begging due to injuries between '97 & '02

 

[Zoidberg]

I would put money on us having the lowest percentage. I feel that a Premiership or 2 went begging due to injuries between '97 & '02

I have a faint memory of Joey not finishing the ‘02 and ‘03 seasons and us bowing out in the finals when we would’ve had a great opportunity to win 1 or 2 more prems.

 

[Old dog]

Today’s loss was due to ill discipline, scrum 10 out, silly nonsense, penalty against us, pressure released, ok no damage score wise but game went from in charge to a bit each way.
Losing Pearce cost us heaps not so much loss of player but moving players around, why didn’t Green come on at 7, no other changes.
Watson an absolute 14, everyone thinks he is great, gives a 100% plus but lacks brains and just goes flat out, he should never take first pass into the big defence but follow up for broken play options
Mann is very much a possibility at 1, better than Hoy, Schibs showed he could play centre but not totally convinced but not a winger. Hunt and Tuala had good games.
Brailey for sheer consistancy our best. The pack was strong but lacked brains making silly mistakes, Klem is not playing smart, DSaf, Friz, Barnet, Sue JSaf and King all put in big efforts, Green looked short of a gallop.
Answer.... got none, need medical clearance for a few and hopefully a return or two. Not happy bringing players back from long term, 4-5 weeks, and playing them in team immediately but injuries dictate.