Match Discussion: Round 7 vs Penrith @ McDonald Jones Stadium, New Lambton / Awabakal

[Walk On Home Boy]

Honestly, it's not his attitude that worries me. I think he's shown enough when he's in a competitive team to show he can get in there and do it. I'm more worried about whether he can fit into the systems that are working.

Kalyn has always struck me more as a "icing on the cake" kind of player. It's just up to whether we can fit him in.

Well said. Let's hope for no more injuries. Think we can crack Top 4 if we continue building on this form with a fit squad.

 

[Loose Cannon]

Gamble could be our perfect 13, just not sure how well his defence will hold up in the middle, but as far as being a link man, runner of the ball and a backup kicker, he's perfect for the job.

Couldn’t agree more. Gamble 13 for me. He can play as a second 6. Gamble to Ponga on the left, Hastings to Miller on the right.

 

[Spot On]

Moronic from senior player. Tell him he's a clown for me

There’s only a couple of players in the NRL who get away with that… and Dane needs to realise that he ain’t one of them.

 

[perverse]

There's definitely an argument in giving Ponga a week or two off the bench to build his confidence up a bit. Leave him out of the first 20-30 minutes argy bargy and let him come on against some tired blokes.

He's 100% going to be a bit gun-shy to start with. A lot of what he has to overcome is mental. Well, that and not getting concussed again. I don't think we can expect him to come in and just immediately take us to another level. I expect some growing pains.

 

[ryan.a87]

I’d gamble starts at 13, does Elliott come back on the bench in a 2nd row rotation?

14 Mann
15 jsaf
16 croker
17 Elliott

 

[Old dog]

Was a big team effort, tenacity, and we will have JSaf and Ponga back and a few team changes. Crossland needed a break but injuries may have unsettled AOB’s plans, Mann should have been relief hooker, injuries to Dan and Jones didn’t help along with Johns poor mistakes. Brain explosions from Gagai and Fitz were poor. Hetheringtons continuous low minutes are a concern. Next week out… Hetherington, Johns and Jones, in… Ponga, JSaf and Lucas. Ponga 6, Gamble 13, bench Mann, Croker, JSaf and Lucas

 

[Loose Cannon]

I’d gamble starts at 13, does Elliott come back on the bench in a 2nd row rotation?

14 Mann
15 jsaf
16 croker
17 Elliott

He can definitely have Hethrington’s spot until he does less.

 

[Zoidberg]

Just saw the possession was us 43% them 57%
Pretty amazing we even made it to golden point.

 

[perverse]

Just saw the possession was us 43% them 57%
Pretty amazing we even made it to golden point.

I'd love to see that broken down by halves, too. Felt like 65-35 or even worse in the second half.

 

[Jono078]

For me the biggest game changer was when we got the Dom Young penalty and decided to go for 2.

You just knew we'd miss and even if we missed you had a feeling we wouldn't recover the drop out. That ended up being a huge swing in the dying stages of the game and a moment that should have put Penrith under lots of pressure, instead turned out to be an Uno Reverse onto ourselves.

 

[perverse]

For me the biggest game changer was when we got the Dom Young penalty and decided to go for 2.

You just knew we'd miss and even if we missed you had a feeling we wouldn't recover the drop out. That ended up being a huge swing in the dying stages of the game and a moment that should have put Penrith under lots of pressure, instead turned out to be an Uno Reverse onto ourselves.

Yeah that was not the right decision at all. Everyone watching except the coach seemed to know it wasn't going over from there.

I mean you can look at any other of moments in the game and say the same. We turned 1 or 2 errors into like 15 after half time. Penrith were never going to let that slide, and it took too much gas out of us. You've gotta keep your cool for 80 and keep grinding against the Panthers, and we failed in that. We can learn from it though, there will be a lot of regrets in the sheds.

 

[Jono078]

Yeah that was not the right decision at all. Everyone watching except the coach seemed to know it wasn't going over from there.

I mean you can look at any other of moments in the game and say the same. We turned 1 or 2 errors into like 15 after half time. Penrith were never going to let that slide, and it took too much gas out of us. You've gotta keep your cool for 80 and keep grinding against the Panthers, and we failed in that. We can learn from it though, there will be a lot of regrets in the sheds.

For sure. This has a feeling of "losing the battle but winning the war", and what I mean is we may have lost tonight but in the long run we might've gotten plenty out of this knowing we can hang with the top teams and even go one step further the next time we meet.

 

[Zoidberg]

For me the biggest game changer was when we got the Dom Young penalty and decided to go for 2.

You just knew we'd miss and even if we missed you had a feeling we wouldn't recover the drop out. That ended up being a huge swing in the dying stages of the game and a moment that should have put Penrith under lots of pressure, instead turned out to be an Uno Reverse onto ourselves.

I think we all knew what was going to happen on every step, but in that moment we had to go for the goal.

 

[Jono078]

I think we all knew what was going to happen on every step, but in that moment we had to go for the goal.

I agree with going for the 2 but feels inexcusable how we turned a positive into an ultra negative. Not recovering the drop out was worse than missing the conversion.

 

[Apey]

The music guy needs to learn when to play Sweet Caroline. Penrith on the charge isn’t the time.

Lol I said the same thing at the time. Yeah you got the crowd going last week, us throwing away a game is not the time.

 

[Seage]

Aside from Dane making one very poor error of judgment - and it was poor and costly - I actually thought he was excellent tonight. His defence was first rate and definitely one of our best. The Panthers did not get on top of us out wide.

Lachy Miller and Jack Johns were abysmal. The continued lack of a dependable goalkicker is a blight on our recruitment and our training. And say what you like, but it was 14-6 when the Panthers got those two outrageous penalties. It 14 all seconds later. If either of those two things are different we win.

I'm proud but frustrated - like us all. Im not use to those two adjectives existing together in relation to the Knights..

 

[mozza91]

Lachy Miller and Jack Johns were abysmI'm proud but frustrated - like us all. Im not use to those two adjectives existing together in relation to the Knights..

Proud describes the first 15 years of the Knights existence. Frustrated describes the next 20.
Proud but frustrated is a definite improvement.

 

[Apey]

AOB said Gamble will still be in the team next week in the press conference.

 

[Apey]

Watching bits of the replay now (I was at the game), I don't think their binning should have been overturned. Leniu very clearly has a look at Gamble after Hastings has kicked the ball and turns his back into him. Not sure how you can rule the contact 'incidental' when you turn your back into an attacking player's path. Then again, in Thursday night's game they ruled that you're allowed to do whatever you want (i.e shoving a player in this case) so long as you're looking at the ball so I guess that's consistent at least.

 

[Alex28]

Has pretty much all season imo

Hasn’t impressed

I kinda wonder whether he is trying to get some of the dickhead out of his game that kept getting him suspended, and now he looks a bit average.

The minutes are a bit confusing though.