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

[Jono078]

Absolute joke. I'm not even mad at Gagai. Ref either misheard something or went on a little power trip. I bet he wouldn't give the penalty if we were playing the Tigers. Maybe we would have actually got a set restart if it were the Tigers tbh.

 

[perverse]

Yeah, he screamed "f**k me dead" in frustration, at no-one in particular really. It was an absolute nothing penalty. Really not sure what the ref was thinking.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

Ridiculous.

 

[aqua_duck]

The Gagai incident isn’t a big deal for me, it’s a once off and won’t happen again, the bigger issue for me tonight were the errors/discipline and goal kicking as they’re becoming chronic issues now.
Every week we seem to have periods of just inviting extra pressure on ourselves, Miller’s error rate has been discussed but Fitzy’s discipline is becoming an issue, he’s the most penalised player in the league this year and for an intelligent guy gives away a lot of really dumb penalties, the challenge on Cleary was ridiculous.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

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.

Not sure sitting on the bench thinking about his 1st tackle or run for 20min is the best strategy either

He needs to start imo

 

[Spot On]

Gagai’s mouth cost the side 4 points at a time when we were clearly on top.

He got away with that rubbish at Souths. In fact, it became a big part of his game there.

Unfortunate but very easy to fix.

 

[HarVeeGee]

Nah that was terrible from Referee Gough. The bloke has been stood down 4 times in the last two seasons for bullshit ego trip decisions and it should be a fifth.

The hair pull on Luai was an absurd call as well. You shouldn’t get an advantage from having hair which hangs down to your arse. The bloke needs to go to the barber or put his hair up.

If we hold the ball after half time and just get to our kicks, we win the game, pretty comfortably. I am aware of this. We made more mistakes than the ref did. But by the same token it was a 1 point loss where those decisions obviously impacted the result massively too.

I will say though that I thought overturning the sin bin was the correct call, and Fitz should have been binned for the contact on Cleary.

 

[Spot On]

Nah, I’m all for it re penalising a player for that sort of rubbish. Gagai said, ‘F me dead, oi sir’.

There’s no doubt he was directing his language at the ref. No doubt at all. We all knew what he was doing.

Then he kept going after the ref told Frizz he didn’t accept that Gags’ spray was directed at him.

Poor from a senior player.

Fine people don’t have an issue with it but… In the end, it cost us 4 points. You accept that as well even though it cost us massively. We were on top, 100% completions and we gave them a sniff at the wrong end of the field and didn’t defend it.

He’ll learn that Newcastle players do not get away with the verbal rubbish his last club does.

Hopefully.

Agree with you on the overturning of the sin bin re Gamble. It was also the correct call. And then Fitzy’s stupidity went unpunished. Lucky that.

 

[slotmachine]

If it were any other stage of the game where it wouldn't have handed victory to the panthers it's a penalty.

 

[Zoidberg]

I’m kind of glad lots of stories are saying Panthers were bad but still won, without mention of how bad we were for 20+mins in the 2nd. People can keep thinking we are no threat as long as they want.

 

[Zoidberg]

If it were any other stage of the game where it wouldn't have handed victory to the panthers it's a penalty.

I think if the field goal missed, it’s a penalty. Can’t really have a 3 point penalty field goal like an 8 point try… I guess.

 

[PhilGould]

Players swearing out loud or complaining at the ref after a tackle happens extremely often, doubt you'd have many sets go by without it. Pretty insane to call a penalty for it if he wasn't crossing any lines, which "f**k me dead" doesn't really classify as.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

We've improved so much this season but there's still so many things we need to fix if we're going to play finals this year:

1. Our discipline - way too many stupid penalties.

2. The first 20 minutes after half time. That's 2 weeks in a row we've just fallen asleep at the start of the 2nd half. Our completion was dreadful.

3. Our goal kicking - we potentially could have an extra 3 points on the ladder if we could have kicked 2 (not so difficult) penalty goals.


All in all though, I was expecting Penrith to tear us apart last night so I'm over the moon with the performance we put up.
I'm getting excited to watch Knights games again! Bring on the Cows next week!

 

[Spot On]

Players swearing out loud or complaining at the ref after a tackle happens extremely often, doubt you'd have many sets go by without it. Pretty insane to call a penalty for it if he wasn't crossing any lines, which "f**k me dead" doesn't really classify as.

He may have gotten away with it if he didn’t add the ‘oi, sir’ after it.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

He may have gotten away with it if he didn’t add the ‘oi, sir’ after it.

He probably wouldn't have had to say it at all if the ref penalised Luai like he should have.

 

[Murraymob1]

Goal kicking is a huge issue with your team.You win last night with a half decent one

 

[mozza91]

He may have gotten away with it if he didn’t add the ‘oi, sir’ after it.

Pretty sure it was Gamble who said Oi sir.
Absolute joke of a penalty. But we were the rank outsiders outplaying the competition favourites. Got to find a penalty for them somewhere.

 

[Jono078]

I just want to add; we can complain about certain situations not being fair, but at the end of the game the champions stood up.

Cleary nailed not 1, but 2 relatively long distance field goals to take the game to extra time and then to win it. The Panthers’ set to start extra time was incredible. We didn’t have the energy to match them and keep them out of range.

So kudos to the Panthers, they showed championship qualities to hang in there and get it done at the end.

 

[Burwood]

What I found most alarming was that our attack in the second half pretty much devolved back to what we had gotten used to the last 2-3 years. We played the entire half trying to attack straight through the middle and the panthers found it easy to number up and limit our metres.

 

[Apey]

I just want to add; we can complain about certain situations not being fair, but at the end of the game the champions stood up.

Cleary nailed not 1, but 2 relatively long distance field goals to take the game to extra time and then to win it. The Panthers’ set to start extra time was incredible. We didn’t have the energy to match them and keep them out of range.

So kudos to the Panthers, they showed championship qualities to hang in there and get it done at the end.

I think we were just gassed by Golden Point.