R11 | Warriors 28-12 Knights @ Mt Smart | Sun 2.00pm (AEST)

[Zoidberg]

So, I heard the score while at work yesterday, didn't bother watching it when I got home but I'm watching it this morning. Quick comments on the big calls.

- Uate impeded going for Manu in his try
- no way was that an obstruction from Willie
- how has Jimmy not got another shot at Origin?
- I can't believe that rule about changing injured players during a scrum hasn't changed. I thought it was fixed after that happened to us against Manly a few years ago with Richie Faoso injured?
- would Uate have caught that bomb Gagai dropped?
- Boyd not able to get across to make the tackle on Rapira try
- in hindsight Boyd should've left the field straight away
- McKinnon is not a centre. Hope Wayne doesn't start him there again.
- Jimmy, Y u think u can pass off ground?
- "there are plenty of footballers in this Newcastle side", thanks Daryl Halligan!
- ahh shit Ty. Snowy just pass the ball, don't double pump.
- forward!

Injuries definitely killed us in the end. Some bad calls but we could've got passed them if Aku and Boyd stayed fit.
Gids is getting some form back. If we are going to play him at hooker (with a full roster) we should give him room to roam occasionally with Ty or Boyd (or Bedsy if they both on) going into dummy half.

Still hopeful we can win 2 of next 3 games (before our bye).

Really looking forward to playing 50uff$ next week. Hopefully we bring our A game (with whatever team we have).

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

- Uate impeded going for Manu in his try
- no way was that an obstruction from Willie
- how has Jimmy not got another shot at Origin?
- I can't believe that rule about changing injured players during a scrum hasn't changed. I thought it was fixed after that happened to us against Manly a few years ago with Richie Faoso injured?
- would Uate have caught that bomb Gagai dropped?
- Boyd not able to get across to make the tackle on Rapira try
- in hindsight Boyd should've left the field straight away
- McKinnon is not a centre. Hope Wayne doesn't start him there again.
- Jimmy, Y u think u can pass off ground?
- "there are plenty of footballers in this Newcastle side", thanks Daryl Halligan!
- ahh shit Ty. Snowy just pass the ball, don't double pump.
- forward!

.

Spot on.
I also wondered if it was knees that went into Uate when he was n the ground that resulted in injury.
Also thought taking out Snowden after he out that little kick in was a bit sus.
NZ Commentator: "Coothbutson!" Who the f is Coothbutson?

 

[perverse]

Also thought taking out Snowden after he out that little kick in was a bit sus.

That actually raised my eyebrow, too... but I knew straight away that even if it was a bit suspect, we wouldn't get more looks at it from the officials. It wasn't our day in that respect... we couldn't buy a 50/50 call yesterday.

I would say that we'd do better to just write off the second half of yesterdays match and look onto next week... but that's not entirely true for mine, either. I think there were a lot of positives to take out of it. I thought it was one of our better losses, and it impressed me that the boys kept turning up with their backs against the wall. We had them under the pump despite being 10 points down with 10-odd to go... we would have got them with slightly crisper execution, or even just 1 or 2 less injured blokes out there. We need to maintain that attitude. That was an important step, for mine... and will serve us well in the coming weeks and months.

 

[Rod]

Looking back, some of our ball movement in the second half was actually quite brilliant. The passing down the left hand side was as crisp and fast as anything we've produced this year. Perhaps there's something to be said for chancing our arm a bit more? There was a period there where I was confident we'd make a line break every set and we pretty much did.

It was just that final pass and things like Gagai dropping the ball over the line that cost us.

 

[Noname36]

Looking back, some of our ball movement in the second half was actually quite brilliant. The passing down the left hand side was as crisp and fast as anything we've produced this year. Perhaps there's something to be said for chancing our arm a bit more? There was a period there where I was confident we'd make a line break every set and we pretty much did.

It was just that final pass and things like Gagai dropping the ball over the line that cost us.

I've heard everyone say that Bennett teams cant attack, but the way I see it it's not that we can't play the fancy off the cuff stuff, it's that Bennett would prefer us to win by playing simple, doing the little things right and grinding teams down.

 

[jamaman]

Spot on.
I also wondered if it was knees that went into Uate when he was n the ground that resulted in injury.
Also thought taking out Snowden after he out that little kick in was a bit sus.
NZ Commentator: "Coothbutson!" Who the f is Coothbutson?

He works in the shoop! :lol:

 

[slotmachine]

Looking back, some of our ball movement in the second half was actually quite brilliant. The passing down the left hand side was as crisp and fast as anything we've produced this year. Perhaps there's something to be said for chancing our arm a bit more? There was a period there where I was confident we'd make a line break every set and we pretty much did.

We look shit hot when we start throwing it around and playing some football.

Only ever happens when we're chasing the game or have already got it in in the bag though.

Obviously Bennett prefers the grind, no offloads or early ball movement.
It's had mixed results in Newcastle, sometimes I wish we'd pull out the fancy stuff a bit more.

 

[Zoidberg]

We look shit hot when we start throwing it around and playing some football.

Only ever happens when we're chasing the game or have already got it in in the bag though.

Obviously Bennett prefers the grind, no offloads or early ball movement.
It's had mixed results in Newcastle, sometimes I wish we'd pull out the fancy stuff a bit more.

True. But you do have to earn the right to throw it around.
I do think, however, we often waste 1 or 2 tackles when we are in the opposition 20 with simple forward hit ups. Like we are just waiting for the 5th to kick it. That's when we need to try some things.

 

[Swarzey]

That Mullen to Gidley to BJ and back on the inside to McManus would tear apart most teams. Mannering is phenomenal in defense and he was really able to force BJ to make the pass a lot earlier than he wanted to. It also highlighted Gids' versatility.

 

[Big Tim]

A positive loss IMO.

Plenty of bad, plenty of good.

Seems to me that we showed that elusive "pride in the jersey"....... whatever the f**k that means.

 

[Bring it home Knights]

Is anyone able to answer the question of how many leads have we had at half time this year and lost? I'm pretty sure that the last half a dozen games we have led in all of them.

 

[Rod]

Yesterday is only the second time we've lost after leading at halftime under Bennett. The first was the Sharks game.

 

[Jobdog]

Boyd cleared of serious injury

Newcastle Knights’ fullback Darius Boyd has been cleared of serious injury following scans on Monday.

Boyd injured his ankle early in the second half of Sunday’s game against the New Zealand Warriors.

An x-ray on Sunday night in Auckland was inconclusive but scans on Monday have cleared him of serious injury.

Boyd will be assessed during the week and with Queensland naming their Origin side on Monday night, the Club wish him all the best for selection.

Meanwhile Aku Uate, who suffered a rib injury in the same game, will have scans on Tuesday.

The Knights arrive back in Newcastle on Monday evening.

LINK

 

[jonno_knights]

Yesterday is only the second time we've lost after leading at halftime under Bennett. The first was the Sharks game.

The Canberra Game...

 

[Rod]

Right you are, I thought we'd be already been run down by HT but it was 14-12. That's 3 times out of the last 4 then :?.

 

[jonno_knights]

Yep, its a worry... surely its not fitness, cause at home we tend to blow teams away in the second half.

 

[perverse]

You have to look at each game on it's own... I don't think there's an overly alarming trend building or anything. In the Canberra game, we flat out gave up... and drawing anything more out of it than that is overanalysing it. We gave up, and then a tremendous amount of bad stuff happened. Also, I believe we were only leading due to goalkicking in this game at half time, and realistically were already down 3 tries to 2 and in the process of getting pumped with 3 tries in a row scored against us. In the Sharks game we were barely run down and had a couple of pretty dubious decisions decide the match, and dearly missed Mullens boot when golden point rolled around. In the Warriors game we fell apart through injury and lacking the finishing touch on our opportunities - but played good footy in losing for the most part. We competed hard for the full 80, just couldn't get a bounce/call/injury to go our way when we really needed a little something more.

If there is one common thread between them all, I would say it's that those 3 teams have all played near their best footy of the year against us... and that in itself is starting to give me the shits. We also seem to be struggling in the ruck without blokes like Scott and Smith in the team, and are getting out-enthused in the ruck area, which is leading us to be on the back foot more often than I'd like. The Warriors were allowed to play at an absolutely amazing pace at times, and we just couldn't slow their big boppers down with so much second phase play. Fatigue would have played a role there, too... given that we had to used subs to get injured blokes off the field... and we also couldn't bring Willie back on when we really needed his vigour and spark.

So yeah, there might be a few things worth looking at in there, lessons to learn... but I don't see it as an alarming trend or anything yet. As has been said, until the past 3 weeks we haven't given up a lead during the Bennett era.

 

[Zoidberg]

Also from watching that game I realized something...I miss Andrew Voss' commentary. Does he live in NZ and only do Warrios games now? Fox should get him doing more games over here, much better than Matt Shirvington.

 

[Swarzey]

Also from watching that game I realized something...I miss Andrew Voss' commentary. Does he live in NZ and only do Warrios games now? Fox should get him doing more games over here, much better than Matt Shirvington.

I believe he's with Sky considering it's technically their coverage.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

wrong thread