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

[Adsy]

We were stupid today, that's why we lost the game. Not the referees. The warriors have been pretty bad too, but we were worse

Yep. Pretty much.

 

[K-Man]

And just when we finally need exactly what Gids brings to the table - the ability to cover key positions and lead with his enthusiasm - we lose him to Origin.

Boyd, Gidley, Uate, Buderus, and Scott out.

 

[perverse]

I disagree. it was difficult to gain momentum because every time that came their way, another 50/50 call would go the way of the Warriors...

Yeah, nothing went our way in the second half whatsoever.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

The Warriors, as expected, were very up for this game. To be honest I feel we competed very well for the most part and kept up with them, we just lacked the finishing touch on our opportunities, and that was the difference. Last week everything we did turned to gold, this week we didn't get the bounces we needed.

I thought it was a pretty good effort with our blokes getting injrued and limping around all over the shop. A win would have been nice, but I'm not so disappointed with the effort. Mullen was off today, too. Gids tried his heart out and was good for us.

Agree. Plus we made some bad defensive calls and lacked some organisation and enthusiasm in defense.

Geez it's good to see a +ve post here compared to the emo that goes on. I'm expecting more of it after this loss.

 

[Knightmare]

The penalty count was 4-1 to the Warriors last time I checked it in the second half, not sure how it ended up...

 

[perverse]

Another thing that pleased me is that we threw ourselves at them for the full 80. The heads never went down... or when they did, we managed to lift again.

I don't think we took a massive step backwards today. It was unfortunate, but there are worse ways to lose than that. The warriors played at an amazing pace... we really struggled to contain them in the ruck.

 

[Dave_]

The standard of the reffing has been nothing short of putrid and incompetent. Mcmanus should have 4 tries.

Disgraceful by the refs and by us. Filthy, grubby, inept, dumb, embarrassing and chunder worthy performance by all.

 

[Knightmare]

I reckon the outcome could have been noticeably different if Uate and Boyd stayed on...

 

[perverse]

It would have been nice to be able to send Willie out there with about 13 to go... I'm guessing we had run out of subs by then due to the injuries?

 

[Misanthrope]

Ugh. f**k. This. Team.

 

[Swarzey]

We played crap, then we played well, then we played crap and then we played well again, but the Warriors stood strong in that final 20 except for that joke of a pass that led to the Mannering try.

That 10 minute period where Boyd wasn't well and Aku got injured, it really threw out our structure. We had Gidley on the opposite side of our attack and Boyd wasn't able to fulfill his duty as a third playmaker. That said, when Boyd did go off and Gidley was put to fullback, we looked deadly. Incredibly deadly but their defense was strong and it forced us to act quickly and we just weren't prepared.

That said, Snowden was excellent, Gidley was phenomenal IMO and I thought McKinnon was strong across the field. I think Mullo's kicking game really did hurt us because he was a little off. I do have concerns for next week because what happens to us is if the opposition get the slightest bit of momentum, we fall to pieces until they begin to beat themselves.

 

[K-Man]

I reckon the outcome could have been noticeably different if Uate and Boyd stayed on...

Agree with that. Very hard to cope with such a serious a reshuffle. It would be different if we started the game without them because Naqaima and another back would be in their place. But losing them like that was tough.

As others have said, there are excuses for today. I don't think we approached the game well in the first half, and I think if we had been on our game in the opening 25 minutes we could have been up 12 or 18 points and never looked back.

But it wasn't a horrible loss either, just a shame we couldn't open up that big gap to the next rung of teams.

Injury list is the big concern.

 

[Swarzey]

The three point difference between us and Manly is going to hurt for a bit. If Titans and Sharks win, then we lose our 2 point buffer.

That said, another week down, another week closer until Bedsy, Scott and Smith return.

 

[Jobdog]

I've come to the conclusion that we'll never open up a gap between ourselves and everyone else. Every time we've had an opportunity to do so in the last few years, we've failed miserably. We'll always be in a dogfight for a position on the ladder.

 

[Apey]

Totally called it in the other game thread. Just wish I had listened to myself :crazy:

 

[Rod]

Well that was always on the cards in terms of the Warriors showing up the way they did, a blind man could have picked that. Although I did think we would still do enough to win so that's disappointing.

Turning point was when we couldn't score when we were all over them in the middle of the second half, we were making line breaks pretty much every set. Gagai dropped the ball over the line, McManus almost scored the try of the year but we just couldn't get over. We would have been within one try had we scored in that period and the way the Warriors defence was folding we would have been odds on to run them down.

Didn't play terrible, just a bit of execution and not getting the 50/50 calls today let us down.

 

[Dave_]

We'll beat Souths 40 nil next week.

 

[CycloneSteve]

"The main thing is, we tried hard and were competitive"

LOL WTF???

We just got beat by the team coming 16th!! The same team who were lapped by Penrith last week, after we belted a Final 8 contender.

Competing with a bottom feeder is NOT good enough. Sorry, but I am not satisfied with just scraping into the Final 8 with a 50/50 win/loss record. This is the NRL, the toughest RL competition in the world and simply competing is not good enough particularly as we have spent so much money on coaches, players etc.

We should be doing better than "just competing".

 

[Jobdog]

Bennett to leave at the end of the year?

He's been here for 18 months and we're still as inconsistent this year as we were last year. Doesn't seem like the players are learning...

 

[perverse]

Thought McKinnon was the pick of the forwards today, Snowy let down by a few errors but probably still next off the rank. Cuthbo was very good, too.