R14 | Storm 16-14 Knights @ AAMI | Sun 3.00pm

[Nuffy]

If you have no expectations you can't be disappointed. I have zero expectations.

Can't argue with that, you've got me there.

I'm worried that Bennett has lost whatever magic he may have had and now it's just pigheadedness on display.

We have the same gameplay each week and it doesn't work. He continues to stick with Waddell and it doesn't work, he recruits every old bloke in the NRL and it doesn't work.

He just seems to be hoping that things come good, but hope is not a strategy.

This coupled with the fact that for a Bennett coached team, we still make silly mistakes, drop the ball and give away cheap penalties, means that something is broken.

He's on track to leave the club in worse shape then when he came in, no mean feat.

 

[K-Man]

Leilua might end up being great, but I hate his attitude and it will take me a long time to get over this.

McManus would've scored that try in the corner like a pro, with no fuss. What an absolute moron. Pathetic.

 

[Mr48Volts]

Gower justified why Wayne picked him, considering he hasn't played NRL for 5 or so years he showed flashes of his past form. Waddell is flipping useless and we need to give Clydesdale the chance

 

[Rod]

Did anyone think that maybe if Leilua keeps the ball tucked in instead of stretching out he doesn't even make the tryline?

Taken by itself there aren't many reason to blow up at todays performance, and the reason people are doing so is because of the 6 or so games that have preceded todays one.

 

[The Showstopper]

If we miss the 8 I think Bennett needs to do the right thing and leave. Take Boyd with him. Not everything is meant to be. Just not working. Another chapter of frustration for all of us. I am sorry you guys have to endure this s###. I know it really burns you and I now get what you are so sore about. Call me daft but I really just try to keep it positive cos i wanted to believe we could really go up to the next level. A young coach with great ideas and a vision is what i believe we now need. A Trent Barrett or someone of that ilk. We would at least have the what if to look to rather than no expectations at all.where the f### is Tinkler in all of this? Mates rates is it! Time for him to start being an owner. If we were a premier league club they would riot with the owner's level of disinterest.

 

[Bring it home Knights]

I don't share the perspective that we are an ordinary team. Not at all.

We have a backline to be envied, one of the form halves in the competition in Mullen, and a pack that offers plenty (with the exception of House).

Arguing "Oh, we aren't a very good team and we pushed Melbourne" doesn't have merit. We are a quality team being coached poorly and held back by a few mind-boggling selections. We played a very poor Melbourne today and still managed to lose.

If we had lost 16-14 in a game where we played our best and they played theirs, it would be acceptable. But we arguably played with more intensity than them and didn't get the job done.

That's why I'm pissed off.

We are a hooker short of being a class team imo.

 

[K-Man]

At the risk of sounding like Michael Hagan, the effort was there - we just ultimately weren't good enough. Play like that for the rest of the year and we'll win a lot more than we lose.

Won't happen.

 

[Misanthrope]

We are a hooker short of being a class team imo.

Agreed. Buderus being back and fit will give a real indication of whether we're pretenders or contenders IMO.

 

[Jobdog]

We are a hooker short of being a class team imo.

That's about it. We need about three months of Buderus' best work before he retires - that's all.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Roberts is a 5/8 or a hooker, he is just not organising enough for the halfback we need. He can run, dummy and pass but really lacks some of the fundementals like kicking, direction and awareness

Frustrating to be infront for most of the game and watch it slide away. Where are the decoy runners? Where are the inside shifts against the slide defence? We were doing all of these at the start of the season but they have all but disappeared from our attack

 

[Mr48Volts]

If we miss the 8 I think Bennett needs to do the right thing and leave. Take Boyd with him. Not everything is meant to be. Just not working. Another chapter of frustration for all of us. I am sorry you guys have to endure this s###. I know it really burns you and I now get what you are so sore about. Call me daft but I really just try to keep it positive cos i wanted to believe we could really go up to the next level. A young coach with great ideas and a vision is what i believe we now need. A Trent Barrett or someone of that ilk. We would at least have the what if to look to rather than no expectations at all.where the f### is Tinkler in all of this? Mates rates is it! Time for him to start being an owner. If we were a premier league club they would riot with the owner's level of disinterest.

Rick Stone will be our next Coach, he made the deal when he stood aside for Bennett.

 

[Swarzey]

Base on what I've read, I'm going strangle Waddell with my bare hands.

But, I praise the boys on the effort. I'll watch the game when I get home, but coming within two of arguably the best team to take the field in the past decade who still without Cronk have two of the best players to ever play their position.

 

[K-Man]

There are few more frustrating feelings in sport than watching something unfold that seems so obvious, yet it isn't to the people that matter.

When we take early penalty goals to go 2-0, 8-0, or 14-0 we never kick on. The momentum shift is often immediate - within minutes you can almost feel the game turning, like the opposition is thinking "oh so those 2 points matter to you? Great, because we plan on scoring at least 3 or 4 tries so they don't matter to us".

Gallen said very clearly in his interview yesterday that it's a sign of weakness and the defending team feeds off it.

So why do we continue to do it? Because Bennett tells us to.

It's not about the 2 points, it's about the big picture. You have to score a decent tally to beat a team like the Storm. They chip away and chip away and they get you in the end. So that 2 points just isn't important enough.

You get limited chances to score in an NRL game these days - especially when you play conservative football against a good side. If you're just waiting for errors and penalties from your opponent, surely when they provide them you have to go in for the kill?

We clearly aren't capable of grinding out 16-14 wins, so why the hell are trying to? We actually could have won this week and last week by 12+ margins in my opinion, if our mindset had been different.

I put it all down to WB. Happy for him to leave whenever he gets sick of us, to be honest.

No Gidly, no Buderus. I know. But the game was there to be taken by the scruff of the neck by the 17 players we did have. Negative mentality = negative result.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Who gives a toss if we tried hard.
Who gives a toss if we were missing players
Who gives a toss if we might be a different team when bedsy comes back

Fact of the matter is, we are 4 points out of the 8. There is no making up that ground from here

 

[aqua_duck]

Who gives a toss if we tried hard.
Who gives a toss if we were missing players
Who gives a toss if we might be a different team when bedsy comes back

Fact of the matter is, we are 4 points out of the 8. There is no making up that ground from here

This

 

[K-Man]

Roberts is a 5/8 or a hooker, he is just not organising enough for the halfback we need. He can run, dummy and pass but really lacks some of the fundementals like kicking, direction and awareness

Frustrating to be infront for most of the game and watch it slide away. Where are the decoy runners? Where are the inside shifts against the slide defence? We were doing all of these at the start of the season but they have all but disappeared from our attack

We've basically got nothing if it gets to the 20-minute mark and our opposition has the fortitude to stick to the task.

Our best football is the opening 15 minutes because we just focus on enthusiasm and not dropping the ball. Once the real football starts getting played, we're done. And our opponents know it. There is a complete lack of fear being shown by teams who are trailing us early on. They just don't believe we can stay the distance once the game opens up a bit.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Oh yeah. And I am at the stage of not giving a toss when we show a vast improvement because we never seem to back that improvement up for 10-15 games. When we play a good game our following weeks are diabolical.

We as a team never 'improve' as such. We just have a fluke good game every now and then

 

[slotmachine]

Time for Roberts to go back to Cup.

Houston was pretty good today, did a lot of work.

Finally started playing some football, pity it took uncle wayne until after our season was over to work that out.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Was it Houston that just stood there when the ball went back and waited for them to pick it up for a repeat set? Whoever it was it was slack and lazy. They scored soon after.

 

[slotmachine]

it was mason, and he didnt pick it up because he was offside