Round 1 | Knights 14-15 Dragons* @ Hunter Stadium | Thu 1st March @ 7.35pm

[rabble]

Aaaaand off goes the footy show.

 

[docbrown]

Rusty

 

[IanG]

Waiting to see if Gus actually gets the interview with Bennett on the Footy Show tonight ...

Yes he did. Just saw it

 

[Newie is God's Country]

We played s### but lost by one. We are going to be fine. Next week is all that matters.

 

[TooheysNew]

LOL at the Dragons fan with the backpack and shaved head trying to fight a group of kids after the game from the safety of being behind his little fence.

 

[Newie is God's Country]

Where was that Coby? Knights fans make me proud. No punches thrown but willing to stand up to inbreds.

 

[Silent Knight]

Aaaaand off goes the footy show.

I turned it off a few seconds after I heard Gus say the name "Benji Marshall". Fap fap fap.

 

[Hanscholo]

Gratz to the knights supporters and to hunter sports for a job well done over the off season and for game 1.

Not overly disappointed with the result. We were extremely flat, but ended each half well. To me that points to a massive pre season, we can only improve on that and we lost by 1 pnt.

We need to work on getting uate early ball, in space and we need to work on our line speed and support play. Early days, but it was great to see 30k supporters there well done.

 

[billy2]

We were rusty and needed a hard hit out, but there were some really good signs.

Wes, Jimmy, Eddy, McKinnon and Hilder all went better than I thought they would.

Cuthbo, Boyd and Taia need to lift, and i'm sure they all can.

 

[southwalesrabbitoh]

It's all down to injuries and recuperation. Facilities count, what are the Sharks' like? Penrith? Bulldogs? Titans?

 

[perverse]

We were rusty and needed a hard hit out, but there were some really good signs.

Wes, Jimmy, Eddy, McKinnon and Hilder all went better than I thought they would.

Cuthbo, Boyd and Taia need to lift, and i'm sure they all can.

bit harsh on Boyd, imo. he had some shaky moments in defence, but geez he was just constantly a threat when we had the ball. at the game, i was super impressed by his talk behind the defence, too. Gids was always ok at this, but Boyd had the look of a real general out the back, ordering the defence into position. he was very vocal and prominent. perhaps i was just focusing more on his game. i thought it would take me a long time to warm to him, but it took less than 80 minutes. he is a class act.

agree with the rest, though. i was encouraged by what i saw out there. it was disjointed, ugly, and all over the shop at times... but we only lost by a point. there's a lot of improvement there.

 

[bails]

My thoughts after throwing a sickie(we always lose when i do that) and a few drinks.

I thought boyd was good,made a couple of errors,but looked promisng in attack.

Uate looks like he is under instructions to play like a winger(finisher) going on what i saw tonight and have read and heard.

Wes went well overall,was happy to see him sprinting off our line to put pressure on Soward (when everyone looked stuffed}

Tahu also showed some good signs for his first game back.Also some issues in defence of jamming up on opposite (great when it comes off but will punish us when it does not)

Beddsy was solid we let him down with lack of runners at times but was glad to see him play some good mins at first game back.

I would keep the rangas in for next week was happy with thier contribution in defence

Overall i always like to watch the game again(sober)but i thought we looked short of a middle man.Cuthbo cant be expexted to shoulder all that work this early on and Snowden hopefully gets better after a few more games(4-5)Kurt and Mullen didnt impress but hey its only the first game and on what i saw i have absolute faith we are in for a very good year.

 

[God-King Dean]

You guys will come good. Just rusty, & the left hand side attack will be lethal.

 

[aqua_duck]

I think the conditions played a part for sure, the dragons have been taught to play tight, grinding football for the past 3 years, we've been doing it for a few months, those conditions I think suited them alot better. Handling was abysmal from both sides, us more so, we just dropped way too much ball to win in the end. I was impressed though with our ability to actually compete for 80mins

 

[Whats Doing]

Except for the 2 dropped balls which were real clangers and game changers, Cuthbo went alright. His defence was outstanding and did a mountain of work and got away some good passes for second phase.

Not too dissappointed considering it was only a golden point loss to the Dragons who have been in the top 4 for the past 3 years and have got their patterns down pat.

We have much more improvement in us than the Dragons which is a good sign.

 

[hellteam]

Gidley is your teams problem...

 

[Johns Magic]

I thought Cuthbo was good enough besides those two dropped balls which were clangers.

He was out there a bloody long time for a prop, which was forced because we only had three props in the side plus Eddy who shifted between prop and lock.

Cuthbo's pass to set up that McManus try in the first half which got called back for a forward pass from Boyd(which was bloody marginal) was poetry for a frontrower.

I think all those people saying "I told you so" about Cuthbertson should wait a few more weeks...I won't be making my mind up til then.

 

[Newie is God's Country]

Cuthbo was solid. He tried his heart out. His offloads are dangerous not to mention his ability to pass as JM has alluded to. The fact that some people want his head cos he dropped the ball 12 metres out in GP shows that some folks here are going to be in for a long year of frustration expecting instant miracles. We played a very well oiled machine and not many here predicted anything but a very tight game. The left hand side of ours looks potentially deadly when they perfect it. Cuthbo, Boyd and macca showed what massive potential we have. Our defence was superb for the most part. Nothing soft at all.

 

[cleary89]

If your a dragons supporter I would agree that cuthbo was your best forward. However, if you support knights then you're a moron.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Yeah mate I agree, Cuthbo was pretty good. I think most are just focusing on the dropped balls. Funny how Zeb is getting off so easy though, seeing as his lead to the FG and was pretty frickin soft.