Round 12 | Knights 14-24 Titans @ Hunter | Sat 5.30pm

[Jobdog]

Time to get back on the horse. Surely we can't lose this one...

1. Darius Boyd 2. James McManus 3. Junior Sa'u 4. Timana Tahu 5. Akuila Uate 6. Jarrod Mullen 7. Tyrone Roberts
8. Kade Snowden 9. Danny Buderus 10. Willie Mason 11. Chris Houston 12. Zeb Taia 13. Neville Costigan

Interchange: 14. Matt Hilder 15. Joel Edwards 16. Adam Cuthbertson 17. Alex McKinnon

1. William Zillman 2. Kevin Gordon 3. Jamal Idris 4. Beau Champion 5. David Mead 6. Aidan Sezer 7. Jordan Rankin
8. Luke Bailey 9. Matt Srama 10. Nate Myles 11. Greg Bird 12. Mark Minichiello 13. Ashley Harrison

Interchange: 14. Luke Douglas 15. Brenton Lawrence 16. Ben Ridge 17. Luke O’Dwyer
Reserves: 18. Matt White

Referees
Shayne Hayne and Alan Shortall
Sideline Officials: Dave Abood and Nick Beashel
Video Referee: Phil Cooley

Related matches

Toyota Cup R12 - Knights v Titans @ Hunter, Sat 3:15pm
VB NSW Cup R13 - Canterbury Bulldogs (CBY) v Newcastle Knights (NEW) @ Belmore Sports Ground, Sat 3:00pm
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[The Showstopper]

Saturday 5:30 Pm is a gate take killer. Hate this time. Too many families still running around with sports and shopping on saturday evening and as a result are to busy to attend. That whinge aside this game is traditionally open and a good watch so it should be a close one.

 

[shane1970]

Wish we could have had our 2nd bye this weekend - the weekend just passed was bloody beautiful - NO 80min STRESS and getting the SHITS for inept performances - felt like weekends actually should !

 

[IanG]

Just hope we don't regard them as being push overs.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

As much as we should respect the opposition and not take them lightly I feel that we need to make a statement here and win this by a good margin, we can definetly do it too. I honestly think our next 5 weeks are crucial, we can win 4/5 of those (the Broncos game being the only one that I wouldn't have too much confidence about) and if we can get on a roll like that we'll be somewhere in the 8 where we can launch into the second half of the season. If we're still fumbling and bumbling our way to small wins over poor teams and being out classes against the better ones by then well I think we might be beyond saving for this year. But this game needs to be the start of something. We need an 80 minute performance and I really want to see our attack actually work for once this year.

 

[Jono078]

No team has done a job on the Titans recently.

I'll be happy with a win here. It's gonna be a tough game, but if we get our share of possession and hold the ball we should be able to win.

 

[Serc]

Surely we can't lose this one...

How positive of you Captain Emo

Saturday 5:30 Pm is a gate take killer. Hate this time. Too many families still running around with sports and shopping on saturday evening and as a result are to busy to attend.

It's not the worlds greatest game time, but it could be a lot worse! Remember the 3:30 game on Sat arvos they had 5-10 years ago?

 

[Mr_Knightside]

No team has done a job on the Titans recently.

I'll be happy with a win here. It's gonna be a tough game, but if we get our share of possession and hold the ball we should be able to win.

This is true, although generally they have had some second half points put on them a few times. The Titans' main issue is their attack though (a bit like us actually) they aren't scoring many points, I'll be very disappointed if we can't outscore them.

 

[Rod]

Nothing wrong with that Titans side on paper, bar maybe the inexperienced halves. We would be mugs to underestimate them, though I doubt we would be stupid enough to do that anyway.

 

[macavity]

would love to know what is actually required to lose your spot in this team....

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

1. Darius Boyd
2. James McManus
3. Junior Sa'u
4. Timana Tahu
5. Akuila Uate
6. Jarrod Mullen
7. Tyrone Roberts
8. Kade Snowden
9. Danny Buderus (c)
10. Willie Mason
11. Chris Houston
12. Zeb Taia
13. Neville Costigan
Interchange
14. Matt Hilder
15. Joel Edwards
16. Adam Cuthbertson
17. Alex McKinnon

I figured Sau wuld get a run. I know there is a lot of Sau-hate lately but the benefits I see with him:
1. Bennett Likes him and if he has confidence in him then he must see something. Sau is eager to improve and learn.
2. He can run strong and hard at the line and draw players. Sometime she can bust through. Improving his ability to offload sets up Uate on the outside.
3. Boyd chiming into the backline can mean we can utilise Sau's strengths and make up for his weaknesses through Boyd. Sau running as a decoy and maybe getting the odd pass. Mullen > Boyd> maybe Sau > Uate is a great link.
4. I reckon Sau has improved defense wise lately. 1st half of the last game he teamed well with Uate for consecutive tackles.

 

[Jobdog]

would love to know what is actually required to lose your spot in this team....

Do we really have any other blokes bashing the door down though?

 

[aqua_duck]

Korbin Sims, Likiliki
They couldn't be worse than Junior and Eddy

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Do we really have any other blokes bashing the door down though?

What we *should* have is blokes who are prepared to show us what they have in this game.
Contract negotiations have been put on hold and it's time for the likes of Edwards to really step up if they want to be around next season.
Add to that other players that may have something to prove and this could be a very interesting game.
I reckon Boyd will come back from SOO with more confidence or the need to prove himself. Bedsy might try and show why he deserves consideration for SOO2 (depending on the outcome of SOO1). Mason has been told by SOO selectors that he may be considered for SOO2 so he might try for a big game.

Mason in the start line-up is interesting. I'd also like to see him start the second half.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

We have Bedsy. That's all we need.

 

[perverse]

Sau is well established as a Bennett project, and he appears very pleased with his progress thus far. Sau turned down NZ in order to get in the best shape possible for this season (he called Bennett personally to tell him so before the last pre-season) and has been doing everything asked of him. he's obviously extremely eager to impress and make the most of himself at the moment. Bennett will show some faith in Junior for all his hard work - this is one of many things that make Bennett so brilliant. he'll show a player faith and ask for it to be rewarded. players that are the real deal and genuine will often repay that faith on the back of hard work.

we'll continue to see more of Sau. I think Bennett will set him up to be a proper international, not a "NZ have f**k all depth" international. at least i'm thinking that's the plan. Sau has some undeniably great attributes. Bennett sees a hidden diamond there, I think. he chose to keep him for another 2 years, and i hope it will pay off. i'm not his biggest fan, but i'm not a detractor of his either. he is definitely developing his passing game, and it might take a while to look world class... but the evidence has already been there that he's working on it.

 

[Bring it home Knights]

I read in the herald today that Prince is in doubt with a sprained ankle.

 

[Jobdog]

Prince wasn't named ...

 

[Yosh]

Sau is well established as a Bennett project, and he appears very pleased with his progress thus far. Sau turned down NZ in order to get in the best shape possible for this season (he called Bennett personally to tell him so before the last pre-season) and has been doing everything asked of him. he's obviously extremely eager to impress and make the most of himself at the moment. Bennett will show some faith in Junior for all his hard work - this is one of many things that make Bennett so brilliant. he'll show a player faith and ask for it to be rewarded. players that are the real deal and genuine will often repay that faith on the back of hard work.

we'll continue to see more of Sau. I think Bennett will set him up to be a proper international, not a "NZ have f**k all depth" international. at least i'm thinking that's the plan. Sau has some undeniably great attributes. Bennett sees a hidden diamond there, I think. he chose to keep him for another 2 years, and i hope it will pay off. i'm not his biggest fan, but i'm not a detractor of his either. he is definitely developing his passing game, and it might take a while to look world class... but the evidence has already been there that he's working on it.

I don't know if you are using that as a figure of speech or being serious but that's a big call to make if you are being serious.

If anything, I think Sau should be used like Tony Williams. He is too one dimensional and we aren't utilizing his best attributes. I wouldn't even use him every game. He'd be a tactical player who would be used in the squad rotation policy for games against teams who have outside backs who can't defend very well. Bring him on the last 15 minutes of each half and get him running decoys and lines off our halves straight at centres. Thats the answer.

 

[aqua_duck]

Likiliki is as hard to tackle as Sau is, only difference is Likiliki knows how to find the line