Round 15 vs Parramatta at EAS

[Rolla]

i can't believe the pasting you guys are giving the team tonight.

look, we were dreadful with the ball. that much is obvious... but were any of you expecting different? what stood out to me tonight, above all else, was our commitment in defence. that was easily our most committed game of the season, even over the dogs win in round 1. as sh*t as we were, the boys DID dig deep... and funnily enough they were rewarded for that by the football gods.

we're really missing a metre eater or 2 in our team... both of our second rowers are more like backs... and run sideways far too often looking to create opportunities. both of them need to pull their heads in a bit and do a bit of running in a straight line. they both had really bad nights with their hands, probably as a result of trying to push the pass and the offload rather than tuck it under and go forward more than anything else. they try and create a try off every play... and are impatient. they are both also very skillful players and if coached properly they will shine (or if the front row does their job better, tbh).

i'm not trying to underplay the fact that we were shocking in attack, but that's really the least of my concerns. i know we can score points. i've seen it plenty of times this year. what i didn't know is whether we could dig in deep and defend. honestly, we showed tonight that we can. Parra were ordinary with the ball in hand too, but they did have their chances and we turned them away. a lot of the drop ball tonight was also from very heavy contact, and our boys muscled up in that respect too. aside from the drop ball, i thought their forward pack was pretty bloody good tonight. whoever was trying to tell me that Poore isn't a good front rower a few weeks back needs to have their head read, too. he's been in bad form this year... but he's still got class in him.

i thought our commitment was excellent tonight... and i was really proud of the effort in spite of the ineptitude with the ball.

Top post, got to agree with all of it.

 

[Whats Doing]

We played sh!t but still won. I will take winning ugly anytime that losing great.

Anyone who thought Gidley was poor is kidding. He made 226 metres FFS and the most of any player.

Rogers was sh!t in attack and must have cost us the ball at least 5 times but credit is that he defended very well.

Special mention to Edwards. I thought he did really well considering he was not on the paddock long. I would not take too much of the stats as he was not on the field that long. He also gave a good off load in traffic and defended very well.

 

[whats up doc]

haha good stuff knights. Haven't really been much of a knights supporter but you guys sure showed that dog Timana.

 

[whats up doc]

Yeah sucked in Tahu, you gutless merkin.

What's the bet his pathetic little tanty tonight will somehow be turned into the Knights players being racist against him...

"Many thought that last night's outburst from Tahu was a result of the buildup over the last week. However The Daily Telegraph can reveal that after a tackle, Knights player Barney Gumble accused Tahu of being 'soft', in relation to his exile of the NSW Origin camp a week ago. This condoning of what Andrew Johns's racist comments by Gumble set Tahu off, as the final straw that broke the camel's back."

The next day's headlines:

"Knights Still Racist"

My thoughts exactly. The racist card is just being pulled out far too often. I'm chinese, but i wouldnt give two sh*ts no matter how many times you called me "ching chong chinaman", squinted ur eyes at me or said two "wongs don't make a white". Heck, i make so many racist jokes against my own race. Am I racist?

In the words of the most eloquent Chopper Read: "Ha-Ha-Harden the f**k up".

 

[Serc]

Roops, wrong account son!

I don't think he's ever really had a go at Rogers...a bit of a fail there

what stood out to me tonight, above all else, was our commitment in defence. that was easily our most committed game of the season, even over the dogs win in round 1. as sh*t as we were, the boys DID dig deep... and funnily enough they were rewarded for that by the football gods.

i'm not trying to underplay the fact that we were shocking in attack, but that's really the least of my concerns. i know we can score points. i've seen it plenty of times this year. what i didn't know is whether we could dig in deep and defend. honestly, we showed tonight that we can.

Spot on!

we're really missing a metre eater or 2 in our team... both of our second rowers are more like backs... and run sideways far too often looking to create opportunities.

I think Taia and Paterson would play well all the time off the back of decent go forward for that reason...and if our props made some of the best metres in the comp, they would both look like superstars.

 

[Adsy]

The two big positives out of this game:

1. We got the two points which at the end of the day is all that matters. and,
2. Our team may have just turned the corner in terms of having a dig in defence.

 

[Rolla]

Can't wait til we defend well and attack well in the one game.

 

[Matt23]

Can't wait til we defend well and attack well in the one game.

Me either

 

[Jobdog]

Can't wait til we defend well and attack well in the one game.

Don't hold your breath

 

[Serc]

Can't wait til we defend well and attack well in the one game.

We'll win the comp then.

















:sarcasm:

haha

But on a more serious note, I'd like to give Junior Sau a mention...he made a number of his trademark bullocking runs tonight, and seemed to show a bit of a return to form. Keep it up mate!

 

[Jobdog]

And he also passed :crazy:

 

[Rolla]

But on a more serious note, I'd like to give Junior Sau a mention...he made a number of his trademark bullocking runs tonight, and seemed to show a bit of a return to form. Keep it up mate!

Just wish he was doin it with jimmy mac outside, then less is lost when he doesnt pass.

Jimmy needs someone inside with a good running game so that side can still have an attacking option. Aku needs someone who can set up a winger... Seems all to obvious to me but obviously it isnt

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Well i'm happy.. I went into the game with 6/6 tips and had the eels tipped, half hour before kick off i had a gut feeling and changed my tip to the knights to get 7/7 for the round.. Missed the margin game by 4 points though.

Anyway, my gripe is the way we handled the wet. Mullen NEEDS to play way smarter. No long cut out balls, apply pressure, kick the ball to the corners and try to force a mistake. His 5th tackle options were pretty bad. He needed to keep it simple, have some decoys and guys running angles and hitting holes. Degois needs to run from dummy half more and our forwards are really bad at getting quick plays to help him out. We are at our best when we get consecutive quick plays where degois and gidley can carve up the middle then spread it wide.

Oh, and our forwards need to start having 100m+ games. At the moment our forwards must be making the least metres in the comp

 

[Serc]

Stats time:

Gidley 244m (25 runs, incl 10 kick returns for 123m)
Sau 164m (18 runs)
Uate 114m (14 runs, incl 3 kick returns for 42m)
McManus 102m (15 runs, incl 3 kick returns for 29m)
MacDougall 101m (8 runs, 1 line break)
Cross 94m (12 runs)
Paterson 89m (12 runs)
Tolar 88m (11 runs)

Tackle breaks
Sau 8
Paterson 5
Gidley 5
Uate 4

Offloads
Fa'aoso 2
Paterson 2

Errors
Rogers 3
Taia 3
Paterson 3

Hitups
Tolar 9 for 72m
Cross 9 for 63m
Taia 8 for 55m
Paterson 5 for 37m
Fa'aoso 5 for 36m

I try to avoid putting my own negative opinions in here - but these hitups are sh*t, I wonder where we'd be without our outside backs making all the metres! The meterage stats of our outside backs look like what you'd see when a team wins by say 30 points to 10...actually if you swapped Parra's forwards stats with ours, now we're looking good! While this is half a compliment to Tolar, you know you're in trouble when he is leading the hitup stats, and his efforts in attack look great when compared to a certain Richie Fa'aoso!

Tackles
Hilder 35 (missed 3)
Taia 34 (missed 3)
Cross 29 (missed 1)
Tolar 27 (missed 0)
De Gois 27 (missed 2)
Mullen 26 (missed 3)
Taufua 26 (missed 1)
Fa'aoso 24 (missed 3)

I highlighted Cross and Tolar because they generally (Tolar in particular) make their fair share of tackles while on the field, and rarely miss many. Also De Gois missed bugger all today compared to his average 4-5 missed each week this season, and Mullen gets a mention for not only holding his own in being forced to make 26 tackles, I also noticed him making a couple of critical ones (eg: nabbing Tahu when he made that break), as well as some quality tackles (for someone in the halves).

Nothing too significant in terms of missed tackles, though Aku missed 3 and made 1.

Also Joel Edwards stats - 24 mins, 4 runs for 25m, 2 hitups for 14m, 1 offload, no errors, no penalties, 16 tackles, none missed. Pretty much what I'd have expected going off what others have said about him in the past, a solid debut.

 

[Pika]

Great defence tonight (we needed it given our attack).

Gidley was good.

Pack was excellent in defence. Still lacked go forward.

BIHK, Patto is low on form and still a dangerous option on the edge. Taia starting to get back to his best form after his knee injury. Mark T has been improving this year in his carries but was well down last night. He is the hardest hitting defender we have and I will keep him for that alone.

Special mention to Joel Edwards. Worked tierlessly when he was on. Was solid in his carries.

Have watched the video and was he is unlucky to have a missed tackle in the stat column.

His defence was great considering the step up. Technical when it needed to be, but a few times he put some serious contact which is excellent.

If 100%, I want him on the bench for the rest of the year.

Yosh, Wes on the bench allows us to play a genuine fullback and move Gids to the halves. Cant do that with Mika. If you mention Aku at fullback in last nights conditions I will put you ignore for all eternity

A few complaints. Three ref decisions last night need to be looked at (although Finch will just send back his usual dribble)-

Cross being penalised for lying in the ruck in the second half.

Pattos swinging arm high shot.

Tahu not being called for the exact same thing on McManus in the second half.

I can cop a dud call, but consitency is the key.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Special mention to Sau for putting a huge palm on big Fui Fui in the back end of the 1st half

 

[sneaky_is_here]

Cross being penalised for lying in the ruck in the second half.

The ref had a plain view of this. Like we all did. He just didn't understand the rule. Advantage was given to the team with the ball.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Whats the go last night with Fui Fui playing most of the game in the Centre's and even the wing? Good work on Sau for containing him I have to say, put some real solid tackles on him.

Special mention to Hayne as well...... Not saying his not a very good player but her certainly tricked Parramatta into giving him GI $.

 

[Rolla]

A great knock from gidley but the more i think about all the meters he made the more it worries me. With jimmy back we now have two pretty inneffective ball returners out of three. With Aku's form coaches will be doing everything they can to keep the ball away from him (i think he had three kick returns) and now they have 3/4 of the field to kick to for an easy out. I liked that with Coop in it was Akus kick returns or dummy half runs on one side or Coop crashing back (usually with a one two punch with Sau out of dummy half) on the other. Made for a great start to the set, quality rather than quantity and more pressure on the kicker....

Just a thought anyway

 

[Rolla]

Can't wait til we defend well and attack well in the one game.

I know quoting myself is a little strange but...

Does anybody thing that this problem could have something to do with the fact that we lack a lot of complete players? i think ultimately it is a team problem but lets look at it individually for a moment.

We have a forward pack full of blokes that can defend and offer little in attack (Tolar, Hilder, Simmo, Taufua)we have had a winger and a centre who can defend not attack (Jimmy/Lulia) we were blessed with a half who tries to attack but cannot and doesnt try to defend (scotty), Rogers who consistantly defends and sometimes can attack, Two wingers (Aku, Vuna) who can attack but can't defend.

Our few players that can hold their own arent really fit and firing (Mullen, Degoise, Zeb, Pato, Gids, doogs, Cross)And then there are the few who are average at both attack annd defence (Ciro, Wes, Mcdonell)

Is it any surprise that we can't put together a strong attacking and defending performance at once? or am i just looking for problems that arent really there?