Round 5 | Storm 34-22 Knights @ AAMI Park | Fri March 30 @ 7.30pm

[Whats Doing]

We would have beaten 12 teams out of 14 teams in the NRL with an effort like that.

Thats right Yosh. Would have beaten all except Storm and Broncos who at this stage of the year are the 2 standout teams.

As I said last week, we need to temper the excitement as the quality of the opposition has a lot to do with how well you play.

Our defence tonight was as good as it was against the Dogs. The difference is the Storm know how to handle pressure applied and remain calm and it was the same against the Broncs. However we dropped the ball because of the pressure applied by the Storm and their clinical execution in attack made us pay. It is this pressure we need to learn how to handle as we made some very soft mistakes.

Besides being able to absorb pressure and perform, the other real difference is the structure of the Storm's attack in our 20. They are so clinical and are much more advanced in this aspect.

However the signs are good and I am sure Bennett will concentrate on these aspects where we have the potential to match the top teams.

I thought Kade was exceptional tonight as well as Jimmy. Tahu was strong in attack but let in a couple of soft tries in the 2nd half. Not sure how much the shoulder is hurting Kurt but I didn't see much involvement nor guiding the team in attack.

 

[Serc]

Boyd better pick it up. Are we seriously paying him 400? Id like to see some more value from that money this game please. That hospital pass to Sau was just cruel

I was surprised that he didn't pop the ball over the top of Sau's head out to an unmarked Uate...was in a similar position to later on when Slater stopped him. Definitely worth re-watching that movement if you have the game recorded.

Billy Slater is the best player in the game... Who can stop Uate one on one 2m out from the line...

Speaking of Uate & Slater...I reckon Aku stuffed it up by stepping infield and risked Slater holding onto him...which he did, giving the rest of the cover defence time to catch up. If he did a Nightingale (from tonights other game) and made a massive dive for the corner post he was in I reckon!

Don't whinge about the refs too often but there was a number of bad and unlucky calls that went against us, mostly at inopportune moments...the best part about this is (as others have said) the way we ignored it and got back to playing footy most of the time. Though the 5 mins following the howler with McManus batting the ball back infield/Gidley penalty was a poor.

Here's also the press conference with Bennett and Houston:

http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/039wasn039t-all-doom-and-gloom039/video-e6frf3ou-1226314974378

 

[Yosh]

Seriously, I know I'm a crazy optermist but tonights performace actually made me happy. NOT the result but the performance overall.

Phil Gould said the other week that WB coached teams might lose but you'll never beat them again the same way. I believe that. Tonight Melb beat us amazing set plays 20m out from our line following our mistakes. I can garuntee that the next time we face Melb, we don't be dropping a single ball.

Melb's set plays are amazing. They have average players, playing an amazing system that get the job done. Cronk and CSmith have amazing kicking games. I cannot understand just how amazing they were today. We had an amazing openning set. Then Cronk trumps us with a 40/20. Another time we defend brilliantly, Cronk gets a repeat set.

I know I'm being biased but Mullen is potentially about 230983 times more talented than Cronk. Mullen on his day will make Cronk look like George Carmont playing halfback.

We're slowly looking like the best team in the comp. I know I've always been very optomistic/crazy but jeez I'm extremely excited with the team we have now. We competed the whole 80 minutes. If you only watched bits of the game, without knowing the score or time, you would say that we looked on top for most of the match. We made amazing metres through our forward, our outside backs looked dangerous and Mullen looks like a different player this year. We have it in us to be the top team, maybe not this year, but definietely next year.

Aku didn't get much results but looked fu*king fantastic in the 2nd half with some amazing runs.

Mullen is playing well. I honestly feel, if he was in the 6 jersey for Melb, he'd be the world's best player.

Kade... What can I say... I think I'm in love.

Bedsy. You desereve a premiership. I know most people would disagree with me but I hope he plays for the blues this year. He is amazing. I don't know enough English to describe this bloke because, I'm gonna say it, in my eyes, he is as good as Joey. What Joey had for talent and skill, Bedsy makes it up with passion, love and commitment.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Yosh, that sounds like a drunken rant. But I mostly agree with what you said.

 

[Yosh]

Yosh, that sounds like a drunken rant. But I mostly agree with what you said.

Wow!! Yeah i've had a little too much tonight lol hahaha!!!

Knights forever bitches!!!!

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

Watching melbourne storm play is like watching the stuff they do at the olympics..and that makes me a little uncomfortable!!.
NOT going upstairs after ryan hoffman(dont get me started on this bastard and the rort)offloaded was a disgrace.

 

[Jobdog]

Another thing; we're five rounds in with a 2-3 win/loss ratio. I think that's a pass mark because we all knew the first five rounds would be difficult. When you look at four of the five opponents we've played, they occupy rungs 1-4 on the ladder.

I think the next five rounds are slightly easier and if we reverse our win/loss ratio to 3-2 over the next five weeks we'll be well-placed after 10 rounds all things considered.

 

[Rolla]

Sorry if i'm echoing what has been said already but this is how i saw it.

Negatives.

Our goal line defence was no match for their silky smooth set plays.

The refereeing, i hate banging on about the ref cos i know how it looks, but they made three attrocious calls last night and 2 led to points. Slater's try was a forward pass/roll/drop from Hoffman. Gids' backchat penalty came from a bizare call giving them the scrum. And in the first half the call to let the guy play the ball instead of giving us a very attacking scrum? the ball was lost in the initial contanct and they said he was passing after held? grrrrr.

positives.

For mine we dominated the other 80 meters of the park. I can barely remember us having to kick from our own half cos our pack was so dominant. Throw in that our backs were making line breaks left right and centre. Tahu and aku got at least a few line breaks each.

Our discipline was generally great, we scored off two pinpoint short kicks. The storm will know that it was only their set pieces that got them home (and a bit of luck).

I honestly think attacking our line was the only area they looked close to us (but they are amazing at that). You can say long kicks, but we didn't really have to do any of that so who knows. To have our forwards and backs dominate, and our halves play well, and still not win..... that shows how much class Melbourne have.

 

[Rolla]

On another note, as much as House has been going really well and had a great year last year, he is starting to annoy me out wide. I would like to see him in the 13 still but his inability to pass/offload/break the line/beat a tackle is getting frustrating. I think it is standing out more for me now that Zeb is finding form and we can see how second rowers should play. House brings a lot to the team and has to start, but he is most valuable in the middle in my opinion.

 

[God-King Dean]

I must admit, I did take joy in seeing Tinkler's 8th chin temble with frustration.

 

[strewth_mate]

There was an incident last night where Melbourne put up a bomb, Slater came flying through and Boyd turned around and let it bounce off his back, from memory. After Nine went to the replay Melbourne had the ball 20m out.

What happened? Was it a knock on from Boyd or did we lose the ball elsewhere during the replay? Thought the commentators were saying Slater knocked on. Just curious, I couldn't figure that one out.

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

Slater jumped early and took him out..but becauseeeee itsss the amaziinnggggg slater and cant do anything wrong apparently...play on!..bastards

 

[Serc]

There was an incident last night where Melbourne put up a bomb, Slater came flying through and Boyd turned around and let it bounce off his back, from memory. After Nine went to the replay Melbourne had the ball 20m out.

What happened? Was it a knock on from Boyd or did we lose the ball elsewhere during the replay? Thought the commentators were saying Slater knocked on. Just curious, I couldn't figure that one out.

Yeah you can hear the refs say on the mics that Slater knocked it on, but while they were doing the replay of Slater/Boyd...we knocked it on/lost it etc (can hear the crowd cheer when that happened) and the Storm were on the attack again when the replay finished.

Here's the team stats:

Completions
Knights 25/34
Storm 27/35

Possession
Knights 45%
Storm 55%

Tackles/missed
Knights 289/19
Storm 269/21

All runs/all metres
Knights 150/1206m
Storm 174/1182m

Offloads
Knights 11
Storm 13

Errors
Knights 9
Storm 6

Line breaks
Knights 5
Storm 7

Penalties conceded
Knights 3
Storm 7

Kicks/kick metres
Knights 16/345m
Storm 23/753m

Hitups/hitup metres
Knights 60/506m
Storm 73/508m

Edit: Note we would've only given away 1 penalty all game without the Gidley x2 in the 2nd half.

 

[Big Tim]

Watching melbourne storm play is like watching the stuff they do at the olympics..and that makes me a little uncomfortable!!.
NOT going upstairs after ryan hoffman(dont get me started on this bastard and the rort)offloaded was a disgrace.

I hate watching Melbourne, luckily I only watch them if we play so I only have to put up with their questionable antics once or twice a year.

It is clear that they are taught to play the game to the referees guidelines, and then push it a bit. The Lowrie penalty was laughable. He just kept holding the player after he stood up and was ready to play the ball, and because the ref didnt call held, he just didnt let him go.

IMO they dont play the game in the spirit that it was designed.

Another point I found laughable was Costigan's try. If you watch the Ryles tackle on Tets, he spends too much time trying to drop his knee/shin into Tets head, that he forgets that Costigan can pick the ball up and score. Play like a merkn, have your pants pulled down so everyone can see your merkin.

Despite all that, it was a good, frustrating hit out. We played as well as we were allowed, but key mistakes cost us.

 

[Serc]

Player stats:

Uate 209m (16 runs, 1 offload, 1 line break)
Snowden 110m (12 runs, 2 offloads)
McManus 103m (9 runs, 1 offload, 2 line breaks)
Mullen 99m (10 runs, 2 try assists, 1 line break)
Sau 92m (13 runs)

Tackle breaks
Tahu 5
Uate 5
Snowden 3

Line break assists
Tahu 2

Errors
Uate 2

Offloads
Tahu 3

Forwards hitup stats
Uate 8 for 107m (80 mins) (this includes that ~40m line break that he made)
Snowden 6 for 59m (56 mins)
Sau 6 for 49m (80 mins)
Fa'aoso 8 for 43m (33 mins)
Cuthbertson 5 for 41m (31 mins)
Costigan 5 for 36m (44 mins - of which 14 was spent at hooker)
Houston 5 for 36m (80 mins)
Taia 5 for 34m (66 mins)
Tetevano 4 for 30m (30 mins)
McKinnon 2 for 21m (46 mins)
Edwards 2 for 17m (30 mins)

Tackles
Houston 40 (missed 0)
Buderus 35 (missed 1)
Snowden 30 (missed 3)
Edwards 26 (missed 0)
McKinnon 23 (missed 1, 0 ineffective)
Costigan 20 (missed 0)

Missed tackles
Sau 3 (made 12)
Tahu 3 (made 13)
Tetevano 2 (made 9)

Buderus made 9 dummy half runs for 56m too, which I think is the most of those (and most metres) he has made so far this year.

 

[Apey]

stats look pretty even besides the errors/penalties

We're a f**king joke. No professionalism whatsoever. Sau kicking for goal? f**king hilarious. Dumb shits.

lol, I thought it was a bit unprofessional at the time as well, but who else was going to kick it? Our first 3 choices weren't on the field.

We're slowly looking like the best team in the comp.

:lol::lol::lol:

Yeah I like the team I support too.

I think the next five rounds are slightly easier and if we reverse our win/loss ratio to 3-2 over the next five weeks we'll be well-placed after 10 rounds all things considered.

agreed, Dragons, Broncos and Storm in the first 5 games looked tough on paper, and Bulldogs were travelling better than expected.

 

[RABK]

Plus the sharks can beat any side when Gallen is making 250m per game and Carney gets the ball 40 or 50 times in the oppositions half - they are definitely a fringe top 8 team at worst and we've won 4 games at shark park in the last 15 years?

We've had a very tough first 5 games. We'll put 40 on Parra next week.

 

[jonno_knights]

Plus the sharks can beat any side when Gallen is making 250m per game and Carney gets the ball 40 or 50 times in the oppositions half - they are definitely a fringe top 8 team at worst and we've won 4 games at shark park in the last 15 years?

We've had a very tough first 5 games. We'll put 40 on Parra next week.

I'd think we have won more than 4, unless we were woeful there from 1998-2003. Personally I've seen the knights win 3 times (2003, 2009, 2012), and we beat them 18-0 there last year. Ive seen them lose in 2005 and 2010, and they lost in 2008 (aku's debut). So our recent record there hasnt been too bad, pretty even.

But yeh, no doubt we have had the toughest draw, would be nicer to be 3-2 though.

 

[Jono078]

Plus the sharks can beat any side when Gallen is making 250m per game and Carney gets the ball 40 or 50 times in the oppositions half - they are definitely a fringe top 8 team at worst and we've won 4 games at shark park in the last 15 years?

We've had a very tough first 5 games. We'll put 40 on Parra next week.

f**king hope so. Everyone else I've talked to gets the feeling Parra will beat us and it's annoying to even think about it!

 

[RABK]

I'd think we have won more than 4, unless we were woeful there from 1998-2003. Personally I've seen the knights win 3 times (2003, 2009, 2012), and we beat them 18-0 there last year. Ive seen them lose in 2005 and 2010, and they lost in 2008 (aku's debut). So our recent record there hasnt been too bad, pretty even.

But yeh, no doubt we have had the toughest draw, would be nicer to be 3-2 though.

Maybe we have won 6 or 7 - i just recall us playing some horrible football there over the years. I seem to remember that in the 98-03 period you mentioned that shark park was very much a bogey ground for all sides in the comp, us included.

You don't need to over analyse my comment to get the point of what i'm saying.