Well, if the Knights keep losing, it will be deja vu of 2007 all over again. They just cannot, CANNOT, afford to let crowd figures slip down to the 15,000 and sub-15,000 range, as that will hurt them very badly, financially (as was shown last year, recording a $1.2 million loss from the $800,000 profit the previous year - a $2 million turnaround!). Especially during this time, when theres been all this talk about Sydney clubs struggling to survive. 15,489 is very dissapointing, not to say the least, and of those that were there, the crowd seemed extremely unvocal until the last 10 mins.
Too bad we weren't playing the Dogs this week. With all the players they've got missing, they were mauled 46-0 by the Storm. If a lot of those players return for next weeks game, look out! We've got one hell of a tough match on our hands.
I'm not prepared to write off our season, JUST, YET! The next two games away from home (we've only won one game away this year, and that was at Gosford, which is virtually another home game for the Knights) will be very tough vs Bulldogs and Cowboys. IMO, these next two games will decide our season. We need to hopefully win both of those games, so we're back at 6-6 (from our current 4-6), or, AT LEAST, ONE of them. If we lose these next two to go to a 4-8 record, you can virtually kiss our top 8 chances goodbye. If the Knights let it go to 4-8 at the halfway mark of the season, I can't see us being there in September.
If Gidley is available next week, we BADLY need him for the game vs Bulldogs (he's been lacking a lot of match fitness). We really need all of our key players out there now, irrespective of rep duties. The club that pays these huge contracts to players and gets nothing in return for having those players out for rep games needs to be first priority, especially when they're struggling or not in a good position (with us being 4-6 now, when we should be 5-5). The individual is NOT above the club, and should never be. For what glory is it to seek it all about accolades and records, when your club isn't going well? I have a very huge beef about this topic on rep games. Players like Buderus, who have been there done that, won S.O.O, captained S.O.O, played for Australia. In their final year, like what happened with Andrew Johns, Laurie Daley, Gorden tallis, Shane Webcke, Bob Lindner, and Brad Fittler (although he did make a brief comeback in 2004), you'dve thought that players who know its their last year would forget about all the limelight and fully 110% devout themselves to the club. NOO! Clearly not the case. All about pride and ego, when the club is the ones paying their salaries.
Good news is that we do have Hilder coming back next week, so he'll easily replace Buderus.
And again, I've said it before, but the Knights need to have another of those games, like we did vs Parramatta last year, where we get off to a good start, and go on with the job. So far, the only game this year where we've really shot out of the blocks was against the Gold Coast. It just sickens me to see the Knights getting off to a lethargic and unethusiastic first half, and letting the first try in. It almost feels like the Knights have to be in a losing situation, before they really knuckle down in the 2nd half to try and win the game.
