'This club is a rabble' thread #5,672...

[Apey]

 

[Joker's Wild]

His faux success on the back of the Qld 8-0 run got him hired

Stupidity is our clubs moniker

 

[Rod]

Apart from all the off-field issues, it also feels like our footy IQ is consistently shocking and never improves. It might sound arrogant or delusional or whatever but I feel like most of the decisions that our players make on the field, I could make better ones. Cameron Smith isn't the biggest or fastest but he's smarter than our whole team combined.

- Gagai isn't the biggest bloke, why would you run bolt upright when you're trying to get out of your own in goal?
- Why do our blokes chase bombs and not even look up?
- Why do we keep going one out off the ruck when it's clear the defence is rushing up on the first receiver?
- One of our reserve props and supposed senior players runs the ball from dummy half down the blind on the last tackle.

Our inability to adjust to what the Broncos were doing in the second half was ridiculous. They did exactly the same thing for an entire half.

Seriously, how many players do we have that you had confidence they would always make the right decision? Maybe McManus? Scott is probably one of the most football savvy blokes in the team and he spends most of his time smashing blokes and niggling, now that's a scary thought.

Mullen shows glimpses (and Randall looks like he may possess a brain) but by and large whenever I watch us I can't shake the feeling that we approach the game with an amateur mindset.

 

[perverse]

Mullen on a good day and Snowden have the best footy brains in our team, imo. Sad when one of your halves some of the time, and your starting prop can be talked about as the only brains in your team. I agree that Randell may or may not possess a brain at this point... but has done some savvy things in his short stint thus far. Gagai also does have a good footy brain, I'll back him even though he had a stinker tonight. There's a lot of class in that lad, but we'll probably never see it fully realised while he plays for us.

Everyone keep salivating over Mamo getting his shot... but f**k... he's already renowned as being a brain explosion merchant. Imagine throwing him in with this mob?

 

[Knightmare]

The finals run in 2013 showed what this group of players were capable of. Most are still here

How it's all gone so far backwards is astounding

I remember back in 2008 in a match against Parra we were thrashing them and Gus made the comment that "It takes 18 months to build a culture at a club, and 18 months to dismantle it" (a less-than subtle observation on the Smith-Hagan switch, and who'd got the better deal out of it).

It's near 18 months ago (I believe) that Uncle Wayne realised he alone wasn't a hope in f**king Hell of turning the joint around by himself- even Jack Gibson couldn't turn the Sharks around after all- and began devoting the time he'd been previously spending on working out our game plans, to chatting to some old contacts at Red Hill and asking Darius Boyd if he'd like to spend more time at the Normanby again?

 

[perverse]

:lol: just about any picture of him works.

 

[I Bleed Maroon]

Big respect, Knightmare. It would've been easy to troll you for a massive wall of text but your passion for your club is more admirable. It's obvious the Knights are in need of a cleanout from head to toe. Board, coach, playing group, the whole lot.

Dare I ask why Andrew Johns sees fit to shit on Newcastle for being "embarrassing", yet he's seemingly not doing anything to help as a legend of the club. He's too busy coaching his homies at the northern beaches

 

[Mr48Volts]

The boys club strikes again. Hagan is a fraud, Stone has been found wanting and Midley would not be a CEO of a chook raffle anywhere else but Newcastle. Maybe the players sense all this and think, why bother putting in, as frustrating as it is for us, maybe they feel the same way. Still it's hard work supporting them when they have as much passion for footy as Ellen De Generes would have for room full of male strippers. Thanks for sending me to bed angry last night Newie, top effort that.

 

[The Showstopper]

I think quietly that Wayne would have been a little heartbroken watching us implode like that. He would take no pleasure in beating us. He just isn't that sort of gentleman. The whole situation is driving fans away and yet the Club thinks we are in a transitional phase. The same one we have been in for 10 years.

Where is Butterfield? Where is Chief? Where is Matty Johns? Oh yes that is right. All have paid jobs fronting their own post football lives where the Knights are a footnote on the resume. These gentleman and the others like them are guilty. Guilty of supporting this mediocrity for fear of offending their mates. Chief is so passive it is infuriating. Butterfield speaks out but is a fence sitter for self preservation's sake. He is in the local media and we all know that the Herald uses this club to push sales, johns is too busy being a pseudo comedian who ran out of being funny ten years ago. We need a Ray Price or Brett Kenny. People who will mouth of publicly about the pain they are in watching this shit. We have no hope when the NRL have us by the balls. No one can challenge this board.

 

[Noname36]

I don't really know where we go from here. Everyone we've brought in coaching wise post Warren Ryan has failed miserably. We look back on the Smith years favourably because he's the only coach that could make the tough the decisions and got them to have a go but I think if we all look back deep down we knew he was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode like he did at all his other clubs.

What we'd do for someone like a Gus Gould. Our problems go beyond head coach. We need some proper leadership in higher places. Where the hell is this new board? I don't think I've heard a word about them since they were chosen.

 

[macavity]

Our strong old boys culture holds us back. No one wants to rock the boat or say a cross word or it might be awkward on old boys day.

 

[ryana87]

Realistically.....is there anything we, as fans can do.......start a petition....take signs to live games....protest........a lot of smart people on this forum alone can see the issues

We can birch and moan on the official knights social media outlets all we want, but do we honestly believe that anyone in a position of power takes this comments seriously

I'm as frustrated as the next fan here. But I feel that I can do nothing about it except sit on my hands and hope that it all fixes itself over the next few years

 

[slotmachine]

lower your expectations, care less, be happy you have a team to support that will finish between 8th and 13th instead of the bears/steelers/wests etc

 

[Nuffy]

Great post Knightmare, exactly how I feel.

It staggers me that the club can be so badly run and accept mediocrity so easily.

I heard Jason Taylor speak on TripleM yesterday and he pulled no punches about what was wrong with the Tigers and what he needed to do, I compared that with Stones press conferences and they are poles apart. One coach is honest and accountable and one is just phoning it in.

There is a cabal of self serving people around that club, the media doesn't ask tough questions, the board is invisible, the CEO isn't accountable, the coach doesn't hold the players accountable and we have a director of football who wouldn't get a start anywhere else. The NRL don't care as we are only needed to make up the numbers and the average supporter just wants a team of locals because they are "our boys".

For the last three years, the Herald ran a weekly campaign against Bennett and Tinkler, we've dropped 6 from 7 and there isn't so much as a peep from Dillon et al.

Christ on a cracker we are determined to be the next North Sydney Bears........................

 

[Knightmare]

Realistically.....is there anything we, as fans can do.......start a petition....take signs to live games....protest........a lot of smart people on this forum alone can see the issues

We can birch and moan on the official knights social media outlets all we want, but do we honestly believe that anyone in a position of power takes this comments seriously

I'm as frustrated as the next fan here. But I feel that I can do nothing about it except sit on my hands and hope that it all fixes itself over the next few years

Is there anything we can do?

After I punched out that long-winded rant when I came home last night, although I expected many to agree with me I was awaiting derision from people accusing me of being 'emo' 'not a real fan' 'fair-weather' etc.

But you know what?

There has been none of that. It's been an unusual feeling of relief with every new post that's appeared where somebody has said (in different ways) "Me too".

I'm beginning to think of copying this thread and sending it to the club- if not them, somebody in the NRL media who would give enough of a shit to read it and give a public voice to the discontent that comes through so clearly across just 3 pages so far.

The question is- who?

 

[aqua_duck]

Is there anything we can do?

After I punched out that long-winded rant when I came home last night, although I expected many to agree with me I was awaiting derision from people accusing me of being 'emo' 'not a real fan' 'fair-weather' etc.

But you know what?

There has been none of that. It's been an unusual feeling of relief with every new post that's appeared where somebody has said (in different ways) "Me too".

I'm beginning to think of copying this thread and sending it to the club- if not them, somebody in the NRL media who would give enough of a shit to read it and give a public voice to the discontent that comes through so clearly across just 3 pages so far.

The question is- who?

Problem is, more in the media are self serving, and because Stone hasn't done anything to be in anyone's bad books, no one in the media will care how bad a job he is doing likewise Gidley and Hagan. What we need is a massive campaign with a catching twitter tag, but the prOblem is there are way too many clueless idiots amongst our supporter base or blindly support everything the club does and accept and even embrace mediocrity

 

[Knightmare]

Perhaps there's a way of engaging them too, though? Like asking them what exactly it is that makes them proud of the Knights or of being a Knights fan/ Novocastrian? Then when they answer, asking them what evidence they see of that in the current set-up of the organisation or the results that have come since 2001? Something along the lines of- we understand they're proud to be represented at NRL level, but are they proud of being represented by THIS? Ask them to imagine, for a moment, that the Newcastle Jets' fortunes are what had happened to the Knights, play-by-play (Champions to twice wooden-spooners, a passionate core supporter base to a dwindling crowd divided and demanding answers etc). See what they think, and then highlight how damn close the Knights are to being a carbon copy of that penthouse to the outhouse story. Ask them, again, if that's what they want to associate with?

We can't wake these people up from their 'Yay team' slumber with a torch light in their faces. We'll have to do it by turning up the dimmer switch patiently. It's worth the effort IMO, even for the chance that we might see the sunlight again...

 

[JW]

Knightmare, interesting post mate.

I'm a Broncos supporter, but have been a local down here for a long time and have been going to Broncos games in Newy since the 90s.

Have to say that - generally speaking - in my experience these issues are being reflected in the comparative mellowness of the fans going to the games as well. The walk from the car through the streets of Lambton to the stadium was always charged with atmosphere, intensity and excitement from the Knights fans and plenty of banter to boot. And then the energy inside the stadium was something else again. And this was usually despite how they were traveling during the season.

As the years have gone by though, it's come to the point where it's been like going to and from a funeral - even if there's a 20K+ crowd on the cards. Eerily casual and subdued. The people still show, but that overall buzz has almost completely vanished.

Back in the day it was always a thrill to see the Knights get knocked around a bit in the results, but as a local and someone who knows how important a strong Knights club is to the fabric of the region, it does sadden and concern me to see this constant showing mediocrity on and off the field. And although the extent to which it may be related is arguable, the changes I've seen in the overall demeanour of the fans at games shows how worn out the fanbase is and makes me think back with fond memories of how things used to be with the Knights and the battles we had.

I don't pretend to be up to speed with all the issues, but I do know that you blokes deserve better, and I honestly hope it comes sooner rather than later.

 

[Knightmare]

Good points raised JW. I also used to enjoy the walk from Broadmeadow station to Marathon/ EAS- even despite the crossing of open storm water drains and that massive, boggy grass field leading up to the ground. The closer you got to the ground, the more fellow fans you'd see and the more the anticipation would build.

But I think the change in attitude was best exemplified by the crowd last night. Back in the day, the Broncos was a huge game and you'd never see less than 15k at the very least when they came to town. We also used to have a big rivalry with Manly, but now it feels like even our own fans couldn't give a shit about it.

Probably because the fans of those other teams stopped giving a shit about us ages ago. It's only years later that I begin to understand why Manly supporters take such pride in being hated on universally, season after season...

 

[slotmachine]

Manly don't see us as rivals anymore as we're not in their league.

It's all about beating the storm for them.