Tonight's Game

[Bicey_18]

Well done boys!! A very spirited performance tonight away from home...

 

[reginald.p]

Reasonably happy about tonight, obviously losing in golden point sucks. But if we keep improving i think that we can go back to being one of the top teams in the comp in the next couple of years.

 

[Kazaf]

Fa'aoso is dropping too many balls.
Strong runner yes, but nearly cost us the Manly game.
I wouldn't have him in the team next weekend, I want Sargent and Cross back

 

[Spitty]

I think we were served with a little dose of reality tonight.

The level of football was much higher than the first two rounds and at first we struggled with it.

Some of those glorified reserve graders such as Wicks and Faaso, were shown to be what they really are and some of our other guys, such as Bedsy, Kidley, Scotty and Houst showed that they thrive in the higher standard.

I couldn't be prouder of the team collectively and I think we learnt a heap about where we stand and where are strenghts and weaknesses lie.

 

[Whats Doing]

To go that close with the amount of mistakes, should give the boys plenty of confidence.

I thought we were going to get blown off the park in the furst half as we were getting beaten in the ruck quite easily. But the boys hanged tough again and if they can cut down on the mistakes, the knights will go very well.

I also thought our urgency wasn;'t up tonight as it has been in the previous coup[le of weeks.

 

[Johns Magic]

I was very happy with Dureau's defence. He was really getting his shoulder in and stopping ballrunners, even if he didnt always bring them down himself.

Hilder was good tonight too. He uses his feet well when taking hitups.

 

[Karmawave]

Had that game. Let it slip.

Good to see a great effort once again from the boys, but in the end it came down to a few simple errors - namely the Patto drop ball that led to Cayless field goal and the Fa'aoso ( dude get some superglue PLEASE ) drop ball that led to Burts winning field goal.

2 big mistakes that cost the game. You can't afford it in the NRL.

Gidley and Buderus were our best ( Gids, what the hell is he doing getting involved with so many one out hit ups doing other peoples work! ) and was very disappointed in McManus. More impressed every game with Hilders effort. Over 30 tackles again I believe, and some great work in attack.

McManus poor positioning on the wing when in attack led to Naiqama's forward pass early in the game that bombed a try, and he was at fault later in the game when Gidley threw a poor pass that still should have been caught if McManus was a bit deeper.

What is it with wingers all over the NRL not being DEEP enough in support that forces forward passes?

Come on McManus.

As for Vuna rushing in out of the line, I've heard people blame McDougals positioning for Vunas positioning...

With that being the case, who can Vuna blame tonight?

Anyway, another solid effort, and to be honest, the team are playing like they can make the 8. I hope a heartbreaking loss like that doesn't break the spirit of the team thats been shown in the 3 games so far.

 

[darkness]

Patterson needed to get his confidence back and I think he has found it tonight. Smith knows what he is doing with him and it wouldn't have anything to do with being out of favour although I agree with Roopasaurus that he proly needs to start shouldering some of the load in the middle, but that would effect his impact out wide I imagine, his legs were gone towards the end there. So many people dropped the ball you can't blame certain players for costing the game, who didn't drop the ball tonight. Alot of positives from tonights game, and the Broncos are gonna be on the end of them next weekend. It was a good loss if ever there was such a thing.

 

[Misanthrope]

I haven't seen the game yet, obviously, but I honestly expected to come home and have things well and truly brought back to earth. We've beaten Canberra and a very underdone Manly side, and while both performances highlighted some valuable mental attributes - neither had been particularly inspiring in terms of quality football being played. Courageous defence, a never say die attitude, and plenty of enthusiasm - but we hadn't looked red hot.

But to go down 23-22 in extra time, away from home, and to a side that many regard as one of those likely to be there at season's end - is a huge thing for us. In the past, tonight's game was the kind of game we'd have lost by twenty to bring us crashing back down.

It speaks volumes for the work Smith has done that, even with a side of relative nobodies and without our best forward, we've so far only been denied by the lottery of golden point. I still fail to see why a draw isn't adequate.

 

[Super Sub]

There are more positives than negatives from that game, you would think that if we hadn't dropped so much ball towards the end we would have had it, plus a couple of decisions that compounded that a little. Our defence was pretty good IMO, the first try to Hayne was pretty lucky really (the ball could have bounced anywhere but went straight into his open arms) and they didn't score a try in the second half at all which looks good for us.

On top of all this it was a really gutsy performance against the eels who really were starting to play well and we stuck with them for 80 minutes. Golden point really is a lottery unfortunately and really the first team to cough up posession seriously decreases their chances of winning so the fact that we came so close tonight gives me a lot of hope that next time we are in a close game we can learn from it and get the win instead

 

[otori]

McManus poor positioning on the wing when in attack led to Naiqama's forward pass early in the game that bombed a try, and he was at fault later in the game when Gidley threw a poor pass that still should have been caught if McManus was a bit deeper.

What is it with wingers all over the NRL not being DEEP enough in support that forces forward passes?

Come on McManus.

That's pretty harsh. Mic didn't have a stunning game but that's bullsh*t about the Gidley pass mate. Gus said that it was a poor pass - he threw it about 1.5m behind Jimmy which is pretty average. McManus wasn't even level with the centre when the pass was thrown so it's not like a cutout wasn't possible the pass was just off.

Anyways I agree that Hilder had a good game and I really like the ball playing lock style he brings to the side.

And how good was Vuna's kick return? :lol:

 

[strewth_mate]

Goes to show that discipline is extremely, extremely important.

You can just about set your watch by the Knights conceding penalties while defending in the opposition 30. Too often we'll follow up a good set with a decent kick, pinning them down deep in their own half, and then 3, 4, 5 tackles later it's a penalty for laziness in the ruck. Straight away again it's defending our line. In the first 10 minutes it was incredibly frustrating like that, resulting in some unnecessary points against and no possession for a good while. We have a very effective kick chase, and enthusiastic defence rushing up to meet the ball carrier, but a bit too often we waste it.

It sticks out with us also that we're simply too slow in the ruck. There were only a few instances tonight where we'd get a roll on with quick plays, but Parra were often able to get it out quicker, leaving our markers stranded.

But I'll put some of it down to going up against a team with decent attack. Nothing you can do about a couple of their tries, and some handling errors can be considered uncharacteristic, so if we had to lose a game I'm content enough that it's definitely one we can learn from.

Anyways - some excellent scrambling defence, some guts in the hitups, nice play in the ruck when we were up to it, couple of classy tries, and although we kept gifting Parramatta chances in the final stages, nice levels of starch to ultimately hold them out for extended periods.

 

[strewth_mate]

Anyways I agree that Hilder had a good game and I really like the ball playing lock style he brings to the side.

There's another dimension to him that we haven't had a chance to see yet at Newcastle, in that he's pretty handy behind the play when he's not tasked with charging into the ruck. I wonder where he's most effective, because he's certainly making an impression in his current role.

 

[chinorocks]

I have to say, I am pretty staggered by a lot of the comments going on here.

We we're playing fantastic for 30 mins until the ridiculous ball stripping penalty against Scotty...they scored from the penalty. Then they scored again straight away, undoing all our good first half work. To come back from that took a tremendous effort.

Sure, we didn't win. But we sure as hell gave it a shake. Wicks and Fass were HEROES in here all week, now there copping it like they can't play the game. Lulia was a BUM a week ago, he scored 2 try's where are the knockers now???

We did not get the rub of the green from the ref, which is probably fair enough because we got it the last 2 games. Their crowd was baying for penalties and Archer was happy to blow them, but there was NOTHING wrong with the effort and there wasn't one guy out there who should hang there head in shame.

They have 3 guys in their team who can kick field goals, as if your gonna rush up on Cayless. It caught us by surprise...to good. The boys had their chances tonight, but passes didn't stick and calls didn't go our way but Parra are a good side and theirs no discrace in the way we played and no one should be droppped as a result of that effort.

 

[jk13]

i just hope we're as competitive when we play away from home. well played knights, no one is perfect

 

[chinorocks]

i just hope we're as competitive when we play away from home. well played knights, no one is perfect

We were away from home tonight.

 

[Johns Magic]

Lulia was a BUM a week ago, he scored 2 try's where are the knockers now???

He was gifted two easy tries, he didn't do anything to create them.

He knocked on and they kicked the winning drop-goal from the ensuing scrum.

I'm not saying he played badly, but I'm not going to fall in love with him because he waltzed over for two tries.

 

[Johns Magic]

Tolar and Royal aren't giving us enough metres up the middle.

 

[antonius]

Some stupid errors really cost us, and though I don't usually have a shot at refs, I thought some of his rulings were very one sided, the Dureau penalty was an absolute joke, and the Eels seemed to be getting a lot of piggy back penalties out of their end, with no consistancy in that area back to us. I agree Smiths use of Patterson is a mystery to me, he is far better than the starting backrowers, and Royal is a definate week link up front, he had a poor game IMO. Buderus was a standout. We deserved the win the missed try at the start, and Kidleys wayward pass in the second half are two moments that standout, along with that bloody penalty against Dureau that resulted in a try. Very unlucky I thought. We are travelling a lot better than I thought we would so far. Can't agree on the Kidley pass to Mc Karma, it was a sh!t pass.

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

Tolar and Royal aren't giving us enough metres up the middle.

i think Royal gave away 4 penalties from marker..thats schoolboy stuff!
And the penalties for offside when parramatta were coming out of their own half were just lazy and toooo stupid...its lazy and untidy.
I still fail to see how you can strip the ball with your elbow with your back to the player..how bloody stupid was that...and to compound that they miss a forward pass from Reddy to Grothe by metres..the bloody touch judge was not even close to lining that bastard up(its a pet peev of mine)..tho the follow up try was pretty bad defense
Its easy to come up with excuses after a game but really..what did the forwards have to do but tuck the ball under their arm and cart if forward in extra time..thats it..hang onto the bloody thing..and we lose it from there

Isnt the defense fantastic tho!..Sometimes you can just sense a try from the opposition but im really not getting that impression anymore..In fact im sure that we can hold a lot of teams out when we are close to winning a game..to come back from 10-0 early and get nose in front shows a lot of character from the team..
Top 8 is just about a reality..we almosttttttt had them.....damn slipperies