Too little, too late for Knights
BY BRETT KEEBLE
KNIGHTS coach Brian Smith had mixed feelings about the last two minutes of Newcastle's 28-12 loss to Manly at Bluetongue Stadium on Saturday night.
Smith was encouraged by the flair of chip kicks by Jarrod Mullen and Scott Dureau and the enterprising attack that spawned James McManus's second try.
But he was also frustrated by the fact it took the Knights 78 minutes to chance their arm.
Playing as well as they had to, Manly scored five tries to Newcastle's three to maintain their share of the NRL lead on 24 points.
The Knights (16) slipped from eighth to 11th and will try to avoid a third straight loss when they host the fifth-placed Dragons, who have won six on the trot, at EnergyAustralia Stadium on Saturday night.
"That last play, the last set of the game for us, just shows what we're capable of," Smith said.
"We just needed to do more of that.
"We fell into trying to grind without any real questions being asked, just carting the ball hard and strong, but they were very effective in their 'D' [defence] and just ate us up doing that.
"If we'd have played a little smarter and a bit more expansive, it's a bit more of a risk, but eventually in footy nowadays, you've got to ask some decent questions.
"Those questions in those last couple of plays were magnificent a chip kick to the winger [Cooper Vuna] followed by a chip kick to the other winger [McManus] for a try, I haven't seen that for a long time.
"They've got that skill in them, and we've got to help them to bring that out a bit more often."
Mullen said the Knights did not have enough ball to play that way for longer periods, and Manly taught them a lesson in "rolling your sleeves up and going forward".
Completing just 22 of 33 sets (67 per cent), the Knights were held to almost 500 metres less than their NRL-best season average of 1403m a game, and the Sea Eagles feasted on a 60-40 share of the possession pie.
"We gave them too many opportunities from penalties, our hit and stick wasn't right this week, and when you give them that many opportunities you're going to be limited in the sort of attack you can put on," McManus said.
"It's no good us doing it in the last two minutes when we need to be down their end putting pressure on them earlier in the game."
Newcastle missed the polish and poise of Danny Buderus and Kurt Gidley, and the muscle of Ben Cross in the middle, but Smith did not use their absence as an excuse.
"We'll welcome them back, but we came here to win with the team we had, and I don't want focus taken off the fact that we didn't win with that group of players," Smith said.
Newcastle absorbed Manly's initial onslaught and responded with tries to Vuna and McManus to lead 8-6 in the 27th minute.
But fullback Wes Naiqama spilled the kick-off after McManus's try, centre Steve Matai scored from the subsequent scrum to give Manly a 10-8 lead and they never trailed again.
The Sea Eagles dominated possession and field position to control the first 25 minutes of the second half, scoring three tries in that period, and only desperate Newcastle defence prevented a blow-out.
"I thought our boys dug really deep in the second half," Smith said.
"The plays finished 109 to 53 and that's just unheard of; they should bring the mercy rule in there."
"I'm rapt that we kept it to what we did, to be quite honest, with the amount of possession they had.
"But to be fair, they were just doing what those good, efficient teams do they stick to their plan."
Hooker Matt Hilder, who was replaced with 22 minutes left, has a bruised right shoulder and will have precautionary X-rays today to rule out a broken left hand.
"It's a bit swollen and sore but it seems all right today," Hilder said yesterday.
Manly beat the Knights 22-12 in the National Youth Competition curtain-raiser, making up for a loss by the same score when the teams met in Newcastle in March.
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