Why we suck

[macavity]

Thought about this long and hard last night. Aside from having the worst hooker to ever lace a boot, our problems all stem from us getting absolutely dominated in the ruck.

In attack we are wrestled the the ground slowly most of the time, flipped on to our backs a hell of a lot. This means we get slow PTBs and gives the opposition line time to reset. Compound that with slow service out of DH and suddenly we struggle to get over the advantage line.

In defence we don't wrestle very well at all. Worst team in the comp at it. This means the opposition usually either:
A - lands on their front and gets a quick PTB
B - gets an offload
C - wins a penalty as we try to slow the ruck without having won it.

Want to know why we look crap? That is it. Everything (penalties, drops under pressure, poor meterage) compounds from that.

.... And it comes down to coaching. We desperately need to improve our body control and positioning in the ruck, but Bennett has a philosophical objection to coaching it. So as everyone else gets better at it, we get left behind.

These things take years to perfect. Our deficiencies will take years to fix.

So, is it a coaching problem?

 

[Spot On]

I don't think that's the problem. Maybe a small part at times.

 

[macavity]

Well feel free to give us your analysis.

 

[cram]

I agree Mac, it is something I notice a lot our slow PTB's compared to the opposition. Our techniques in the ruck also need work as we get penalised for leg pulls etc regularly. Now sure the refs may be giving us a hard time but I thinks its poor technique, poor discipline of both.

I will stick solid with the team but they are really testing my resilience at present. I don't recall a period of being so disinterested at our games, even in the year we could not win a game as I am at present.

A year filled with promise that is again amounting to nought.

 

[Adsy]

I agree, Mac. Being at the game last night this was extremely evident. What was the penalty count solely based on indescretions in the ruck? We would lose this every week. We get out wrestled all the time and while I hate that part of the game it's exactly that, a part of the game.

I thought players like Smith, Scott, Bedsy would improve this and while I know those 3 combined have barely played 13 matches themselves it comes down to coaching.

SOS to Pika?

 

[Knightmare]

The reason they suck is that there is a losing mentality in the squad. It's easy to belt a team who are under-performing, but honestly, how many times in the last decade can you recall the Knights winning a close match that wasn't simply a case of getting out to a sizeable lead and then time running out before the opposition could draw level?

As soon as the Dragons scored last night, you knew what was going to happen next. Put the Knights in a tight situation, and (like last night) they try to not lose and hope they can run down the clock, instead of going all-out for the win. The fans leaving with 4 minutes to go spoke volumes about the belief in this team. Go back 12 or 13 years and nobody would have left. If you took the amount of tries scored in the final 10 minutes for every team over the past 10 years I'd wager that Newcastle would be in the bottom 3. Possibly even dead last?

The facts are that in 10 years, there have been two good seasons (2006, 2009) and just one finals win to our name. Of all the teams in the NRL to have ever won a Premiership only Canberra, Parramatta and Souths have a longer running drought. There is a losing culture at this place which can't be repaired by money, but by getting the right people involved.

But it's alright, because now we have Gower and he will fix everything!

 

[Yosh]

I think we are still the top team in terms of metres made and least metres conceded... However, since we don't have great ruck work, we can't make much use of it unlike teams like the Storm or Manly who get a roll on when they have a good set.

I think we need to really work on the ruck because the only way we know how to slow down the play of the ball at the moment is hold onto the ball and give a penalty away.

I don't have evidence to back up what I'm about to say next but the last 5 games or so, we've only ever conceded off a penalty or a mistake we've made with the ball. Teams that cannot defend penalties and mistakes are never going to win anything. The Dragon's first try was off a Houston high tackle and the second one was due to McManus knocking on. If we minimize the mistakes and penalties we give away, we'll win many more games this year.

 

[aqua_duck]

Mistakes are inexcusable because the majority of them are unforced errors and we don't even offload or throw the ball around much so really our completions should be very high, the penalties are unhelpable unfortunately because we're abysmal in the wrestle, we've got an old, slow forward pack, we simply can't afford to let the opposition dominate the ruck and get quick PTBs hence we we're conceding so many penalties in the ruck

 

[Nuffy]

There is no question that we are crap at the wrestling aspect and Bennett's head in the sand approach is making things worse. But I think there are other factors at play.

The club lacks accountability at every level, an underling sending out tweets under Bennett's name saying he was pleased with the effort lets the players off the hook and he gives himself the ultimate escape clause by constantly saying that the changes take time, what exactly is his timeframe, when do we see the fruits of all the labour or is just kicking the can down the road?

Plus at some point the club needs to accept responsibility for recruitment, if Waddell is the answer then what the hell is the question? Predominately We've recruited old blokes, players with injury problems or kids looking for redemption. Our "marquee" signing, Boyd, just doesn't play like one enough to justify the tag. We haven't been very active in the quality aspect of the market and based on this year we are getting no new blood, so if this roster can't get the job done, then expect more of the same for the next two seasons.

Another area is injuries, it's an easy excuse, it's been no different for 10 years with us, it's no longer a valid excuse, do something about it and stop using it as a crutch. The panther have a worse roster and more injuries and are finding ways to win. Last night we were at home, with a decent squad and playing a team which the previous weeks were a rabble and yet we are hiding behind excuse after excuse, where is the accountability?

A lack of accountability feeds complacency and a mental fragility which is the hallmarks of this team, the coach and well meaning supporters telling them that it's all good and the effort was there just feeds a pampered mindset. If the game is in the balance with 10 to go, we will lose, no question because the players are weak mentally.

Look at Parra on Friday night, they have had a massively traumatic week and showed more strength than we did.

Bennett was tasked with changing the culture but frankly he has done little or nothing to address the fundamental issues within the club, by any measure you care to name, he has underperformed against the coaches he followed and at a time when he has had unlimited resources and control.

 

[Nuffy]

Double post.

 

[Spot On]

Well feel free to give us your analysis.

Far from an "analysis" but ....

It's not hard to dominate our forwards, who at times hit the line like a piece of wet shit paper and are instructed not to offload the ball. Defenses really aren't doing a great deal of guessing when they play us. Bloke receives ball from slow dummy half, runs to the line, doesn't really bend it much, will not pass it or offload it, gets tackled, three players peel off like an onion and we do it all again. The Dogs forwards last year proved a short passing game can do wonders to fix the problems we are having but ..... the coaches game plan does not entail that style of play.

I think we go alright when defending however we definitely don't intimidate sides by punishing them when we defend. Leave that for sides like Manly (the best at it) and Souths etc. We could win the ruck if we played more aggressively, more often and for longer periods.

I'm sure other teams slow the ruck a little better than us but there's not the leeway there has been in the past as is evident by the knitpicking penalties being blown ad nauseum in the ruck under the new ref's boss this year.

 

[RHCP]

No no no, we suck because Bennett is past it (he was great 6 weeks ago, but old age and all that) and we need a new coach...

 

[Bring it home Knights]

The knights are seriously lacking having players in motion in attack. It is way to easy for the opposition to gang tackle us and slow the play the ball down. How I would love a Corey Parker or Glenn Stewert in our team. Just having one player that could create second phase play would be an asset.

 

[Spot On]

The knights are seriously lacking having players in motion in attack[/B]. It is way to easy for the opposition to gang tackle us and slow the play the ball down. How I would love a Corey Parker or Glenn Stewert in our team. Just having one player that could create second phase play would be an asset.

Agreed.

Apparently zero offloads in the first 40 last night. Not to mention the lack of support when a half break is made. Darius needs to pull his finger out in that department.

 

[Yosh]

Cuthbertson is that player. I think we really needed him last night.

Roberts also had a really quiet game and so did Mason...

Where's pers? He usually has some really good insight into these things. I wanna hear what he has to say.

 

[Spot On]

Give yourself more credit Yosh. Your first post is also highlighting a part of the problem. Our most experienced and better buys have returned the past few weeks and given a few penalties away as well.

 

[1qaz]

I'm not going to start calling for Wayne's head until he has either Buderus or Gidley back in the 9 and they still playing like shit.
The top 4 teams this year have all be fortunate with their number one hooker playing the majority of the games.
Take Luke, Smith, Friend or Ballin out the their respective team and they will struggle big time. Case in point when Melbourne was flogged in the grand final by Manly when Smith was out.

 

[perverse]

I agree, we are getting smashed in the ruck most weeks. I don't think that Bennett doesn't coach wrestling, though. He certainly has a philosophical stance against it, but he would definitely be coaching it all the same. He's not completely stupid. I did notice against the Dragons that we were simply getting penalised for any work we were doing in the ruck, whereas the Dragons were allowed to more or less do as they wished. I don't know how we fix that, and I don't know if it's a technique thing or whether it's ref bias... but it's noticable. I agree that most of our problems come from not controlling the ruck speed at times.

I think Waddell is truly f**ked. He makes our rucks even slower, because his service is shit and slow... so even if we do get a quick PTB, we can't get much advantage from it and earn a second or third on the back of it. Most of the metres our forwards make up the middle are bloody tough ones when Waddell is around. Clydesdales development needs to be accelerated as much as possible, in my opinion. His service was actually really, really bloody good. Not only was it quick, but he was consistently positioning the guys he was passing to very, very well simply by putting them in the right spot... and that is a class act trait that Waddell wouldn't know about if it slapped him in the head. He looks bloody keen, too... and his kicking game looks very, very relevant. We look so much more dangerous when we have anyone but Waddell in the 9, and Clydesdale looks like real gem. I think he's already a much better player than Waddell, and may be quite special if he keeps improving once he hits first grade and matures.

 

[Nuffy]

I agree, we are getting smashed in the ruck most weeks. I don't think that Bennett doesn't coach wrestling, though. He certainly has a philosophical stance against it, but he would definitely be coaching it all the same. He's not completely stupid. I did notice against the Dragons that we were simply getting penalised for any work we were doing in the ruck, whereas the Dragons were allowed to more or less do as they wished. I don't know how we fix that, and I don't know if it's a technique thing or whether it's ref bias... but it's noticable. I agree that most of our problems come from not controlling the ruck speed at times.

There is no doubt that we seem to be judged differently by the refs but i ask the question, what are we doing about it.

Robinson does a job on us each time so prepare the brief and front Daniel Anderson about it. Have Bennett start raising it during press conferences.

We can't expect the refs to change and not confronting them with evidence just allows them to reinforce perceptions.

 

[slotmachine]

As of last week the Knights were #1 in the comp for metres gained and kick metres.

Our game looks great when the other team is giving us lots of possession, and we gets lots of chances in the attacking 20. We look fan-f**king-tastic when leading by 3+ tries and playing some football.

We suck when playing against teams that hold onto the ball because when we are on top and have good field position we don't take any chances to find points. Then when momentum shifts we are nervous (from the lack of points), concede, and throw the game away.

If we did show some enterprise with the ball in these situations we would have won Dragons x 2, Sharks and maybe Warriors and be sitting in 3rd or 4th.

Didn't expect us to beat Manly or Souths, and we had a bad day against Raiders in Canberra , which happens.

http://stats.rleague.com/rl/misc/penalties.html#2013

We get more penalties than we give away, btw.