Will it all come to nothing...

[K-Man]

I just have an uneasy, sinking feeling about this season. We would've won today with Buderus, Cross, Gidley and Hilder playing. The Tigers won that match on one factor alone - all key players took the field.

I know some of you will jump up and down and say our depth is strong and we will be fine, but you have to start wondering if the combination of a shocking draw, unfortunate injuries and suspensions, and the loss of key players for rep duties is going to destroy all our momentum.

Despite playing some brilliant football, consistently being spoken about as one of the really tops sides in this year's comp, being compeititve in every match we've played and knocking off some of the competition heavyweights....... ....
where has it actually got us? Outside the top 8 and with more games to come with no Gidley, Buderus, Cross, Hilder.

This not even slightly a criticism of our efforts by the way. We have been sensational and I believe the type of football we are playing with attacking threats all over the park combined with newfound solid and desperate defence, makes us a genuine top 6 side. If things went our way we are one of the best teams in the competition and would definately have a chance as long as we make the finals with close to our best team.

What upsets and frustrates me is the very possible outcome of all the little things going against us and it being a season of 'what could've been'.

Look at the 2 points the Dragons picked up this weekend (not to mention the Eagles, Sharks). That was just an absolute gift 2 points against a reserve grade side. The Knights just seem to have to fight so hard for every single win, with nowhere near enough 'cheap wins'' if you like.

Even during the rep season when we are missing the core of our side, we get drawn to play 3 teams who between them lose just 1 player to Origin duty (Tigers, Bulldogs, Eagles with Stewart the only Origin player missing).

Little things like this just can't be underestimated. It CAN be the difference between 6th and 10th at the end of the year.

We don't play any sides during the Origin period who have key players missing or backing up. Not once!!! And yet overall we have to play 2 matches against the Roosters, Titans, Broncos and Storm. I can't believe that with that draw, there's not even one occassion where we play one of those sides when they are a bit depleted like we are the moment.

It's hard to comprehend some of the teams that are now above us on the table. All the coaches, players, commentators etc are constantly mentioning what a quality side we are this year and I have heard numerous comments along the lines of "Knights were a bit unlucky today, but they will definately be there when the whips are cracking, they're a very strong team".

But compliments won't get us into the finals.

Not to mention that even after having both byes in the first 11 rounds we won't be in the top 8.

Does anyone else share these concerns? The competition is too tight these days to just say "it will be ok in the end". In my opinion we have to prepare for the very real possibility that the little things could cost us an extremely promising season (and I said 'could', not 'will' - I'm not being over pessimistic here, just realistic and cautious).

The funny thing is, I haven't been this happy about the Knights in years. I just love watching us play. We are one of the truly entertaining teams, all our matches have been fairly high quality. The team spirit is great. The skill level is amazing.

I just wish all these positives added up to more competition points!

 

[Radioactive Man]

Hmm i see where your coming from. With today's game it's all good and well to put in a big effort but it in the end its the 2 points we need. Still a bit early to start getting worried about top 8 and what not but i feel that every win is vital from now.

 

[Jono078]

We have the BYE next, prepare for a big game against the Warriors at home.

The week after that we take on Bulldogs without Origin players, they will be beatable with Hilder and possibly Gidley back.

 

[RABK]

f**ked royally by the ref again, so many f**king botched calls led to tiger tries and field position... this is really f**king pathetic when refs are getting payed thousands to f**k up like this every week.

 

[K-Man]

Take a look through our draw from round 1 to 26.

There's not one match, or period of matches, where you ever think we have a reasonable run or a favourable part of the draw.

1. We played a lot of top teams early (Eagles, Broncos, Roosters, Titans, Storm)

2. We have to play ALL of those top sides again later in the season, when they will be getting pretty serious and looking to take momentum into the finals

3. In the 10 (that's right, TEN!!! out of 24 total) matches we play against these really strong sides, how many matches of those will our strong opposition be affected by players missing due to rep committments? Once. Against the Eagles. The other 9 games are all against full strength sides.

How many times out of those 10 matches is our opposition even just backing up from a rep match with some chance of injuries/fatigue? Again, just once (against the Storm after the TEST and we already lost that).

4. We don't play a SINGLE match against a side missing more than 1 player to rep duty. There are 34 State of Origin players, and in 3 matches before each Origin match our opponents combined will miss Brett Stewart. We will probably miss Buderus, Cross and Gidley for all of them.

5. In the last few rounds, when a couple of wins will be vital and a couple of losses to any team usually mean they just miss the finals - guess who we play? Titans, Cowboys, Broncos, Storm.

6. We play Souths and Dragons (two pretty easily beatable teams) only once each

If you can be bothered, go through every other team's draw the same way and look for little areas here and there where they are advantaged by the draw in some way and will probably earn a few cheap wins for various reasons.

It's amazing. No team has it harder than we do. And these days, that's basically the difference between top 8 and not. Even just having to play Storm twice but Souths and Dragons once, you watch at the end of the season how big a difference that makes.

Some teams will miss the top 8 on points differential or on a margin of 2 competition points. Quite simply, if that side played Storm twice and lost both, but the team above them played the Storm just once, that's basically the reason one made the finals and one didn't. It's very unfair to have any competition where every team doesn't play every other team home and away as they do in English Premier League. That is the only way to truly see who deserves to make the finals.

 

[KniGhTs BaTTLeR]

That game had a very 07 feel for mine, I know what your saying, we had players trying hard but on the whole it was just soft. We let abdout 4-5 soft tries in. Wes was absolutely appauling I have never seen a worst effort at Fullback. I haven't felt depressed or angry after a loss this year but I did today it just wasn't good enough.

I like what Gus said about it's always going to be hard winning a game without your key players but thats not the reason we lost it was Fundamental things, missing one on one tackles, not pushing up in a line, no communication, dropping balls that should be taken. It was depressing and kind of embarrasing after how well we have been defending, its a big wake-up call.

 

[Alex28]

With some old heads out there today we wouldn't have gone missing in the second half. The game was there to win, but we went missing in attack and defence. The absence of Gidley in particular was telling - Wes is no fullback.

Agreed there were some good signs today but again we aren't converting them to 2 points for a win. We are winning respect but we are not winning games - and that is frustrating.

 

[K-Man]

I think it will be interesting to come back to this thread at the end of the season and see how it affected us.

Will they make me look like a pessimistic fool by storming into the final on the back of numerous wins against strong sides?

Or will the outrageously tough draw takes its toll and lead to us fighting and scrapping for 7th and 8th and only missing out because we lose to the Storm in round 26 in a heart breaking match where a shocking ref decision and a Gidley missed conversion costs us vitory 18-16 to Melbourne?

OK perhaps going a little overboard there but you get the idea. All will be revealed.....

 

[CycloneSteve]

The decision by the referee to allow play on after Hodgson clearly knocked the ball forward into an offside team mate was the game changer. From that set of six the Tigers got a 40/20 and from THAT set they scored. Our defense was still very ordinary but the Tigers should never have had the ball in that area of the field at that time. If we get a repeat six or even kick a penalty goal, the game becomes totally different.

 

[roopy]

We have roughly 25 firstgrade standard players and the comp will be very tight.
We are right in it.
We do need to put a few good games together after the bye.

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

The decision by the referee to allow play on after Hodgson clearly knocked the ball forward into an offside team mate was the game changer. From that set of six the Tigers got a 40/20 and from THAT set they scored. Our defense was still very ordinary but the Tigers should never have had the ball in that area of the field at that time. If we get a repeat six or even kick a penalty goal, the game becomes totally different.

\Lead up to two first tries by tigers ahd forward passes..and how many times will a league bounce from a towering bomb like it did for benji...it all turns on the but there is 18-24 of their points..i hope that smith gets the ok to let blast on the refs soon..its only 10g..wests make that in two hours on the pokies
back to the topic tho...i really think that origin deserves its own weekend saturday nite game with all players available for their teams the week before and see how they back up the week after and if they play its their clubs decision..id imagine Croos and Buderus would ahve given their eye teeth to play this weekend to at least give us a shot...
The points picked up by dragons agains tweed heads or what ever the storm feeder club is should have happened...now we have slipped to 9th..outta the 8 because of origin...
yeah yeah yeah...games showpiecs and all that but who reallly cares at the end of the year when your fav team isnt lifting the trophy because they are penalised in may/june origin series because your best players arent out there for your team

 

[Jobdog]

I do see where this thread is coming from and to a degree I tend to agree with what's being said. But I think some of us are going off too early. Deep, deep down today I didn't really expect us to win although I wanted us to win (if that makes sense). Its the games that we SHOULD be winning that we lose are the ones that will cost us and so far this season we haven't had any of those.

f**ked royally by the ref again, so many f**king botched calls led to tiger tries and field position... this is really f**king pathetic when refs are getting payed thousands to f**k up like this every week.

To an extent I agree with you there mate - it is incredibly frustrating watching referees f**k up on a consistent basis. How they missed the accidental offside from the Tigers bloke in the lead-up to their first try I'll never know. Combine that with the penalty against Mullen in possession for supposedly not rising to his feet. I don't know how much more the blokes' got to do when both feet are planted on the ground and the Tigers player is all over him like a rash.

In the context of the game, those two calls were big calls, but at the end of the day, our soft defence - courtesy of that tough game on Monday night - came back to bite us.

 

[roopy]

If our best side had played that well last season we would have been happy.
This year we are pissed when our worst side gets done by a very good performance.

It's all good.

 

[Bicey_18]

Im not really worried.... When you put this in perspective.

A full strength Tigers team that can score from anywhere and are a very dangerous outfit against a team missing Buderus, Gidley, Cross and Hilder....It was always going to be a mammoth task.

Last year it would have been a massive thrashing minus big name players... no doubt. So the effort today was pleasing.. but disappointing with the result of course.

This club is on the up... No doubt!

 

[Gaba]

Take a look through our draw from round 1 to 26.





6. We play Souths and Dragons (two pretty easily beatable teams) only once each

If you can be bothered, go through every other team's draw the same way and look for little areas here and there where they are advantaged by the draw in some way and will probably earn a few cheap wins for various reasons.

It's amazing. No team has it harder than we do. And these days, that's basically the difference between top 8 and not. Even just having to play Storm twice but Souths and Dragons once, you watch at the end of the season how big a difference that makes.

.

Actually the knights will be easy win for the dragons , i am digusted the dragons dont play the knights twice thats 4 points for the dragons. The Knights can not beat the dragons at newcastle and find it hard in beating the dragons in sydney hence the record dragons 11 wins newcastle 3 wins and at newcastle the record is like the dragons 7 newcastle 1


The facts are newcastle is overrated and have trouble scoring points against the good teams


The problem with the knights they dont have the team. yes the knights play thier best and lose , where the dragons dont play good and yet only lose by 1 or 2 points, the facts are full strength knights v the dragons are a 30+ better team then the knights , shows how far the knights are behind the dragons

 

[Bicey_18]

Actually the knights will be easy win for the dragons , i am digusted the dragons dont play the knights twice thats 4 points for the dragons.

The facts are newcastle is overrated they are like cronulaa can not score points.

1- the knights had majority of ball against manly and could only score 1 or 2 trys, same withthe goldcoast

The problem with the knights they dont have the team. yes the knights play thier best and lose , where the dragons dont play good and yet only lose by 1 or 2 points, the facts are fullstregnth team the dragons are a 30 -+ better team then the knights

Well well I was waiting for you to spring up with your usual garbage...

 

[General Knight]

Lol, keep sucking on that bong Gaba.

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

Well well I was waiting for you to spring up with your usual garbage...

jezuz christ!..it this English?????:sarcasm::crazy::sarcasm::crazy::sarcasm:

 

[Holla if ya hear me]

Opps...wrong quote...meant that gaba crap

 

[Bicey_18]

Usually lose by 1 or 2?

Raiders 21-14 - 7
Bulldogs 30-18 - 12
Tigers 24-16 - 8

Great research Gaba lol... I mean whats next?

"We belted the same Melbourne side that belted Newcastle last week"?

Knights 4 wins
Dragons 3 wins

Thats bout all that needs to be said