Smith furious at fading Knights

knight-no-7

Moderator
Smith furious at fading Knights
April 26, 2009 - 6:40PM

Newcastle coach Brian Smith has slammed the fading performance of his side declaring there is no honour in leading and dominating all day only to succumb to defeat.

Smith was furious the Knights let slip a 24-10 lead with 18 minutes to play to fall 26-24 to the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown Sports Stadium on Sunday.

He refused to blame a mounting injury toll for the late defeat believing his side simply threw away a golden chance to record a solid away victory.

"I'm not proud of the way we failed to finish off what was a dominant performance," said Smith.

"If we had of remained dominant we would have iced that game and could have gone home with two competitions points that would have been thoroughly deserved.

"Instead we're going home with a very, very sickening feeling in my guts that we lost to a team we should well have beaten.

"We knew they'd come back and we invited them to come back by some of the sloppiness in our performance."

Halfback Jarrod Mullen battled throughout with a shoulder injury, centre Wes Naiqama (hamstring), five-eighth Ben Rogers (knee) and prop Ben Cross (bicep) all picked up injuries while several other players struggled with cramp.

Smith refused to hand out any compliments when asked if he was proud of the way Mullen played on in obvious pain.

"I wasn't proud of much today," he said.

Despite his shoulder injury Mullen put forward another compelling case for a NSW recall, with former club great Andrew Johns declaring the 22-year-old is now ready for a Blues recall - two years after his shock Origin debut.

"This year the difference with Jarrod Mullen is mental. He has become a much more mentally tougher player and I think this year he is ready for Origin football," said Johns on the Nine Network.

Smith said his side failed to carry on their dominant first half, when they led 18-6, and were also guilty of clocking off early as the Tigers crossed three times in 12 minutes to snatch victory.

"You don't walk away with honour when you get on top like that (and lose)," said Smith.

"You just cannot relax, you cannot shut a game down. With 10 minutes to go if you're leading by 18 you're not safe."

© 2009 AAP
Brought to you by AAP

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=806376


"I'm not proud of the way we failed to finish off what was a dominant performance," said Smith.
I kinda agree with him! I know Benji ripped it up at the end, but we did fall away. Thoughts?
 
he's bloody tough on them

he might feel different tomorow when he calms down abit

really benji was the difference today

he's a freak
 
"I'm not proud of the way we failed to finish off what was a dominant performance," said Smith.

Imagine what Hagan would have said: "The boys finished the game the best that they have so far this season"
 
those comments were made to the media after the game

imagine being in the dressing shed after fulltime

he would of blown up deluxe ,lol
 
It's what we need !

Because it's just not good enough... people may say we have way too much expectations on these young guys. But blowing leads 3 times in 7 games is a joke.
 
He's only too right. It's not the first or second time we've let a big lead go and could end up costing us several ladder spots by the end of the regular season.
 
Our fowards didnt even work today. I dont even think we dominated play. We scored 2 tries off kicks while Hilder and Mullen were able to slip through defence. Our defence around the middle was toyed with, they just ran through us. If you look at it, The Titans, Rabbitohs and now the tigers have beaten us through the middle with a quality dummy half in Issac Luke, Nathan Friend and Farah.
 
It's what we need !

Because it's just not good enough... people may say we have way too much expectations on these young guys. But blowing leads 3 times in 7 games is a joke.

Exactly. You've gotta be able to perform on the big stage if you want to succeed. That didn't happen today.
 
Our fowards didnt even work today.

Fa'aoso's running was great, every run he made he was getting over the ten meters, slamming through the defense. Cross also had some good runs. Saying the forwards didnt work wouldnt be how i described our loss. Our defense just became unstuck at the end and let their quick men run rings round us, literally.
 
Fa'aoso's running was great, every run he made he was getting over the ten meters, slamming through the defense. Cross also had some good runs. Saying the forwards didnt work wouldnt be how i described our loss. Our defense just became unstuck at the end and let their quick men run rings round us, literally.

Yeah true, Im just saying that the middle part of the defence is whats killing us. Sure fa'aoso had some great runs, but I think that when he had a great run, there wasnt another foward going off that run and putting the tigers on the backfoot like they did.
 
Back
Top