ROUND 22 - NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS V CRONULLA SHARKS

NEWCASTLE OR CRONULLA

  • NEWCASTLE 13+

    Votes: 4 21.1%

  • NEWCASTLE 1 - 12

    Votes: 8 42.1%

  • Draw

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • CRONULLA 1 - 12

    Votes: 2 10.5%

  • CRONULLA 13+

    Votes: 5 26.3%
  • Total voters
    19
Joshhh said:
It's hard to have faith in this team. On one hand you look at how bad we've been playing, with all our key players on deck. It's borderline unacceptable, we have the quality there in Ponga, Pearce, the Saifitis, Klem, Friz, Brailey, Watson. Best is a rising star. There should be no excuses.

And then on the other hand, we're running 7th, won half our games with Pearce & Ponga missing most of the season. It's hard to imagine we wouldn't have picked up more wins if they played most of the year so who knows where we could have been. Will be interesting to see how much fight we put up if we do indeed make the finals. Will be hard to have faith in Obi if we go out meekly again.
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I guess the majority of the sides in the comp don’t come out and everything looks silky smooth and effortless. I just thought after a bit of a horror first half (maybe we took the week a bit too easy after the four day turnaround) we turned it up in the second half and it was a damn good effort to get over the top of a very committed Sharks side.

At this time of the year, things don’t go to plan, mistakes get made, tackles are missed, but if you keep getting up and get the win, you’ve done well.

Wish Barnett would play like that every week … and that left edge is scoring literally all our points at the moment which is a bit concerning. Best and Tuala are creating a great combo, though. Loved Clifford’s calm cool two pointer to get the win. 😎
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Going over the game again, yeah Barnett’s strip & his ball running both very impressive. But the first Sharks try was mainly caused by him defending way too narrow, and that eye catching last ditch try-saving tackle was him making up for a fairly poor miss on the initial break, again from standing too narrow.

Clearly has all the attributes to be a great backrower, but this is why I find him so frustrating. Great highlights, consistent issues with the basics.

I think probably he should be pencilled in as the 2nd row on the left edge next year, and we should be looking to sign a middle who can give you something as a starter at 13 (the off-contract list for edge backrowers is dire but there’s some middles we could get in who could do a job for sure, and I know we love Connor but again I think he was a vulnerability as a starter at 13 yesterday). But we need more from him in the attention to detail areas, and if fewer highlights are the trade-off I’ll take it.

Would be nice if Brodie or Jirah could put their hand up to claim one of those spots and make all this a moot point.
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They had 2 more players that could have scored that try the whole team was short on that side

Best didn't wrap the ball up
 
Kurt Manns major stuff ups and momentum shifts...

1 - Dropped ball leads to instant try.

2 - Dropped ball backwards would have scored in corner.

3 - Set after we score early in the 2nd half tackle 3 sharks are 10m out they get a 6 again from holding on waaay too long.

4 - Ponga gets out of the in goal and then Mann gets the ball makes a half break falls over then throws the ball hail mary to a sharks player while laying on the ground leads to two sharks penalties they take the lead 14 - 12.

Can we get dane next week please, can't be worse than Mann
 
NRL to probe all tackles on Andrew Fifita.
He got a throat injury that might end his career.

NRL might suspend someone. Not sure who or where it happened.
 
That’s really unfortunate for Fifita (on a personal level). Sounds like the same thing as the injury Kostjasyn suffered. Hopefully he pulls through soon.
 
Our forward depth is being tested again. Jones may finally get a chance to show what he can do starting and playing big minutes in his preferred position.
 
jamesgould said:
I guess the majority of the sides in the comp don’t come out and everything looks silky smooth and effortless. I just thought after a bit of a horror first half (maybe we took the week a bit too easy after the four day turnaround) we turned it up in the second half and it was a damn good effort to get over the top of a very committed Sharks side.

At this time of the year, things don’t go to plan, mistakes get made, tackles are missed, but if you keep getting up and get the win, you’ve done well.

Wish Barnett would play like that every week … and that left edge is scoring literally all our points at the moment which is a bit concerning. Best and Tuala are creating a great combo, though. Loved Clifford’s calm cool two pointer to get the win. 😎
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A win is a win, no matter how ugly, that's all you can ask for. I just feel we've gotten a bit lucky with the draw & playing sides that are trying to lose just as much as we are. If we played the top sides we'd get bent over & we did, against Melbourne & the Roosters not long ago. I'm worried that's gonna happen again in the finals. Last year, the core of this group have shown they can compete at a high level, I know they have it in them. The last two years we've been so unlucky with injuries, everyone gets them but our literal best, key players can barely stay on the field.
 
Jack Johns, Jirah Momoisea, Josh King, Pasami Saulo and at a pinch, Chris Randall are our backup forwards.

Randall has played lock and a bit of second row during games in reserve grade, and at least he'd make a lot of tackles and compete hard.
 
Was also at the game yesterday. Below are things I saw from my vantage point:

1. Barnett's one percenters and effort areas were huge. Was very impressed.
2. Ponga looked a shade of himself, looked busted all game
3. Kurt Mann is always catching the ball to flat, he needs to stand deeper. This is why he drops so many balls at centre
4. Redcliffe stadium is mint, perfect for the next NRL team
5. Couldn't see much else as we were staring into the sun 😅
 
Frank McWilliams said:
Telegraph saying injury was caused while he made a tackle on Frizell
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Maybe, but the tackle 13th minute of the second half on Klem looks more likely. Klem ran in with the bumper up last minute and you can clearly see his elbow/forearm in Fafita's throat. I'd say that was the tackle that caused it.

I watched the rest of Fafita's stint, and saw the Friz tackle but didn't look like anything in it. Maybe in the chest but not in the throat from what I could see. NRL will have access to more angles though. Knights scored just after and Fafita went off, you could see him on the sideline on the pushy so it was a scheduled interchange, not due to injury.

Likely happened earlier and didn't start to swell enough to cause an issue until later.

Running in with the bumper up is not illegal, but players running in with the arm cocked should be outlawed and no doubt will be, possibly due to this tackle.
 
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KnightsUnite said:
They had 2 more players that could have scored that try the whole team was short on that side

Best didn't wrap the ball up
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Which player is the most important in ensuring one edge of the defence has numbered up correctly?

Go back and watch the replay again. Barnett is basically standing on top of Brailey - so basically at lock - notwithstanding the fact that Ponga has already come in to assist with the defence behind the ruck. You can see Frizell screaming at the defenders on that side of the ruck to fan out. Then Barnett ambles out despite the fact he’s way out of position already, and you’ve got just Clifford, Best & Tuala covering one whole half of the field. Consequently Best & Tuala have to fly in to try and make a play. The scramble D is actually okay from there but it’s too much to cover.

Absolutely absurd to lay it all at Best’s feet for “not wrapping the ball up”. It’s not an easy front on tackle, it’s one on one travelling sideways into the runner who’s already almost past him, not a great angle, and in general it’s the second tackler’s job to wrap up the ball after the initial contact. And the second tackler was - you guessed it - Barnett, who ran past the play and then made ineffective contact.

When there’s a defensive breakdown you can’t lay it all at the feet of one guy, but he’s inarguably the player most at fault, and if he lines up correctly to begin with then pushes sideways to cover the play, his outside men aren’t placed in such a poor position.

Don’t take my word for it though, Joey was saying the same thing in comms.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Which player is the most important in ensuring one edge of the defence has numbered up correctly?

Go back and watch the replay again. Barnett is basically standing on top of Brailey - so basically at lock - notwithstanding the fact that Ponga has already come in to assist with the defence behind the ruck. You can see Frizell screaming at the defenders on that side of the ruck to fan out. Then Barnett ambles out despite the fact he’s way out of position already, and you’ve got just Clifford, Best & Tuala covering one whole half of the field. Consequently Best & Tuala have to fly in to try and make a play. The scramble D is actually okay from there but it’s too much to cover.

Absolutely absurd to lay it all at Best’s feet for “not wrapping the ball up”. It’s not an easy front on tackle, it’s one on one travelling sideways into the runner who’s already almost past him, not a great angle, and in general it’s the second tackler’s job to wrap up the ball after the initial contact. And the second tackler was - you guessed it - Barnett, who ran past the play and then made ineffective contact.

When there’s a defensive breakdown you can’t lay it all at the feet of one guy, but he’s inarguably the player most at fault, and if he lines up correctly to begin with then pushes sideways to cover the play, his outside men aren’t placed in such a poor position.

Don’t take my word for it though, Joey was saying the same thing in comms.
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Yeah I heard joey remark a few times that Barnett was to tight to his inside team mate leaving gaps on the outside.
 
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