ROUND 1 - Knights V Warriors - Friday 3 March, 6:00pm - Sky Stadium, Wellington

Kurriboy said:
Its a myth, never seen it.
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We did, in 2021… but they knew big Klem was waiting on the bench to play one big, long unbroken stint, and they’d be played in shorter bursts to keep them a bit fresh.

Turns out we had a forward who can reliably punch out big minutes and allow the other middles to be rotated, by the name of Josh King… whoops 😂
 
Tonight was ugly and I’m not even sure we can point to a lack of effort. Our only slither of hope is that the spine will gel but I’d say more likely we have a season that patters out and Parr looks for a coach he can hang his hat on.
 
Kurriboy said:
Does anybody think the Knights players have quiet quit the NRL?

Fairly poor display all round. Not enough line speed in D through the middle third of the field.

Attack wise we just don't ask any questions, its like we pass the ball twice then hit the line hoping the D falls over like we do for them.

No depth, no players in motion, no shape, just stand flat, pass it a few along and hope.

Ponga was our only dangerous player tonight.

Kicking game horrible.
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Long time ago, place to come and collect overs and sit on the beach.

The fact Kurt Mann is in the 17 for this long says it all
 
Warriors here. A game that could have gone either way. Both sides have lots to like and lots to work on.

From our angle I thought our forwards stood up. Heatening to see SJ take the line on. His kicking was rubbish but his attitude was good.

All in all my thoughts are both sides are capable of much better. All the best guys.
 
I didn’t think we looked too bad which is worse to still lose. I hate to be that person every game but O’Brien has to go.. there’s just no spark or creativity to win the game. Ponga going off didn’t help and losing Friz as well but everytime we looked amazing we couldn’t keep that momentum or drive.

Hoping it was a needed game for geling but can’t see us winning a lot of games with an attack like that 😬
 
Now that all the dissapointed drinkers have gone to bed, it might be time to be realistic about this game without fear of abuse.
The Warriors had a lot to play for in their first home game in years and they put in a pretty good effort.
Wellington, famously known as the Windy City, has always been a tough place for away sides to play.
Despite that, and despite us needing a lot more time playing together to gel as a team, we were in with a solid chance for most of the game. Losing Frizz and Pong at bad times hurt us a lot, but those things happen.
I saw enough to say the new spine works and that our squad is decent enough.
A win would have been nice, but a tough day at the office for the boys against a team that really wanted and needed that win and were never going to be easy.
 
Look the reff did slow the game down A LOT last night and I feel like that had an impact on how we play. With man getting told to go off to get strapped up and then having a try scored straight after bugs me a lot.
I was happy over all with the side, I saw a lot of positives from players that had been underwhelming before. Ponga actually gave me a bit of hope last night.
Bit of an unpopular opinion but I want AOB to hang around all year.
 
slotmachine said:
I don't really know what ponga is complaining about, he hit his head and was slow to rise, that's the criteria for being taken off.

Not "yep I feel fine mate".
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Exactly, not only was he slow to rise, but you see him laying face down both hands holding his head. Then runs off and is surprised when he is pinged for a HIA.

Anybody know how Ponga went in school to get a general feel for his IQ?

The most dissapointing thing for me last night was the softness in defence on the line. As they always say, defence is attitude, defence wins games etc.

Warriors win 4 tries to 2, 2 of their tries came from extremely soft defence:

Afoa scoring 1 pass off the ruck and hardly moving when he got the ball, should have easily got numbers on him and stopped him there, thats the same rubbish attack we put up one pass off the ruck and hit the line, we get stopped easily, yet we let that in. Seriously worrying.

And the late try from dummy half diving over practically untouched, with the game still in the balance, after a decent stint of stopped play just shows the players clocked off and waiting for the ball to go away from them. Again seriously worrying signs.
 
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