NRL Round 24 - Knights Vs Titans - 2:00pm Sunday, 16th of August - McDonald Jones Stadium

A win's a win but when you had them 13+ in your multi, it hurts a bit lol
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mullenmagic said:
It’s nice to think a team is going to be 100% mentally dialled-in at all times and never overlook an opponent but that’s not reality. They came out and looked like they were going to win by 60 and started playing like it, and to be frank, putting on a clinic against the Titans in round 24 isn't going to be the difference against good teams. If Mooney throwing overhead basketball passes or Ponga throwing the ball through his legs or the several other borderline ****-take plays the Knights tried to pull off didn’t tell you how seriously they were taking the opponent then I don’t know what will. They were playing with the confidence, bordering on arrogance, of a team that knows they can score from anywhere in the blink of an eye, because they can, and they did. Personally think that's preferrable to the team that looked like they were scared of their own shadows for the last few years.

For individuals:

Both wingers were great.

Hunt was Hunt, never going to be boring to watch for better or worse.

Winter very strong, showed off his lightning quick footwork in tight spaces and handled the physicality well. Good confidence to skip back in-field, step through and throw the risky offload for Marzhew's second try.

Sandon was good in attack but had one of his shockers in defence. Lucky the Titans seemingly lost interest in running through the wide open gap he was leaving because he certainly didn’t learn the lesson himself.

Mooney and Hopwood were good, noticeable drop off when they went off. Saifiti back should help.

McEwen was fantastic, probably close to man of the match for mine.

Francis was very quiet compared to the last few weeks but still made an impact.
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Nailed it mate. A team can only pull its socks up if it has socks to pull up (cheers for that one POS).
 
Was overall an ordinary game but a great 2 points.
Seemed to be a bit frantic at times and some of our stars made poor passes.
Effort was good overall but we let in some easy tries from poor defence cover.
We have got away from our rotation of Crossland, Croker and Graham, understand our use of Cant when Graham has been out, hopefully he is fit and gets game time next week.
Hunt was better this week, his try was amazing.
Pack played strong, Manu not so but looked injured, Mooney hopefully keeps up his play when JSaf is back, expect Crouch, who has been strong, to make way with Frizell and Hopwood bench.
 
The Artist Formerly Known as Aku'd said:
I’d agree if we had Dyl Brown 😞
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I’ve not read any further than this post, but I think we’re good enough without Dylan Brown if we can fix our lapses.
Yeh I agree that Sandon needs to work on defence heavily in the offseason but while we’re on the run, like James said, we need to protect him better. Something needs to be done in that space if we’re fair dinkum, we don’t have a “bodyguard” like so many poor defending halves have had in the past.
 
listo said:
I’ve not read any further than this post, but I think we’re good enough without Dylan Brown if we can fix our lapses.
Yeh I agree that Sandon needs to work on defence heavily in the offseason but while we’re on the run, like James said, we need to protect him better. Something needs to be done in that space if we’re fair dinkum, we don’t have a “bodyguard” like so many poor defending halves have had in the past.
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I think Brown’s defense has been elite and his absence can’t be fixed by giving Smith a bodyguard. I’m a big fan of Smith’s and think with him at half we look great in attack. But we lose a proper defender not having Brown. If Smith had Browns frame and D, I’d be equally as confident. We could really cause some problems regardless in week 2 (🤞🏼we get there).
 
Defence wins games said:
As soon as he scored, Gags was being treated by the physio while the kick was being taken.
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He didn’t look happy when he scored which made me think he may have lost control on the grounding or been offside. But when the replay cleared the try I thought he’s felt something. Hopefully precautionary and he’s back for Warriors. Maybe even week one finals if that turns out to be a dead rubber.
 
Henry01 said:
The hate Ponga gets on here is unbelievable!! The knights don’t make finals without him if we are being fair dinkum. People calling for him to get dropped, good luck replacing him.

Watch if we lose, it will be Ponga and Sandon Smiths fault according to the forum.
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Yes, Ponga has made a few errors, but at the game today, every time he handles the ball the alarm bells ring for Titans as he inevitably beats his man. Just a generational player who sometimes makes a few errors, but boy I am glad he plays for the Knights.
 
Defence wins games said:
Ponga had this happen to him in Canberra last weekend. Sisami dropped the knees into Ponga as he scored.
Nothing happened, so maybe Ponga thinks it’s ok????
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Now obviously none of us know what Ponga was thinking in that moment and I highly doubt he was thinking “happened to me so it must be fine” but let’s say he was than that would an incredibly naive, idiotic and childish way to think and would make you question if he had the mentality and maturity to be a captain.

Obviously all that is hypothetical as no one knows, I personally don’t think he was thinking that at all.
 
Wow KP gets protected a lot and that’s coming from someone with my username.

Look no matter what way people want to spin it his his last two weeks has been a huge drop of from what he is normally,I know he is miles better than this and even with the mistakes is still going good, but if you are normally 100% even 95% is a drop off and that’s statistically factual.

I do think he needs a mental reset just to relax a bit and not worry about doing everything, I’d be playing him against Manly but resting him against the Warriors since we will already be finals bound plus his injury record and he will be fresh for week one of the finals.

Right now he looks like his mind is going a million miles a hour and is looking frantic like the intercept to Jed and the random 4th tackle kick no one was ready for this week. Just needs a bit of a rest
 
We were far from perfect but god we’re fun to watch. The Titans are a good attacking side who always ask questions so it’s not too bad.

Really impressed with Hunt today. Fantastic defensively against an Origin player. Pigs were great too. McEwen was brilliant as was Hopwood, Mooney and Crossland.

Really quality touches from the backs too. Ponga, Sharpe and Smith were all class.
 
Very glad that Sharpe being shorn of his mullet didn’t turn him into a modern day Samson!

The 16-0 lead probably made us a bit complacent towards the end of the first half. Having said that I thought the pass for their first try looked forward and should have been pulled back.

Despite Friz and Crouch posting decent stats we do seem to lose momentum and control in the middle part of games. Hopefully Saf coming back means that one of Mooney or Hopwood can assert their dominance in that period.

Looked like McEwen was busting a gut to get some of the limelight Manu has been enjoying of late. Not a bad thing imo.

Would be awesome if we can snag 5th, play the Cows at home in the first knock out round and get the ‘W’. After that we would be a handful for whoever we play next!
 
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