NRL Round 18 - Knights Vs Dolphins - 4:05pm Sunday, 5th of July - McDonald Jones Stadium

It's rare a field goal goes exactly 100% to plan though ... defence rushes up and an attempt is aborted, or a player slips. In the end we adapted and handled it very professionally, I thought. Previous years you'd either see no attempt at all, or about 5 different attempted set-ups with no shot, or a shot into about five defenders!
 
Dolphins recent results in injury/absence affected games:

48-10 win over Roosters (similarly Origin affected, Dolphins missing Hammer, Cobbo, Flegler, Kulikefu, Bostock; Roosters missing Teddy, Marky Mark, Walker, Robson, Radley… so with 5 guys out each the Dolphins were way, way better than another top four team…)
Sleepwalked to a 36-22 win over a full strength Tigers with their Origin guys out again besides Kulikefu who backed up to play off the bench. No Katoa (late scratching)
Beat the Wahs 26-24 last week with Katoa coming off injured 15 mins in

The Dolphins are really good and our boys aimed up and got it done. Very happy with the win.
 
I guess I was one of the supporters who questioned the Dylan Brown signing, but he has been fantastic. His defense and general reading of the game is one of the reasons we are winning, particularly these close games and yesterdays field goal just highlights the extra time he seems to be able to create when under pressure. I think we haven't seen the best of him yet either.
 
frankLauda said:
We just need to be better at setting up for either Brown or Sandon to kick FG’s. Yesterday was the usual frantic setup. But I think two solid guys that can kick them.
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I just watched the replay and I actually thought the field goal set up was a set play. Smith in position for the shot, Brown stepped in late at first receiver as if he was going to run the ball, took it to the line then flung it back to Smith for the shot. I reckon the idea was to pause the rushing defence straight at Smith, but they still defended it pretty well.

You see so many field goal attempts these days getting charged down when the kicker gets it straight from dummy-half. This looked like something they've clearly worked on and practised, which is good to see.
 
sherpa said:
I guess I was one of the supporters who questioned the Dylan Brown signing, but he has been fantastic. His defense and general reading of the game is one of the reasons we are winning, particularly these close games and yesterdays field goal just highlights the extra time he seems to be able to create when under pressure. I think we haven't seen the best of him yet either.
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Plus it's had the snowball effect ... Ponga says it's a major part of him re-signing because he's finally getting some support and not having the entire team's fortunes riding on his shoulders. Ponga re-signing I'm sure has a huge effect on Lucas and others staying. And I think that change in vibe has played a big part in our results on the field, too (Holbrook and other factors obviously also playing a huge role).

It's honestly looking like one of the smartest signings we've ever made, at this stage. Nine years left to continue assessing it though haha.
 
mullenmagic said:
2 weeks in a row now that Dom has noticeably been positioned at centre on a handful of backline movements with Gagai outside him. He was originally signed as a centre and played his first few games of NSW Cup there for us, and I thought he showed a lot of potential in that role. Was even reported that the Roosters were dangling a centre jersey down the track when he signed there. He hasn’t been mentioned as a possible Gagai replacement but the evidence would show that maybe it's being considered. He’d be by far the highest upside option in attack but would need to earn a lot of trust in defence.


Short video because he only played a few games before being called into first grade but you’d be impressed with representative centres pulling off those flick passes let alone a 19-year old.
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If his defence is up for it you could have Hunt outside him. Or leave him on the wing and have Hunt at centre. Imagine the tries you could score from cross field kicks with those 2 sitting out on the right
 
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jamesgould said:
It's honestly looking like one of the smartest signings we've ever made, at this stage. Nine years left to continue assessing it though haha.
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Feels weird because we signed him when he was 24. Now he's 26 despite only having played with us since March. I'm sure the timing knowing Ponga was off-contract at the end of 2027 having to make the move there and then.
Though I never ever bought into the notion that Ponga ever came close to considering leaving, it does help making his decision to stay.

And as everyone has been saying since they struggled to find a replacement for Pearce the halves were a glaring hole with guys plugging in. Then the Hastings opportunity came when he wore out his welcome at the Tigers and the Knights were looking to offload Klemmer due to the emergence of the Saifiti's.
I'm not sure what the logic behind Cogger and a three year deal was, they must have seen him play well against us in that 2023 match before we went on our streak.

I do wonder if it was an all in or nothing type move. Combined with POS being in awe of him.. We probably would have made do with Sandon Smith but probably dont win as many games with him there instead.
 
jamesgould said:
Plus it's had the snowball effect ... Ponga says it's a major part of him re-signing because he's finally getting some support and not having the entire team's fortunes riding on his shoulders. Ponga re-signing I'm sure has a huge effect on Lucas and others staying. And I think that change in vibe has played a big part in our results on the field, too (Holbrook and other factors obviously also playing a huge role).

It's honestly looking like one of the smartest signings we've ever made, at this stage. Nine years left to continue assessing it though haha.
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If anything Brown is over delivering in my eyes. He has adapted to the Knight’s style so quickly with new coaches, and will only get better with time.
Brown is becoming the thinking man’s footballer, something POS saw from way back.
He will make other players around him much better players going forward. The last time we had someone like that at the Knights was Joey, and you all know what success he brought to the club.
 
Lot of blow up about the kick off at the end. Not sure why. It was a classic 50/50 decision and the ref said it was short. Don’t get why people get up in arms about this type of thing. Could’ve went either way.
 
mozza said:
Lot of blow up about the kick off at the end. Not sure why. It was a classic 50/50 decision and the ref said it was short. Don’t get why people get up in arms about this type of thing. Could’ve went either way.
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have you read much on this forum? lots of arms up...
 
SportsFan said:
have you read much on this forum? lots of arms up...
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I know people get fired up when there’s a blatant wrong call like the Jenkins double movement the other night for instance but I don’t get the 50/50 ones. I remember the blow up a couple of years ago about a Tommy Turbo forward pass against Parra that wasn’t called. It was a line ball decision and the media talked about it for a week.

I’m not a ref apologist by any means but it was a tight call and either way they went one side will feel they were slightly dudded. The bunker sucks but it’s ridiculous to fault them too much for that call.
 
mozza said:
Lot of blow up about the kick off at the end. Not sure why. It was a classic 50/50 decision and the ref said it was short. Don’t get why people get up in arms about this type of thing. Could’ve went either way.
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Was happy for them to go with the refs on field call, even if he thought it cleared. My hunch though was even though it was inconclusive as pointed out by the bunker and didn't warrant being over turned if we had "VAR Soccer techology" We would have seen the ball before an imaginary wall at the 10m mark...

Oh and I counted at least twice where Lucas was interfered with while chasing down a grubber where someone just 'happened to be in front of him and he couldn't get through', but you gotta really milk those to get the call go your way.
 
R_A said:
Was happy for them to go with the refs on field call, even if he thought it cleared. My hunch though was even though it was inconclusive as pointed out by the bunker and didn't warrant being over turned if we had "VAR Soccer techology" We would have seen the ball before an imaginary wall at the 10m mark...

Oh and I counted at least twice where Lucas was interfered with while chasing down a grubber where someone just 'happened to be in front of him and he couldn't get through', but you gotta really milk those to get the call go your way.
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Ref positioned himself perfectly to make the call. And think the bunker made the right call to not intervene. It was very close and I don’t think anyone should have been too upset with the call either way.
Cam smiths comments in commentary were such a bad way of speaking about the game and the referees. We don’t have to have a blow up or new conspiracy every game. Sometimes a close call just goes one teams way.
 
R_A said:
Was happy for them to go with the refs on field call, even if he thought it cleared. My hunch though was even though it was inconclusive as pointed out by the bunker and didn't warrant being over turned if we had "VAR Soccer techology" We would have seen the ball before an imaginary wall at the 10m mark...

Oh and I counted at least twice where Lucas was interfered with while chasing down a grubber where someone just 'happened to be in front of him and he couldn't get through', but you gotta really milk those to get the call go your way.
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Yep. Referee positioned himself perfectly for the moment that ball would have crossed the plane before it started coming back, if it did. So for him to say it didn’t cross, I back it.

If he said it crossed the plane, I’d back refs call there too.

Without the perfect angle (straight on the 40m line), you have to stick with that decision.
The video always skews things a little for parallax error.

I’m curious how long it is before we see cameras set up at the 40m and 10m lines. Probably not necessary now, but with the emergence of the short kickoffs and drop outs, it’s inevitable some games will be decided by decisions like this.
 
KriKri said:
Ref positioned himself perfectly to make the call. And think the bunker made the right call to not intervene. It was very close and I don’t think anyone should have been too upset with the call either way.
Cam smiths comments in commentary were such a bad way of speaking about the game and the referees. We don’t have to have a blow up or new conspiracy every game. Sometimes a close call just goes one teams way.
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Sorry, didn’t mean to repeat you haha. But I agree. Props to ref here, he positioned himself well, and made a call. He could easily call play on there, knights unable to challenge and play continues.
 
So did Dolphins have a challenge left?
If so why wouldn’t they use it with game in the balance and little time left.
If no challenge left why was Ref asking if they wanted a challenge
 
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