Round 15: Knights v Roosters @ EAS Stadium

Just parts of the game i thought he could have injected himself more! i'm not saying he was shyt or anythig like that i gave him points in the tally - i just thought he was a little quite but still one of the better players
 
we have shown already we can cope without bedsy, we have won 2 from three without him this yr, the titans game was the one that really showed us that things will be alright next yr. Sure we are going to miss his determination, leadership and passion but i think we will have two pretty decent hookers in DeGois and Hilder next yr.
 
hilder has impressed me the most out of all our buys for this season

he's been fantastic ...especially defensively

then houston

cross,ciraldo have been disappointing

wicks,lulia ....ok
 
Hilder was great and i watched the sharks game degois played well i think we have hooker covered for 09! But we will miss bedsys leadership and passion!
 
hilder has impressed me the most out of all our buys for this season

he's been fantastic ...especially defensively

then houston

cross,ciraldo have been disappointing

wicks,lulia ....ok

What about Fa'aoso? One of the better players in the team to watch for me, he always runs it hard ... I wish more players would take it to the line the way he does.
 
What about Fa'aoso? One of the better players in the team to watch for me, he always runs it hard ... I wish more players would take it to the line the way he does.

I agree, Cross and Ciraldo should take some pointers from Fa'as.
 
The game was lost for me when Chris Bailey dropped a ball that he should have caught with the line wide open.

Instead of going to halftime up 14-6, we went in 8-6 , and it simply wasn't enough given the advantage of the wind. The Roosters offer nothing in attack, and not suprisingly all their tries came from the standard old boring up and under kick to the wingers.

The costly missed try from Bailey was the single biggest turning point in that match today.
 
I Honestly think our forward pack needs to look at its self. Its time for changes. Richie has been Great, Simpson, Hilder And Cross Are All There Because There good players (mind you Cross hasnt played a good game for us this year). Zeb Taia has been good with out being out standing, i think he would have very little errors to his name. i seriously think its time to Bring Taufua, Wulf, White, Timmy and maybe even some NYC talent Just to have a crack in the FG side. what harm can it do?
Because for mine Wicks goes missing to often, Yes next week he gets to come up against Perry which could bring out the best in him or he could get owned because i think Perry has been playing some ok football for his standards. Taufua has done wonders in our NSW cup side, Call me bias though. In a game where we could possibly have Simpson And Cross out that probably opens the door to Tolar. But i believe Jesse Royal and Steve Simpson Are our best starting Options. With Mark Taufua On the right hand edge and Patterson On the left. Houston doesn't have enough "impact power" to come off the bench i dont think.

Im not going to go on about it anymore.
 
Im going to give a Wrap to Mcmanus, Yes Mcmanus. Mad Dog does NOTHING for him. never passes the ball,and leaves James to Defend two players. Not a good center. Centers these days need to draw and pass. Mad dog has done that like once this year.

A few things on todays game:

Well I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks what I currently think about Mad Dog's form over the last 2 seasons. That try he was directly responsible for (which turned out to be the matchwinner for the Roosters) was absolutely pathetic and was just one of the many faux pas he's made since re-signing with the Knights. Firstly, he passes an unnecessary pass to a player that wasn't expecting it (Bailey), then he gets heaps angry at Bailey for not catching the ball properly and knocking on (when it was his crap pass in the first place). Then the criminal part: After all the great defense the Knights did on the Roosters and the pressure they put on Anasta on 5th tackle, MacDougall was in the best position of all the Knights players to catch the bomb (as was said by the commentators on Fox and KO-FM). But, what does he do? He turns his back on the ball, doesn't even know where the ball is, AND, takes out a Roosters player instead!!!!!!!! I mean, when I saw that live, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that, because it was shocking football to the nth-degree. That was pure Under 8's stuff right there. And it turned out to be the turning point. Sure, the Knights had many chances in the last 10 mins, but in the context of the match, at the time in the 65th min, nothing was happening, the Knights were cruising along, playing safe, and then it all started with a no look pass.

Secondly, the Fox Commentators: I fully 100% agree with some of the comments made about them. Gary Freeman (who use to play for Roosters) should just be on camera, wearing a Roosters jersey. Deadset, every single bit of brilliance the Knights did was classified as a 'fluke', whereas the Roosters were classified as 'Brilliantly constructed". ROFL! Yes 'Whiz', we all know you're a closet Roosters fan, why don't you admit it? And this whole agenda of how brilliant Mitchell Pearce is?????? Get out! I know he's a good player, but to the God-like extent they've made him out to be, they've clearly propagated this agenda out of respect for their friend Wayne Pearce (who is a member of the Fox Commentary team, was in the crowd today, but wasn't commentating today after all the complaints probably made about him when calling Roosters games). You cannot look me in the eye and say that a lot of the bias on Fox isn't agenda-driven. I can literally name countless times and examples where this has happened. One of them was the Canberra/Wests Tigers game before Origin I. Before the game, there had been all of the talk that the Origin #7 jersey was up for grabs between Todd Carney and Mitchell Pearce (before Peter Wallace came into the scenario). Fairdinkum, throughout the whole game, Wayne Pearce was deliberately belittling all the good pieces of play that Todd Carney did in that game (which climaxed when Carney set up the match winning try for Canberra), as he clearly didn't want Carney to get the #7 jersey. Not also to mention that Pearce sounds like he's about to cry everytime he calls Raiders games, as he's clearly not over the 'painful' defeat he suffered at the hands of them in the 1989 GF.
 
Garry Belcher should just wear a half QLd half Canberra jersey when he commentates also.

I've noticed MacDougall passes alot near our own line and mostly it isn't needed, he never passed to McManus aswell, then again Wes hardly ever does aswell.
 
On an overall of today's match, it kills me to see us not putting the 'finishing touches' on other teams. Last week, we really should've ran riot over the Cowboys when we were 18-4 up, early in the 2nd half. It's good to see we haven't been smashed by anyone this year, but at the same time, we really do need a big win (and hoping that it comes against Souths in a few weeks time). Too bad we don't play the Bulldogs again, as it would be a great time to play them again.

Handling errors and 5th tackle options are a killer. From watching the Storm last night, if you were to put them and the Knights side by side, besides the obvious factor of player depth, a major differentiating factor between us and them is the expansive ball movement. I feel that we don't do enough of that. We seem to do much 'one pass off the ruck' stuff, and we don't do enough 'throw, catch and pass' movements involving decoy runners and 2nd phase plays. I've noticed we look at our most dangerous when we get the ball out wide in that motion.

Also, variety. We need to try new things. I saw Mullen do some of that today, like the crossfield kick for COoper Vuna. But, I think two things sides in the NRL don't utilise enough are: Short kickoffs and Chip kicks. Jonathan Thurston last night showed how effective short kickoffs can be. Also, chip kicks: I'm surprised a lot of teams don't do that, as sides can be very easily exploited doing that, especially when the fullback is standing deep. Andrew Johns and Brett Kimmorley (when he was at the Storm, during his peak) are two notable players that come to mind when I think of chip kicks. The only team I've seen do this on a frequent basis is the Melbourne Storm. You'll normally find Cooper Cronk doing a chip kick with Billy Slater running on the inside.

Success leaves clues. NRL teams that have been very successful have been successful because they've been doing certain things, over and over again. The Knights should be looking at tapes of the Melbourne Storm's set plays (when they have the ball) and should be studying them. Furthermore, at the same time, the Knights should be looking at things that have brought about their undoing: handling errors and stupid mistakes. It all comes back to the fundamentals and basics. Once they get that under control, then they can start expanding on that and think about brilliant attacking plays and we'll see the Knights playing to their maximum potential.
 
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So according to Smithy we took a couple of steps forward today did we?...hmmm...not sure I agree with that at all...our handling was at times abysmal and some of our play looked confused and uncertain with no sense of direction.
What the hell was Hilder doing playing 2nd row and attempting offloads?! Just stick to what you're best at Matty...don't try to play outside your capabilities...Cross had a s*** game and Wes..oh dear...c'mon Wes we signed you as a STRIKE centre...PLAY LIKE ONE!
Geez we'd be stuffed without Bedsy and Gids...dreading the game against the seagulls next week with those two missing.
And one more thing I know it was cold there today but at times there was absolutely no atmosphere whatsoever...were people frozen in their seats or something? So much for building FORTRESS NOVOCASTRIA.
 
Garry Belcher should just wear a half QLd half Canberra jersey when he commentates also.

I've noticed MacDougall passes alot near our own line and mostly it isn't needed, he never passed to McManus aswell, then again Wes hardly ever does aswell.

I was just about to mention that as well: MacDougall does tend to isolate McManus a lot on his own, which isn't good.

Garry Belcher??? well, tbh, I haven't really noticed a lot of blatant bias from him. Most notably, Wayne Pearce (from Fox) and Ben Ikin (from Ch9) are the main culprits. Ben Ikin? He just loves going orgasmic over anything QLD, whether its the Broncos, Cowboys or Titans. So much for Ch9 claiming to provide objective commentary.
 
So according to Smithy we took a couple of steps forward today did we?...hmmm...not sure I agree with that at all...our handling was at times abysmal and some of our play looked confused and uncertain with no sense of direction.

Well, a few things that I am starting to question about some of Smith's selections:

1) The constant selection of Adam MacDougall, despite below-par performances

2) Junior Sau???? Scores 2 tries, plays very well, and yet is demoted for MacDougall

3) Uate?? I've been hearing all this hype about him for a couple of years now, but how can someone prove themself when they haven't been given a chance?
 
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