NRL Round 14 - Knights Vs Sea Eagles - 7:50pm Thursday 5th June - McDonald Jones Stadium

šŸ˜‚ I didnā€™t know where to post this but the difference in sophistication in virtually every poster in this forum compared virtually every poster on Facebook and instagram is so vast itā€™s like comparing a literal potato and a particle physicist. There are people - yes plural. Calling for Sharpe to play fullback for the rest of the year AND for Ponga to play NSW Cup. Others think Ponga could do alright as a winger BUT neither Hunt or Marzhew deserve to be dropped.
Hahahaha
 
On the game, watching the players celebrate that try by Ponga to win actually made me sad. Make no mistake, Ponga loves our club. The vast majority of people in the media and podcast arena have been calling for Ponga to leave this steaming heap of **** for a while. Yet, he hasnā€™t left yet. You could imagine the offers heā€™s hearing directly and also through the grapevine behind closed doors. Yet he seems at this stage to be honouring what he said his number 1 commitment is from day 1 - win a premiership at Newcastle. Iā€™ve been critical of him this year, but heā€™s playing in a side that completely lacks any structure. Name one instance this year where heā€™s gotten good ball on an edge. There wouldnā€™t be many. Heā€™s also been carrying injuries, and itā€™s funny now that I know that heā€™s carrying the medial ankle injury (deltoid), I can tell you now he gives a **** about playing. Most patients Iā€™ve dealt with who have the same issue have trouble with simple weight bearing. Let alone stepping at speed off the ankle, running on it, pushing through several people trying to push you back.
I donā€™t know how long heā€™s had this injury, but playing on it ESP in a side playing poorly, going no where is nothing short of remarkable.
I really, really hope we get a new coach, some middles and a halves pairing of Brown & Sharpe fires. The players arenā€™t losing due to commitment issues, itā€™s simply a lack of coaching (and middle forward depth).
They deserve success, Gags, Friz, and Kalyn especially.
 
While I think they deserve a lot of credit for clawing their way back into that game last night, itā€™s still only another 40 minutes of good footy for the season. The first half was diabolical.

I think that was probably the best team performance in a long time though. We didnā€™t rely on one player too much. They all played their part. Very proud of that second half performance and I think a few players will take a lot of confidence from that, and shows what we can do.

Schiller baffles me. Got absolutely burned for pace in the first half and looked slow again, then burns wingers on the outside in the second half and looks like Gout Gout. Credit to him though, similar to Hunt a few weeks back, was having some horrible moments but keeps plugging away, and got the rewards in the end. The break he had in the second and poor pass on the inside. Basically the same scenario for the levelling try, but finds Sharpe. Great adjustment. Glad he ended up with something to smile about.

KPP looked unstoppable in the second half. Tigers will be happy if he can start performing like that every week. Iā€™d be happy to pay the 600 if he dished that up every week.

Manly thought they had that game won. They are almost as rocks or diamonds as us. We just found some belief and enthusiasm and to me looked like that weā€™re enjoying that style of footy much more.

Another thing that impressed me was our support play and energy. I think it was Gags towards the second half made a bit of a run and there was about 5 players running alongside him.

Have been a little critical of Pongaā€™s effort plays. And while I donā€™t think it was back to his best by any stretch, I was happy to see him go the extra mile today. Some strong carries. Raced up to pressure DCE field goal attempt at the end of 80, and then he was the one who made the second effort to pressure Brooks.


Just so curious to see how we come out next week. We obviously had a lot of upside spreading the ball and we actually had some shape. Hopefully we build on that. Not every set. But that should serve as the blueprint to unlock our strengths at the moment. We certainly canā€™t go through the middle with one out runs.


Edit: And, if thereā€™s another positive to come from this, my tagline is no longer Darius Boyd. Hallelujah!
 
well.... what a nice surprise to wake up to that result. I turned it off at halftime and went to sleep. now to watch it
 
What baffled me is why did all of a sudden we looked like we knew each other, we looked fitter than Manly, we out classed them in every way in the 2nd half. Ponga got out of the way more often than not and tried to just play his fullback role on one foot. Why haven't we played like that all year? The speed on passing, the depth just blew me away. Passes sticking gave them superhuman confidence, they won't always stick as we have seen in the past but you've gotta keep trying, can't be a turtle in this instance coz it bloody works!

It was like a whole different team came out the sheds.......
 
danknights said:
What baffled me is why did all of a sudden we looked like we knew each other, we looked fitter than Manly, we out classed them in every way in the 2nd half. Ponga got out of the way more often than not and tried to just play his fullback role on one foot. Why haven't we played like that all year? The speed on passing, the depth just blew me away. Passes sticking gave them superhuman confidence, they won't always stick as we have seen in the past but you've gotta keep trying, can't be a turtle in this instance coz it bloody works!

It was like a whole different team came out the sheds.......
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We stopped playing the simple 1 out play trying to grind better teams away it looks like. We played actual footy offloads ball shifts which lead to line breaks and points. Hopefully thats our new game plan going forward
 
danknights said:
What baffled me is why did all of a sudden we looked like we knew each other, we looked fitter than Manly, we out classed them in every way in the 2nd half. Ponga got out of the way more often than not and tried to just play his fullback role on one foot. Why haven't we played like that all year? The speed on passing, the depth just blew me away. Passes sticking gave them superhuman confidence, they won't always stick as we have seen in the past but you've gotta keep trying, can't be a turtle in this instance coz it bloody works!

It was like a whole different team came out the sheds.......
Click to expand...
Yeah that was what it was for me. It wasnā€™t simply that we started offloading ā€¦ I really reckon the booing was a huge wake up call for them.

Second half there was intent with runs, players were really trying to bust tackles ā€¦ we did spread the ball in the first half, but as usual it was very static, put it through the hands, go sideways. Second half thereā€™s ball runners wanting to break through, thereā€™s speed and depth to the runners, theyā€™re going straight first and then looking for second phase ball, which creates more space. Loved seeing Gagai just wind up again and again and skittle opposition players, then feed it to another player to keep the surge going. This is what we need to do every game!!!

People put it all on the coach, and I donā€™t think heā€™s doing a good job of communicating what the side needs to do, or really seems to know what they need to do. But the effort and execution in the second half was just so much better from the players. I hope something has clicked in their heads ā€¦ just efforts like that will get us wins against a lot of sides this season. 26 points in a half! Bottle it!!!
 
jamesgould said:
Yeah that was what it was for me. It wasnā€™t simply that we started offloading ā€¦ I really reckon the booing was a huge wake up call for them.

Second half there was intent with runs, players were really trying to bust tackles ā€¦ we did spread the ball in the first half, but as usual it was very static, put it through the hands, go sideways. Second half thereā€™s ball runners wanting to break through, thereā€™s speed and depth to the runners, theyā€™re going straight first and then looking for second phase ball, which creates more space. Loved seeing Gagai just wind up again and again and skittle opposition players, then feed it to another player to keep the surge going. This is what we need to do every game!!!

People put it all on the coach, and I donā€™t think heā€™s doing a good job of communicating what the side needs to do, or really seems to know what they need to do. But the effort and execution in the second half was just so much better from the players. I hope something has clicked in their heads ā€¦ just efforts like that will get us wins against a lot of sides this season. 26 points in a half! Bottle it!!!
Click to expand...
Well said James totally spot on.
 
I put some of it down to going back to what we are good at and that's not going through the middle! Even with our best fowards on the field we have always been better going wider and making opposition's second row and centres make tough defensive decisions which you can see is something we have tried on and off over the years.
Last night was such a confusing game but it was such a nice feeling to not feel deflated after a game
 
Morning, reflection time, have to give a big wrap to our fwd pack especially playing without first choice props in JSaf and Leo along with others and then loosing Frizell early.
They were outplayed due mainly to size but soldiered on, Jones, Croker, Lucas and KPP especially with the others contributing strong, ESL and McEwen look good for the future.
 
Hutcho said:
On the game, watching the players celebrate that try by Ponga to win actually made me sad. Make no mistake, Ponga loves our club. The vast majority of people in the media and podcast arena have been calling for Ponga to leave this steaming heap of **** for a while. Yet, he hasnā€™t left yet. You could imagine the offers heā€™s hearing directly and also through the grapevine behind closed doors. Yet he seems at this stage to be honouring what he said his number 1 commitment is from day 1 - win a premiership at Newcastle. Iā€™ve been critical of him this year, but heā€™s playing in a side that completely lacks any structure. Name one instance this year where heā€™s gotten good ball on an edge. There wouldnā€™t be many. Heā€™s also been carrying injuries, and itā€™s funny now that I know that heā€™s carrying the medial ankle injury (deltoid), I can tell you now he gives a **** about playing. Most patients Iā€™ve dealt with who have the same issue have trouble with simple weight bearing. Let alone stepping at speed off the ankle, running on it, pushing through several people trying to push you back.
I donā€™t know how long heā€™s had this injury, but playing on it ESP in a side playing poorly, going no where is nothing short of remarkable.
I really, really hope we get a new coach, some middles and a halves pairing of Brown & Sharpe fires. The players arenā€™t losing due to commitment issues, itā€™s simply a lack of coaching (and middle forward depth).
They deserve success, Gags, Friz, and Kalyn especially.
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I may, possibly, be feeling some slight regret over stuff I've said about him this year... šŸ˜”

He did frustrate me a bit still last night in situations where I felt like he'd burned his man & where in the past he'd just shrug through a tackle and make a clean break, he threw the big cut out... but I guess we can put that down to the ankle.
 
danknights said:
What baffled me is why did all of a sudden we looked like we knew each other, we looked fitter than Manly, we out classed them in every way in the 2nd half. Ponga got out of the way more often than not and tried to just play his fullback role on one foot. Why haven't we played like that all year? The speed on passing, the depth just blew me away. Passes sticking gave them superhuman confidence, they won't always stick as we have seen in the past but you've gotta keep trying, can't be a turtle in this instance coz it bloody works!

It was like a whole different team came out the sheds.......
Click to expand...
This sort of thing happens in team sport all the time, it all of a sudden looked natural & practised rather than clunky. I think they'll take a heap of confidence out of that game (even though its only 40mins..) We've played with such low confidence after the first few rounds, remember all those games with errors in our own end?
Don't have to look too far at other examples of shambolic teams & turning it around. Richmond before they went on their GF run, the lynch mob was out for coach & captain.
 
Newygirl said:
Everyone else can see that, he shouldnā€™t be a coach if he canā€™t. His game plan makes no sense for the players they have

Is it ego or stupidity because Iā€™m not sure which is worse?
Click to expand...

Lots of positives out of the game. Certainly spreading the ball and also contesting bombs is the go. We won the game from a contested bomb. šŸ’£.

I really like ponga, but I just donā€™t think we can realistically justify 1.4 mil + per season. Guys like papenhuzen, turbo, Edwards etc probably wouldnā€™t be on much more than 1/2 that?
 
knights80 said:
Hope Schill gets support and not a bunch of fools nagging him on instagram and stuff like that like happened to Tom Jenkins last year
It ruined him for the rest of the year, left and went back to Penrith and found his mojo again

Schiller obviously been training all year on wing and itā€™s showed, would need whole off season to train centre before playing him again
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I posted this last night at start of second half when schills had just dropped another ball, then saw this morning that him and a few of the other boys had reposted it for him, some groin sent him a death threat message on instagram.

When are people going to learn that players donā€™t intentionally go out to drop balls or miss tackles and they are just there to do their job which happens to be entertainment for us.

Never understood that mentality of sending a message like that, and hopefully police follow it up.

Posting maybe they should be dropped next week, or moved to a different position is obviously fine but nobody should eve have to put up with racist or death threats in their DM after a disappointing game.
 
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