NRL Round 14 - Knights Vs Storm - 6:00pm Friday, 5th of June - AAMI Park

Was an exiting game, plenty of contraverse plenty of brilliant moves but also a few errors.
Game was under doubt for us with Crossland injury, he is so important to our set up, it was early meaning we used an interchange much earlier than we might have and especially as Crossland is an 80min player who tops the tackle count.
The game was at times frantic causing many errors with our players seemingly caught up in the intensity of the game, our try just after half time required us to settle and play non error football with field position.
I’m sad we lost but not disappointed with the effort.
 
I think I have a different opinion than some on here. I’m actually quite happy with the effort, most of the execution and our discipline.
We nearly beat the Storm on their own dung heap, with all their spine playing. We lost a 80 minute middle after 5 minutes. We only lost by 2 points
Possession was against us, as were the 50/50 ref calls. Ashley Klein will go home with a headache from all the whinging from Munster, Grant and Hughes.
Some poor passes and dropped balls cost us in the long run. We’ve had some luck this season with rub of the green calls, but not so much tonight.
I just think if AOB was still in charge in the same scenario, we lose by 30 points after scoring one try.
We are a far better side now, more consistently good and belong in the top eight with the other good teams.
 
Only 44% possession and 15 errors, pretty lucky they didn’t get beaten by more really. In spite of that, they still had 4 more line breaks than the Storm

Playing a bit smarter, and with a bit more composure will go a long way.

Goal line defence needs some work too and for the love of god can somebody teach KP to tackle properly before he does serious damage to himself
 
Mixed emotions for this one but overall more pleased. The Storm played well 90 completion rate. We made to many errors. But I love that fact we are a team that can attack from anywhere. As mentioned we just need to be a bit smarter when we pass.

Ponga had some poor errors, the ball to Marzhew the standout one. But I think these are things we can fix pretty easily as the season goes on.

Losing Crossland who is one of our best defenders was a pretty big loss early on. Brown is so good, just like to see him open up a bit more maybe. If the forwards are getting on top that’s when he becomes more lethal. Agree Sharpe needs to run more, he’s thinking pass to much. That’s where perhaps he’s better in the centres with Smith as 5/8. Not sure though.
 
Obviously not the result we wanted but the effort was decent I thought and we are a side that's actually exciting to watch unlike last year.

Our biggest concern was beating ourselves and making far too many errors.

As I said earlier, Dylan Brown is the best defensive half in the comp and once again saved some tries. Wasn't Dom's best game at all and was guilty of coming up with too many errors. Losing Crossland was a blow but I thought Graham was solid apart from a poor kick that went straight to Faalogo's hands. Our back row combo could be really elite by even as early as the end of the season.

I think we can still make the top 4 but losing tonight was a blow. Hopefully after the bye we can flog the Dragons again and go from there.
 
I honestly think if we just tidied up a few areas we could have won the game, whereas we gifted the Storm far too many opportunities that they didn't earn. I would really to see Greg M stay on his opposite number and not rely on the inside men doing his defence
 
Don't understand why people are content with that. We just lost to a bottom 8 side that has been belted on a somewhat regular basis at home this year.

To be perfectly frank, we've actually been pretty poor the last 3 weeks and are just lucky we've come up against the bottom 4 in the titans, parra, dragons, etc who lacked the class to punish us. Some of the issues tonight, ie the errors and losing the territory battle, have just been covered up by our winning streak and need to be addressed asap. Our draw only gets tougher from here and I think we play the entire top 3 again.
 
Any word on Ponga? Had a few bad moments in this game but he got banged up big time, he was wincing holding his shoulder for the rest of the game after the Hughes try. That's a huge problem for our season if he's picked up anything significant there.
 
The Storm had won there last 3 from 4, beating the Roosters (3rd) last week. A team with that completed at 91% with Hughs, Munster, Grant and Faralongo are no mugs, I think they beat most teams tonight.

But errors did hand them the game, our brilliant attack kept us in the game. Take the lessons.

Not sure it gets tougher Melbourne in Melbourne. We have bye Dragons, Tigers, Dolphins all at home.
 
Joshhh said:
Any word on Ponga? Had a few bad moments in this game but he got banged up big time, he was wincing holding his shoulder for the rest of the game after the Hughes try. That's a huge problem for our season if he's picked up anything significant there.
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Said in the presser a neck issue, possibly just a burner.
 
Celticman98 said:
I think we can still make the top 4 but losing tonight was a blow. Hopefully after the bye we can flog the Dragons again and go from there.
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I think our draw towards the end of the year might be a bit too tricky. But I really hope we are aiming for the top four, we should be.

Tonight really had the intensity and vibe of a pretty big finals match, imo.
 
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