NRL Round 17 - Knights Vs Tigers - 4:05pm Sunday, 28th of June - McDonald Jones Stadium

JOJO82 said:
I think this would have been a game where Graham would have carved up in the middle and his creativity would have made something out of nothing.
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Yeah, also though the use of Sandon at lock was quite odd. Probably could have used Crouch just for some hitups. Would like to see Cant become a ball playing lock, replace Croker for that period, but don’t know if he has it in him.
 
Well that was wet...........gags had a stinker. Credit to the boys for sticking tough defensively. Attack was sickening. Very ugly win but I'll take it and we needed it. Oh man I was whipping Dom and Braddy for that last try. Time for a shower. Quick few beers with the boys then bed. Loved reading through the posts. Ref was pretty average I thought tonight.
 
Very ordinary game from both sides even allowing for the weather.
Ponga, had his moments but the chase down was the tops, generally didn’t look on his game. young, was very good, made ground and his runs were good topped by his break and set up for Bests try, the winner. Gagai, not a good game riddle with errors and bad decisions, too many cross fields runs. Best was very strong, tackled, ran strong, and scored the winner with good play and back up right side. Marzhew was his usual strong, ran hard, made ground but I close my eyes when they bomb his side. Sharpe, has his moments, run hard, dangerous in open ground but seems to lack direction, doesn’t link, it’s a break or tackled, his passing could be improved. Brown, hopefully this was a one off, his worst game by many mistakes for Knights, expect him to fire next week. Pack, thought Lucas and McEwen were very good along with Crossland, JSaf was strong but rest were a bit off.. Bench was ok with Frizell the best, Hopwood tried hard, bench use was not so good.
Can’t believe that without serious injury that we actually had Crossland, Smith, Brown and Sharpe playing at same time when the conditions required forwards playing through the middle.
Smith is our 7 replacement if Brown injured otherwise we use Graham on bench to relieve both Crossland and Croker..
Next week I expect 1-13 from this week to start barring injuries and SOO, bench, Graham, Frizell, Crouch, Cant with whoever deserves it at 18 & 19, rotate them please.
SOO likely lose Ponga and Best. Sharpe to 1, Smith to 6 with McCarthy to 4
 
Post game long post.

Stinker of a game. Both teams seemingly tried to lose that one. Tigers will be wondering how they lost that game.

Our best passages of play were the opening minutes and disallowed try and Doms Break and Best try at the end.

We need to tidy up our completions and ball security. It’s been a bit of a habit that’s crept in over the last few weeks. Happy to cop the odd drop ball or stray pass when we try to spread it and attack, that’s going to happen. But dropping it cold or in hit ups coming out of our own end after defending set after set isn’t doing us any favours. I guess that’s the high risk plays we are trying to do. We don’t score our winning try if we don’t take risks.

Just before Sukkar scored, I was thinking, we are gassing ourselves defending our line, we can’t get out. Errors, set restarts and they were keeping the pressure on. Was almost hoping they just scored, we could regroup, get our breath and reset.

Brown and Gagai had their worst games. Nothing was really working for Brown. Gagai made me look the fool for thinking we should have tried a bit harder to keep him on for another year. I think Doueihi did well to strip Gagai - but that turnover lead to their try.

On the other side, Frizz needs to be re-signed. He earns his wage every week. Strong runs and just a big presence in our team. Crossland, McEwen, Lucas, Safs too.

Thought Hopwood had some good moments when he came on. Some solid runs and he’s looking a bit more at home every time he plays. Very much reminds me a bit of Yeo, bit of gentle giant. He’s going to be great.

Sharpe tried his hand at solely ball playing it seemed in the first half. Reckon he was told to put the passes away and run first for the second. Much better when he and Brown look to run first, play make second.

Marzhew was really noticeable with his carries yesterday. Maybe something we take for granted. But he just keeps lining up and bulldozing his way out. His runs noticeably helped us a lot yesterday.

Mooney average. Had the opportunity to bump that up with his kick chase and attempt to put on a hit to turn the ball over. Didn’t come off and results in a penalty. But I appreciate the effort for him to see we needed a turnover and put in the work to chase and be there to put on contact. Maybe a fine? Or will his history make him miss a week?

Speaking of effort areas. Ponga didn’t have the best game with ball in hand, but the chase of Makasini was a very impressive show of his speed and determination. And he was the one to dive on the loose ball at the end of this set. Good captain areas.

Young made up for a quiet week last week (or the week before, it blends in). Looked our only attacking weapon and his try assist was reminiscent of his try a few seasons ago where he just runs around the outside of the whole team.

Overall, I’ll take 2 points after that performance.
 
As Holbrook pointed out in the Presser, when that linebreak was run down by Ponga and Young, the entire side got back to form a defensive line and prevent a try.
That late in the game you would expect half the side to be too tired to sprint 50 or 60 metres and then defend the goal line for a set.
It was probably the best whole team defensive effort in a very long time.
 
Celticman98 said:
Didn't comment on the game last night.

Very ugly win again but I'll happily take the 2 points.

AOB era like performance but Dom was our standout. The Bradman try was brilliant.
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I would say the opposite to be honest! Forwards were barely being used for 60 minutes, we kept spreading it trying to run around them. The feeling at least in the part of the stadium where I was sitting was tighten it up and play some AOB ball, start running it up the middle!

Not much to take out of that game, but I think it was significant that the team seemed to learn the lesson on the run, in that last period they finally seemed to understand that we have to straighten up. They adapted, it really seemed like they were going to play the game out trying to score every play and lose. Sometimes you just have to play tough and gritty.

Best scored a 100m try so you can't say tightening up won us the game, but playing the way we were up to that point was definitely on the way to losing us the game.
 
Joshhh said:
I would say the opposite to be honest! Forwards were barely being used for 60 minutes, we kept spreading it trying to run around them. The feeling at least in the part of the stadium where I was sitting was tighten it up and play some AOB ball, start running it up the middle!

Not much to take out of that game, but I think it was significant that the team seemed to learn the lesson on the run, in that last period they finally seemed to understand that we have to straighten up. They adapted, it really seemed like they were going to play the game out trying to score every play and lose. Sometimes you just have to play tough and gritty.

Best scored a 100m try so you can't say tightening up won us the game, but playing the way we were up to that point was definitely on the way to losing us the game.
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I should have said instead of it being a AOB era performance more trying to score off every play where it wasn't on.

I think last night's performance has been coming for a while though and as you said they at least adapted to straightening up a bit more rather than play sidewards footy.
 
I remember the commentator during the game saying Lucas was quiet and comparing him to Haumole (which is incredibly stupid and shows his lack of football knowledge for many reasons) but I was looking at his stats and even during the game I didn’t think he was quiet but let’s do this.

Lucas vs Tigers 2
Metres: 116m
Runs: 11
Post contact metres: 39
Linebreaks: 1
Tackles: 49/49 with 1 ineffective
Tries: 1

If that is considered “quiet” Lucas must be the greatest second rower ever.
 
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