NRL Round 20 - Knights Vs Sharks - 6:00pm Friday, 17th of July - Ocean Protect Stadium

I seriously hope you are all right, but I can just see us getting bent over again with poor officiating as seems to be the norm for us against the more fancied teams.
 
As expected: their big forward pack eventually wore us down. We needed to bank a bigger lead when we were jumping them earlier on in the game. Cronulla were there for the taking as they struggled coming down from their big high last week. The boys had a good crack as they usually do, but we can't ignore the big picture issue that our expansive style just doesn't match up well against the bigger sides like Cronulla. Especially in the rain.

We need to park talk about the top 4 because the top 8 is still not guaranteed. Because of our relatively poor p/d, there was always the risk that we could slide down the ladder very quickly if we started stinging losses together. Next weeks game is huge: if we lose again, we could even slip out of the 8 if results don't go our way.
 
Billy said:
The loss was disappointing, but it was in our top 2 or 3 performances of the year - scored 4 tries to 3 against one of the form teams.
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This. The boys proved that they can turn up when it counts.

Cant take it too harshly, Sharks are very hard to beat, particularly at home. We did really we'll considering how understaffed we were. That's not a preferred result but its a good result.

2026 is a beta test. We bring on the young blood this year and think big picture for 2027
 
Les Misérables said:
This. The boys proved that they can turn up when it counts.

Cant take it too harshly, Sharks are very hard to beat, particularly at home. We did really we'll considering how understaffed we were. That's not a preferred result but its a good result.

2026 is a beta test. We bring on the young blood this year and think big picture for 2027
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Yep there is absolutely nothing going wrong with this team that won't be fixed by guys like Cody Hopwood fulfilling their potential.
 
This part of the season the NRL tends to favour the teams they want in the final 8, not saying it's right but it's inevitable.

I'd say 5/6 is a pretty fair assessment of where we're at as a team at the minute. If anyone wants to complain about that, if encourage you to look back twelve months and see how we were going and how we were playing.

I think from tonight's game the clear takeaways are that Gagai is replaceable, Manuleulua can hold his head high, but is still very green, and that Crouch despite being one of the top performers in NSW Cup isn't quite FG ready yet.

Would 100% rather take close losses at this stage of the season than floggings that can ruin your confidence.
 
After watching the Roosters Storm game, I think the Roosters are very beatable. Hopefully it's a repeat of the 2019 game as that was the last time we beat them at McDonald Jones. Was also a Friday night game that night.
 
Only just watched the highlights. Shame KP left his kicking boots at home. Didn’t get much context of the game and far too tired to watch the whole replay now. Will check it out in the morning.

On a positive note, we’ve been close the last two weeks and are in the hunt for top 4 still.

What happened to Hopwood…..??
 
Really don't know why everyone is content with what happened yesterday. If we want to be taken seriously as a top 8 team this year, I don't think we can continue to excuse poor performances like this for much longer.

Let's be honest, we haven't been performing well as a team for months now. I'd say ever since we flogged the Dragons in Wollongong, we've struggled to put in a good performance and have been half-assing it ever since. We were one Flanagan drop away from losing to the Dragons. We could have even lost to the tigers a few weeks back if it wasn't for Dom's brilliance towards the back end of the game. Not to mention being saved on the bell by a rare Brown FG. We could easily be 9-9 or 8-10 right now and be where the tigers, dogs or storm are right now.

Even today, that second half was awful if we are being honest. We need more from our spine when we get into good attacking positions against top 4 sides like Cronulla who strangled us in that second half. Just like last week, we just looked lost when camped in the opposition red zone. We are far more comfortable attacking long-range than in the red zone which is not a sustainable strategy for success.

Have to be much better next week against the chooks.
 
Watched the replay, whilst there was no lack of effort we were clearly beaten. Our first 25 mins was great, but soon as Crouch and then Jones came on we absolutely lost the ruck. Sharks were running wild, and we’re lucky they didn’t score more.
Sharks defence in the second half was elite, we just couldn’t get out of our end, would love us to defend like that. Still good signs we kept fighting and nearly won, but really gonna have to jag a win soon.
 
People honestly think last night was a poor performance?

We went toe to toe with one of the form sides of the comp missing a bunch of forwards, copped a few terrible decisions and still managed to score more tries than they did.

It was close to our best performance of the year.
 
Yeah I thought we played really well last night. Closer to an 80 minute performance than anything we've dished up in the past 3 months anyway.

I am however, getting really tired of referees/the bunker only applying certain rules when it suits them though.
 
Everyone post match mentioned how wet and slippery it was. I think we adapted our usual style quite well for the conditions, considering that.

We have a very young forward pack, so it was always going to be difficult in that department, but again I thought they handled themselves very well. A bit of inexperience on show for sure, but those players will learn.

I’m looking at that game and cursing our goalkicking and the refereeing. Not saying we were clearly beaten, the second half was awful, etc.
 
I thought we were much improved on the Rabbits game. We handled the wet a lot better last night than we have previously.

We have had a few games where we probably deserved to lose, but scrapped a win. Think we probably deserved a win here, but don’t come away with anything.

I thought we rolled the sleeves up and were happy to go set for set and earn the field position to play expansive.

Sure we got a little wild at some points. But there was one point we made an error, then we forced an error next set. That’s more like it.

If we can hold on to make finals (I’m not tempting fate - so it remains an IF) I think we can take a lot of confidence that if we play our best - we can beat anyone.

I think that’s one of the reasons why there’s a bit of frustration around - we can see this squad is capable of something special, just needs some final touches and a little bit of refining and we are definitely beating anyone on our day. Just need to minimise the errors coming out of our end.

2 big contributors in that game not going our way was Ponga’s kicking - which he seemed genuinely frustrated and annoyed with himself about. And the referee/bunker and some of the calls going against us.

The bump on Young was the most obvious. Can’t be allowing that.

Sharks did great to stop Manuleleua effort. (I’m interested to see how Young goes if he gets a pass there, but it’s probably 50/50 so no big issues with him backing himself) - perhaps if that was somebody else with a little more experience they could have drawn the defenders and passed. But can’t fault the guy for seeing the line and going! He was a bunkers call away from the try - I still have only seen one replay, but it is what it is.

Think we will be in a pretty good spot when Saf, McEwen and Hopwood are back. Some of the fringe pack will be better for their runs and that will strengthen our starters and our bench. Might help us go through the middle a little more.

Odd feeling. Thought we were the better team, so happy with that. But at the end of the day it’s the 2 points. Hopefully take confidence from that.
 
jamesgould said:
What's the post-thread analysis and verdict?
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Overall I think we were all a bit more civilised, good game everyone.

There were no real off ball incidents that I read.

Not as Neggy Nancy as we were vs Rabbitohs.

Certainly helped by a team that turned up to roll their sleeves up. Think that’s all we ask of them sometimes. Played to the conditions much better.

Think most agree we were some better goalkicking and a referees decision away from a good win.

Sometimes the referee isn’t quite the villain we think they are, but I think last night, the criticism was fair.
 
I've been watching the Sharks first try over and over again and I am gobsmacked as to how it wasn't called back for foul play of Young. It was such a clear obstruction, if Ronaldo does not clatter him while he's going up for the ball then he takes it comfortably.
 
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