NRL Round 23 - Knights Vs Raiders - 2:00pm Sunday, 9th of August - GIO Stadium

[slotmachine]

no refs hate us or any team

Yeah I never get this. Like I don't think Klein is a very good ref but if he really was riding the Raiders home he would have sent Gags to the bin for a extremely clear lifting tackle.

Also think it's inarguable at this stage that while he's filled in capably at fullback

The weirdest thing to me is that he regressed as much at FB as much as he's progressed as a 5/8. Weird, but very good for the Knights.

 

[Die Hard]

Tks
Adds to my comments, even younger than I said, he will be good

I am a huge fan of Hunt as well, our flying mullets will be top tier eventually. His defence has came a long way but he has 5+ years less experience than people like Sasagi, Lat Mitchell. He will develop a lot further over more preseasons and games. Winter though is an insane talent, if he develops fast his ability and skill can develop at an unprecedented level and have huge nrl impact.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

The weirdest thing to me is that he regressed as much at FB as much as he's progressed as a 5/8. Weird, but very good for the Knights.

Yeah I talked about this in another thread just now but he's almost a reverse Ponga... hasn't been able to consistently beat other guys who play in the back 5 on their outside like Ponga can, and can't seem to make those split second read & react passes you need from fullbacks any better than say Fletcher Hunt has been able to. He's looked way better attacking that corridor of uncertainty where the middle connects with the edge and the half (too quick for most props, too strong for most halves, very robust body so he's not worried about getting absolutely fed if he has to wear a shot). Also have no doubt that given the position we're grooming him for, the #1 thing he's worked on in training is showing short to his edge forward to play long and vice versa, proactive ball playing rather than reactive.

On the flip side, you take Ponga out of the team and the guy at fullback is trying to replace the guy Fox Sports is crediting with 30 combined line breaks + line break assists in 12 games, that's a tough row to hoe for anyone lmao.

But yeah all great news for us, if you told me a year ago you'd just arrived from the future and you knew Sharpe would straight up look at least twice as good at five-eighth than anywhere else, I would have kissed you.

 

[Owey]

On refs, I think they are like traffic lights when you are in a hurry. You don't notice the calls that go our way (green lights) as much as the ones that go against us (red light).

 

[KPGreatness]

Yeah I never get this. Like I don't think Klein is a very good ref but if he really was riding the Raiders home he would have sent Gags to the bin for an extremely clear lifting tackle.

It does look suspicious though, I mean for the last how many years contact to the head even when falling is a instant penalty and yet for some reason a left field interpretation (that hasn’t been used since this crack down on head highs) said the hit was a accident… I believe they were all accidents but that’s not the rule, he deliberately went against the rule to not give us at least an extra 4 penalties.

That’s why Ponga did the right thing as a captain and challenged Klein on the ruling and said “it doesn’t matter if it’s a accident it’s still a head high” to which Ponga knew the rule better than the actual ref.

Whilst I’m at least 80% sure he isn’t out to get us (can’t be to sure with a known big gambler) it shows he isn’t extremely inept at his job and should be fired

 

[HarVeeGee13]

Raiders fans think they got dudded really badly on the weekend lol. Even more conspiracy-minded than us.

Which is ridiculous, the Raiders are in the same city as Albo, and we know the conspiracy goes all the way to the top.

 

[mozza]

Don’t think either team really got the rub of the green from Klein. He’s just a bad ref. Which is evidenced by every captains challenge going against his calls being successful.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

Yeah that's it mozza, never attribute to malice that which is more easily explained by incompetence.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

I think when you get to the point where you can't remember the refereeing ever being worse, you probably need to point the finger at the bosses.

Like the disruptors being called whenever anyone didn't write an essay explaining why they should be allowed to contest a kick for the first half of the season, followed by now you can basically just shoulder charge in the air - that's an interpretation change come down from above.

Six agains being called for fun earlier in the season and never now - again, the referees boss tells them to do that.

It's a hard situation to be able to do your job well.

 

[jamesgould]

Yeah that's it mozza, never attribute to malice that which is more easily explained by incompetence.

We had touch judges standing right behind the posts last week that couldn't even tell if a conversion had gone over or under the posts. Of all the groups of professions I'd back to organise a competition-wide conspiracy to get some set of pre-determined results, it wouldn't be NRL match officials.

 

[PTB]

Don’t think either team really got the rub of the green from Klein. He’s just a bad ref. Which is evidenced by every captains challenge going against his calls being successful.

I have being watching games he officiates closely for several seasons now and I would love the know the percentage of Captains Challengers that are successful against his on field decisions. I believe it would be in excess of 80%. I having been saying continually that he is totally incompetent and am bewildered as to how he is rated the number 1 referee and gets GF’s, SOO and International fixtures. His off field issues don’t embolden one with any confidence and I personally believe are a major conflict of interest in a sport where gambling is legalised.

 

[Owey]

I have being watching games he officiates closely for several seasons now and I would love the know the percentage of Captains Challengers that are successful against his on field decisions. I believe it would be in excess of 80%. I having been saying continually that he is totally incompetent and am bewildered as to how he is rated the number 1 referee and gets GF’s, SOO and International fixtures. His off field issues don’t embolden one with any confidence and I personally believe are a major conflict of interest in a sport where gambling is legalised.

But PVL taking him to the races might explain some of why he is favoured?

 

[JOJO82]

Redhead should have been penalised for doing a hoppa on gags which was missed and the reason he lashed out. Let's not forget the cheat Klein refusing to penalise the contact to gags head until KP called it out.

 

[Joshhh]

On a side note, how good to see Ponga challenging the ref. There's always been doubts over his leadership because he's a cruisey guy. He'll never be Cameron Smith, but you can tell how much he wants to win now by getting more vocal with the players and officials. You need to be able to sway the refs sometimes to win games.

 

[sherpa]

I can't help but think Klein has some real issues, his well publicized gambling problems don't give you a lot of confidence in his ability to make rational, sensible decisions. It has got me beat how he is rated as the number 1 ref as earlier in the game against the raiders Hopwood was penalized for a Canberra dropped ball in the ruck when he was a good metre from the player, and then there's the Ponga send off in the SOO that was basically overturned by the judiciary and again the Gagai /Horsburgh was never a penalty to Canberra. I just hope he doesn't get any more Knights games.

 

[bremsstrahlung]

Just watching the game (was working) and it’s been interesting reading some of the comments first and then watching the game. Granted there’s a lot less stress involved watching a game you know the result to.

One thing I’ve been most impressed with this season is our support play. Somebody gets a line break and there’s not only support. There’s multiple players making the effort to get up there and support. Something I was super critical of previous seasons - we’d make a break - and get tackled. Now we are converting a fair few of these.

just because it’s been mentioned recently - Gagai has 10/10 moments and some howlers in him. He made a brilliant break. Notably for his try - he gets tackled after offloading at our 40m on the right side. We get tackled just short of the line, Gagai sprints to the left side and gets the ball to go over for the try. Great effort play and experience to get to the left where they needed numbers. And then some penalties and some lost balls. Mixed bag. Still has a role to play in this team.

I was about to say we should’ve done more with the break Hunt makes, and passes to Sharpe who was tackled - but I think Stuart actually does really well to cover in defence. Just on Stuart, boy was he lucky to get that intercept try, Marzhew had him easily and then went ice skating.

Also on Stuart, the last few minutes get the ball in goal and dives to get back to field of play. The angle is rubbish, but it looks like he dives from the in goal to over the line. I’d almost bet, he grounds the ball in goal in the act of sliding into the outfield - surely that’s grounded in goal?

Agree that it was nice to see our players calling out Klein a bit. Need more of that. Just need to hold them accountable and aware of their decisions. Obviously the horsburgh incident. But there was also a moment he dudded us a bit and you can see in the background Ponga, Gagai are chirping at him

Thought Smiths kicking was great. Got distance and height on a lot of his kicks. Goalkicking obviously an improvement on recent weeks. Thought this was one of Smiths better games tbh - didn’t try to do too much, and I thought he summed up a few situations perfectly, notably the last try - holds it and delivers it perfectly. And the Oscars worthy performance to kill some time (there was a bit of confusion around the game clock).


Boy the Canberra Boos sounded nice didn’t they.