NRL Round 24 - Knights Vs Titans - 2:00pm Sunday, 16th of August - McDonald Jones Stadium

Ponga today: 240 metres (most in the side by 50 odd metres, and only 16 were on kick returns), 48 post contact metres (second only to McEwen), 3 line breaks, 1 try assist, 7 tackle breaks, 100% tackles made, 2 handling errors.

It’s a high yardstick for him, but that’s a long way from a bad game.
 
KPGreatness said:
Wow KP gets protected a lot and that’s coming from someone with my username.

Look no matter what way people want to spin it his his last two weeks has been a huge drop of from what he is normally,I know he is miles better than this and even with the mistakes is still going good, but if you are normally 100% even 95% is a drop off and that’s statistically factual.

I do think he needs a mental reset just to relax a bit and not worry about doing everything, I’d be playing him against Manly but resting him against the Warriors since we will already be finals bound plus his injury record and he will be fresh for week one of the finals.

Right now he looks like his mind is going a million miles a hour and is looking frantic like the intercept to Jed and the random 4th tackle kick no one was ready for this week. Just needs a bit of a rest
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KPHateness!
 
Francis was limping at the start of the second half. He seemed to run it off but then was limping again later. Titans made a few linebreaks/scored a couple of tries from where he was supposed to be.

Doubt its anything major but I also wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't play next week.
 
KPGreatness said:
Now obviously none of us know what Ponga was thinking in that moment and I highly doubt he was thinking “happened to me so it must be fine” but let’s say he was than that would an incredibly naive, idiotic and childish way to think and would make you question if he had the mentality and maturity to be a captain.

Obviously all that is hypothetical as no one knows, I personally don’t think he was thinking that at all.
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My interpretation is it’s a bit of a dog act if the player is clearly over and about to put the ball down. I don't like seeing players come in late.

BUT, if you’re trying to improve your position and run along the dead ball line, I think you’re fair game to be tackled.

To me it looked like Ponga initiated his tackle almost simultaneously as he (Fermor) started to dive to score and was already committed. He lands with his knees on the ground and momentum carried him over the top of him and ceased with his legs on him, and in slow mo, were getting the images of his legs in him. Slow mo looks a bit cynical - and it looks a bit of a messy tangle afterwards, but I don’t think he slides in with the knees with intent to drive his knees into the ribs/back.

Ponga also copping a bit from the ‘neutrals’ for standing over the Campbell kick for goal after the obstruction totally legitimate try.

Ponga has been perceived as being a bit too passive and non chalant about things over the years. I think he’s slowly building into the Captain we wanted him to be. He obviously gives a damn now, he celebrates his teammates, he’s playing 110% and starting to chat to the ref* a little more.

*I don’t want him arguing every play like Moses. But questioning things like the obstruction or last weeks game is a positive sign.
 
Bit of a weird game. Nice to get the job done. Titans on their day can score a bucket load of points. I like that we were able to come out and wrap the game up.

Couple of soft tries at the end - but game was won. Mixed feels about that. With our injuries, protecting ourselves in the last few games is paramount. You could argue that defence in round 1 is criminal and if that was dished up I’d be disappointed. On the same hand, you could say, we should be playing the 80, building towards finals when the good teams will punish us if we let our foot off. Overall, I’m not taking too much out of it. I trust the players know when to lift.

I was watching and found myself thinking “we need Hopwood back out there”. Been so impressed with Mooney, Hopwood and Crouch’s improvement over the last few months. Great to see Mooney on the back fence for a few hit ups as well.

Back to the Sharpe we love. So dangerous.

Winter looked good. Didn’t do himself any harm. A full preseason will be good for him. I did like that he recognised he didn’t quite have the strength in him yet to power through tackles, he just tried to find the ground as soon as he could - Hunt was similar last year, be think he struggled to change his style - being lanky he often ended up getting driven back.

On Hunt, I think he is much improved in attack. His strength to get over for his try was impressive - credit to him, there’s no way he scores that last season. He’s gotten so much stronger and bigger. (Hopefully we see a similar trajectory for Winter). I think his decision making and ball playing has been good as well. Drawing in defenders and passing for tries. Supporting breaks. He’s doing all the right things imo.

Our defence looks a little disjointed with our new combinations along the Half/2RF/CTR - lots of tries going through there. Will need to Improve this if we hope to make a dent in the finals.

Overall, not taking too much from that game. We did what we needed to do.

Hopefully we can get up for old boys. Get some minutes back into Saf - I think it would be a great recognition for Hopgood and Mooney to retain their starting roles this week.
 
To me it more looked like the players were coasting through most of the game not wanting to put bodies on the line knowing we have bigger games to come. We actually seem to have a bit of an ego and play better footy against the top teams. You still have to win these types of games and we did exactly that, it wasnt pretty but they got it done.
 
The Artist Formerly Known as Aku'd said:
He didn’t look happy when he scored which made me think he may have lost control on the grounding or been offside. But when the replay cleared the try I thought he’s felt something. Hopefully precautionary and he’s back for Warriors. Maybe even week one finals if that turns out to be a dead rubber.
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Yeah same thing i said to my wife i dont think he has scored here he is not happy at all. But then seen he was struggling.
 
Ugly as **** but 2 pts is 2 pts. And it's important to celebrate our return to finals after the spoon last year. But we certainly need to up our game if we don't want to be a 1 week wonder come finals time. We all know we can attack but the defense has been a concern all year. I can cop conceding 50 pts against two of the best teams in the comp but not against two bottom 8 teams in Canberra and the Titans.

One game at a time but that wahs game in 2 weeks time will tell us where we are really at. They are the most dominant pack in the comp by some margin imo. If we don't fix our middle defence by then, I can see us getting the touch up we've all been fearing.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
My interpretation is it’s a bit of a dog act if the player is clearly over and about to put the ball down. I don't like seeing players come in late.

BUT, if you’re trying to improve your position and run along the dead ball line, I think you’re fair game to be tackled.

To me it looked like Ponga initiated his tackle almost simultaneously as he (Fermor) started to dive to score and was already committed. He lands with his knees on the ground and momentum carried him over the top of him and ceased with his legs on him, and in slow mo, were getting the images of his legs in him. Slow mo looks a bit cynical - and it looks a bit of a messy tangle afterwards, but I don’t think he slides in with the knees with intent to drive his knees into the ribs/back.

Ponga also copping a bit from the ‘neutrals’ for standing over the Campbell kick for goal after the obstruction totally legitimate try.

Ponga has been perceived as being a bit too passive and non chalant about things over the years. I think he’s slowly building into the Captain we wanted him to be. He obviously gives a damn now, he celebrates his teammates, he’s playing 110% and starting to chat to the ref* a little more.

*I don’t want him arguing every play like Moses. But questioning things like the obstruction or last weeks game is a positive sign.
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The perceived knee drops into opponents will continue to be a thing until the bunker or ref do something about it.
I agree, it looks like a dog act and reminds me of Jason Smiths dog shot in Joey in the 1997 semi finals, resulting in a punctured lung for Joey.
This “tackle” has been in the game a long time and nothing has been done to eradicate it.
 
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