NRL Round 8 - Knights Vs Panthers - 2:00pm Sunday, 26st April - McDonald Jones Stadium

I thought watching it live that they were defending Penrith coming off their line alright. And then they’d make an error coming out of yardage that would either lead to a try or the defence let them down on the try line. Kept thinking if we hold the ball we could stay in the game, but then they’d keep dropping the ball. I didn’t think Penrith were that good today. Felt like they got 4 tries straight off one of our errors. The effort was there. Just some very poor individual performances. Think Hunt might be ready for a rest. Schiller is so rocks and diamonds. How he can take a screamer and run 20m breaking tackles only to drop 3-4 easier catches is interesting.
 
Billy said:
People say Lucas was having a quiet year - but he was making just under 40 tackles a game, missing just over 1 a game at 96.6% efficiency and averaging 57 fantasy points a game - second only to Ponga.
Manuleleua has a big future, but if you take out his 10 minute game, he's making about 25 tackles a game and missing about 6, which is a massive difference.
Not to mention Best is our best defender in the backline, and Hunt is OK, but way behind Best.
I'll even say Marz is an upgrade on Schiller - never thought I'd call him an upgrade on anyone. (in defence)
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Feel like he hasn’t quite had the glittering attacking reel he had last year before he got injured, but his engine room work is just as good as ever. No complaints about him from me, that’s for sure.
 
Newygirl said:
Penrith were pulling through just about every tackle, while in defence they were up in our face before they even got a run up, often getting pushed backwards. They won the ruck easily that’s the difference, nothing to do with the ref
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I just watched the game and I didn't think so. I did notice the ref giving a big 10 metres to Penrith. Knight were always 12 metres back which is pretty crazy. First contact was tough I thought, just too many errors in good ball led to where we ended up. It took an effort play from pheens and a individual effort from dylbro to get tries on the board. Penrith are definitely beatable if you can keep the ball in possession and play down their end. None of which we did today.
 
danknights said:
I haven't watched the game yet but some stats that stick out to me is 5-2 ruck infringements. Our PTB speed was 3.67 seconds and panthers 2.92 seconds. That alone tells me we are peeling off quicker but getting pinged whilst Penrith can do what they like in the ruck.
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I didn’t get to watch either as I worked. I was on the ground today so I had the door open on the ute listening live on triple m.
Early on it wasn’t great listening when they said “the Panthers had the referee wrapped around their little fingers” and “those calls don’t normally happen to the home side”.
I’m not ref bashing, I didn’t see it and it sounds like we were not very good today anyway, but it didn’t sound great.
 
jamesgould said:
Dunno what people were expecting today, but it went about as well as I thought. A lot of younger players who have stepped up over the last few weeks looked at the end of their tether ... and Schiller just looked at the start and end of his tether, I guess!

A lot of troops hopefully coming back next week, easier competition, and a good chance to get to 5-4 ... things will look a lot more positive if that happens.
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Have you watched souths lately their attack and Trell are insane.
 
Billy said:
People say Lucas was having a quiet year - but he was making just under 40 tackles a game, missing just over 1 a game at 96.6% efficiency and averaging 57 fantasy points a game - second only to Ponga.
Manuleleua has a big future, but if you take out his 10 minute game, he's making 29 tackles a game and missing 6.5, which is a massive difference.
Not to mention Best is our best defender in the backline, and Hunt is OK, but way behind Best.
I'll even say Marz is an upgrade on Schiller - never thought I'd call him an upgrade on anyone. (in defence)
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Really good analysis mate.

Will also add that Holbrook’s structures & overall philosophy, compared to AOB, have us throwing way fewer short balls to the edge forward as the go to option. This has kind of always been the way under AOB too, see Fitzy’s bounce back year in 2023.

If we spammed more short balls to Lucas he might score more, but using him & McEwen as the decoy way more often has improved the team’s attack as a whole considerably.
 
It's a simple game and we are the best at beating ourselves with stupid errors which put pressure on us. We were never in with a shot the way we kept gifting the Panthers.
Don't know what it is about the Knights but we must be the number 1 team at gifting the opposition
 
Very ordinary performance over all but especially our left side, Schiller and Hunt had shockers which put pressure on Sharpe and Manuleleau. Sharpe looks like he needs a break, Hunt the same and Schiller thankfully will be replaced by Marzhew and not likely to see first for a while or ever.
From memory 6-7 tries scored down that side along with many dropped balls, missed bombs and tackles.
Next week, Ponga back? Replacing Sharp, rest him, Marzhew back replacing Schiller, Best back? Replacing Hunt back to Cup or bring in McCarthy, Gagai and Young manage to hold position along with Smith and Brown. Need to shuffle the pack with hopefully Frizell back and he and JSaf at least one on field at all times for 80mins+ between them, give Mooney a game in Cup and start Hopwood, Saulo, Crouch and Hola, one starting other 3 at 15-19. Unless Lucas is ready then Manuleleau and McEwen second row. Croker, Crosslands and Graham have 9, 13 & 14 covered.
We need our injured back for noticeable improvement but only if fit and ready, after Souths this week we have games that we are big chances to win
 
Dylan, second game back from an MCL tear scorched Dylan Edwards. So everyone can put the blades away about him. HE picks his moments and it is part of his game which is very misunderstood. If we ever get a prop rotation which gives him the room he needs , kinda like NZ, he will tear teams apart.
 
Sheent14 said:
Mooney has also shown that he can be solid. We need to hope he can play adequately against some easier packs/teams in the next few weeks (Dragons, Titans, Eels etc).
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Sad when we hope the great Leo replacement can “play adequately against some of the easier packs”.
If this is the mindset, he can **** off to reserves until his contract is done or he gets a spine as he’s a **** signing.
 
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