NRLW round 1 v Roosters Thursday 25th July - 7.45 pm McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle

So my partner and I went. Actually wasn't cold to be fair. Roosters offside a lot of the game, crowd was giving it to Belinda, it's like she had a pre empt idea of who was winning. Laison Jones was buggered by the end, she did a lot of work! Happy to see j southwells defence where it should be.

I thought it was a poor option taking the two and it came back to bite us not so hard in the end. Parker was outstanding and I thought Roache did a good job. Forwards stood up but were lazy getting back onside at times. Crowd figure just over 4k. Definitely drowned out the sprinkle of Bondi scum.

Super impressed with our defence, especially goal line.
 
Newygirl said:
God Isabelle Kelly’s a sour faced sore loser. Looked like she was going to cry in the presser.

She almost choked on her words in disgust when she had to call the knights back to back premiers.

Makes beating them that much more enjoyable haha
Click to expand...
If you asked her if she’s every lost a game simply because the other team outplayed her team, or if her own performance had something to do with the team losing, her answer to both questions would be no.

They’ll never win a premiership with her as captain.
 
Our 2 girls on debut had a rough trot. Waterman kept getting monstered on the wing similar to how dom young did early on, hopefully she learns to go into contact shoulders down. She looks to have a long stride run as well so needs earlier ball or try change her running style like Tedesco did.

Kukutai got on early but never got to come back on but much the same as waterman, the more she plays the better she will get.
 
Kukutai only got the 15 minutes while Roche was off for HIA. Coach said they planned to get her on around the 50th minute but had to use more interchanges through the middle than expected. She has stuff to learn but she's big, athletic and very energetic from the few games I've seen of her, similar to Tiana Davison when she first came over.
 
danknights said:
So my partner and I went. Actually wasn't cold to be fair. Roosters offside a lot of the game, crowd was giving it to Belinda, it's like she had a pre empt idea of who was winning. Laison Jones was buggered by the end, she did a lot of work! Happy to see j southwells defence where it should be.

I thought it was a poor option taking the two and it came back to bite us not so hard in the end. Parker was outstanding and I thought Roache did a good job. Forwards stood up but were lazy getting back onside at times. Crowd figure just over 4k. Definitely drowned out the sprinkle of Bondi scum.

Super impressed with our defence, especially goal line.
Click to expand...
Five left and you get an easily kickable penalty to make it a six point lead, you’ve got to take that every time? It won us the game!

Interesting looking at the stats, anyway. Very even on most fronts, we got two more penalties, play the ball speed was the same, but the Roosters averaged 47 metres per set compared to our 38. Just seemed like a much more open field when they were attacking, we really need to tighten that up.

Also we apparently had 52 dummies to 4 lol. Seems odd that that stat is so lopsided, but maybe talks to the Roosters attack being a bit predictable.
 
I’d still look at making a couple changes from this game though. I think Waterman could do with some lessons in HN Cup and bring in Jess Gentle for her pure speed. She’s small yeah but with Jess and Roachs kicking gane and teams ability to use a short side well she only needs half a chance to outrun everyone. But like Davey Armstrong really.

We need extra punch off bench with big inpack. I don’t think you need to nurture McEwen much. Just throw her in there final 15 of each half and if you have the ball she will do damage. Defensively like last nights game might test her, no more then but Butler in contact.
 
The girls are now favourites to win the premiership at $3.30 and the Rorters are out to $5.00.
 
jamesgould said:
Five left and you get an easily kickable penalty to make it a six point lead, you’ve got to take that every time? It won us the game!
Click to expand...
5 left, had the roosters pinned down our end and gassed, I'd wager 70/30 we score and put the game to bed. If not then they've got to go 90 metres to score. The way we were defending I'd of backed that plan. Rather then getting whacked, lose possession like we did to give them a chance 30 out with a full set.
 
Lefty said:
It would be lovely if some other teams can beat them as well. 🤣🤣🤣
Click to expand...
I hope the Roosters can go all the way to the GF without losing till they meet us again, because that will mean we have already beaten our main rivals.
 
I was impressed. Not a bad first hit out. Think we will suffer a loss, but maybguard against complacency.

If we value and hold the ball, we win that game easily. We just kept gifting them chance after chance. They were boring and lacklustre (have they thought of trying a crash play?) and our defence on our line was gritty and tough. But keep giving them chances, they figured out how to get through us eventually.

Good start. But plenty of areas to improve. There’s no reason they don’t do the three-peat.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
If you asked her if she’s every lost a game simply because the other team outplayed her team, or if her own performance had something to do with the team losing, her answer to both questions would be no.

They’ll never win a premiership with her as captain.
Click to expand...
Hopefully they never do. It’s the entitlement that gets me the most. Like they were all supppsed to be their premierships, the knights just happened to win them. Never mind the fact the broncos won the first 3, they won one with a bunch of Newcastle players and haven’t won since. Where does the entitlement come from?

Unfortunately they’ve figured out that just having very pretty attack doesn’t win comps and you aren’t just given a free ride to the GF because you score a lot of points, you actually have to defend as well.

Funny that their attack went so far the other way. The amount of possession they had inside Knights 20 was insane and they couldn’t do anything.

In the presser, Strange said Baxter was all set to play 5/8 which is obviously why NSW got stuck with her there. Such a conflict of interest, hope Hilder gets sacked.

I agreed with not taking the two the first time. But when they got the second chance in front with only a couple minutes left, thought it was ano brainer. Conceding that last try never should’ve happened. That offload from Predebon was really stupid. Just had to tuck it under the arm, get the kick away and they win, no problem.

Still a great effort considering the Roosters were clearly really up for the match. Agree they were offside all game. Everyone wants to beat them, so they have to make sure they’re switched on. I think the improved fitness across the team really showed with defensive efforts. Not sure they hold on that well last year.
 
www.newcastleherald.com.au

'My first carry and Millie Elliott smoked me': Knights import on NRLW debut

Super W convert Grace Kukutai showed some promising signs.
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au

Article on Grace Kukutai - quotes her as saying she got "smoked" by Millie Elliott on her first carry.
Basically says it was a big step up in class from anything she had done before in netball, 7s or Rugby, but says she is competitive and keen to improve.
I'll be surprised if she isn't playing in NSW cup on Monday night.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top