Round 1: Newcastle Knights vs Cronulla Sharks

[Hughburt6]

My thoughts, what a difference in the new recruits made very pleased with the team effort. Middle forwards held there own, and I thought Pearce was great leader out there you could can tell him and Brown had a talk about playing safe football first half with that breeze behind Sharks. Will take time for Ponga to get use to playing in the line, I thought Watson had a better overall game as fullback and Levi/Mann played great.
I hope Safifiti is ok the big fella made good impact from the bench aswell as Barnett.
Not sure anyone else thinks Sharks played alot of wrestling/arm wrenching in their tackles? But I think they are grubs to watch I hope they don't come anywhere near the finals this year. (felt good when we gave it to Gallen in end

Yeah it felt like they we able to stay down in the tackle a lot longer than us, especially before that first penalty was blown, the refs held back on the whistle

 

[Billy]

I had my doubts about Jesse Ramien.
I thought his good form last year might have just been from being in a very good side, but he showed signs of being a genuine class player yesterday.
We need to get him into the game more.

 

[Beaumont]

My thoughts, what a difference in the new recruits made very pleased with the team effort. Middle forwards held there own, and I thought Pearce was great leader out there you could can tell him and Brown had a talk about playing safe football first half with that breeze behind Sharks. Will take time for Ponga to get use to playing in the line, I thought Watson had a better overall game as fullback and Levi/Mann played great.
I hope Safifiti is ok the big fella made good impact from the bench aswell as Barnett.
Not sure anyone else thinks Sharks played alot of wrestling/arm wrenching in their tackles? But I think they are grubs to watch I hope they don't come anywhere near the finals this year. (felt good when we gave it to Gallen in end

There'll be a few sore shoulders this morning. Cronulla served up more chicken wings than KFC.

 

[josh2010]

having a look at the replay there is no way that was a penalty try. No way you could say he would have scored that! Should it have been a send off for professional foul? Yes. Penalty try no!

 

[slotmachine]

Refs didn't blow any penalties last night, will be about two minutes before someone is complaining that the sharks are holding us down in the ruck.

Took longer than 2 minutes, but here we are.

Average play the ball speed was pretty much identical. Our guys did great in the wrestle, gavet especially was having a sleep in the ruck.

Three cheers for Kristian Woolf. He may succeed where do many have failed.

 

[mozza]

Any word on Saifiti?

 

[josh2010]

Any word on Saifiti?

nothing official but this is from NRL physio on twitter


NRL PHYSIO‏ @nrlphysio 14h14 hours ago
Reported MCL sprain for Daniel Saifiti. Per video worry would be for right MCL sprain, also high ankle sprain risk but less likely. Would hope no ACL involvement. If MCL sprain confirmed general recovery guide: Gr1: 1-3wks Gr2: 3-6wks Gr3: 6+ wks

 

[slotmachine]

tackle of the game for me was ponga putting an absolute shot on nikora.

 

[Beaumont]

Yeah it felt like they we able to stay down in the tackle a lot longer than us, especially before that first penalty was blown, the refs held back on the whistle

I thought Gavet was lucky on at least 3 occasions early in the game not to pinched for a flop.

 

[R_A]

having a look at the replay there is no way that was a penalty try. No way you could say he would have scored that! Should it have been a send off for professional foul? Yes. Penalty try no!

Even the talk amongst the neutrals was that there was a wtf sort of feeling it was awarded a penalty try, I think karma was Lee who would have been sin binned if the penalty try wasn’t awarded scoring the intercept try.

Even without that I think the team wouldn’t have put their heads down and gotten on with the job like they didn’t when the try was awarded.

 

[EASBay17]

Yeah it felt like they we able to stay down in the tackle a lot longer than us, especially before that first penalty was blown, the refs held back on the whistle

after watching the storm v broncos game and seeing melbourne slow the ruck down i was worried the sharks would be aloud to lay all over us and they were but we were aloud to aswell. very small 10 watching live and it felt like it was hardly being policed at all.

 

[packo]

In relation to our attack I’m not worried. That was a very good defensive side. Gave Ponga nothing. We will shred teams who are poor defensively. As long as we defend like that we will play finals footy.

 

[josh2010]

Amazing from Klemmer!!! exactly the type of player we have been missing for a long time!!


19 runs 218 metres 91 post contact metres 33 tackles (0 missed) 3 offloads

 

[Joey1245]

I think the whole starting pack were awesome Gavet was murdering people when he hit them and Glasby is just class! People who said he was a crap buy obviously don’t know what they are talking bout

 

[member 2299]

And to think many doubted the value of Tim Glasby when Brownie brought him here to play lock!

 

[Joel]

having a look at the replay there is no way that was a penalty try. No way you could say he would have scored that! Should it have been a send off for professional foul? Yes. Penalty try no!

We were lucky with how it played out. I’d much rather the penalty try without the binning as opposed to the binning without the try.

 

[Beaumont]

Amazing from Klemmer!!! exactly the type of player we have been missing for a long time!!


19 runs 218 metres 91 post contact metres 33 tackles (0 missed) 3 offloads

And to think some were horny at the prospect of signing Tolman.

 

[member 2299]

At that time Beaumont anyone in the front row would have that affect on we spoon winners!

 

[Frank McWilliams]

Just watched replay of game, more impressed with performance than first time, emotion out easier to watch and appreciate, every player played well including bench with Klemmer, Glasby and Lee standing out. Gavet and Sione special mention as both played strong, liked what I saw.

 

[Ethan]

Watson , He is a little dynamo that is good under the high ball , is in position mostly and runs with intent .
Lee , No one will be taking his place if he keeps playing like that.
Hunt , Went well for playing his first game of the year .
Ramien , He ran up out of the line a few times ala Sione but he ran well and tackled Aggression .
Skd , I thought he was very good again Glad he is here .
Ponga , is going to take a bit of time to master 5/8 and he is already fairly dangerous there , im willing to wait and see .
Pearce , the best 7 we have had since Joey , Has a very good kicking game and tackles hard .
Klemmer . WooHoo
Levi , Had his best game that I have seen him play I think .
Gavet , He showed the reason we bought him , Runs and tackles with aggressive intent .
Fitzy , He is going to score a lot of tries this season too , He runs a great line .
Sione had a good game in defence and ran the ball hard too pity he isn't bigger he gets pushed back a lot .
Glasby , He was all class out there .
Dan. S. He looked very good when he came on . He plays hard and would always be in my 17 .
Guerra , He came on and did his job 110% as we expect after that's what he did last year .
Barnett , He ran hard and always tackles with aggression but im still not 100% sure about him .
Mann impressed me at hooker I thought he played very well but the way Danny played he has to start .

We still have Moga to come back although Hunt did well , Moga might have to fight hard to get it back .
Ese,ese will replace Dan so we lose nothing there really which is good .
Jacob still have to come back as well and should be super hungry.
Also it will be interesting when Griffin comes back too.