22,0000 SCREAMING NOVOCASTRIANS AND EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR
By Paul Jobber
newcastleknights.com
Saturday, September 05, 2009
The Knights head into tomorrow’s Round 26 encounter with the Panthers with their season on the line and looking to bounce back from last Monday night’s disappointing loss to the Raiders to secure their first finals berth since 2006.
While the match will be a reunion for some of the Knights Old Boys, it is an on-field reunion of sorts, with Jarrod Mullen partnered in the halves by Scott Dureau.
“The way Scotty filled in there today (Thursday) was really positive,” explains Knights Coach, Rick Stone.
“The team clicked over nicely, there was a good cohesion – there was some good energy and it looks like we know what we’re doing, which is important. We don’t get a lot of time this week and I think Dureau’s the right man for the job, absolutely.”
“Dureau does bring things to the team that probably the Mullen-Rogers combination hasn’t got.
“I don’t think anyone in the NRL would have a better back-up option than Dureau at this point in time in the season, so we’re really lucky to have that particular player.
“He’s been training really hard in the last couple of weeks and deserves his crack.”
Also helping to make sure the Dureau-Mullen reunion at the scrumbase is as smooth as possible is former captain Andrew Johns. While Johns ventures up to Newcastle on a regular basis as a member of the Knights coaching staff, he attended Thursday’s training session to give some more tutoring to the young halves.
“He usually comes up on a Thursday when he can, when commitments allow, so this was one of the times he was due to come up anyway and he does a little bit of the kicking with the boys and just runs a critical eye over our attack in particular and just throws up some different ideas that we may not have thought of already,” said Stone.
“He just had a watchful eye more than anything. He didn’t have a massive input in the session today, but he liked what he saw. He liked the way Dureau took control of the team and there’s definitely a good vibe in the camp even though we were a bit disappointing on Monday.”
Stone is conscious of the threat of Panthers’ second rower Frank Pritchard and centre Michael Jennings and how they can ask serious questions of any team.
“On that left edge, they’ve got Pritchard and Jennings who are real strike-forces.”
“Pritchard with his size and his pace and his offload and Jennings just with his blistering pace that can turn the game in a twinkling, so there’s plenty of threats around the place.
“Waterhouse is playing terrific footy for them on the other side of the field, and Luke Lewis is a tremendous competitor as well, so they’ve got a good, solid footy team and they’ve shown they can put on points quickly against any opposition and we’re well aware of that.”
With everything to play for, Stone says the players are in a positive frame of mind and are looking to honour the Old Boys legacy with a victory.
“They look in good spirits. We had a good positive talk about a few things that happened on Monday night, we had a little look at Penrith and all the boys energy levels and they know where they’re going and where they’re playing at this point in time, so everyone’s on a high and looking forward to a massive day.”
Heading into the game, it is possible for the Knights to finish anywhere in the top eight from 5th to 7th, but Stone says that will not be a factor on his, or the players’ minds as they run out tomorrow.
“Any win, I’ll take it, absolutely. If we win by one or 10, doesn’t really matter. That’s the equation; it’s as simple as that. We’ve got to make sure we win the game and we can move onto the next week. Where we finish, we’ll worry about that when the weekend’s over.”
