THE GRAND FINAL VS ROOSTERS ❤️💙❤️💙❤️

mullenmagic said:
Don’t really know how to process that game. The scoreline says it was a heartbreaker but it was as one-sided as it gets. An absolutely clinical performance by the Roosters as a team, with two of the best individual performances you’ll see from Tedesco (at least statistically) and Whyte. Dominated in every category. Outside backs completely shut down. Yet it was a one-point loss on the back of two very arsey tries from Nawaqanitawase (I know it’s his specialty, not attempting to discredit them).

We can’t just pat ourselves on the back and expect to waltz back into a deep finals run or top four finish. The team clearly has an incredible amount of resiliency which is a great starting point, but they need to improve fundamentally to make sure they’re back in this position in the first place. Valiantly defending their line while any team with half decent middles rolls down the field at will is not a winning formula.
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That’s on Jacob. Trey not so much, just unlucky to get hurt.

He’s not as good as the real top yardage monsters like Haas and Whyte, but he brings that physical presence we need against guys like that.

Our “formula” isn’t having the youngest and oldest starting props in a grand final ever. That was just bad luck.

Next year Jacob restrict your big hits to other big middles please.
 
mullenmagic said:
We can’t just pat ourselves on the back and expect to waltz back into a deep finals run or top four finish. The team clearly has an incredible amount of resiliency which is a great starting point, but they need to improve fundamentally to make sure they’re back in this position in the first place. Valiantly defending their line while any team with half decent middles rolls down the field at will is not a winning formula.
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If they manage to make another GF that undermanned and perform like that, I’ll still be impressed.

I seriously doubt they think they’re just going to waltz into the top 4. It’s not like it was their plan to go into the game that understrength. If the team was different, the game plan would obviously be different.

Not sure what you want from them? Roosters were full strength, were almost perfect with the ball, and they were without 4 of the most important players in the field.

They were always going to get rolled through the middle with those two forward packs against each other. They did what they could with what they had.

Unfortunately, the Roosters weren’t really off their game at all, a few more opportunities and who knows what might’ve been
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I really thought he went fine, nothing wrong with his service. We were up when he came of the field. He’s just not Phoenix. Phoenix is instrumental to our rotations and all that.
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Exactly mate, he’s not Phoenix but if we had another, he’d have been named.
I think they all hold their heads high tonight, a few missed opportunities but they stood up against a crisp experienced team. I couldn’t be more proud of them, for the coach to the people that sweep the floors after. What a team of budding champions
 
I’m hoping this is my first and last post like this. Congrats to the Roosters - but we made them work for that.

This is what it took to beat us.

Tedesco - 380 run metres*, 83 post contact, 12 tackle breaks *new record for run metres in any NRL game topping Guthersons 369m set in 2020.
Nawaqanitawase - 237 metres, 90 post contact, 5 tackle breaks, 2 tries.
Whyte - 17 runs, 189 metres, 78 post contact, 4 tackle breaks,
Nat Butcher - 22 runs for 167 metres.
Leniu - 7 runs, 94 metres and 42 post contact.

13 of our players made 20+ tackles.
9 of theirs did.

Knights 90+ run metres - 7 (Crokes with 88 makes the cut cause I’m feeling like a Bondi accountant).
Roosters 90+ run metres - 11 players

They put a lot of effort into that game - they were relentless with their running. They played their perfect gameplan. We were gallant in defence. We had to dig deep to defend them and for the most part, we did.
The difference in the end…they got lucky:

- Mark soccering it one foot, to the other, and in behind to dive on. Not many can do that - I don’t think kicking it twice was in his plan either
- Billy Smith somehow getting that ball down despite the desperate efforts to stop him.
- a GRUBBER bouncing up to hit the corner of the crossbar and post, and Mark going over in the corner.
- even that one they gave him where Mark somehow catches it and puts it down while seemingly in the air was incredible athleticism.

Talk about kissed on the you know what.

I’ve said it before, DCE just had so much time to place his kicks. He’s too good to be given that much time. Just relentlessly targeting the Marzhew - Mark matchup.

Anyway, I guess my point was that it took a lot to beat us. They threw everything at us, let’s not pretend they walked that. It perhaps looked dominant due to our fatigue - but not nice did our team give that up.
We held the gloves up and kept fighting - in the end it’s those flukey moments and luck that separated us.
I can absolutely see the players using this to ensure they don’t lose another one.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
I’m hoping this is my first and last post like this. Congrats to the Roosters - but we made them work for that.

This is what it took to beat us.

Tedesco - 380 run metres*, 83 post contact, 12 tackle breaks *new record for run metres in any NRL game topping Guthersons 369m set in 2020.
Nawaqanitawase - 237 metres, 90 post contact, 5 tackle breaks, 2 tries.
Whyte - 17 runs, 189 metres, 78 post contact, 4 tackle breaks,
Nat Butcher - 22 runs for 167 metres.
Leniu - 7 runs, 94 metres and 42 post contact.

13 of our players made 20+ tackles.
9 of theirs did.

Knights 90+ run metres - 7 (Crokes with 88 makes the cut cause I’m feeling like a Bondi accountant).
Roosters 90+ run metres - 11 players

They put a lot of effort into that game - they were relentless with their running. They played their perfect gameplan. We were gallant in defence. We had to dig deep to defend them and for the most part, we did.
The difference in the end…they got lucky:

- Mark soccering it one foot, to the other, and in behind to dive on. Not many can do that - I don’t think kicking it twice was in his plan either
- Billy Smith somehow getting that ball down despite the desperate efforts to stop him.
- a GRUBBER bouncing up to hit the corner of the crossbar and post, and Mark going over in the corner.
- even that one they gave him where Mark somehow catches it and puts it down while seemingly in the air was incredible athleticism.

Talk about kissed on the you know what.

I’ve said it before, DCE just had so much time to place his kicks. He’s too good to be given that much time. Just relentlessly targeting the Marzhew - Mark matchup.

Anyway, I guess my point was that it took a lot to beat us. They threw everything at us, let’s not pretend they walked that. It perhaps looked dominant due to our fatigue - but not nice did our team give that up.
We held the gloves up and kept fighting - in the end it’s those flukey moments and luck that separated us.
I can absolutely see the players using this to ensure they don’t lose another one.
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All night, i was screaming for someone to put sone pressure on the kicker. I dont know what happened there.
 
Very tired this morning and heading home from Newy after a slow old train trip from Accor last night but proud of the team. Tried their butts off but missed one big scary middle and Marky Mark is a freak.
 
Our winning strategy through the finals and probably most of the year was to score long range tries with our attacking weapons and defend like our lives depend on it.
Worked against Souths, Warriors and Penrith and damn near worked against the Roosters.
We hardly ever won the possession and field position stats all year - didn't need to - just needed to win the scoreboard by scoring tries and doing our best to stop them scoring.
Stats mean nothing when Young, Sharpe, Ponga, Marzhew, Best, Manuleleua, McEwen, Gagai or Hunt can score from anywhere and at any time.

Winning by dominating possession and grinding out field position is so 2025.
 
Still hurting but super proud of our effort last night and the fight this group of players has shown the final series. If some one told you at the start of the year we would lose by one point in the grand final without our hooker , star half and two starting front rowers you would think they were on crack.
 
Flew over to Vegas for first round and you could tell there that things had changed in this team
What a season and effort

Roosters were dominant, that’s because they knew that nothing would be penalised last night and we never quite adjuated
It’s annoying how all media etc will say great ref game with only barely penalties/6 agains but it’s annoying that they allow 3/4m offside each play ball, Whyte/Collin’s were shoulder charging etc and we unfortunately didn’t adjust to that officiating which had us on the back foot territory and energy wise all night

It took some luck for the roosters to even break our line, mark grubber accidentally hitting other leg to bounce back his way, the DCE grubbed hitting upright to miss our 3 players and land in teddys hands

All can finish saying is that they show the hunger they have shown next year, and don’t let the disappointment override them then we should be good to go for another crack next year
 
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Lefty said:
This site kept going all through the Knights bad years and gave us a place to vent. Now the site will be with us as the ream builds towards its next premiership.

Thank you so much @jamesgould for creating this place and keeping it going for over 20 years!
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And thank you Lefty for being such a great poster, a true Knights diehard through good times and bad!!! 🙌🏼
 
This is my first post after following this page for many years. I really appreciate all the insights and banter. Got myself a gf ticket sitting on the edge of the roosters end. A couple of the roosters fans next to me were dead set tossers, really nasty even after they’d won. The few knights and Wahs fans nearby were legends, no surprises there. That said, the roosters fans were pretty vocal and did turn up in numbers. So proud of the effort tonight and all season, can’t wait for next year!
 
Probably share more of my thoughts later but one thing that sucked is our crowd felt too nervous, or the Roosters were dominating us too comprehensively, such that in the Knights supporters bays the Newcastle chants were nothing like last week. Felt like we could barely get it going honestly. And when we did, it fizzled out pretty quickly. Everyone felt defeated, I guess.
 
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