Official Match Thread - Newcastle Knights vs Sydney Roosters

[The Axe]

There are 4 sections of every premiership year
1. Pre origin. Shake out rust. Form combos. Shake out preseason rust. Allow boppers and origin players time to build
2. Origin. Blood new players. Take opportunities against weakened teams. Win as many as you can in tread water state
3. Post origin. Time to get serious whilst nursing origin players back. Win all you can. Look to build win upon wins
4. Semis. A different grinding style. Take the two

i would mark our team on target. My concern is based on previous years failure in 4 above. We are improving our completions and D. Our attack in predictable. I thought last year we were going to unleash offloads in semis and blow opponents apart. Regrettably the fact we are still not doing this concerns me greatly. Our captain is slow at DH and is an impediment. I also think he is selfish and not sharing game time considering his tackle contributions will impact our semis. He will tire as he did last year and players like baptiste and Collins need game time if they are to be genuine cover when needed.

I feel we are on track but possibly not learning lessons from history.

final note. This year is a marathon based on World Cup end of last season. The optimist in me believes Robbo has this covered and teams that raced out of blocks will peak and fade over the distance. Time will tell

[bondi.boy]

It's gotten to a point where I'm starting to think it's an inside joke.

It's ridiculous, that's what it is.
All the bench players should be used.
We could've done with a fresh player towards the end when we were struggling and looked like losing.
Someone who could make a string of effective tackles because they weren't tired.

[Guest]

It’s very strange. isn’t it? We have the worst players and coach in the comp, yet we are still well and truly in the running for a top 4 spot and even the Minor Premiership. In fact, we’d be in first place now if not for the last minute ricochet try in Round 1 and the refereeing fiasco against Brisbane.

They are cruising right now, improving their completion rate significantly (what was it, 82 per cent last night), tackling well and winning. They have the firepower to blast any team off the park and I remain optimistic they will. (Provided we aren’t subjected to another handicapping by the referees.)

Well said mate. I can’t understsnd the negativity over our team. I don’t think we will win the comp but I am seeing us building nicely and quietly along. I see us playing footy that’s well suited to the finals. As soon as Napa got wrongly binned I had all the confidence in the world that we would win, it reminded me of when JWH got sent off at Brooky a fe years ago.

This team puts in the hard yakka every week and as a fan that’s what I want above all. We are a
hard team to crack.

[stsae]

We handled him well, except when Lattrel ran out of the line. But in that last 10 minutes I was just hoping he would stay at fb and off the ball. He was the only danger.

Latrell did it twice again this week, for two tries conceded.

Manu copped it for weeks when he moved to the left wing, having to deal with the criticism of Latrells defensive weakness.

Now its Toops again I see.

If he just holds his line our defence is the best in the comp. But every week one or two sting our left side, Latrell rushing out of the line.

I blame Maubs/Friend/Manu/Napa/Robbo/Toops/Pearceorf and Jack Bosden personally.

[Andrew Walker]

We are improving a little in every game. Still a long way to go but we are well poised Friday night is a real test to see where we are exactly at.

[bondi paul]

There are 4 sections of every premiership year
1. Pre origin. Shake out rust. Form combos. Shake out preseason rust. Allow boppers and origin players time to build
2. Origin. Blood new players. Take opportunities against weakened teams. Win as many as you can in tread water state
3. Post origin. Time to get serious whilst nursing origin players back. Win all you can. Look to build win upon wins
4. Semis. A different grinding style. Take the two

i would mark our team on target. My concern is based on previous years failure in 4 above. We are improving our completions and D. Our attack in predictable. I thought last year we were going to unleash offloads in semis and blow opponents apart. Regrettably the fact we are still not doing this concerns me greatly. Our captain is slow at DH and is an impediment. I also think he is selfish and not sharing game time considering his tackle contributions will impact our semis. He will tire as he did last year and players like baptiste and Collins need game time if they are to be genuine cover when needed.

I feel we are on track but possibly not learning lessons from history.

final note. This year is a marathon based on World Cup end of last season. The optimist in me believes Robbo has this covered and teams that raced out of blocks will peak and fade over the distance. Time will tell

All valid points Axe however Robbo's history shows that he has the team failing at the final hurdle.

[mightyrooster]

It’s very strange. isn’t it? We have the worst players and coach in the comp, yet we are still well and truly in the running for a top 4 spot and even the Minor Premiership. In fact, we’d be in first place now if not for the last minute ricochet try in Round 1 and the refereeing fiasco against Brisbane.

They are cruising right now, improving their completion rate significantly (what was it, 82 per cent last night), tackling well and winning. They have the firepower to blast any team off the park and I remain optimistic they will. (Provided we aren’t subjected to another handicapping by the referees.)

Exactly right 66. Great year that btw, and certainly not because the mighty Chooks came last.
I keep reading that the coach needs replacing and half the players are useless and dumb. The teams we beat are apparently all useless and dumb too. Yet we have the best defence in the comp don’t we? Or one of the best. Our completion rate was much better yesterday but that gets ignored. I’m sure if it was bad it wouldn’t fail to get a mention.

Teams that win premierships don’t peak now. They build and start gaining momentum post Origin.

It seems many on here expect us to be smashing teams every week and pulling off the perfect performance every single game.

[mightyrooster]

You should start your own post match thread MR.
One where we could read sensible comments and constructive critism.

Unfortunately I think it would get derailed by the doomsdayers.

[John Corey]

Latrell did it twice again this week, for two tries conceded.

Manu copped it for weeks when he moved to the left wing, having to deal with the criticism of Latrells defensive weakness.

Now its Toops again I see.

If he just holds his line our defence is the best in the comp. But every week one or two sting our left side, Latrell rushing out of the line.

I blame Maubs/Friend/Manu/Napa/Robbo/Toops/Pearceorf and Jack Bosden personally.

Yes mate. Spot on. Just a mental thing I suppose. You can see he loves smashing the receiver as soon as he gets it. He just has trouble deciding whether it is better to stay or to edge in. As you said, on both occasions he was never going to get there and he should have stayed. If he does then they dont score either try

[ism22]

There are 4 sections of every premiership year
1. Pre origin. Shake out rust. Form combos. Shake out preseason rust. Allow boppers and origin players time to build
2. Origin. Blood new players. Take opportunities against weakened teams. Win as many as you can in tread water state
3. Post origin. Time to get serious whilst nursing origin players back. Win all you can. Look to build win upon wins
4. Semis. A different grinding style. Take the two

i would mark our team on target. My concern is based on previous years failure in 4 above. We are improving our completions and D. Our attack in predictable. I thought last year we were going to unleash offloads in semis and blow opponents apart. Regrettably the fact we are still not doing this concerns me greatly. Our captain is slow at DH and is an impediment. I also think he is selfish and not sharing game time considering his tackle contributions will impact our semis. He will tire as he did last year and players like baptiste and Collins need game time if they are to be genuine cover when needed.

I feel we are on track but possibly not learning lessons from history.

final note. This year is a marathon based on World Cup end of last season. The optimist in me believes Robbo has this covered and teams that raced out of blocks will peak and fade over the distance. Time will tell

Agreed. One of our biggest weapons in 2013 was Daniel Mortimer (a name that I reckon should still be in the NRL as a starting half somewhere).

With Mini as captain, Jake was just a hooker. We had no fear about taking him off for 15 each half and getting morta to cause some damage in attack.

The rest is history. Pearce ran amok (failed captain), 2016 was a write-off and Friend got catapulted from pill popping, durry muching cab-hopper who grabs 60 attacking players shirts each game to cap,in my cap,in. We have stuck with that decision on the grounds that he is probably Cam Smiths most obvious replacement.

Time has gone by... Friend is nowhere near next in line to play hooker for QLD and NSW are doing better than QLD anyway. Friend is still captain, his game hasnt improved and this is hurting our attack severely. Combine this with the fact he cannot accept/recognise his flaws (and let a more creative utility get some more gametime) and he becomes a liability... not only because he refuses to come off the field, BUT... if you argue with him, your career is as good as over with us because he is the captain (and doesnt like any backchat).

Reminds me of DCE a bit. I think they have both kinda assumed they will play a part in a successful QLD side and be invincible as a result. Both fell into conflict with Jacko Hastings (who I reckon is 100% good and 100% harmless but he can be a smart@rse). Say QLD loses the next 4 and Friend/DCE arent recalled... then what? Will they rethink their games and sense of entitlement?

[The Axe]

Agreed. One of our biggest weapons in 2013 was Daniel Mortimer (a name that I reckon should still be in the NRL as a starting half somewhere).

With Mini as captain, Jake was just a hooker. We had no fear about taking him off for 15 each half and getting morta to cause some damage in attack.

The rest is history. Pearce ran amok (failed captain), 2016 was a write-off and Friend got catapulted from pill popping, durry muching cab-hopper who grabs 60 attacking players shirts each game to cap,in my cap,in. We have stuck with that decision on the grounds that he is probably Cam Smiths most obvious replacement.

Time has gone by... Friend is nowhere near next in line to play hooker for QLD and NSW are doing better than QLD anyway. Friend is still captain, his game hasnt improved and this is hurting our attack severely. Combine this with the fact he cannot accept/recognise his flaws (and let a more creative utility get some more gametime) and he becomes a liability... not only because he refuses to come off the field, BUT... if you argue with him, your career is as good as over with us because he is the captain (and doesnt like any backchat).

Reminds me of DCE a bit. I think they have both kinda assumed they will play a part in a successful QLD side and be invincible as a result. Both fell into conflict with Jacko Hastings (who I reckon is 100% good and 100% harmless but he can be a smart@rse). Say QLD loses the next 4 and Friend/DCE arent recalled... then what? Will they rethink their games and sense of entitlement?

Thats the way I see it as well.

why don’t we form an application as Co coaches?

[PeeGee]

Yes mate. Spot on. Just a mental thing I suppose. You can see he loves smashing the receiver as soon as he gets it. He just has trouble deciding whether it is better to stay or to edge in. As you said, on both occasions he was never going to get there and he should have stayed. If he does then they dont score either try

I think QLD would have enjoyed watching Latrell's defensive effort against Newcastle. Maybe that edge really missed Cordner.

[busted chook]

Another tight win with the boys having to fight all the way to the 80th minute to get the win. I would say that we played better then the story that the end score tells. High completions and considering the knights scored in the 3rd and 75th minute we looked to have them beat most the game. Our defensive effort was outstanding and like others have said if Latrell can be more selective of when he rushes in then the Knights probably don't score at all. In regards to our attack something was said not sure if it was in the presser or after about repetition and structure which would explain the lack of variation in attack, heres hoping that Robbo isn't putting the shackles back on the boys again. All in all it looks as if the team is getting better week to week albeit still a work in progress.

Not to derail the thread but i feel like you blokes are drawing a pretty long bow in regards to Jake. Not to take away from your posts but you are making a lot of assumptions about his character as a player and as club men. You mention that he doesn't recognise or want to admit to his flaws but he openly came out and said that he was not offering enough from dummy half and you can see not only from the stats but also his action when he is playing that he has been trying to get out of dummy half more also i believe that his service from dummy half has improved considerably (i am guessing since his chest hasn't been giving him as much grief)

Then there is the remark about Hastings. Jake or DCE or who ever aside if Jackson Hastings was good enough he would be wearing an nrl jersey every week regardless of if he wasn't great around people or not. Unfortunately for Hastings it doesn't seem like he is either hence why he isn't getting a run.