LIVE GAME Round 1 vs Knights

[BAGNF05]

yes, but how much of that was attributed to the Knights slowing the play down? Newcastle had zero ruck infringements on Friday, according to the referee. I find that extremely hard to believe.

An experienced hooker / captain is reminding the referee of these little infringements at every stop in play. Api will make a huge difference.

 

[Chunk]

Galvin constantly moving sideways first and then taking the wrong option was ugly to watch. Our left edge saw zero early ball, while our right edge saw zero ball period.

He does have a tendency to crab sideways but he also doesn't have many options considering our centres and backrow. They do make his job harder, I'm not sure he has confidence in them.

And because of his inexperience he needs a little more help but it's not there atm, hopefully Luia and Bula can change things.

 

[Chunk]

And our PTB is just soooo Slowwwww

That might be because we get dominated in the tackle, so much.

 

[BAGNF05]

He does have a tendency to crab sideways but he also doesn't have many options considering our centres and backrow. They do make his job harder, I'm not sure he has confidence in them.

And because of his inexperience he needs a little more help but it's not there atm, hopefully Luia and Bula can change things.

Players around him need to change the angle when he’s going east west. It’s a consequence of having not much quality in the centres or second row. We need some natural ball runners.

 

[Oldman]

Just watched the game for the first time,
As mentioned by many at the moment we really lack any impact from our Centres and 2nd Row,
Both Centres didn’t put their hand up to help the winger's do any of the dirty work coming out of our end or look like hitting any holes at pace in attack,
The 2nd Rowers lack any muscle
Both defend soft and put no fear into the opposition.
Really surprised with Sam Fainu who I thought was going to be a big strong body 2nd rower but didn’t see that on the weekend.
So nothing new
We need to fix this to get anywhere near the top teams.

 

[Suzie-Q]

yes, but how much of that was attributed to the Knights slowing the play down? Newcastle had zero ruck infringements on Friday, according to the referee. I find that extremely hard to believe.

We were certainly making a lot of noise to "get off 'im" on Friday night. The players were questioning, too. Probably the only thing we can whinge about, ref-wise, though

 

[jirskyr]

I find this a very weird take.

We missed almost 60 tackles. We went one out on almost every single time we had the ball. We were pinned in our half due to our terrible kicking game. When Cogger blows our halves out of the park you know you've got a problem. The Knights started almost every set on their 30. That's embarrassing.
We didn't receive a single outcome from any of our kicks. We didn't even contest 99% of our kicks.
Our players were exhausted after 55 mins, which shows that the preseason didn't do it's job.
Ponga, Schiller and Sharpe tore us to shreds. We don't have a single centre or back rower who can break the line. No one with pace and only one winger with power.
Our goal line defence was solid. But if the Knights played remotely well they win by 30, if they played well they'd have won 40+. They were shocking, we got ALL the questionable calls and still lost. That's how much worse we were.

If we were trying things and the combos and execution just wasn't quite there yet, that'd be ok. But we tried nothing, and that is unacceptable.

For me the biggest issue is the fitness. Defence Congress form to attitude and fitness, and then technique. Our defence fell to pieces once our boys couldn't compete any longer and started farting off tackles . Given our struggles with fitness in the last few years fitness needed to be our top priority this off season, but seemingly it wasn't. If we can't play 80 mins then we will probably get another spoon

I must have watched a different match then. Not great but Knights struggled to pip us.

 

[Spartan117]

50+ Missed Tackles and only giving away 10pts

Thats a ton of Scramble and effort.

 

[Lestronge]

We were certainly making a lot of noise to "get off 'im" on Friday night. The players were questioning, too. Probably the only thing we can whinge about, ref-wise, though

It’s tough IMO . We are the most penalised team last year for just about everything , especially hip drop tackles . (By the way didn’t see one of those in the weekend ) , so I think it’s a combination of us peeling off tackles maybe a fraction too quickly and the knights pushing the ref , who seemed reluctant to blow 6 agains for whatever reason .
We will not get a ref interpretation like that again .
The Klein penalty-a - thon from the trial is more the preferred ref style form the games I watched .

 

[Suzie-Q]

It’s tough IMO . We are the most penalised team last year for just about everything , especially hip drop tackles . (By the way didn’t see one of those in the weekend ) , so I think it’s a combination of us peeling off tackles maybe a fraction too quickly and the knights pushing the ref , who seemed reluctant to blow 6 agains for whatever reason .
We will not get a ref interpretation like that again .
The Klein penalty-a - thon from the trial is more the preferred ref style form the games I watched .

I kept saying to my (knights supporter) friend at the game, "I dont know how to react to this. We usually get penalised for breathing!"

 

[jirskyr]

50+ Missed Tackles and only giving away 10pts

Thats a ton of Scramble and effort.

We only conceded 10 points or less twice in 2024.

We only did it twice in 2023.

We only did it once in 2022.

We only did it twice in 2021.

We only did it twice in 2020.

Did it 7 times in 2019!

Of those 16 previous matches we only lost 2, so clearly keeping a side to 10 points with an regularity is a good thing.

 

[ancient_magpie]

I must have watched a different match then. Not great but Knights struggled to pip us.

Typical balmain boy post he's never happy
You would have thought we got beat by 30 points.

 

[Needaname]

We only conceded 10 points or less twice in 2024.

We only did it twice in 2023.

We only did it once in 2022.

We only did it twice in 2021.

We only did it twice in 2020.

Did it 7 times in 2019!

Of those 16 previous matches we only lost 2, so clearly keeping a side to 10 points with a regularity is a good thing.

For a team that conceded less then 18 points for only 4 games last year a low scoring result is a good base to build off.

 

[jirskyr]

For a team that conceded less then 18 points for only 4 games last year a low scoring result is a good base to build off.

I think it was something... it felt different to me. The new players were all decent and better than what we had. The fight was better, I got so used to seeing this side give up.

Could easily have won with a bit more fitness or a few less key missed tackles. For me Ponga was the main difference between the two sides and he's an elite footballer.

Maybe having 3 wooden spoons my expectations arent super high at the moment.

 

[Needaname]

I think it was something... it felt different to me. The new players were all decent and better than what we had. The fight was better, I got so used to seeing this side give up.

Could easily have won with a bit more fitness or a few less key missed tackles. For me Ponga was the main difference between the two sides and he's an elite footballer.

Maybe having 3 wooden spoons my expectations arent super high at the moment.

I’m with you.
You’ve also got to consider our ins and losses.
With replaced our top end players with top end players as in we lost a decent prop in Stefano and brought in May. Had it of been losing a fringe Prop and bringing in May to complement an already established prop in Stefano we would be starting this year on a higher base.
Likewise with adding Luai alongside an experienced half in Sezer.
But yet we didn’t have the luxury of those options and this is what we have to play with this season.

 

[Needaname]

Interesting STAT for those interested.
Hope and TDS combined for 122 receipts.
Obvious being dummy half.
Jarome and Galvin combined for 118 receipts.
Now not all of those would be directly off the dummy half and through passing / offloads but shows how much they were involved in the game despite the poor attack.

For contrast.
Broncos.
Billy and Paix. 122 receipts.
Reynolds and Hunt. 74 receipts.

Storm.
Grant and Wishart. 132 receipts.
Muney and Hughes. 90 receipts.

 

[hank37w]

With these stats, are you confirming that Galvin was receiving/demanding the ball and over playing his hand much more than he should have.

That's what it tells me.

 

[Needaname]

With these stats, are you confirming that Galvin was receiving/demanding the ball and over playing his hand much more than he should have.

That's what it tells me.

Pretty much, or even our halves were touching the ball a lot in a set.

I thought I’d stick the fullback receipts of the three sides for a further measure.

Mason. 28
Walsh. 32
Papenhuyzen. 33

Though not much difference there.

Probably an in indication overall that we moved the ball between our halves 1 too many times.

 

[AmericanHistoryX]

Good game. Best performance I've felt in many years in losing.

 

[Needaname]

What exactly is a receipt it still makes no sense to me
Is it how often a player receives the ball be it a pass or ptb?

Yes. Possibly even via kick return.
Maybe I’ll count up the receipts in game of every player and see how they line up to the stat count.