The downward spiral effect

[Tigerpete]

Granted we conceded 42 points tonight and showed some of our downfalls from last season but I do think it's important to place some things in perspective tonight. Firstly, credit to the Knights. They were great and their game plan was carried out almost perfectly. They won the ruck with their big men and let their speed cash in. It was the obvious way to beat us.

It has to be said though that as bad and humiliating as it appeared, we simply lost control of the game. They smashed us in ways I've rarely seen with the possession count. Think we touched the ball once in 15 minutes at one point. From there we tried but couldn't get out of that funk. It consumed us. That can happen in league. In no way am I justifying our performance though. I just want to be fair on the boys. All this talk about lack of effort or even lack of quality In our side have nothing to do with the loss. We lost because we failed to win the ruck and we failed to get control of it back. As Phil Gould said tonight, it's a downward spiral that's hard to stop.

 

[maxxy86]

yep and i havent felt this low after a loss since the 2002 season.

 

[Golden]

yep it's only round 1 in 2011 eels smashed warriors round 1 just like this year, guess who made the grand final and guess who finished 15??

It's a long season and this team knows it just has to put on 8 wins in a row to make the 8

 

[happy_tiger]

Granted we conceded 42 points tonight and showed some of our downfalls from last season but I do think it's important to place some things in perspective tonight. Firstly, credit to the Knights. They were great and their game plan was carried out almost perfectly. They won the ruck with their big men and let their speed cash in. It was the obvious way to beat us.

It has to be said though that as bad and humiliating as it appeared, we simply lost control of the game. They smashed us in ways I've rarely seen with the possession count. Think we touched the ball once in 15 minutes at one point. From there we tried but couldn't get out of that funk. It consumed us. That can happen in league. In no way am I justifying our performance though. I just want to be fair on the boys. All this talk about lack of effort or even lack of quality In our side have nothing to do with the loss. We lost because we failed to win the ruck and we failed to get control of it back. As Phil Gould said tonight, it's a downward spiral that's hard to stop.

Some good points TP but the one I have issue with is the one touch in 15 minutes

Why did we have one touch in 15 minutes ??

Because we couldn't defend our line for even a single set of six once will the opposition piled on 4 tries and a penalty

Thats lack of application Two words Accountability and attitude and it appears neither have been used by Potter

 

[MacDougall]

Well for once the referees let the game play out as it was supposed to rather than influencing the game to give the team struggling a leg up as has been the done thing in the past few seasons. A good thing. If the referees had have been doing that in 2011 and 2010 we would have won far fewer matches.

 

[stryker]

Granted we conceded 42 points tonight and showed some of our downfalls from last season but I do think it's important to place some things in perspective tonight. Firstly, credit to the Knights. They were great and their game plan was carried out almost perfectly. **They won the ruck with their big men and let their speed cash in. It was the obvious way to beat us.**

It is the obvious way for every side to beat us. The whole league world knows it yet we looked totally unprepared for it and showed zero urgency in counteracting it.

It has to be said though that as bad and humiliating as it appeared, we simply lost control of the game. They smashed us in ways I've rarely seen with the possession count. Think we touched the ball once in 15 minutes at one point. From there we tried but couldn't get out of that funk. It consumed us. That can happen in league. In no way am I justifying our performance though. I just want to be fair on the boys. All this talk about lack of effort or even lack of quality In our side have nothing to do with the loss. We lost because we failed to win the ruck and we failed to get control of it back. As Phil Gould said tonight, it's a downward spiral that's hard to stop.

This is true but again, if they dont already realise other sides will come at them like this then they will not win many games this year. In the last 20 they kept them scoreless whilst having their line peppered. This to me showed that they were indeed prepared for the onslaught and failed miserably in implementing their combative strategies. This can not happen. I said in another thread that Souths would have put 60 on us tonight. I have now cooled down and thought about it more and mate….they would have put 70+ on us.

Staggered and confused defensive lines, one off hitups, poor ball control, ill discipline, confused roles, lack of desire and lack of technique....that was Newcastle versus a collection of footballers wearing Wests Tigers gear. It was not Newcastle versus a Wests Tigers team. If they cant play as a team and support each other - they are going to cop a lot of losses like this and our young talent will search elsewhere for careers.

 

[supercoach]

I agree with the post, no team can defend for fifteen minutes without using up tons of petrol. Okay they dug the hole by all the usual errors but it was game over from that point. I think I would probably stick with most of them for another few weeks. You just cant keep changing the team every week and expect to get a cohesive effort

 

[Newtown]

Granted we conceded 42 points tonight and showed some of our downfalls from last season but I do think it's important to place some things in perspective tonight. Firstly, credit to the Knights. They were great and their game plan was carried out almost perfectly. They won the ruck with their big men and let their speed cash in. It was the obvious way to beat us.

It has to be said though that as bad and humiliating as it appeared, we simply lost control of the game. They smashed us in ways I've rarely seen with the possession count. Think we touched the ball once in 15 minutes at one point. From there we tried but couldn't get out of that funk. It consumed us. That can happen in league. In no way am I justifying our performance though. I just want to be fair on the boys. All this talk about lack of effort or even lack of quality In our side have nothing to do with the loss. We lost because we failed to win the ruck and we failed to get control of it back. As Phil Gould said tonight, it's a downward spiral that's hard to stop.

Some good points TP but the one I have issue with is the one touch in 15 minutes

Why did we have one touch in 15 minutes ??

Because we couldn't defend our line for even a single set of six once will the opposition piled on 4 tries and a penalty

Thats lack of application Two words Accountability and attitude and it appears neither have been used by Potter

Fully agree. A large proportion of the reponsibility for this debacle rests with Potter. To put it simply, the boys just did not know what they were doing out there. A schoolboy/juniors coach would have done better. In my opinion he needs to show a huge amount of improvement to just make the team competitive.

 

[Tigerpete]

Yep. Last night showed not only are we a long way off where we need to be. We're also a long way off where Potter hopes to take us. There were some things last night which looked a result of having players adapting to a new coach's strategies. Even allowing for these though, some of our bad habits were still very obvious and that's a concern.