Wayne Bennett-coached teams are usually renowned for their confidence, their resilience, their toughness, their courage, their skills, their concentration and most importantly, their smarts.
However, these last two components have been lacking so far this season. They were displayed perfectly in their 32-6 loss to the Brisbane Broncos at Hunter Stadium in Newcastle on Friday night.
The Knights had many opportunities throughout this game, particularly in the first 20 minutes of the opening half, which they should have capitalised on.
Instead, they constantly made poor choices. They were rushing constantly and thus appeared to be not thinking about what they were doing. During this time they played out three sets of six close to the line without kicking the ball and thus handing back to the Broncos.
In professional rugby league, it is inexcusable to not to know what tackle you are on and where you are on the field.
Certain players (especially in the amateur ranks) use the crowd or spectators as an excuse for not knowing what the situation is in the game, or for their poor performance. However, in professional rugby league and in professional sport in general, this is no excuse at all.
When you are a professional athlete, or a professional in any arena, you are meant to be highly-tuned and have the ability to put all bad habits and distractions to one side. You must be able to focus on doing your preferred craft to the absolute best of your ability and embrace the challenges.
At the moment, there are at least three or four players in the Newcastle Knights who are currently playing dumb rugby league. Some of this is bordering on amateurish play, and the Knights are unable to string smart games together on a basis that would help their team win.
The only reasons that this can be attributed to is a pure lack of mental application and discipline from these individuals.
For a Bennett-coached team, this just simply not good enough. For a rugby league heartland such as Newcastle, it is not on.
If Bennett is still the super coach that I believe he is, he will make the big changes that are necessary to send a message to his playing group that they need to play smarter.
The premiership winning sides at the Brisbane Broncos and the St George-Illawarra Dragons showed every single quality that resembled a Bennett-coached team, often in spades.
However, this Knights side is showing few of these qualities right now. Although it would be wrong of me to question their toughness, courage and resilience after the events of recent weeks, it’s now up to Bennett to bring in the changes.
This could turn their season around.
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