The Newcastle Knights fans deserved better. The 46-4 capitulation to the Wests Tigers effectively ended the Knights’ season while leaving fans questioning as to whether they want this team to represent them again next year.
As an unbiased observer, I watched this game fully expecting a nail biter between two teams desperate to make the top eight for the first time in years. I had leaned towards the Knights with the loss of Robbie Farah maybe proving the difference.
One team showed up with that desperation. For the other team, the first mistake they made on Saturday afternoon was probably getting off the team bus.
We shouldn’t forget that the Tigers were impressive. With a 90 per cent completion rate, Benji Marshall continued his form of recent weeks initially at hooker. On the edges, Marshall and Luke Brooks were creating havoc while Josh Reynolds – sporting possibly the worst hair cut of all time – provided some spark that the Knights were missing.
The Tigers were good, sure – but just how good were they? We probably won’t get a read on this until the last round against the Sharks.
We definitely got a read on the Newcastle Knights though. Losing on Saturday night was bad enough, but the manner of the defeat was the biggest concern.
As we’ve no doubt heard plenty of times, rugby league is about the effort plays, the one-per-cent-ers. These things don’t show up in the match stats so the closest proxies we have are possibly the post contact metres and the missed and ineffective tackle counts.
To be fair to the Knights, we are looking at these stats per set of six rather than the totality of the game where the Tigers held 60 per cent of the ball.
Looking at post contact metres first, the Tigers made 19 post contact metres per set compared to the Knights’ 15 metres. This contributed to total running metres per set of 57 metres for the Tigers against 45 metres for the Knights.
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Looking at missed and ineffective tackles, the Tigers missed 0.7 tackles per set compared to the Knights 1.2 tackles per set. Ineffective tackles were similar, with the Knights count twice that of the Tigers.
In isolation, none of these factors necessarily lose you a game by that type of margin. However, with those stats across the board – coupled with the fact that covering defence went missing in a number of tries – the effort has got to be questioned.
The lack of effort wasn’t across the whole team. Danny Levi topped the game tackle count with 51 metres, Shaun Kenny-Dowall ran for 158 metres on the night and David Klemmer worked hard in the middle. Mason Lino organised a greater portion of play than what would be considered normal.
For whatever reason, Mitchell Pearce and Kalyn Ponga have lost their best form since Origin. Pearce couldn’t force one drop out on Saturday night while the Tigers got five.
After Kalyn Ponga threw an intercept in the first half which led to a Tigers try, he was barely sighted. I’m not blaming any individual in the team solely for the loss but Knights fans could have expected more of the marquee players.
Mathematically, the Knights are still a chance of playing finals footy. Realistically, they are gone for the year. It was a roller coaster. High hopes at the start followed by a series of losses.
When people starting calling for Nathan Brown’s head, the team started playing to their potential. After Origin, it started to fall apart. This time around, the team couldn’t save Nathan Brown.
The timing of the announcement of Brown’s departure – and the media circus that followed – has proven to be poor.
However, the players had the chance to make their own statement on Saturday night. They didn’t, which speaks volumes in itself.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
I couldn’t agree more. Newcastle is a town that has the most passionate of fans. They will always reject imports with a superstar mentality... Joey Johns, despite getting too big for his own good, only avoided the ire of the fans for two reasons... he was a genuine local product and he delivered in spades.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
Barretts coaching at Manly earned him a bigger slap than 100 Nathan Browns could deliver
Succhi
Roar Rookie
My theory is this - a town like Newcastle you can’t (1) bring in high profile (paid) players who don’t perform every week, and (2) have one player (Ponga) getting paid so much for achieving so little. It is a small city that respects hard work and sacrifice. The majority of current players have neither.
Jockstar
Guest
What a weak and spineless captain
Superspud
Roar Rookie
I know there may have been some injuries last yeah but Pongas 2019 pretty much mirrored his 2018. After origin last season he hardly made a ripple. The NRL season is a long one perhaps too long for him.
Dogs Boddy
Roar Rookie
"For whatever reason, Mitchell Pearce and Kalyn Ponga have lost their best form since Origin" I can't speak to Ponga (he may have had a milkshake headache), but this is classic Pearce. When the pressure is on he folds faster than an origami master. I'm not too sure why you are surprised by this.
Superspud
Roar Rookie
Bit of a rockstar mentality amongst the players. This is something that one team towns like Newcastle can be prone to. Just being a Knights first grader in a footy mad town, people telling you how good you are everywhere you go can lead to players being satisfied about where they are rather than going after that bit extra to win. I would say the same thing about Townsville and potentially the Broncos.
Superspud
Roar Rookie
The term to use is dummy half.
JOHN ALLAN
Guest
Ponga's "milkshake comment" in response to Brown's sacking surprised me as he has impressed me with his interviews to date despite his age. I can recall Brown slapping Trent Barrett during a half time talk during his Dragons coaching days. Both have since endured challenging coaching roles.
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
You may find that there is a deep seated division within the playing group. If what I am told is correct there were two or 3 players who did not like Brownie and went behind his back & bitched to the CEO (You know that bloke that does not seem to think he owes the fans & club members an explanation) Now a decent CEO would have gotten Brownie & the players in a room and said to them "tell him to his face what you said to me" Nor did he have the decency to say to Nathan "the players are not happy with you so we are not renewing your contract next year. Well somebody with some kahoonas would have. But no we have all this clandestine stuff going on to secretly poach a new coach from the Roosters. Very Clever....If another club had done that to a knights player can you imagine the outrage ... There is going to have to be a huge repair job done at the Knights over all this and I do not think it is the place for a rookie coach despite being mentored by both Craig Bellamy and Trent Robinson. Do not know much about their CEO Phil Gardner but one thing I do know for sure making an enemy out of Nick Politis is not a vary smart thing to do.
Paul
Roar Guru
Every year we seem have teams who get to the last few rounds and show how little they care about their fans. There were at least 3 teams on the weekend who should have been contenders for the finals, with the guys they have in their squads, but for what ever reason, are at the wrong end of the comp and have clearly switched off for 2019. I'm referring to the Panthers, Dragons & Knights. What about the fans who have paid plenty to go and watch them play? Aren't they entitled to see blokes making serious 6 figures having a red hot go, rather than being spectators as opposition sides do as they please? I get not every side can be in the finals, but I don't get people not trying, not when they're supposed to be professionals. They're happy to take the money, but not turn up to play - and nothing will be done about it.
Nat
Roar Guru
As much as Knights fans may hold a candle for Brownie, they will quickly be forgotten when a good coach has them firing into the finals. They could do worse than have Hook for a few years to running with the big boys and developing better pathways for the local juniors.
Nat
Roar Guru
Benji made Pearce look like a beginner and he wasn't doing anything Benji-like.
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
Knights players should forfeit their match fees for that game and give them to charity.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
It was all smiles preseason at the Knights. It was a new start for Klemmer and everyone was on the bus to the seaside village. They're going to lose Ponga if they don't get going next year after already losing Ramien if they don't fire up. Pearce isn't so young any more. It's another rebuild if they don't watch it.
Peter
Guest
Too much rugby instilled in me. I read “Benji Marshall...at hooker” and thought But he doesn’t have anything to do in scrums. Silly me. It would be more accurate to re-name the evolved No. 9 position Quarterback. That’s not a criticism, except possibly of scrums. Enforce the rules or get rid of them!