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Opinion

Knights may have timed their yo-yo swing just right – at least for this week

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30th September, 2020
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Roar Rookie
30th September, 2020
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It’s fitting that the NRL’s two most enigmatic teams registered polar-opposite results heading into the finals. Wins are rarely more emphatic than the Rabbitohs’ 60-8 demolition of the reigning premiers – and losses seldom more humbling than the Knights’ 30-point capitulation to a bottom-eight side.

Travelling to Cbus Super Stadium as warm favourites to beat a Titans side already booked in for Mad Monday, Newcastle looked horrible when they had the ball and even worse when they didn’t.

The margin may have been a surprise, but the loss itself followed a familiar and worrying trend for Adam O’Brien’s team. The Knights have unerringly alternated wins with losses, dating back to their uninspiring 12-0 win over North Queensland in Round 15.

If you discount their midseason three-game winning streak against the Tigers, Sea Eagles and Cowboys, the trend of inconsistency has followed the men from steel city all year.

A stirring 20-18 win against the Rabbitohs was followed by a dour 18-12 loss to the Bulldogs. An embarrassing effort against the Warriors in Tamworth was followed by a thumping win at home over the Sharks.

The players must be used to the routine by now. They can probably quote the first few lines of O’Brien’s speeches before he even gives them.

Bradman Best looks on

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Knights fans will take heart in the fact that their team has managed to bounce back from poor performances consistently. However, consistency as a whole is something Newcastle haven’t ever really been able to grasp in 2020, much like today’s opponents.

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The Bunnies produced the most talked-about performance of Round 20, rocketing past the Sydney Roosters to enter the finals with a bang resembling a SYdney Harbour fireworks display.

It was a jaw-dropping performance echoing the gunslinging qualities evident in their 38-0 rout of the Eels a month prior. Yet just a week before the Roosters match the Rabbitohs were turned over by the lowly Bulldogs 26-16 at home.

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Some of this can be put down to personnel. Losing Latrell Mitchell for the season during the win over Parramatta was a hammer-blow to Souths’ premiership chances. In recent weeks they have also sorely missed the services of forwards Tevita Tatola and Jaydn Su’A, though both big men are back for the clash with the Knights.

It’s hard to argue that beating the reigning premiers by more than 50 is bad preparation. However, it isn’t necessarily good either. Look at Parramatta’s 58-0 party against Brisbane in Week 1 of the finals last year and how well that prepared them for facing the Storm in Week 2.

The Knights aren’t the Storm, to state the bleeding obvious. However, the same potential traps await Wayne Bennett’s charges if they allow themselves to get carried away with the highlights reels and headlines from the massive win over the Roosters, who happen to also be their biggest rivals.

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Complacency, then, is the biggest enemy for Souths this week. It’s easy to say no team should rest on their laurels heading into finals. But when your last game was a blowout win against the best team in the competition over the last two or three seasons, it would be equally easy for Souths – at least subconsciously – to assume this week will be even more comfortable.

And that might give Newcastle a big advantage.

Losing 36-6 to the Titans is anything but an ideal preparation for finals footy. However, it ensures that complacency will not be an issue.

The 17 players who take the field for Newcastle will be burning to atone for last week’s embarrassment. They will also be boosted by the knowledge that they’ve already beaten Bennett’s mob once this season.

For both teams, another familiar down-swing of the yo-yo would be fatal. It feels safer then, somehow, to assume Newcastle are due a win this weekend, if based only on the logic of the pendulum.

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