The Newcastle Knights didn’t get to celebrate Easter this year, going down to the St. George Illawarra Dragons 22-13.
This was an unfortunate loss for our team but not as unfortunate as losing three players – Mitchell Pearce, Tex Hoy and Kurt Mann.
Despite great wins in the Hi-Vis jersey, many of us are thinking it’s cursed.
As a Knights fan, despite playing with only one man left on the bench, I truly admired how we never gave up. There was a time that the Knights would have given up and let the opposition just kill them. We’ve got 20 games left for the year and we will be back.
One thing I still urge to the Knights fans to do is to remain patient. I know I have said this numerous times but to be realistic, our system isn’t just going to randomly flourish with all the work need to be done.
All the teams with a great system needed it to be built. To make one thing clear, we are not in the rebuilding process anymore, we have successfully completed that. In 2018, the rebuilding was complete and now in our second year under Adam O’Brien, we’re building towards a much more winning culture.
The culture we need as a team to succeed. I know our past two losses may contradict my point but you’ll not go through a season undefeated.
To be a constant powerhouse team, we need to build the players platform and keep on building it. That doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a long gruelling process with years of hard work and labour. Everyone has to do their part, whether the coaches, players and fans.
The coaches do their job and the players play their role. As fans, our role is to cheer the players on when they need us and that is with every game – regardless the result.
It’s not like all the biggest businesses in the world actually started off as big as they are now. Think of Bill Gates. He begun Microsoft from his garage and with all the hard work and effort he put into his company, as well as uniting with Apple in 1997, he succeeded and is now one of the richest in the world. The combination with Apple saved them from bankruptcy. How is that related to the Knights? It’s simple, don’t rush the process and let it build over time.
I know we all want success now and it’s not a quick process but take a look at the Penrith Panthers. Phil Gould’s “five-year plan” may have taken longer than five years but now they’re one of the best teams of the modern era and favourites to win the big one. Why? Because they built the platform and now they are aiming to bring in the success that comes with it.
The Newcastle Knights are building it and we will get there. I know we have a lot of naysayers but screw what they think. We have once been there before.
The Newcastle Knights’ glory days of 1995-2003 were great, despite winning only two premierships, all but one of those years I mentioned saw us in the finals. We will have a new set of glory days.
Next week, we have the Titans and even though all odds are against us, I wouldn’t write us off. With our minds to it, great execution and the will to win, anything is possible.
Emcie
Roar Guru
Not exactly within the spirit of competition though
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Its not a bad strategy though. Most clubs fall victim to what I call availability bias. A club is not doing so well , a pretty average player comes on the market . The club snaps them up cause they ' have to do something '. They end up paying overs for a pretty average guy and are stuck with him for 3 years. Esan Marsters is a classic example . ( Oh and Tautai Moga). Waiting for quality is a much better idea. But like you say its a hard sell to the fans.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
The Knights signed Pearce and then Klemmer when the club was down, followed by Ponga who was the hottest kid in the game. Dogs have been woeful, but signed 2 origin players for this season, and other for next season, plus Burton.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
I suspect there was a bit of fallout from the Bennett and Tinkler years which left the club in a mess - at least Brown got them competitive again - but Knights supporters would know better than me about the strengths and weaknesses of Brown as a coach
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
The Knights went with a policy of using local juniors which is what the fans call for more often than not as a way to progress. It ignores the fact that often the juniors aren't any good and as a blanket policy it is a dud. Now the good juniors like Best and the twins can shine. Burning a couple of seasons isn't how I would term it. It was a rebuild which didn't work so they changed direction.
Emcie
Roar Guru
For three or so years the knights were the polar opposite of aggressive with their recruitment, which is the only reason they could afford to go on a spending spree. Not too many clubs would be willing to knowingly burn a couple seasons to leapfrog all the way up to mid table. Browns biggest achievement there was selling that to the club and fans.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
Don't think your giving enough credit here Emcie - there are plenty of other teams near the bottom who haven't been as aggressive with their recruitment and are still underperforming - good on the Knights - at least the Knights are in a position to challenge for the 8 this year which can't be said for a lot of teams sitting near thee bottom of the table
Emcie
Roar Guru
Running dead last for long enough that they could afford to poach whoever they wanted? They even had to give players extra money at one point to reach the minimum spend. In some sports that's called tanking
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
I think former coach Nathan Brown has to get a bit of credit for the Knights squad rebuild luring Ponga, Pearce, Klemmer etc
Emcie
Roar Guru
The knights also only came out of it after they'd cleared the books and started thowing money around
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
I've been bemused in recent weeks at all the talk of the bottom clubs being stuck in some sort of semi permanent rut. Luke Lewis was saying over the weekend that players don't want to sign at weaker clubs and that makes it very hard to ever progress. The Knights prove otherwise. They won three spoons in a row and had a much weaker roster than current plodders like Manly and the Broncos. In saying that ,the Knights seem to be having a run of injuries which can send you reeling but add Ponga and Best to the team and it's not far off a roster which can win a title as long as injuries are minimal and the players play near their potential.
Tony
Roar Guru
The plot thickens!
Paul
Roar Guru
There's no doubt the Knights squad depth is going to be tested in the coming weeks, but it is only round 5 and the players who are fit to play, are still a formidable lot - at least on paper. I think this is a period of the season for the Knights which could best be described as "character forming". If they get through with some good results, it will stand them in good stead at the end of the year. If they don't......
Emcie
Roar Guru
Forever 18 is his other identity here
Tony
Roar Guru
Why would someone do that? :stoked:
Paul
Roar Guru
he's changed his name more than once, Tony.
Big Daddy
Guest
Tony, Soda is right. Adrian has been around the block a few times. It's his 2 nd go as Adrian .
KenW
Roar Rookie
That was a very close and competitive game, looked like it was going to go down to the wire until the Knights injuries started mounting. After that Newcastle held on valiantly but it was just a matter of time until the Dragons would skip a couple of tries clear. No shame in this result then but the Knights test will be staying competitive and jagging a some wins while they get their injury problem under control.
Tony
Roar Guru
Hi Soda - I note that Adrian's profile says that it's his first article??
Soda
Roar Rookie
Hi tony, Adrian has posted his fair share of articles on this site. I don't think there is a bigger knights fan out there than young Adrian. Adrian, hard luck. I got to say its been a long time since a dragons knights match would have been the match of the round. Good to see both teams playing tough footy.