Opinion
After back-to-back weeks on the road, the Knights returned home to play in front of their own crowd in torrential rain. Playing against their arch rivals Manly, both teams were looking for their third win.
The Knights were denied a try due to an obstruction and that didn’t stop Manly from running out to a 10-0 lead at the break.
Kalyn Ponga played a brilliant game, scoring the Knights’ only try and having a hand in both disallowed tries. After Chris Randall dropped the ball to deny the try that would have put Newcastle in front for the first time, Manly scored 20 unanswered points to win 30-6.
As a Knights fan, I’ll give my due credit to how well we were in it for the first 68 minutes but I will not deny my frustration as they just gave up on themselves and multiple times when attacking Manly’s goal line, they dropped the ball. A team with a 29/43 completion rate will not win a game.
Now we are minus-24 and look far from that team who won their opening two games in convincing style. What the hell happened to them? This isn’t the team we were at the start of the season. No team will just be handed success, they need to earn it.
I have a feeling that the whole Mitchell Barnett drama is still affecting our team and we have our fair share of injuries. We have proven we can overcome an injury toll and we have shown we never give up. In the final ten minutes, we just threw in the towel.
Next week, we’re playing against the Dragons. It doesn’t matter whether they are successful against South Sydney, what matters is that we go to Wollongong and we focus on what we are there to do: win.
A winning attitude isn’t about giving up, it’s about being knocked down and getting back up. We can’t just stay down, we have to rise and show we know how to bounce back. I believe our team can bounce back, I want them to prove to myself and all other Knights fans my beliefs are more than just words.
I get the fact fans want success for our team. We want to see them win the premiership again and as harsh at it sounds, we’re a long way from doing so. We need to show an 80-minute fight and we need to show we know how to win. This has been done and we need to keep doing it again.
Our team has the ability to go that extra level, push themselves as far as they can to win and now every time they step on the field, they need to back it up.
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