They boast one of the most loyal fanbases in rugby league, and to say that they have been required to display their loyalty would be a major understatement.
But after a over year of sometimes humiliating defeats, Newcastle have picked up a vital 24-14 win over Canberra, snapping a six game losing streak on home turf.
The win was their first in Newcastle since Round 16 of last year, and was achieved despite trailing 14-10 at the break.
The second half performance, in which the Raiders were kept scoreless, was comfortably their best showing of the year.
The difference was a three try burst early in the second half where the Knights brutally exposed the Raiders’ left side.
Ricky Stuart was forced to rejig his lineup after a late pullout from halfback Jamal Fogarty, and while his replacement Matt Frawley performed well, it proved too big a blow to overcome.
Jack Wighton started well, scoring before half time, but endured a poor second half and may well find himself in hot water after a needless, late hit on Jackson Hastings that saw him binned. He was also put on report for an earlier high shot on Lachlan Miller and may now miss their clash with Penrith next week.
Stuart refused to put the defeat down to the Hastings incident, though he downplayed the severity of it.
“It doesn’t really matter what I think, Hastings got up pretty quickly,” said the coach. “He was falling when Jack came in, he was trying to change the momentum in a desperate period of play.
“The other thing I think is the speed and intensity of the way it happened … nobody got injured, he just got clipped around the neck. It (a sin-binning) has happened before and we’ve won games.”
If you watched the football World Cup, you might have noticed a phrase that was going around when watching Spain. The furia rioja were, as every pundit put it, ‘great between the boxes’, meaning that they dominated the midfield but failed to score enough and conceded too much.
In the first half Newcastle were that too, brilliant between the red zones. They didn’t at all struggle to get into position, generating 21 tackles inside the Raiders 20m, but were ponderous in possession and looked unthreatening, while simultaneously conceding weakly on the few times that the Raiders could creep into their end. The tackling on Jack Wighton for his try, in particular, was horrendous.
The pattern continued into the second half but, crucially, the execution suddenly followed. Tyson Gamble, who had been perhaps the worst culprit in their attacking predictability, produced a majestic long ball to get Greg Marzhew in, before Dane Gagai and Tyson Frizell followed.
The lack of incisiveness has been an ongoing problem at the Knights and was likely a key factor in their decision to shift Kalyn Ponga to the halves in preseason. We’re yet to see how effective he might be long-term in that role, but today at least, his deputies finally stood up.
“Tyson has been outstanding,” said O’Brien. “He’s a competitor. You win out there by competing and that’s what he gives us.
“There’s an opportunity for us to go on a mission out there (next week against Manly). We need to address a few things defensively but we need to get excited about our week, we’re playing a good footy team but we’re a good footy team (too).”
A penny for Dom Young’s thoughts: the winger was dropped after an error-strewn showing last weekend against the Dolphins, with Marzhew taking his place on the right wing. He was greeted by some of the most charitable tackling imaginable from the opposing Canberra left side.
They couldn’t decide if they were sliding wide to stop the winger or holding tight to force the ball through hands, with the natural result being that they did neither.
Harley Smith-Shields, Matt Frawley and Albert Hopoate were assembled late with Fogarty ruled out and, at times, it looked like they had barely met, so uncoordinated was the defending.
Canberra’s general tactical outlook has been to win their battles individually, with less of a system-based approach, and that has a propensity to go wrong when their players don’t turn up.
Too often, they were stuck in ego-battles with their opposite numbers. It’s a big Raiders trait, and not necessarily a bad one: last week, Corey Horsburgh fired up and ran through several Sharks middles, and Jack Wighton has often bullied opposing halves through size and power.
But today, it distracted them badly. Wighton was binned for going through Hastings as he kicked, a needless shot that set his side back. With Fogarty missing, the onus was on Wighton to show leadership and calmness as the senior half, but he did the opposite.
Lachlan Miller is giving Adam O’Brien the sort of headaches he actually wants to have. The fullback has been best on ground for the Knights in every game this year and has transformed their set starting with consistent, elusive carries.
Today, he added a level of ball-playing that hadn’t been seen too much in the NRL. His assist for Dane Gagai was one of his less spectacular moments but was ruthlessly efficient. At times this year, Miller’s play has been the opposite.
Some of his decision making defensively remains shaky, as the fullback let the ball bounce more than once when he could have taken it on the full, causing panic in the Knights ranks.
Today, however, he added a level of ball-playing that hadn’t been seen too much in the NRL. His assist for Dane Gagai was one of his less spectacular moments but was ruthlessly efficient. Usually, Miller’s play has been the opposite, with lots of flash but sometimes not much substance.
Given Ponga’s problems with head knocks, there might have been a temptation to shift him back to fullback, but in this form, Miller is undroppable. Next year, when Will Pryce arrives from the Super League, will be the big call that O’Brien has to make.
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