One of the NRL’s great hoodoos has been broken, with Newcastle producing a mammoth performance to upset Melbourne 26-18, breaking an 11-game losing streak in the process.
Craig Bellamy looked on in disbelief as his side’s campaign for the top four took a serious blow. With a tough stretch ahead of them featuring Parramatta, Penrith and Canberra back to back, this would have been a much-needed win.
The coach raged at his players in the post-match, openly questioning their desire.
“Sometimes you wonder how important it is to them?” he said.
“It was disappointing, it was probably as disappointing a 70 minutes that I can remember, especially that first half. We lacked energy, we lacked enthusiasm, we looked like we lacked communication.
“I’m not quite sure where that initial enthusiasm, aggression and intent went. It was like it just got too hard or we thought it was going to be too easy.
“One thing we pride ourselves on is never getting complacent. That’s not what we’re about and we don’t want to be about that, but I’m not quite sure if that was it.”
Instead, it is Adam O’Brien who takes the spoils. His side had the skill with the ball to get a lead, then, roared on by a raucous home crowd, the desperation to see it home. There have been few more impressive wins in his time in charge in the Hunter than this.
“I’ve said a number of times this week in particular that our best footy has held up against Penrith, it’s held up against Brisbane,” said the coach.
“We’ve come a long way in terms of our resilience, definitely. We’re a tougher footy team than what we were last year. We’re maturing as well.
“We’ve got a really important game next week down in Canberra to keep this going.”
Dane Gagai is the only Knight left from that night in 2015, and even he went away and came back again. Another holdover was Tariq Sims, in Knights colours then and playing for the Storm tonight.
He had a huge hand in the Newcastle victory, albeit inadvertently: his high shot on Jackson Hastings resulted in a ten minute sit down, during which the Knights scored three times.
They had already fought back from 12-0 down in a topsy-turvy first half, as Dom Young and Bradman Best cancelled out a runaway from Nick Meaney and a close range Trent Loeiro barge.
With the man advantage, Kalyn Ponga ruthlessly picked Melbourne apart. Greg Marzhew, Lachlan Fitzgibbon and Mat Croker got the tries, but the superstar fullback was at the heart of it all.
Sims will now likely face a charge, while the Storm might have to do without Reimis Smith, who suffered a suspected torn adductor muscle.
On days like this, it’s hard to understand why Newcastle have been so poor for so long. Looking back over the last two seasons, they’ve often threatened to be really good.
This year they’ve made the error of saving their best performances for the best teams, meaning that they often got no reward for decent efforts: in defeat to Penrith in Golden Point and the Broncos on the last play of the game, Newcastle were much the better team, and were also not far off winning in Townsville and Auckland.
It’s not like this performance had been coming, per se, but it’s never been beyond the Knights to play like this.
Their style is almost perfect for bringing it to big teams and making their lives difficult, even if it is also a little limited against similar-level opposition.
The back five can be exceptional and go in with the very best. Young and Marzhew will match any wing pairing for out of the backfield, while Best and Dane Gagai are both rep level centres.
The fallacy of Ponga the five eighth has given Newcastle back an elite fullback – and removed a defensive liability – while Jackson Hastings is more than good enough an organiser to keep things ticking over.
Today, the 1-7 were perfect and the rest came off that. The wingers weren’t limited by errors, Ponga played up to price tag and the middle defence did their job, which has been far from a given in 2023.
As a result, Newcastle comfortably won plays 1, 2 and 3, which freed up the attack to play in the latter half of the set and were able to do the bulk of their work in Melbourne’s half. Their attacking efficiency has never been bad, and up against a 12-man Storm, it was ruthless.
Much as this kind of performance had been coming from Newcastle, it had been slightly foreshadowed by the Storm, too.
They were second best against the Roosters for 50 minutes last week, but were fortunate enough to face a team that had forgotten how to attack. On another day, they might have found themselves behind.
Prior to that, they were blown away by the Panthers and before that, struggled for another 50 minutes against a bang average Manly, who also, came with zero attack.
There’s always an element of outcome bias that remembers wins better than losses, of course, but those who watch closely might have noticed a side below its best.
Today, the run of play went against the Storm and they were forced to chase. The Knights took their chances and Melbourne gave them plenty, notably when Sims was in the bin.
Game state is a powerful thing in rugby league, not least when you’re an underdog and the home crowd are behind you. The Knights had something to defend and found reserves of energy to make sure that they did.
Bellamy will know that his side have not been at their best. They have time to right that record before it’s too late, but that needs to start now.
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