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Newcastle’s late season resurrection has continued with a dominant 28-6 win over a lacklustre Canberra, moving the Knights to the edge of the top eight with six games to play.
Indeed, they are now just one win behind the Raiders, who were dreadful and will surely be looking over their shoulders.
Adam O’Brien moves to four wins on the bounce in July, with a series of eminently winnable fixtures coming up. Their fans, who turned up in big numbers in the nation’s capital, still believe.
Kalyn Ponga was the star, as he usually is when things go right for Newcastle, opening the scoring and laying on three line break assists. There was a minor scare as he departed for a HIA late on, but returned to complete the match.
“I’ll admit that I did,” said O’Brien when asked if he thought of keeping Ponga off.
“But there’s just a flow to them at the moment and they love playing footy, he deserved to be part of what he set up in the first half. There’s a bit of a rhythm to us at the moment, so I just enjoyed watching it.
“There’s certainly some stuff in the second half, we lost our way a little bit but this side is getting better at pulling itself out of that situation and getting back on track.”
Everything is looking up for the Knights, but the same could not be said for Ricky Stuart. His side were second best last week in Auckland and rescued themselves with a miraculous comeback, but were no better today and consistently failed to generate any pressure with the ball.
Though they were regularly able to get into good position, the Knights were able to defend with ease as the Raiders cycled between innocuous hit-ups and slow shifts.
Canberra might well have enough runs on the board to still make the Finals, but on current form, they wouldn’t last long in the post-season.
“It was a very bad day,” said Stuart.
“We’ve had three months of tough, grinding football, and seen good results to get us into a really good position on the table.
“We’ve got to get going again. It’s not us, we certainly won’t be looking for any soft excuses.”
Newcastle ran out comfortable winners in the end, with their best work done before the break and the game seen out fairly easily thereafter.
Impressive as the Knights were in attack, their defence was barely tested by a Canberra side that has often lacked inspiration this year.
The Raiders have a much-vaunted ability to win close games, but that has often masked their struggles to put points on the board, and better offensive sides would likely have turned tight finishes into wide ones.
They average just under four line breaks a game, the worst in the NRL, but have often been rescued by their excellent defence and Jamal Fogarty’s short kicking game, which has often given them something to defend.
Canberra’s first good bell set, in the 25th minute, told the story: the Raiders took three settlers, went slowly wide right and then left on the last, with Dom Young easily dumping Albert Hopoate into touch. Not a single question was asked of the defence.
There were few men in motion, allowing the Knights to shuffle along as the ball moved, and not enough speed to get around.
Sticky has often focussed on defence in recent years, which has made the Raiders competitive in almost every game, but they lack the creativity to really challenge. It was ruthlessly exposed today.
This was a superb Newcastle performance – built on both flair and grit. The attacking formula is working well, with the spine combining well and the wingers on red hot form both in yardage and finishing.
Style is great, but it doesn’t come without effort and, from the start, it was clear how committed the Knights were.
Greg Marzhew’s try in the first half was a masterclass in execution from both Ponga and Bradman Best inside, but the reason Newcastle had the football in the first place was because of a superb piece of desperation from Phoenix Crossland, who raced fastest to claim aa loose ball he had no right to get to.
Late in the match, with the result done, they were still putting their bodies on the line with desperate tackles to deny Hudson Young, then Corey Horsburgh in consecutive plays.
It speaks to the culture that seems to be in place in the Hunter. For a team that was on the brink of sacking their coach, it’s clear that the players back their boss and are buying in. They’re fighting for everything at the moment.
It’s that which has driven the superb run that they are on. The building blocks were always there, and the Knights have a really clear style of play that O’Brien has drilled into his team.
The execution has been poor at times, which is why Newcastle are where they are, but the potential has always existed and is now coming to the fore.
When the wingers run hard, they start sets well, and when Jackson Hastings and Ponga combine, they end them well too. It’s a potent mix at the moment, and far too good for Canberra.