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Newcastle have made their biggest statement yet ahead of the Finals, beating South Sydney 29-10 to record their seventh consecutive victory, their best run in 20 years.
Latrell Mitchell was binned for an alleged elbow on Tyson Frizell with a minute to go to cap a terrible afternoon for the Bunnies. He will now face the judiciary and, with Souths likely to need a derby win against the Roosters to make the Finals, he is a major doubt.
Jason Demeriou described the incident as ‘silly’ and said that Mitchell deserved what he got from the officials.
“He got his medicine, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens,’ said the coach. “There’s no point talking about it. We’ll wait and see what the verdict is and we’ll go from there. (Potential replacement) Blake Taaffe is doing a great job, he’s played some good footy for us this year. We’ll see what happens.”
Further controversy might be brewing, too, as Newcastle scored a crucial try through Jacob Saifiti on the eighth tackle of a seven tackle set.
“Make no mistake, the best team on the day won,” CEO Blake Solly told the Sydney Morning Herald. “The Knights deserved the two points, they were better and I don’t think this altered the result. I would hate to do anything that takes credit away from the Knights and they way they performed.
“Having said that, we are going into the most important part of the season, and it’s imperative the game gets these calls right.”
The win takes Newcastle to 12 for the year plus an extra point for a draw, leaving the Knights needing one win from their final two – Sharks at home, Dragons away – to make the eight.
At this rate, they might yet secure a home final, and if the atmosphere at a sold out McDonald Jones Stadium this afternoon is anything to by, it will be a daunting task for any team that has to make the journey.
Souths, on the other hand, have now gone 4-8 since topping the ladder in May and will need to beat the Roosters on the last weekend to secure their spot. They are fading fast.
Newcastle were far too good for the Bunnies today, with only Kalyn Ponga’s errant goalkicking keeping the score respectable.
The fullback more than made up for his struggles with the boot by laying on three tries for Greg Marzhew before half time and making three line breaks of his own.
Adam O’Brien has his side playing superb attacking footy, with threat on both sides and Ponga in his best form in years. Even without halfback Jackson Hastings today, they didn’t miss a beat. His replacement, Adam Clune, even found him to slot a derisory field goal at the end.
“I’m really happy for the playing group,” said the Knights boss
“They’ve worked hard all year, it’s not just for the last seven weeks when the results have fallen that way. They’ve worked hard since November.”
Demetriou, on the other hand, has a huge job to even make the post-season – especially if, as expected, he has to do it without Latrell.
“We’re just a team playing without much confidence at the moment,” he said.
“You’ve got to play tough, you’ve got to wait for the opportunity to come. You’ve got to be prepared to take your medicine. They put pressure on us with their defence and they made our execution hard.”
Newcastle might have been a little disappointed by their first half: they were 12-0 to the good and had played pretty much as well as they can, with the left edge electric and the defence exceptional, especially on goalline.
Marzhew had run in a hat trick, all laid on by Ponga, but the fullback had erred with the boot and missed all three conversions.
It was arguable that Demetriou would have been the happier coach.
His side couldn’t take a trick in the first half. More than once, they found themselves on the wrong side of a lead runner and were forced to give up the ball. They got to decent positions, but the passes didn’t stick. Even when they forced repeat sets, the Knights’ killer short dropout nicked it back.
This was as good as the Bunnies had gone in a long while, and they had nothing to show for it.
South Sydney have generally fallen over when they haven’t been able to defend their errors, and that was very much their undoing here.
For a side that are known as possessing one of the best left edges in the game, they struggled massively with Newcastle’s equivalent, particularly the dexterity of Ponga.
It was as if the Bunnies had never seen their opponents before. Their two key patterns are a deep one to the right, with Dom Young aimed at the corner, and a more shallow move to the left that allows Ponga to make the key decision.
Today we got the run in both directions, with Campbell Graham – usually one of the best defensive centres around – unable to cope with his movement, plus the pass that Bradman Best was able to bat on.
It was ironic that Souths seemed so unable to stop the Knights’ big idea, as Newcastle had gone all their homework.
When the Rabbitohs looked to put on their left edge attack, the defence often slightly dropped, allowing for a bend-not-break approach. Brisbane did this too, and it went a long way to negating Latrell Mitchell by taking away the pass to Alex Johnston.
Dane Gagai, who has often been exposed in defence (and particularly by Souths) was able to follow this to perfection, with the huge wingspan and pace of Young cutting off the passing lane outside of him.
Typically, Souths have benefited from the willingness of sides to bite in, with their skill good enough to get around, but against defences that hold position, they are making metres, but not breaks.
Without as much strike from deep, Souths’ poor kicking became exposed.
Lachlan Ilias sent one straight off the field – he’s good for one of those a game at the moment – and beyond that, struggled to offer anything more than innocuous bombs. It remains the biggest weakness in his game.
As they chased the game, a familiar spiral set in for Souths. They always play high risk footy, but as the errors increased, so did the frustration, which eventually spilled over into Latrell’s moment of madness.
He was lucky not to be sent off – referee Grant Atkins discussed it with the Bunker – and will now surely miss his team’s biggest game of the year.
Souths are used to playing without him through injury, but this one was entirely self-inflicted.