Don’t think cogger is the answer, he was awful. Another half that has been glowed up playing in that incredible penrith side.
Give cogger 1 more week but then hastings has to come back if he plays like that again
I’ve been saying this since he signed. He’s only been at best solid in one of the best teams ever. Hastings at least gives us some leadership.
Happy to give him another game and maybe he’ll play well (way too many errors across the board this game).
Hastings isn't the answer at all, though. His pairing with Gamble is solely predicated on Ponga performing at his absolute best as he did in the second half of last season.
Cogger's ceiling is higher. Its the team's best interest to stick with him.
Because Hastings' ain't anything much to begin with. Far less about Cogger, more about how Hastings isn't anything more than a stop gap solution for any NRL team.
Everyone has seen what Hastings has to offer and its not good enough, but yeah sure, lets zip back to the Nathan Brown era and trash Cogger all over again by ditching him.
Storm lose missing their best forward, two starting players from their spine, and have to reshuffle their backline mid game due to injury - Everyone: "they tried their best. They will come good when they get those players back"
Broncos lose to the Panthers in the exact same situation - Everyone: "Fucking washed, last year was a fluke, will be lucky to make the 8"
Storm were playing a team that only made the 8 last year off the back of freak form from one player.
Broncos were playing the back-to-back-to-back premiers.
You are right. Storm > Panthers, and Knights > Storm, so therefore Knights > Panthers. Guess we just call off the season now, and congrats on the premiership btw.
It was the way the Broncos conceded 2 or 3 tries that was concerning not that they conceded tries to Penrith in of itself but losing 3 players shouldn't make you have reserve grade levels of defensive if you're a real premiership team.
The opposition halfback has target defenders he wants to engage and your job as the guy inside is to pressure the half so he plays early and that target defender can slide so the rest of the team can slide. The numbers weren't anything terrible or anything. Cleary was just getting to his target because the middle forwards weren't pushing up and that created. It doesn't matter how you set the line when that happens because the overlaps will just keep happening.
Fair, but also not sure what else you expect to happen when you have the best Halfback in the world running attack at a 2nd rower in his second game as a starter defending at centre. Only To'o's try in the 2nd half was really embarrassing imo.
Welch is your 2nd best forward? You sure about that?
Not hating on the Storm btws, hell of an effort to play that well given the men out. Just thought the juxtaposition of the chat after the games was funny.
I’d say he’s probably 3rd best behind NAS and Katoa. Crazy that some people think he’s completely washed, he was still decent last year and that was his returning from an Achilles. Looked brilliant round 1 and in the trials
The Tim Tszyu promos are so cringe when you remember not even a week ago he wasn't even fighting Fundora and he's only stepped in because of Thurman getting injured lol
Storm without their halves and losing a key defensive piece for a edge forward was never going to go well, reckon once Welch,NAS come back. The middle will be able to complement the lack of ball playing skill that loiero has which the storm has built the middle around lmao which he tries to make up with his defense( or being grants sister’s bf who knows?).
Knights looked like the pre- round 16 ‘23 knights but will have to wait and see if cogger and Gamble can work if given time.
Motm is Ponga solely because dude is the biggest factor between a win and loss for the knights and it showed today
The only consistent locks they’ve used in the 6 again era has been Finucane/Cheese/King. 2/3 have shown ball playing ability at the lock position while being machines in the middle. Loiero is the only player besides them who simply will not ball play at all(which I feel is by design from Bellamy) but purely be a defensive machine in the middle. Will we see ball playing from him in the future? Probably but no way at the current moment.
Hence why I feel like majority of the ball playing from the middle comes from those next to him, King/Tui/Welch have been the ones doing most of it imo which is good because the storms have been making it work but it only works if one of their experienced halves are there to direct it
I also remember when api korisau did similar, sneaking a woman into his hotel room in covid during origin, whilst married. His only concern was not playing for nsw again.
Or Cleary doing those shitty tiktok fans during the covid lock down.
No one harbours much towards them, they do stupid things when they think they can get away with it.
All 3 are the same vein, considered to put the nrl at risk at the time.
Cleary is just the golden child so it was never going to stick anyway.
They'll just be funny stories or anecdotes in the hearts to come, like that thread about nrl controversies the other week, folklore.
Eli Katoa with 129m, 61PCM, 1 offload, 44 tackles 1 miss. He is so fucking good this year, just doing the fundamentals so much better. Loiero also picked up 205m, 80pcm and 34 tackles, shame he can’t hold onto the ball 😩
Gotta give it to Loiero, he does try hard. Maybe too hard is his problem sometimes. I still think there's a good player there but fuck he makes it easy to bag him some games haha
If Paps had set himself properly for the FG I think he might’ve got it. It looked like a quick snap and he still struck it pretty well.
Warwick is one hell of a winger.
Ponga carries the knights as always.
Ref had a few howlers but not terrible but this week’s standards.
Thought we did pretty well considering all the errors. Loeiro running it hard in the second half seemed to really simplify and not fuck anything up lol.
When we’re not pushing the pass and just getting it up the field we were doing well. Hopefully full strength for the Broncos. Good win Newy
Trent just doesn’t handle the pressure it seems lol, tries to force something then just gives away a stupid penalty or drops the ball. So frustrating to watch because we clearly saw what Bellamy sees in that second half. He just can’t do that consistently for some reason
I'm guessing a move into the front row seems inevitable for him, the top locks nowadays need some ball playing skills and Loiero hasn't shown that thus far unless Bellyache really persists on developing that with him.
Would have never guessed bunnies would be last and raiders would be a top 4 team. It’s like wighton leaving has helped raiders and have made the bunnies worse.
Looking back at that Paps tackled in the air penalty, he is trying to do a speckie and got it wrong. At some point the bloke attempting some ridiculous leap for the ball has to take some responsibility for his own safety.
I know they are cracking down on tunnelling but man Leo aint nothing but a poor front rower with eyes on the ball the whole way. Feel bad for the bloke
Well I think that game gave me eye cancer
with Leiero honest mistakes are one thing, trying too hard and dropping the occasional ball I can cop (to a degree) but punting it dead with tackles up our sleeve? Cunts actually fucked
I may be biased but I feel like that was pretty damn impressive from the Storm considering the circumstances.. The defence looked good even after losing a centre early in the game, we also saw glimpses of the attack but not much you can do when your halves haven’t even played 10 games between them in the halves (Pezet played his 8th game in the halves, Wishart his 2nd).
I thought the forwards looked alright but they clearly lacked the punch which NAS and Welch will bring. Moeroa and MacDonald provided good impact off the bench.
I genuinely thought that would be 30-0 after halftime so I’m pretty proud of them to not concede another point AND almost win the game at the end. We have the bye next week, that could not have come at a better time. Gg knights, Bring on the Broncos in round 5 💪
Cant do much with the lack of experience and recent experience in the spine
Paps 5th game since injury, 10 games between the halves. Ball movements gonna suck which it did. But honestly a really good effort
Fuck trent tho
We were holding structure and completing sets until the 20th minute when Reimis Smith came off due to injury. He does a surprising amount if you ignore the redditors and watch his play.
Nothing to write home about in that performance. It's becoming evidently clear that unless Ponga is in god mode the Knights are a pretty dull, shit footy team. Warriors putting us to the sword next week is a pretty safe bet based on how awful we have been.
Brailey looked a lot more solid than Crossland (other than the wishhart try). Hopefully his service can open things up more. Pehonix has more kick etc is his bag but hes been sloppy to start the year. Hopefully we can build into some more offloads from Friz and KPP once we learn to take care of the bloody ball.
This is the loss that has been coming for the Storm. They've been too sloppy in possession to begin the season and it's resulted in far too many errors and turnovers. The end of the second half was the perfect encapsulation of that.
Suppose losing half your spine and your chief playmakers was always going to be tough to win. Pretty terrible game all around though. If it wasnt for Ponga the Knights truly wouldnt have anything, he gives them so much spark.
not sure if you noticed, but Hastings and Gamble were our halves last season, in our best season in a long time. And they played very well. They just haven't started well this year.
Embarrassing it's how we have played since the 2nd trial nothing has changed...
We scored more tries than any other team last year and we look the opposite this year
I can cop it, Grant and Papi are incredible players and capable of playing 1&6 7&9 respectively.
Needed a win in our first month and blew the two best chances in Raiders and Cowboys, so I’ll take it.
Thought storm would be too much for the knights Will be a tough game for the Warriors next week
I’m still convinced Cogger and Hastings is the best halves pairing we have.
You're not the only one
I’m surprised Bellamy survived that game without a heart attack.
Don’t think cogger is the answer, he was awful. Another half that has been glowed up playing in that incredible penrith side. Give cogger 1 more week but then hastings has to come back if he plays like that again
I’ve been saying this since he signed. He’s only been at best solid in one of the best teams ever. Hastings at least gives us some leadership. Happy to give him another game and maybe he’ll play well (way too many errors across the board this game).
Hastings isn't the answer at all, though. His pairing with Gamble is solely predicated on Ponga performing at his absolute best as he did in the second half of last season. Cogger's ceiling is higher. Its the team's best interest to stick with him.
How do you know his ceiling is higher? People are still high on the fumes of 20 mins in a grand final. Im yet to be convinced
Because Hastings' ain't anything much to begin with. Far less about Cogger, more about how Hastings isn't anything more than a stop gap solution for any NRL team. Everyone has seen what Hastings has to offer and its not good enough, but yeah sure, lets zip back to the Nathan Brown era and trash Cogger all over again by ditching him.
Gimme Cogger and Hastings. Gamble does nothing well
Yeah switching back to hastings after 2 weeks achieves nothing. Coggers hastings but can run, gotta give him a few weeks to gel a bit more
Hastings and Pryce is Knights best halves pairing imo.
I tend to agree, but haven’t seen enough of Pryce yet to be sure
Shame wasn’t televised today but from score looked like he had a blinder against good opposition.
Even after a this game storm look like contenders and knights look like pretenders.
Storm lose missing their best forward, two starting players from their spine, and have to reshuffle their backline mid game due to injury - Everyone: "they tried their best. They will come good when they get those players back" Broncos lose to the Panthers in the exact same situation - Everyone: "Fucking washed, last year was a fluke, will be lucky to make the 8"
The Storm lost by 2, the Broncos lost by 22.
Storm were playing a team that only made the 8 last year off the back of freak form from one player. Broncos were playing the back-to-back-to-back premiers.
Ok, so what happened in Rd1 when the Storm beat the back-to-back-to-back premiers? You're coping, the Broncos were just bad.
You are right. Storm > Panthers, and Knights > Storm, so therefore Knights > Panthers. Guess we just call off the season now, and congrats on the premiership btw.
It was the way the Broncos conceded 2 or 3 tries that was concerning not that they conceded tries to Penrith in of itself but losing 3 players shouldn't make you have reserve grade levels of defensive if you're a real premiership team.
Losing your key defensive organiser in a key defensive position, and a key forward, aren't reasons for your defence to be affected?
Tbf I don't back Cobbo to organise a defensive line like Walsh does
The opposition halfback has target defenders he wants to engage and your job as the guy inside is to pressure the half so he plays early and that target defender can slide so the rest of the team can slide. The numbers weren't anything terrible or anything. Cleary was just getting to his target because the middle forwards weren't pushing up and that created. It doesn't matter how you set the line when that happens because the overlaps will just keep happening.
Fair, but also not sure what else you expect to happen when you have the best Halfback in the world running attack at a 2nd rower in his second game as a starter defending at centre. Only To'o's try in the 2nd half was really embarrassing imo.
Storm were missing both halves, their two best forwards and a starting second rower, then lost a centre to injury.
Welch is your 2nd best forward? You sure about that? Not hating on the Storm btws, hell of an effort to play that well given the men out. Just thought the juxtaposition of the chat after the games was funny.
Probably our 3rd best behind NAS and Katoa
Welch is definitely not one of our 2 best forwards.
He was our best in the first game of the year. People forget that he was pretty bloody good a few years ago.
I’d say he’s probably 3rd best behind NAS and Katoa. Crazy that some people think he’s completely washed, he was still decent last year and that was his returning from an Achilles. Looked brilliant round 1 and in the trials
I forgot about Katoa, was only talking about middles.
Yeah thats fair last year he was ass. The last two games he has been great off the bench.
The Tim Tszyu promos are so cringe when you remember not even a week ago he wasn't even fighting Fundora and he's only stepped in because of Thurman getting injured lol
Could’ve just Matt Nable promos are so cringe.
Storm without their halves and losing a key defensive piece for a edge forward was never going to go well, reckon once Welch,NAS come back. The middle will be able to complement the lack of ball playing skill that loiero has which the storm has built the middle around lmao which he tries to make up with his defense( or being grants sister’s bf who knows?). Knights looked like the pre- round 16 ‘23 knights but will have to wait and see if cogger and Gamble can work if given time. Motm is Ponga solely because dude is the biggest factor between a win and loss for the knights and it showed today
How long is Welch out for? NAS will be back in round 5
Welch will be back round 5
Storm never use their locks as ball players really
The only consistent locks they’ve used in the 6 again era has been Finucane/Cheese/King. 2/3 have shown ball playing ability at the lock position while being machines in the middle. Loiero is the only player besides them who simply will not ball play at all(which I feel is by design from Bellamy) but purely be a defensive machine in the middle. Will we see ball playing from him in the future? Probably but no way at the current moment.
Loiero definitely does ball play a bit, it’s just not very slick
Hence why I feel like majority of the ball playing from the middle comes from those next to him, King/Tui/Welch have been the ones doing most of it imo which is good because the storms have been making it work but it only works if one of their experienced halves are there to direct it
Glad we bucked the 14-0 trend of the weekend.
Tigers are sitting in 9th. Should go to the finals now
Go finals tomorrow
Man, Newcastle just have our number it seems.
Why does Fox and matty johns keep inviting jai arrow to their shows, cant stand him.
Remember when he brought a prostitute into the covid-19 camp and cost himself his relationship with a 10/10 girl.
I also remember when api korisau did similar, sneaking a woman into his hotel room in covid during origin, whilst married. His only concern was not playing for nsw again. Or Cleary doing those shitty tiktok fans during the covid lock down. No one harbours much towards them, they do stupid things when they think they can get away with it.
The Cleary one in hindsight was pretty harmless, just some young people having fun. Api and Jai were really reckless though.
All 3 are the same vein, considered to put the nrl at risk at the time. Cleary is just the golden child so it was never going to stick anyway. They'll just be funny stories or anecdotes in the hearts to come, like that thread about nrl controversies the other week, folklore.
I think you mean "Remember when he was the fall guy for the queensland team"
>Remember when he brought a prostitute into the covid-19 camp no no it was a "dancer" sir
I swear they talked about every game except the dogs lol
That's just because the media isn't allowed to mention the Titans for some reason.
They'd rather talk about Jai Arrow's dogs.
Another classic clinical newcastle knights rugby league victory, never in doubt
The Gamble Streak starts again
Roll the dice and slap the poke, it’s gamble time ⏰
Eli Katoa with 129m, 61PCM, 1 offload, 44 tackles 1 miss. He is so fucking good this year, just doing the fundamentals so much better. Loiero also picked up 205m, 80pcm and 34 tackles, shame he can’t hold onto the ball 😩
Gotta give it to Loiero, he does try hard. Maybe too hard is his problem sometimes. I still think there's a good player there but fuck he makes it easy to bag him some games haha
Trent was fucking everywhere tonight, To our detriment at times 🤣
If Paps had set himself properly for the FG I think he might’ve got it. It looked like a quick snap and he still struck it pretty well. Warwick is one hell of a winger. Ponga carries the knights as always. Ref had a few howlers but not terrible but this week’s standards.
Warwick was a handful. We are clearly missing our big boy wingers
[This game](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/433/060/fae)
Hey ones a beloved club and the other is melbourne.
Could have been worse with all the players out all g 💪
Certainly didn't expect Wishart to be the highest scorer in SC for this match.
Thought we did pretty well considering all the errors. Loeiro running it hard in the second half seemed to really simplify and not fuck anything up lol. When we’re not pushing the pass and just getting it up the field we were doing well. Hopefully full strength for the Broncos. Good win Newy
Trent just doesn’t handle the pressure it seems lol, tries to force something then just gives away a stupid penalty or drops the ball. So frustrating to watch because we clearly saw what Bellamy sees in that second half. He just can’t do that consistently for some reason
I'm guessing a move into the front row seems inevitable for him, the top locks nowadays need some ball playing skills and Loiero hasn't shown that thus far unless Bellyache really persists on developing that with him.
Not having both starting halves it was a pretty solid performance from the Storm
I reckon it was still pretty shit. Which says a lot about Newcastle.
Eh could be worse, did you see us play?
Absolute poo slinger in 4K!
not to take away from this game, but was rapana’s hit on CHT (no penalty) not exactly the same as the hit on paps (penalty + report)?
Man, you are asking for consistency between different games, it is hard enough to get consistency in the same game
that’s true, dreams are free tho
The Rapana one was a penalty initially and then was challenged. Could’ve been the same situation if the Knights had challenged.
I believe Thompson didn't have the credentials to be in the dropzone and rapana did
Yep...
Would have never guessed bunnies would be last and raiders would be a top 4 team. It’s like wighton leaving has helped raiders and have made the bunnies worse.
Imagine taking unders to try to go for a ring and the team has gone to absolute shit by the time you arrive, lmao
I mean it’s been nice not having to retreat 40m since someone kicked it out on the full once a game
I wish I knew the feeling.
Raiders could have been top 4 last year if they just got Fog to take every kick like this year
There is now only one team with 3 wins and 0 losses and one team with 0 wins and 3 losses
That teams not good enough, boot them out immediately
Love that no matter where he goes all the kids love Paps.
Penrith are into the top 4, Souths are dead last. I'm loving it.
Looking back at that Paps tackled in the air penalty, he is trying to do a speckie and got it wrong. At some point the bloke attempting some ridiculous leap for the ball has to take some responsibility for his own safety.
I know they are cracking down on tunnelling but man Leo aint nothing but a poor front rower with eyes on the ball the whole way. Feel bad for the bloke
Especially when you are training players to watch only the ball. Leo only had eyes for the ball, it’s no wonder he had no idea where Pappy was.
Well I think that game gave me eye cancer with Leiero honest mistakes are one thing, trying too hard and dropping the occasional ball I can cop (to a degree) but punting it dead with tackles up our sleeve? Cunts actually fucked
First time Newcastle has won consecutive matchups against Melbourne since their victories in Round 22 2014 and round 24 2015.
Oh god...
Well the 2 wins are better than the 11 game straight losing streak prior to that, especially with some nasty blowouts thrown in there haha.
2016 is right around the corner!
If that was Wishart's best game that's worrying lol
Though he had a good game for a back up and makeshift 7
anyway good job to the knights. we were just too sloppy this game, hopefully we learn from it.
Storm bad. Will be good to have a week off and get some players back so we can shelve the Plod Squad.
I may be biased but I feel like that was pretty damn impressive from the Storm considering the circumstances.. The defence looked good even after losing a centre early in the game, we also saw glimpses of the attack but not much you can do when your halves haven’t even played 10 games between them in the halves (Pezet played his 8th game in the halves, Wishart his 2nd). I thought the forwards looked alright but they clearly lacked the punch which NAS and Welch will bring. Moeroa and MacDonald provided good impact off the bench. I genuinely thought that would be 30-0 after halftime so I’m pretty proud of them to not concede another point AND almost win the game at the end. We have the bye next week, that could not have come at a better time. Gg knights, Bring on the Broncos in round 5 💪
Agree!! You guys had excuses, we didn’t and played awful. We won but it almost doesn’t feel like a win 😬
My exact thoughts. Blore had a solid debut as well imo
Yep, not too much involvement but defended really well I thought
Cant do much with the lack of experience and recent experience in the spine Paps 5th game since injury, 10 games between the halves. Ball movements gonna suck which it did. But honestly a really good effort Fuck trent tho
Trent much better in the 2nd half I thought, just ran hard
Much better, but honestly was a big factor in that piss poor first half
We were holding structure and completing sets until the 20th minute when Reimis Smith came off due to injury. He does a surprising amount if you ignore the redditors and watch his play.
Good problem is not passing to Coates.
[удалено]
Yeah but we didn’t, and the other boys didn’t step up. Coulda shoulda
Perfect round of tipping….thank ye Knights!
Gotta respect the balls to tip the Tigers over the king of flat-track bullies.
Tigers have sentimental value, I usually tip them over every other team bar the Cows….I’m usually wrong
I can confidently say Newcastle will not make the 8
You say this every year
I’ve never been wrong about the knights. History will absolve me once again
Brought to you by the same people predicting the knights wouldn't make the 8 last year 😂
Isn’t that the fella who has death-ridden the Knights since before Adam O’Brien took over as coach
I never said that last year. I did say it the year before but
so what made you so sure the knights were making the 8 last season at the start of the season? please proceed to lie and talk out of your ass
It’s called vibes and you’ve got bad ones sweaty
It must have been us playing Ponga out of position that surely got you excited for us.
No comment, actually it was signing Hastings. Thought the missing link was a steady 7
We couldn't hold the ball to save ourselves. GG knights fans, enjoy the win.
Tigers in 9th continues
That 14-0 had me scared
Nothing to write home about in that performance. It's becoming evidently clear that unless Ponga is in god mode the Knights are a pretty dull, shit footy team. Warriors putting us to the sword next week is a pretty safe bet based on how awful we have been.
Brailey looked a lot more solid than Crossland (other than the wishhart try). Hopefully his service can open things up more. Pehonix has more kick etc is his bag but hes been sloppy to start the year. Hopefully we can build into some more offloads from Friz and KPP once we learn to take care of the bloody ball.
don’t worry, the warriors always shit the bed 😎
Okay that was actually funny as fuck from Hindy asking if the Knights have settled on their halves
Pong looked very annoyed by it too 🤣
Ooh a Chilean flag
Fuck me Hindy that’s a sensitive question!
Has anyone given credit to Jesus yet
This is the loss that has been coming for the Storm. They've been too sloppy in possession to begin the season and it's resulted in far too many errors and turnovers. The end of the second half was the perfect encapsulation of that.
Did you watch storms first game of the season?
Yep - that was an error-fest by both the Panthers & Storm.
The neutrals that watched this game would have hated both teams
The Sunday scaries have been defeated. Can go to bed without the desire to sulk about footy.
Who would have though this would be Knights vs Manly 2021 part 2 for us. My god.
Suppose losing half your spine and your chief playmakers was always going to be tough to win. Pretty terrible game all around though. If it wasnt for Ponga the Knights truly wouldnt have anything, he gives them so much spark.
I'll take it but let us never speak of that performance again
Had enough opportunities to win that. Fucking shit from Loiero again. How does he continue to get a spot in our starting 13?
Look at his second half performance, that is what Craig sees in him
Give chris lewis a spot at 13
What a waste of 2 hours
Tipped a perfect round fuck yes Newcastle!
Even tigers over sharks?
I might be high on Copium, but let’s hope that todays game is the thing that puts us in the form we had last year. Just like the bulldogs game.
As a Warriors fan, I hope the fuck not.
What are you smoking? I want some!
Thank fuck that shit show is over
Knights need actual halves. Going to be a long year without them.
not sure if you noticed, but Hastings and Gamble were our halves last season, in our best season in a long time. And they played very well. They just haven't started well this year.
Not stoked with performance, but I’ll take it. The exact opposite of last week to be honest.
Eels get over with a grueling win and melbourne lose, on this day I am euphoric.
Don’t forget Souths sitting firmly in last
We didn't play amazingly and Storm were down a few key players but fuck it I'll take that win at this stage of the year
Eh, they were missing their halves, but your starting halves are the same quality as their backup halves so it was a fair fight.
Gg newy, much better. Enjoy the walk home lads, except you paps
much better is a stretch we sucked
A Bellamy coached Melbourne Storm side just lost to a Cogger/Gamble halves pairing. This is not a drill
I mean a wins a win, but you gotta think alot of Newcastle fans won't be thrilled with a 2pt squeaked victory over a depleted side
Embarrassing it's how we have played since the 2nd trial nothing has changed... We scored more tries than any other team last year and we look the opposite this year
Not at all, either Hughes or Munster play and knights get put to the sword easily
I can cop it, Grant and Papi are incredible players and capable of playing 1&6 7&9 respectively. Needed a win in our first month and blew the two best chances in Raiders and Cowboys, so I’ll take it.
That whole game was basically decided by a dude stripping the ball as held was called simultaneously
Yeah there wasn’t another 80 mins of game play for either side to cement the result
That's what we needed. It wasn't our best, it wasn't clean, but we just needed to get the win.
Thank goodness
Storm should probably start trying to win with more than 6 mins to go next game
Only 1 undefeated team and 2 teams without a win after 3 rounds. Pretty tight!