Round 16: Gold Coast Titans vs Newcastle Knights

[teke]

sucky day when it should be a great day for my, not sure but my partner is having contractions

Are you at the footy and not looking after your pregnant partner when she is close to birth

[Supergoose]

Whilst the refs should open a meat shop after butchering this game, I think we can be proud of our boys for continually turning up and also pay tribute to the knights defence. The knights scored most of their points from their defence and also prevented us from scoring after our many line-breaks.
We weren't terrible, but just didn't get the rub of the green. I can't think of anyone who played poorly and it was good
to see Layne get some decent game time. The bye has come at
the right time and it will be interesting to see how we line-up against the tigers. Not sure how bad taga or mead are but I would think tomane will be back. I hate to lose as much as anyone but if you played alright and the refs had a shocker or the opposition played well you just have to cop it. The knights made the most of their limited opportunities eventhough they still coughed up a lot of ball.

[Nathalie]

when u add the worst refereeing decisions we ever had

Twas funny when the ref stacked it though, after the non-call for the Titans

[Chaos]

You know i cant belive some people on here that take a loss so easily im sorry to take games to heart. Also why is it that no one singles out our game plan it is the same every week and last year we have one game plan its straight up the middle and only really pays of when prince is playing and when we get found out on our defence there are no changes and teams just go to that side of the ground everytime. So sorry for taking every game to heart that is just me and i just cant see us going anywhere this year Unless we make some changes.

I understand what your feeling jimbeam...our attack on the oppositions line is the worst I've ever seen...it's on par with Parramatta.
I saw 2 Titan penalties in the first half, 10 metres from the Knights line and not one decent set play put on in both sets.
We certainly miss Prince but even when Prince is there we can't create an overlap or run a line that will get through.
We score length of the field tries with ease, so we have the individual skill and our go forward up the middle is good...we just can't score from set plays.

Zillman killed it up middle and I think his style suits coming through there.
I didn't pay too much attention to Lawton's game and I don't know what plan we have in place for him...I thought he was dummy half.

I think we should start with 4 forwards on the bench or a utility back like Preston. Meads injury killed us

[teke]

Meads injury was terrible.

He is the leading all kick return metre gainer for wingers in the comp and leading all run metres in the club ahead of Bailey. He will be out for a few weeks and takes away some potency on the edge. Taga was looking around for him just after the injury and it would have been close to a try if he was there.

I hope Shannon gets a crack in his spot.

[Coaster]

Ughh what the he'll is going on? It seemed our whole game plan went out the window once Mead went off. Lots of positional changes for a winger.

I know this sounds corny, but they need to believe in themselves. Teams look at us as a big contender, but for some reason we invite them into the game and allow them to match us, we really are better then that, we need to start getting ugly with them. Punish them, and make them fold under our will

[Chaos]

Ughh what the he'll is going on? It seemed our whole game plan went out the window once Mead went off. Lots of positional changes for a winger.

I know this sounds corny, but they need to believe in themselves. Teams look at us as a big contender, but for some reason we invite them into the game and allow them to match us, we really are better then that, we need to start getting ugly with them. Punish them, and make them fold under our will

They players want to but they just don't know what to do when attacking the line...they get lost

[teke]

Ughh what the he'll is going on? It seemed our whole game plan went out the window once Mead went off. Lots of positional changes for a winger.

I know this sounds corny, but they need to believe in themselves. Teams look at us as a big contender, but for some reason we invite them into the game and allow them to match us, we really are better then that, we need to start getting ugly with them. Punish them, and make them fold under our will

I think it was who was on the bench that changed the nature of the game drastically. Im not a big fan of 4 forwards on the bench, today it happened to show us why they should keep a back on standby but this isnt always the case.

[jimbeam06]

bring back toopi

[Coaster]

IMO if you lose a winger you sacrifice a reserve and play with a weakened edge, the center and makeshift winger swap for 5 tackle options.

We lost a Center and winger from the same side and changed
Our fullback to winger
Halfback to fullback
Reserve hooker to halfback
Reserve lock to center
And weakened every position.

It's bad game theory

[Supergoose]

Meads injury was terrible.

He is the leading all kick return metre gainer for wingers in the comp and leading all run metres in the club ahead of Bailey. He will be out for a few weeks and takes away some potency on the edge. Taga was looking around for him just after the injury and it would have been close to a try if he was there.

I hope Shannon gets a crack in his spot.

I reckon mead's stats are pumped up by the fact that every team kicks
to his wing because they don't want Preston or Gordon bringing the ball back. Would love to see walker come back but I reckon we might see tomane on the wing. They won't kick to him with any room to move.

[Supergoose]

IMO if you lose a winger you sacrifice a reserve and play with a weakened edge, the center and makeshift winger swap for 5 tackle options.

We lost a Center and winger from the same side and changed
Our fullback to winger
Halfback to fullback
Reserve hooker to halfback
Reserve lock to center
And weakened every position.

It's bad game theory

lawnton was our cover for the backline. If we're playing taga and bird in the backline already we should have more cover on the bench. I reckon they shouldve just moved presto to the wing. Bo looked alright at centre though.

[teke]

I reckon mead's stats are pumped up by the fact that every team kicks
to his wing because they don't want Preston or Gordon bringing the ball back. Would love to see walker come back but I reckon we might see tomane on the wing. They won't kick to him with any room to move.

Could be true but Kevin even with his 4 long distant tries this season is still a 1 or 200mtrs behind Mead in all run metres. Mead is a much grittier runner who gets in and does good hard yards which every team needs. If I was the opposing team kicker i would be aiming at Kevin, he has a million more surrendering tackles in the team. Tomane could be back for the Tigers game but im not thinking so atm.

Probably Josh Graham to the wing

[teke]

Minichello had a very good game today. Probably the hardest man to put on the ground in the comp at the moment

[Mushi]

Very disappointed with todays game. Some VERY harsh decisions went against us and our injury toll is certainly adding up and playing havoc with the team. We really seemed to go into disarray both weeks when we had players off injured. Bird I think was just trying tooo hard to replace prince and not much of it paid off. Our defence wasn't too bad but our attack options near the line certainly aren't showing much. Hope the bye does all the boys good and they are back to some winning form for a few tough games ahead of them!
And yes what is with the dwindling crowd numbers???? Only 13ish thous for a sunday afternoon?? hoping the weather was what kept them away and we are due for a packed house for titans vs broncos!