NRL 2020: Blake Green ACL and Jason Taumalolo injuries mar Knights win over Cowboys

An NRL journeyman’s career could be under threat after a serious injury appears set to rule him out for the rest of the season.

The Knights did what was needed for the win.

The Newcastle Knights have claimed a hard-fought 12-0 win over the North Queensland Cowboys to keep their top four hopes alive.

The Knights sit just one point behind the Roosters and Raiders in fourth and fifth respectively, while the Cowboys suffered their eighth consecutive defeat and were held scoreless for the first time since the first round of the 2012 season.

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It was a rather dour performance with the Knights seemingly dominating, getting over the line several times, only for desperate defence to save the Cowboys.

But a try to Hymel Hunt in the 14th minute and a 77th minute try to Enari Tuala were the only tries with two penalty goals to Kalyn Ponga on an awful afternoon with the boot.

He sprayed both conversions and missed a penalty goal as well.

But the main talking points out of the result were the injuries to the Knights’ Blake Green and Cowboys’ Jason Taumalolo.

Green moved to the Knights from the Warriors three weeks ago — the seventh club of his career — signing for the remainder of the season.

But he appeared to suffer an ACL injury, which could spell the end of the 33-year-old half’s career.

Blake Green knew something was wrong straight away.

In what seemed to be a fairly innocuous tackle in the first half, Green was helped from the field in a fair bit of pain.

Rugby league legend Peter Sterling was perplexed about what injury he picked up in the tackle.

“Didn‘t look to be too much in it. He’s been in the wars this afternoon. He got the elbow of Kurt Mann 10 minutes ago (which left him bleeding),” he said.

“He’s in agony. He’s in real discomfort. There’s got to be a huge chance he’s not going to be right to go on.

“McLean comes across, he steps on that left foot of Blake Green. It’s difficult to pick up where he’s sustained the injury in that contact. You see that 100 times in a game.”

On Fox League, Andrew Voss said “This looks horrible for Blake Green, the leg just folded up.”

Asked about the injury after the game, Knights coach Adam O’Brien said it “doesn’t look good” but couldn’t confirm the injury.

“He’s shattered,” O’Brien said. “I felt like crying with him. But I’m getting used to it now though, I’ve had to do it a few times this year — it’s carnage.

“It’s not good, it’s a bit like soldiers getting repeatedly shot, it’s unbelievable. I feel for him at the moment but we have a crew that he can work with for the rest of the year as part of the coaching staff. Too big a crew at the moment.”

Adam O'Brien has been through the ringer in his first season in charge of the Knights.

It comes after the likes of Connor Watson, Andrew McCullough and Jayden Brailey were all ruled out for the season.

Asked about the relentlessness of the year, O’Brien agreed the lack of a rest and rushed restart may have contributed to the issues.

“The mental strength of how they’re living at the moment and two weeks to get ready for contact, I think I said it at the time, it was going to be risky,” he said.

Speaking on Fox League’s Sunday Night with Matty Johns, former Green teammate Nathan Hindmarsh said the half would be a huge loss.

“Greeny would have been a great player to have in the semi-finals because he’s the style of player who can just keep it calm,” he said. “He knew straight away he’d done something bad there, poor bugger.”

In the second half, the Cowboys lost a big name themselves with Taumalolo taken down the tunnel.

“The news coming out of the Cowboys it is lower leg and likely calf rather than knee, but that will be confirmed later,” Voss said in commentary.

But the sight of the hulking prop and the 2016 Dally M Medallist being helped down the tunnel was another disastrous moment in a horrible season.

Originally published as NRL 2020: Blake Green ACL and Jason Taumalolo injuries mar Knights win over Cowboys