Signs of life at last in Newcastle as the Knights come back from the depths
AFTER three years where they barely looked like a first grade team, Newcastle got their act together and the rebuild is at last closer to the end than the start.
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AFTER three years where they barely looked like a first grade team, Newcastle got their act together and the rebuild is at last closer to the end than the start.
WHERE THEY FINISHED
11th
WHAT WENT WRONG?
The Knights are still one or two players short of really contending for the finals.
Their outside backs don’t contribute enough in attack or defence, their middle forwards aren’t that flash outside of Daniel Saifiti and Herman Ese’ese and they still leak points at a frightening rate.
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Despite their undoubted improvements, they conceded the second most points in the league and finished with the worst differential.
Steps were made, but there’s still a way to go.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
Kalyn Ponga went as right as anything can go. It’s hard to believe now, but there was talk this time last year that Newcastle had overpaid for the young phenom.
Ponga became one of the most popular players in the league and one of it’s brightest young talents, giving the Knights a true star and a player they can build around.
Mitchell Pearce, Connor Watson and Aidan Guerra also enjoyed good first seasons in the Hunter, as did Ese’ese.
Special mention must go to Lachlan Fitzgibbon, who struck up a fine combination with Ponga from the start. At last, the Knights can aim higher than simply avoiding the wooden spoon.
STAT THAT SUM UP THE SEASON
Their first choice spine (Ponga, Pearce, Watson and Griffin) only played three games together.
MAIN AREA THEY NEED TO IMPROVE
The Knights are a team with real ambition once again, which means there will be some difficult conversations over the off-season with players who have settled in over the last few seasons.
It is one thing to be the big fish in the small pond, the best player on a truly horrendous team, but the standards around the club must now lift.
Avoiding the spoon should now be an expectation, not a goal, and the Knights will aim for the finals in 2019.
There are some players who must either lift to the standards of the new Knights or fall by the wayside.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE SEASON
The wins over Brisbane and Penrith were Newcastle’s best performances of the season but the opening round golden point victory over Manly was their most stirring.
In front of a rollicking home crowd over 23,500, Pearce kicked a golden point field goal on club debut to down the old arch rivals. It felt like a new era had begun in the Hunter.
LOWLIGHT OF THE SEASON
There was a grim period from Round 9 to Round 16 where the club lost seven of eight matches and a 36-16 belting at home by Canterbury was probably as bad as it got this year as memory of the wooden spoon nightmares flared up again.
BIG NAME RECRUITS
Tim Glasby (Melbourne), Edrick Lee (Cronulla), Jesse Ramien (Cronulla)
BIG NAME LOSSES
Jack Cogger (Canterbury), Nick Meaney (Canterbury), Jacob Lillyman (retired), Chris Heighington (retired), Dylan Phythian (released)
2019: BEST POSSIBLE SCENARIO
The spine stays injury free, Ramien becomes an out and out star and the Knights contend for the finals on the back of another stellar season from Ponga.
2019: WORST POSSIBLE SCENARIO
Ponga gets injured and nothing changes. The Knights miss the finals again.
COACH SAFETY RATING
5. Nathan Brown re-signed with the club on a “performance based deal” but the specifics of the contract were not released. It’s not quite finals or bust next year, but they need to go close.
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