Tom Trbojevic-less Sea Eagles belt injury-ravaged Knights
Despite no Tom Trbojevic, the Sea Eagles have left the NRL stunned with a record win to spoil the Knights’ anninversary party.
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On a night the club was supposed to celebrate 25 years since their famous grand final win over Manly, the mood in Newcastle resembled a wake as injuries and some awful attacking options spoilt the party.
Taking on a Sea Eagles side without Tom Trbojevic, the Knights offered very little in attack as they slipped to a third-straight loss that has undone a lot of the good stuff they did to start the year.
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In a week that centred on Kalyn Ponga’s future after a not-so-secret meeting with Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett, the Knights skipper had a chance to show the locals that his heart was still in the Hunter.
But after a poor performance in the Shire last week, Ponga only showed glimpses of improvement in the 30-6 loss.
The Knights skipper was kept quiet in the first half as the Sea Eagles jammed in whenever he touched the ball. He was hit high by Morgan Harper and then came off a minute later when his head smashed into the turf, but Ponga did return in the second half.
He threatened to win the game by himself when he backed up to score their first try and then looked to have set up Chris Randall with a lovely grubber to give his side the lead, but replays showed the hooker lost the ball as he tried to ground it.
The Knights never fired another shot, and they’re going to have to reassess how they use their marquee man.
Injury crisis
Knights coach Adam O’Brien must have walked under a ladder on his way to McDonald Jones Stadium.
With his side already missing Lachlan Fitzgibbon and David Klemmer through injury, Dom Young (knee) and Jirah Momoisea (dislocated elbow) joined the crowded casualty ward.
And there could be more pain with halfback Adam Clune in serious doubt for next week’s game after he battled through a knee injury for the second half but could hardly put any weight on his left leg.
No Turbo, no worries
You get the feeling this could be two really important competition points for Manly later in the year.
This was a game they were supposed to lose according to the bookies who crunched Newcastle in after Trbojevic was ruled out with a knee injury.
In the past that’d almost mean an automatic loss for Manly, but they showed they can get the job done without their talisman.
Apart from one bizarre kick from inside his own 30, skipper Daly Cherry-Evans had the ball on a string and played behind a strong pack led by Josh Aloiai (122 metres) and Haumole Olakau’atu (113 metres and a try).
Six again… again
Just about everyone was in love with the way footy looked in the first four rounds. Almost everyone, but not the people who matter.
They said it was too slow, there was too much wrestle and the star players were suffering. Which is odd, because Ryan Papenhuyzen scored four tries in a pretty quick game last week.
The word ‘crackdown’ is taboo, but we were always going to see plenty of penalties and set restarts on Thursday night.
In the end, 23 were blown but no one was sent to the sin bin.
The Sea Eagles were happy to give away set restarts all night long, but referee Ashley Klein refused to punish them further.
Blowing your whistle and waving your arm in the air is one thing, but officials have to use the sin bin if they want to be taken seriously.
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