‘Diabolical’: NRL great tears Knights to shreds after Eels loss
The Newcastle Knights are in free fall after a humiliating performance that had one TV commentator blowing his lid off.
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The Newcastle Knights have been torn to shreds following a humiliating 37-point loss to the Eels on Sunday.
On a week where the club was supposed to be celebrating the long-term contract extension of star fullback Kalyn Ponga, the Knights showed the club has some serious problems after a pitiful defensive effort at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The Eels scored six unanswered tries to win 39-2 after Newcastle playmaker Jake Clifford opened the game with a penalty goal.
Most of the tries scored by the Eels were basic gut runs that busted holes in the Knights’ flimsy defence.
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It leaves coach Adam O’Brien under immense pressure as the team slumped to a fifth consecutive loss.
NCA NewsWire reports it is the first time time the Knights have lost five consecutive games since 2019.
No Newcastle team has ever played finals after starting 2-4. The current outfit is 2-5 and faces the Melbourne Storm next week.
When Isaiah Papali’i scored his second try — a 10m, bulldozing dart from dummy half — where he ran through three defenders, Fox League commentators Steve Roach and Andrew Voss didn’t know what to say.
“They will not want to watch the replay back,” Voss said.
At full time, Broncos great Corey Parker told Fox League the Knights have an attitude problem.
“There was nothing fancy, what the Eels did. Some of the defence we saw from the Knights it was diabolical,” Parker said.
“The goal line defence was second rate to say the least.
“When there came an opportunity to stand tall on their line and dig in, they just didn’t do that. We can talk about the flowing attack of the Parramatta Eels, but that wasn’t even so much the case
“That’s an attitude thing. That’s a mindset thing and the Knights just didn’t have that today.”
O’Brien said after the game his team's performance was “not acceptable” and said it was the team’s toughest loss for some time.
The Knights lost Ponga to a HIA in the first half and their attack struggled to click into gear even when he came back on.
ABC commentator Andrew Moore said the Knights’ attack was “boring”.
Their defence was even worse.
Even with the Eels making major, late team changes that saw playmaker Dylan Brown move to centre and Jacob Arthur start in the halves, the Knights were repeatedly opened up.
Parramatta fans might’ve been raising their eyebrows when the team was named, but that was before the makeshift left edge produced the Eels’ first three tries.
Ably assisted by second-rower Shaun Lane, Brown had little trouble containing his opposite man, Origin player Dane Gagai, in defence.
In attack, the towering Lane had a hand in both first-half four-pointers. He first crashed over for a softer try than most you’ll see in first grade and then found an unmarked Hayze Perham with an offload.
Within five minutes of the restart, Brown had the Eels’ third try and the game had slipped away from Newcastle. An Isaiah Papali’i double just rubbed salt into the wound.
It didn’t get any better from there.
— with Jasper Bruce, NCA NewsWire
Originally published as ‘Diabolical’: NRL great tears Knights to shreds after Eels loss
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