Post-Game Discussion Knights V Manly [Round 14, 2025]

[Michael Clare]

I’m not in any tipping comps, but my wife is. When she asked about this game I told her to tip the Knights because I knew we could not string two decent games together.

She was worried I’d steered her wrong at halftime, but I told her a collapse was a given: 16-nil is the worst possible lead for us - just enough to think we’ve already got it won, but easy enough to piss away. As soon as they scored their first try, I knew we were gone.

So did I.

 

[Brookie1973]

There's no excuses from this team anymore. With two of the most experienced halves against a team that changes it's halves like the weather, we should've won that game comfortably. The lack of game management from these two is embarrassing at times. Imagine we had a coach like Bellamy and this garbage gets dished up especially against the lower teams. Thanks for another frustrating weekend Manly. Can't wait to see what team comes out to play next week.

No. If you ask @markfrombrisbane, it would make no difference if Bellamy replaced Seibold. We must blame every loss on everything other than the coach. Why, I don’t know.

 

[globaleagle]

We were going ok until dce decided to **** the bed with his kicking game.

3rd tackle booted it so far of the winger's reach, he couldn't get to it if he was 3 metres tall.

Felt he needed to impress slater so again on the third he went for a 40/20, missed and the knights scored the next set.

Then to top it off, booted it out on the full for 'reasons.'

Had players out of position for sure....but that's when real game managers stand up and don't screw the whole system over.

Of course when the game was on the line and he could stand up and take charge, he put up a bomb instead of going for a field goal, then passed the ball (buck) onto Brooks instead of taking another chance.

Way to try and protect your image for soo selction - hope slater sees through it.

That was an utterly disgraceful loss.

 

[davohan123]

26-6 we lost that second half
Crazy
Thought it was a nightmare yet waking up realising it wasn't makes it worse
Can't wait to see the back of DCE

 

[ando]

DCE was appalling.
Coaches should have known Knights would come out on fire after being booed off at half time. It is written in stone.
Why wasn't Croker brought back on when we desperately needed defence?

Vomit

And why didnt the coach move burbo to the other side when he was struggling. Obroen is t the best coach but even he changed positions at halftime. Siebold was outcoached!!

 

[TJ55]

26-6 we lost that second half
Crazy
Thought it was a nightmare yet waking up realising it wasn't makes it worse
Can't wait to see the back of DCE

I just watched the press conference now
DCE has 100% checked out of the club from what I saw, Seibold also changed from "proud of the boys" to "we showed alot of spirit,"
Im throwing the towel in with the tipping comp

 

[Carl]

I think we might need a crash refresher on the dealing with chaos pre season class

 

[Carl]

I think we might need a crash refresher on the dealing with chaos pre season class

And some should be enrolled in the follow up how not to create chaos class.

 

[LeonardCohen]

I feel that this is one of those losses where people are letting their frustrations cloud their judgement. I’m gutted by the loss last night but understand how it happened.

Lehi’s injury meant Ben T was in the centres, but that’s only part of the problem. That meant Corey Waddell moved to an edge, straining the middle rotation. Then, Tommy T went off for 15 minutes, which pushed Garrick to the wing and meant Bullemor moved to an edge, putting further strain on the middle rotation.

As the game wore on, the strain on our middle started to show. One could argue that Newcastle lost Friz, and that’s true but they didnt win the game because their middles stood up. It’s also much easier to replace like for like; they’ve got other middles to play that same position. They barely had the ball in our 20m zone all night. We managed their yardage well for 80 minutes. They scored their tries from shifts to the edge where Ben was out of position.

Calling out a 40/20 as some sort of lack of game management is also bizarre. It’s a great tactic to kick early to avoid bringing a team’s back three onto the ball. He fell short by a metre so the opposition starting a set from 21m out, off a slow play the ball against set defence is not mismanagement.

Were we perfect? Of course not. One more ruck forward before shooting a field goal would have been better. A try before halftime was a missed opportunity. Garrick’s relatively missed easy goal to avoid the deadlock, etc. but those things happen.

I saw a lot of effort last night but the team fatigued in the second half due to the middle rotation so we couldn’t get a lot momentum with the ball and the Knights scored some good tries exposing our weakened edges. That’s how we lost, not some ‘sack Seibold’ ‘get DCE out before the deadline’ ‘sack Ben T’ narrative.

 

[sharx]

I think it’s time to drop DCE

 

[Tomay]

When we were walking out of the sheds after half time everyone was cruising, the security guy was having a chat with the guy behind him - it was obvious they clocked off.

 

[Super Coach Eagle]

I think it’s time to drop DCE

Billy is

 

[mickqld]

I feel that this is one of those losses where people are letting their frustrations cloud their judgement. I’m gutted by the loss last night but understand how it happened.

Lehi’s injury meant Ben T was in the centres, but that’s only part of the problem. That meant Corey Waddell moved to an edge, straining the middle rotation. Then, Tommy T went off for 15 minutes, which pushed Garrick to the wing and meant Bullemor moved to an edge, putting further strain on the middle rotation.

As the game wore on, the strain on our middle started to show. One could argue that Newcastle lost Friz, and that’s true but they didnt win the game because their middles stood up. It’s also much easier to replace like for like; they’ve got other middles to play that same position. They barely had the ball in our 20m zone all night. We managed their yardage well for 80 minutes. They scored their tries from shifts to the edge where Ben was out of position.

Calling out a 40/20 as some sort of lack of game management is also bizarre. It’s a great tactic to kick early to avoid bringing a team’s back three onto the ball. He fell short by a metre so the opposition starting a set from 21m out, off a slow play the ball against set defence is not mismanagement.

Were we perfect? Of course not. One more ruck forward before shooting a field goal would have been better. A try before halftime was a missed opportunity. Garrick’s relatively missed easy goal to avoid the deadlock, etc. but those things happen.

I saw a lot of effort last night but the team fatigued in the second half due to the middle rotation so we couldn’t get a lot momentum with the ball and the Knights scored some good tries exposing our weakened edges. That’s how we lost, not some ‘sack Seibold’ ‘get DCE out before the deadline’ ‘sack Ben T’ narrative.

Yes to this. In the cold light of day that's exactly what happened. No use throwing out rants about sack everybody. I said before the game it was up to our forwards like every other game and the disruptions proved too much. Regroup and get on with next week. If we can get a fair go with injuries and get some middles out there for once we're still a competitor.

 

[Forster eagle]

I just watched the press conference now
DCE has 100% checked out of the club from what I saw, Seibold also changed from "proud of the boys" to "we showed alot of spirit,"
Im throwing the towel in with the tipping comp

I primarily blame the coach for this loss as 1. Once again failed to select a back on the bench - as Ben T. previously has shown that he now cannot handle playing in the centres any more. and 2. Selecting Waddell who lacks pace and cannot defend laterally (lost count of his missed tackles).

With all the criticism around this defeat, I think you've got it spot on. Both Ben and Corey played in the centres and do not have the capabilities for that position, especially defensively. The issue is that we all know this and so does Seibold. We always get scorched when this reshuffle happens. So to me it's not rocket science. We've just got to cover for this scenario off the bench at t he expense of a forward rotation.

 

[Budgie]

I feel that this is one of those losses where people are letting their frustrations cloud their judgement. I’m gutted by the loss last night but understand how it happened.

Lehi’s injury meant Ben T was in the centres, but that’s only part of the problem. That meant Corey Waddell moved to an edge, straining the middle rotation. Then, Tommy T went off for 15 minutes, which pushed Garrick to the wing and meant Bullemor moved to an edge, putting further strain on the middle rotation.

As the game wore on, the strain on our middle started to show. One could argue that Newcastle lost Friz, and that’s true but they didnt win the game because their middles stood up. It’s also much easier to replace like for like; they’ve got other middles to play that same position. They barely had the ball in our 20m zone all night. We managed their yardage well for 80 minutes. They scored their tries from shifts to the edge where Ben was out of position.

Calling out a 40/20 as some sort of lack of game management is also bizarre. It’s a great tactic to kick early to avoid bringing a team’s back three onto the ball. He fell short by a metre so the opposition starting a set from 21m out, off a slow play the ball against set defence is not mismanagement.

Were we perfect? Of course not. One more ruck forward before shooting a field goal would have been better. A try before halftime was a missed opportunity. Garrick’s relatively missed easy goal to avoid the deadlock, etc. but those things happen.

I saw a lot of effort last night but the team fatigued in the second half due to the middle rotation so we couldn’t get a lot momentum with the ball and the Knights scored some good tries exposing our weakened edges. That’s how we lost, not some ‘sack Seibold’ ‘get DCE out before the deadline’ ‘sack Ben T’ narrative.

It was the Knights ffs

And we couldn't adjust to the loss of ONE player? Tommy Talau was a big loss because the coach and the captain already hadn't been able to adjust to the loss of ONE player.

The game management was not that of even a decent NRL captain and coach, let alone elite

 

[themanwithnoname]

The starch went our of our defence as fatigue set in. Croker and jurbo (and others) were defensively oustanding in the first 40 minutes; great line speed and solid initial contact. Once that fell away the knights found some momentum.

 

[Eagle 1]

Going by our W/L/W/L policy this season, next Friday should be a Win. That’s as positive as I can be atm.

This is probably as good as it gets wombatgc, as I commented before, this is our lot in life it seems, in and out of the 8 ...who knows?.

 

[Kalvin]

I feel that this is one of those losses where people are letting their frustrations cloud their judgement. I’m gutted by the loss last night but understand how it happened.

Lehi’s injury meant Ben T was in the centres, but that’s only part of the problem. That meant Corey Waddell moved to an edge, straining the middle rotation. Then, Tommy T went off for 15 minutes, which pushed Garrick to the wing and meant Bullemor moved to an edge, putting further strain on the middle rotation.

As the game wore on, the strain on our middle started to show. One could argue that Newcastle lost Friz, and that’s true but they didnt win the game because their middles stood up. It’s also much easier to replace like for like; they’ve got other middles to play that same position. They barely had the ball in our 20m zone all night. We managed their yardage well for 80 minutes. They scored their tries from shifts to the edge where Ben was out of position.

Calling out a 40/20 as some sort of lack of game management is also bizarre. It’s a great tactic to kick early to avoid bringing a team’s back three onto the ball. He fell short by a metre so the opposition starting a set from 21m out, off a slow play the ball against set defence is not mismanagement.

Were we perfect? Of course not. One more ruck forward before shooting a field goal would have been better. A try before halftime was a missed opportunity. Garrick’s relatively missed easy goal to avoid the deadlock, etc. but those things happen.

I saw a lot of effort last night but the team fatigued in the second half due to the middle rotation so we couldn’t get a lot momentum with the ball and the Knights scored some good tries exposing our weakened edges. That’s how we lost, not some ‘sack Seibold’ ‘get DCE out before the deadline’ ‘sack Ben T’ narrative.

Agree with a lot of that but with the experienced players we have in the side we should be winning last night. I've never heard of half the Newcastle players in their side last night!

 

[Waz13]

Jake Trbojevic 4 runs for 37 metres against a team without any middles. Only forward besides his brother (who tragically moved to the centres) that didn’t run for more than 100m.

Is it really worth having someone out there doing nothing but tackling and offering absolutely ****ing zero in attack?

Love Jake but it’s no coincidence now he’s not been any part of our last three wins. (Cows was kod). You cannot play him for 80mins. How hard is that to see.

 

[Waz13]

26-6 we lost that second half
Crazy
Thought it was a nightmare yet waking up realising it wasn't makes it worse
Can't wait to see the back of DCE

Correction Knightmare!