News Archive
2009
2008
Knights show Stone they haven't lost their grit
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday August 18, 2009
NEWCASTLE 26 (M Hilder, J Mullen, M Taufua, C Vuna tries; K Gidley 5 goals) bt MELBOURNE 14 (B Anderson, C Cronk, S Turner tries; C Smith goal) at EnergyAustralia Stadium. Referees: Phil Haines, Jason Robinson. Crowd: 13,580.THE Newcastle Knights ventured on to the EnergyAustralia Stadium field last night under a different coach €“ but, more importantly, they were a different team. After three straight losses since the news broke that their coach, Brian Smith, was going to Sydney Roosters next year, the club sacked him on Friday night. After just three days in the job as Smith's replacement, Rick Stone got his first win.Melbourne played without superstar centre Greg Inglis and they missed him like they'd miss oxygen. Inglis was stood down following news that he had been charged with assault over an incident involving his girlfriend. The game was into its final 20 minutes before the Storm finally got something meaningful going in attack, but although they rushed on three tries it was too little, too late.So the questions were: was the win by Newcastle directly related to the change of coach? And, were the Storm players distracted by the off-field issue concerning Inglis? We'll start with the second question first €“ Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy wasn't using anything as an excuse."I wouldn't blame any off-field issue for what happened tonight," he said. "We could have had Bob Fulton and Graeme Langlands out there, but if our forwards don't aim up we're not going to be able to do anything."They [Newcastle] played really well. They were definitely a lot sharper than us. It was the softest defensive performance we've put in all year. I didn't think we were really sharp in attack, either, but that wasn't our real problem. Defence was our big issue, and our kicking game was off as well."Stone believed his players took the club's dramatic decision to change coaches a month out from the finals series as a challenge. "The board's response to the situation had the effect of asking the players to have a good look at themselves personally," he said. "And they did that. We didn't have a lot of time to prepare, but it was an attitude thing and we showed we got some of that old attitude back."Newcastle chief executive Steve Burraston felt the key was that the appointment of Stone for not only the rest of this season, but for the next couple of years as well, had allowed the players to stop wondering about the future and concentrate on the present."It was that uncertainty about the future that was bothering them," he said.The players weren't about to get trapped into any tricky discussions on whether Smith departing sparked last night's win. Asked about the change of coach and what degree of influence it might have had, Knights captain Kurt Gidley said: "I don't know if I want to answer a question like that. I don't want to dwell too much on the coaching sort of thing. I'll talk about our future and I'm happy to talk about tonight. Our defence was all about attitude, and I thought we played really well."Asked the same question, halfback Jarrod Mullen replied: "I don't want to talk about that. That was just a win for the boys. The Storm haven't been on the back foot like that all year, so I think it was a great win."The Knights led 18-0 at half-time and had racked up all of their 26 points before Melbourne got on the board. Newcastle were ninth before the round began and had dropped to 11th after the weekend games but the win puts them back in the top eight €“ at seventh. Melbourne stay in fourth, but they didn't look anything like a top-four team.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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