Day and night
I toss and turn, I keep stress in my mind, mind
I look for peace, but see, I don't attain
What I need for keeps, this silly game we play, play
Now look at this
Madness, the magnet keeps attracting me, me
I try to run, but see, I'm not that fast
I think I'm first but surely finish last, last
I’ll use any excuse to work in a reference to Kid Cudi’s seminal 2008 masterpiece Day ‘N’ Nite (Nightmare), but nothing encapsulates the last few years of the Newcastle Knights more.
Blind optimism before a brutal thud to reality, fan dissociation as the team tumbles to a string of lacklustre and myopic performances, and a bevy of middling talent that would struggle to pad out a solid Queensland Cup side.
Going into this season, I failed to see how this year would be any different. The totally-gonna-work-this-time Ponga to the halves move, bringing in Lachie Miller, who I like but came in with little fanfare, to assume full time fullback duties, a collection of journeymen and frustrating talents in the backs, and a forward pack that registered little more than a half-cocked eyebrow.
After Round 7 the Knights sit 11th, which is still hardly worthy of glowing praise, but considering the injuries to the likes of Ponga, Daniel Saifiti and Jayden Brailey, the three wins and a draw the Knights have managed to salvage are, in my mind, genuine signs of progress.
Kalyn Ponga was a significant recruiting victory for the Knights, and retaining him after the contractual circus last year, despite understandably miffing some segments of the fanbase in the process, was a stepping stone back to contention.
The fact is, it’s very hard to win with purely effort and likeability in the NRL, and not to break new ground here, but having elite talents capable of pulling off those dazzling moments that leave spectators in stunned silence can sometimes be the difference between a finals run and booking flights to Bali in the middle of July.
Kalyn Ponga is obviously that talent, but his recent concussion history is hard to ignore and very distressing. Fortunately, for the Knights, where I feared they’d be too Kalyn-centric, it appears they’ve struck a fine balance and shifted away from an overreliance on one haphazard star, into a more sustainable model of success.
Take Lachie Miller for example. As I said above, his capture from the Sharks was seen as shrewd recruiting business, sure, but all in the grand machine of making the Ponga to six transition more seamless by providing a legitimate fullback contingency plan. In a way, the Miller signing was analysed from a vantage point of Kalyn Ponga’s fit in the team, not what Miller himself could produce.
Well, the former Sevens standout has certainly erased any concerns so far about his lack of first grade experience and the perceived drop off in quality from Ponga, turning in a string of high standard performances (nightmare moment against Haumole Olakau’atu aside).
To me, there are two types of fullbacks, show-ers and go-ers. Both styles of play have their merit in the right system and with the right spine around them. There are the show-ers, the flashier fullbacks that act as functions of the attacking play by coexisting with the halves as a tertiary playmaker. Reece Walsh or Latrell Mitchell, for instance, fall into this category for me.
Then there are the go-ers, the dirty side of fullbacks, that thrive on the hard metres and support play despite maybe not being as refined in an attacking sense, like your Dylan Edwards or Charnze Nicoll-Klokstads.
Forgiving my narrowing down of a very grey, spectral position into a hard black and white analysis, but Lachie Miller is very much a go-er, and that’s exactly what this Knights team, fully formed, needs.
Along with Dom Young, Miller gets the Knights sets off to powerful starts, as well as being a tackle busting machine and electric support presence through the middle of the park. He’s added a dynamism in the middle of a somewhat turgid Knights go forward in recent seasons.
Jackson Hastings also deserves credit for the turnaround in attitude and defiance that has happened in the Hunter so far this season. Sometimes, competence is all that’s needed to elevate a side from wooden spoon purgatory into top eight contention.
The swap deal that brought Hastings to the Hunter in exchange for David Klemmer was met with reticence and uncertainty from Tigers fans, but was welcomed whole-heartedly by the Knights faithful.
After all, this is a fanbase that, outside of Mitchell Pearce, has suffered through a revolving door of rugby league bastions like Phoenix Crossland, Jack Cogger, Brock Lamb, Jake Clifford, Anthony Milford and Adam Clune in the halves over the last few seasons.
All of those guys, Pearce included, have started a not insignificant number of games for the Knights in the last 5-6 years. Lamb is now retired (apparently), Clifford and Pearce are over in the Super League, Cogger is in reserve grade at Penrith, Milford couldn’t beat out a literal child for a start at the Dolphins before being an injury replacement only to get hurt himself, while Clune can’t get into the current Knights side.
Only Phoenix Crossland is a somewhat regular first grader, and he’s mainly a utility plugging the various injury-enforced leaks that keep springing up on the SS O’Brien.
Speaking of Adam O’Brien, it’s there that I want to focus the last bit of this newsletter. A walking punchline heading into 2023, without checking the bookmakers I’d be willing to assume that he would’ve been one of the short priced favourites for first coach given the boot this season.
Whatever your opinion on the old philosophy that it’s always the coach’s neck on the line when a team underperforms, the reality is the team is a reflection of the coach, and the last year or so has not been a particularly appetising product.
This year though, a newfound steel and resolve, especially through the middle, has emerged in Newcastle and it would be unfair to not at least give some credit to what O’Brien has been doing.
Sure, you can look at the volatile attacking stats, but to me the most impressive trends are in the Knights defence, which last year was, to be polite, shithouse.
This year? How about the most tackles in the league through 7 rounds (all stats via NRL.com).
Now you’d be right to point out that means the Knights are losing possession battles, which is true, as they rank 14th in possession, but despite the mountain of defence the Knights are being asked to do, they’re not porous, also ranking 5th best in both ineffective and missed tackles.
This resolve has also translated into discipline with the ball, and while the Knights aren’t quite as eye-popping statistically with ball in hand, they still rank top half of the league in both set completion and handling errors.
The Knights aren’t elite at any one thing, but they’ve proven through the first seven rounds that, if nothing else, their defence is their bedrock, and that’s not only a welcome change for fans in the Hunter from the flimsy and paper mache defensive lines of yesteryear, but it’s also a repeatable and proven formula for winning.
Attack comes and goes, but defence is the constant, and the fact the Knights are lifting so well in these effort areas is a glowing endorsement of the coaching efforts of Adam O’Brien and staff so far.
I do think there is some nice symmetry between last year and where we’re at right now though. Last year, the Knights started off the season in similar promising fashion, carrying decent early form into a matchup with the reigning premiers, Penrith.
They hung with Penrith in that game, right until Mitch Barnett decided to blindside Chris Smith with a people’s elbow and Penrith ran away with the game against a 12 man Knights side.
Well, fast forward to this season’s early matchup against the reigning premiers Penrith, and the Knights again gave a more than stirring account of themselves, more than matching Penrith’s patented brand of physicality in the middle of the park, while missing Ponga and Jayden Brailey from the spine, only going down in golden point to a Nathan Cleary field goal.
Last year, the Panthers game served as the tipping point into a downward spiral for Newcastle.
This year, it can be their binder, their catalyst.
They’ve shown they can mix it with the best.
In the past, the Knights have always been a high-ceiling, low-floor blockbuster.
The Knights floor is higher now.
Maybe that lonely loner has freed his mind at night after all.