Newcastle Knights v Wests Tigers
Date: Sunday July 2
Venue: McDonald Jones Stadium
Kick-off: 11.45am
SQUADS
Knights
1. Matt Cooper, 2. Mitch Andrews, 3. Cory Denniss, 4. Heath Gibbs, 5. Kainoa Gudgeon, 6. Kurtis Dark, 7. Hayden Loughrey, 8. Cameron King, 9. Tom Starling, 10. Pasami Saulo, 11. Jack Johns, 12. Sam McIntyre, 13. Zac Hosking. Interchange: 14. Nash Birch, 15. Henry Penn, 16. Matt Croker, 17. Jayden Butterfield. 18. Will Finau, 19. Kyle Smith, 20. Jayden Hocking, 21. Dylan Clark, 22. Lachlan Farr, 23. Luke Huth.
Tigers
1.Connelly Lemuelu, 2. Liam Pakau, 3. Peter Pakoti, 4. Tony Tali, 5. James Tautaiolefua, 6. Gus Garzaniti, 7. Max Burey, 8. Siaosi Nasilai, 9. Daniel Peck, 10. Edward Carter, 11. Alex Seyfarth, 12. Trent Pye, 13. Ben Seufale. Interchange. 14. Bennett Wheelhouse, 15. Royce Tout, 16. Rhys Sciglitano, 17. Ben Powers, 18. Jarrod Tompkins, 19. Josh Bermingham, 20. Corey Kurnoth, 21. Oscar Tui, 23. Jake Scott, 24. Jai Doolan.
Match Analysis
It may have been a disappointing loss for the NYC Newcastle Knights last Sunday, but coach Todd Lowrie was still pleased with the majority of their 80-minutes performance.
“We are doing some good things lately and we did some great things on the weekend,” Lowrie explained.
‘We just let ourselves down in the last 25 minutes of the game... so I’m really happy with the team at the moment.”
The Wests Tigers Under 20s have suffered a couple of big losses in the last few weeks and with a bye next week, Lowrie knows they’ll be keen to get a win.
“They are going to be putting all their energy into this one game so it will be a really tough game for us,” he said.
“We are on the back of two losses and they’ve had two pretty big losses as well so we certainly want to get the win.”
The NYC coach said the focus this week is fixing repeated errors in their game.
“We have been focusing on the things we let ourselves down on,” Lowrie stated.
“Ball control, support and discipline, all those things.”
While the Under 20s coach wants strong individual efforts, it’s about their contribution as a team.
“We play our best when everybody is contributing and everybody is doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” Lowrie explained.
“Where we fell into some trouble on the weekend was because some of the guys were trying to do things a bit outside of what they have trained to do.
“We are generally at our best when everyone is doing what they need to do and just contributing to the team that way.”
Where it will be won
“I think a lot of it will come down to the attitude that we have for the full 80 minutes,” said Lowrie.
“The fact they have played well in patches during the game rather than concentrating for the whole time is an area in need of improvement.
“We won four in a row a few weeks ago so I know the boys are pretty keen to get back in the winner’s circle.”
