nib Newcastle Knights winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall has come up against the Melbourne Storm many times before and always expected Saturday’s match to be a tough encounter.
“I think that is why they’re sitting at the top of the ladder,” Kenny-Dowall told Knights TV in the sheds after the match.
“There were a lot of improvements from last time we played them but still a disappointing result.”
With two offloads and five tackle breaks, the Knights winger was doing his best to keep the side competitive.
Kenny-Dowall maintains despite losing one of their key players in Cooper Cronk, the Storm had a worthy replacement Brodie Croft who guided them to the win with a hat-trick.
“That is one of Melbourne’s strengths, they’ve got a great depth,” he said.
“They always seem to pump the next talent out so they’ve got a great system and those players stepped in and did a good job.”
The Storm may have recorded a comfortable win but Kenny-Dowall was optimistic about their efforts.
“It has been a great few weeks and we knew we were in for a really hard challenge,” Kenny-Dowall explained.
“To the boys' credit, there were some positive signs and some things we can hold onto for next week but also some things that we’re going to have to improve on against the Canberra Raiders.
“We have still got two games and an opportunity still for two wins, that’s the way we’re looking at it, and we’ve been playing some good football of late and hopefully we can turn it around for the next game.”
The Knights clash with the Raiders on Friday night at GIO Stadium.
