KNIGHTS WIN BUT LOSE SKIPPER
Tony Delany - League Unlimited
2008-08-24
The Coal & Allied Newcastle Knights have held off a late charge from the North Queensland Cowboys to keep their season alive overnight at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
The Knights recorded a 38-24 win but look to have lost their skipper for the season. Danny Buderus will undergo scans this morning after leaving the field in the 70th minute with a suspected torn biceps.
He was set to be farewelled in front of his home fans next Saturday night against competition front runners Melbourne but results will dictate if the Knights stalwart has played his final game for the club before joining Leeds in the UK Super League.
Minus Steve Simpson (neck) and Cory Patterson (shoulder) the home side found top gear early when Buderus crossed to finish a James Mc Manus break to give the Knights a 6-0 lead after a minute of play.
Newcastle continued to attack the visitors left edge and again had success in the 9th minute when Kurt Gidley found Adam Mc Dougall who beat the attempted tackle of Travis Burns to give the Knights a 12-0 lead.
Newcastle continued to play an entertaining brand of football despite the conditions, shifting the ball early on several occasions to catch the Cowboys short.
Wes Naiqama was denied by video referee Phil Cooley in the 12th minute when he lost the ball over the line but couldn’t be denied just 1 minute later after brilliant play from five eighth Jarrod Mullen who chipped ahead for Naiqama to score out wide.
Newcastle continued the bombardment on the Cowboy's left edge when James Mc Manus crossed from a Cameron Ciraldo grubber. A magnificent conversion from touch off the boot of Kurt Gidley gave the home side an impressive 24-0 lead after just 22 minutes.
Newcastle controlled possesion for the majority of the 1st half and continued to muscle up in defence forcing errors from the North Queensland side. When the Cowboys did have the football they were forced to work it out of their own end.
Newcastle's 5th try of the 1st half came just four minutes from the break when Jarrod Mullen was on the end of a second man play to power past Jonathon Thurston, giving the Knights a 30-0 lead going into halftime.
The Cowboys came out with a renewed attitude and outscored the Knights four tries to one in the second half through a double to Luke O'Donnell and tries to Aaron Payne and Ty Williams, but the backbreaker for the visitors came in the 61st minute when Jarrod Mullen beat the Cowboys defence from a scrum to put the game out of reach for North Queensland.
Knights coach Brian Smith was straight to the point in relation to his teams performance.
“We started off brilliant and finished with a pretty shabby ending, I thought the Cowboys did a good job of fighting hard but I was disappointed in how we finished, despite the score line I was very disappointed in the way we were distracted.”
However, Smith was adamant the loss of skipper Danny Buderus would bring the unit closer together.
“Most guys in footy are galvanised by circumstances like this and I think that our guys will be no different”.
The Knights take on the Melbourne Storm next Saturday night at EnergyAustralia Stadium needing to win at least one of their two remaining matches to stay in contention for the NRL finals series.
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