The Newcastle Knights’ belief and desire to get the job done has again inspired the team to a win against the Gold Coast Titans in drizzly conditions at Cbus Super Stadium.
Captain Kurt Gidley and coach Rick Stone both said the side’s steely attitude and ability to maintain intensity until the final whistle earned the Knights a third consecutive win.
“I was really proud. We held a bit of composure there in the end,” Stone said at the post match press conference.
“It was tough conditions tonight. It was drizzly most of the night and there was no easy way of getting it done.”
Gidley explained how the team drew on the values of determination and resolve to overcome the Titans late in the game.
“I guess when we’ve been behind, the desire to continue on with the game and believe in strategy and what we’ve trained for,” Gidley said.
“Right to the last 10 minutes we were behind…we still believed the shape we were doing was going to pay off in the end."
While Stone said the Knights are still searching for improvements, he was happy with innovative moments in the game when players created their own opportunities.
“We were coming out of our own end for most of the second half, but I think Aku (Uate) had a really big run there, that changed the momentum of that particular set and gave us something for (Adam) Clydsdale to put a nice ball there for Jeremy Smith,” Stone said.
The coach also praised the Knights’ cohesion and said he’s observed a general evolution and growth among the team that enabled the quality of performance to continue when the team’s key playmakers were missing.
“I think with Kurt (Gidley) off the field in stages and then Jarrod (Mullen) off the field at the end, I think our boys have got a little more belief,” he said.
“I thought Tyrone Roberts stood up pretty well for us tonight in key periods.
“I think everyone is starting to believe in themselves a little bit more and are starting to evolve as playmakers instead of possibly leaving everything to Kurt and Jarrod."
Despite confidence built in the previous two wins, the Knights weren’t prepared to underestimate the Titans who were hungry to get their season back on track.
“To the Titans credit, I don’t think they made an error possibly until the 65th minute so they made us work the whole way,” Stone said.
“We gave a way a few dumb penalties and had couple of errors there.”
Kade Snowden was again identified by Gidley as one of the top performers with the powerful prop gaining 192 metres and following committing to 37 tackles, just behind Chris Houston in the tackle count with 39.
“With Snowy (Snowden) leading the charge, Jeremy Smith and Korbin (Sims), those three guys are doing a heap of work,” Gidley said.
“Their carries are great, they are making yards and getting quick play the balls, so they are a big important part of our team and I certainly appreciate their go-forward and think the rest of the guys do as well,” Gidley said.
Saturday’s win marks the strongest start to the season since 2006 and builds a positive picture for the season going forward.
"We’ve worked on setting some standards for ourselves, engaging with the community,” Stone added.
"Having some standards that we’re proud of and the last couple of weeks we’ve been pretty proud of our resilience and toughness.
"I think we do need to lift and our execution could be better and the kicking game can get fine tuned a bit.
“One of the things that we are going to take positives out of is that we’ve had three wins in three weeks.
The Knights’ focus will now shift to Saturday’s round four match against the Penrith Panthers at Hunter Stadium.
“We are going to get back on our home track and our fans are going to get behind us a bit more,” Stone said.
“Hopefully everyone starts to believe a bit more."
