NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS v WESTS TIGERS
Round 10, 2015 NYC Holden Cup
Date: Sunday May 17, 11.45am
Venue: Hunter Stadium
Teams:
KNIGHTS
1. Bryce Donovan, 2. Fuaimamao Uta 3. Josh Birch, 4. Braden Robson, 5. Ken Tofilau, 6. Brock Lamb, 7. Jack Cogger, 8. Josh King, 9. Danny Levi, 10. Daniel Saifiti, 11. Bradie Smith, 12. Ben Stone, 13. Luke Yates. Interchange: 14. Jake McNamara, 15. Faitotoa Faitotoa, 16. Roman Fepuleai, 17. Ben Steven.
TIGERS
1. Jeremy Marshall-King, 2. Ryland Jacobs, 3. Marion Seve, 4. John Tohi, 5. Jayden Wheelhouse, 6. Te Maire Martin (capt.), 7. Veiru Mapesone, 8. JJ Felise, 9. Jacob Liddle, 10. Dwayne Lemafa, 11. Tyler Cassel, 12. Esan Marsters, 13. Matthew Woods ©, Interchange: 14. Junior Tatola, 15. Pio Sokobalavau, 16. Tom Harris, 17. Bayley Sironen, 18. Pifeleti Pifeleti.
Match Analysis:
The NYC Newcastle Knights will harness the confidence gained from last round’s convincing victory over Manly when they face the Wests Tigers at Hunter Stadium on Sunday.
“This week we’ve had another really good week of training and don’t have any injuries,” coach Troy Pezet said.
“It’s a good freshen up and a short, sharp week.”
Yet, the Knights brace themselves for a challenging match on Sunday.
“Balmain has been going really well," he said.
“Their five-eighth (Te Maire Martin) is someone to watch.”
“He was in the Junior Kiwis side and is a very dangerous ball runner.
“We are going to have to be on our game with him.
“The Tigers come off a close loss against the Roosters last week, but a strong win against the Bulldogs the week before.
“They have some really quality players and are a good team.
Yet, Pezet assures his side continues to strive for consistency and improvement each week.
“We are a really young squad and have some 20-years-olds that are playing really well,” he said.
“We just need to keep ticking away and improving every week.
“We have a happy, big squad that’s working really hard.
“We gained a bit of confidence from our win over Manly last week because Manly were higher than us on the table and have been doing quite well.
“To be as convincing as we were in the winning stakes, we still understand we have a lot of improvement to go, but it brought a good positive feel around the team at the moment.”
Pezet said he has a number of quality candidates to chose from who have been playing in the Newcastle local competition as well as the fulltime NYC members.
“At the moment we have 25 really fit players that are going well that we have to pick from," he said.
Something that’s also sure to spur on the young Knights is he prospect of progressing through the Knights' grades based on quality performance.
This was illustrated last round with Luke Yates who made an appearance in the Knights reserve grade, and this round, with Dylan Pythian named in the NSW Cup line-up at halfback.
“Dylan had his first game back in NYC since a broken jaw and was probably our best player against Manly,” he said.
“This week there have been a couple of injuries in the higher grades and Dylan slots into the halves.
“Luke Yates after playing a full game of 20s backed up and played NSW Cup on the Sunday and was really good.
“Danny Levi is still not too far away from getting his shot in the higher grades as well.
“That natural progression to 20s NSW Cup to NRL is starting to get realised.
“It’s creating a genuine pathway for our 20s who are going well, they are going to get their opportunity.”
Where it will be won:
Possession.
“I think whoever has the most ball will win,” Pezet said.
They have some decent attacking weapons, but whoever can defend their own errors the best I think will win.
That’s something we’ve put in some extra focus this week.
We let in three tries last week so this week we are concentrating on being better.
We know we can make errors, but with a positive frame of mid, we’d like that we will be able to defend out errors.
