nib Newcastle Knights forward Jacob Saifiti maintains while they’ve enjoyed the first home win of the season, the focus now turns to the job against the South Sydney Rabbitohs this weekend.
The 20-year-old believes they’ll have to change up some tactics with wet weather forecast for Saturday.
“I dare say we will play through the middle, a lot shorter passes to work for wet weather footy,” explained Saifiti.
“We’ll have to muscle up in the middle and do our job and lay the platform for the backs.
“Wet weather footy is tough, and with them having the Burgess brothers it’s going to be a big task for us this week.
“It is going to be a challenge not only for myself but for our pack.”
Pressure on the kick will be a priority.
“Adam (Reynolds) came back on the weekend and his short kicking game I think is the best in the competition, so our kicking pressure needs to be good to help our backs,” added Saifiti.
Meanwhile, the young Knights forward admits he’s been working hard on his attacking game.
“I have put a lot of work into it and feel it is paying off,” said Saifiti.
“I haven’t really offered as much in attack, I’m happy with my defence but I’ve got a lot to work on and hoping I can show that this weekend.”
Saifiti mentioned the support of the red and blue fans has been great and he hopes it will continue again this Saturday.
“Hopefully with our win, there will be more people this weekend to support us,” he said.
“The crowd allows us to lift up another gear especially when they start chanting the Newcastle song…. so, the more people we can get there this weekend the better it will be.”
The footy action will again be at McDonald Jones Stadium, NYC kicks off at 12.15pm before Reserve Grade at 2.10pm and NRL at 4.30pm.
