Newcastle Knights v Wests Tigers
Date: Saturday, March 17
Kick-off: 3pm
Venue: Cessnock Sportsground
Team
1. Matt Cooper, 2. Lachlan Farr, 3. Brayden Musgrove, 4. Mitch Andrews, 5. Justin Worley, 6. Nash Birch, 7. Hayden Loughrey, 8. Henry-Siriah Fuimaono, 9. Tom Starling, 10. Jirah Momoisea, 11. Kurtis Dark, 12. Beau Fermor, 13. Brandon Russell. Interchange. 14. Tevita Alifa, 15. Joe Bromage, 16. Luke Huth, 17. Will Davies, 18. Matthew Croker.
Jersey Flegg coach Todd Lowrie expects his side will be without Joe Bromage this Saturday when they take on the Wests Tigers at Cessnock.
“Joe hurt his shoulder, so we’ll most likely bring in Matthew Croker who didn’t play last week who also hurt his shoulder in the trial game and didn’t get there for Round 1,” explained Lowrie.
“Hopefully he’ll get through this week of training and will be a straight swap.”
Lowrie maintains last year’s SG Ball player of the year will be a great addition to their side for Round 2.
“Croker is one of our leaders and he’s had a really good off season at training,” said Lowrie.
“He was very disappointed to miss last week but I’m pretty sure he will be okay this week and he’s looking forward to getting stuck into the season.”
Following a 48-point win in Round 1, Lowrie is confident his men can continue the momentum.
“We had a good start to the year, we did a good job of attacking, we had most of the ball but when we had a chance to defend, we defended pretty well, so for us we’ve just got to keep going,” Lowrie added.
“The Round 1 win has certainly given us a bit of reward for the off season and the hard work at training the guys have put in, but we’re certainly looking forward to the Wests Tigers this weekend.
“We’re playing after the 16s and the 18s this week, instead of stand-alone which will be good, so we get to play with a bit of a Club atmosphere.”
Against the Tigers on Saturday the Knights will also come up against a couple of former teammates.
“Two guys that were in our team Heath Gibbs and back rower Sam McIntyre were with us last year and moved on to the Wests Tigers over the off-season so that will be interesting for a few of our guys,” commented Lowrie.
“They’re both handy players for the Wests Tigers and overall they’ve got some handy players in their team.
“I’m sure they’ll be hard to handle but how we prepare for the week and how we turn up, we need to bring the same attitude as last week.”
