In the sheds: Mitch Barnett

Knights TV spoke to Mitch Barnett following the Knights’ first loss of the season to the Sydney Roosters on Sunday night.

Barnett said he was disappointed in the team’s overall performance and inability to complete sets against the Roosters.

“It was a very disappointing night, we didn’t complete and our discipline wasn’t where it needed to be. Early on we were in the grind and looked good when we moved the ball, but defensively we let ourselves down.”

The 23-year-old lock admits that coming up against good sides like the Roosters means the team needs to be solid defensively and avoid a large penalty count.

“When you give good sides like that all the footy, they are going to pull off those plays. It’s a big lesson for us and we need to go back to training on Tuesday and prepare for next week.

“At the end there we were just tired and looking to slow down the game any way that we could, but we lost it early on with controlling the ruck speed. But those things are easily fixed… we’ll just learn for next week and turn it around.”

Whilst Barnett acknowledged that the team’s Round 3 performance was far from what was desired, he stated the team wasn’t in a bad position with two wins out of three to start the season.

The main focus at training this week will be acknowledging the faults of their performance, and how they can respond to improve their consistency this season.

“It’s about how we respond, we don’t want to make it back-to-back (losses) so we will put in the effort this week at training. We just want to be a consistent side this year, so if we are willing to learn and put in the hard work I’m sure we can turn it around.”