Press conference: Nathan Ross on Round 6
Outside back Nathan Ross was extremely happy with the Club's win over the Brisbane Broncos on Saturday, with the match having some extra meaning to him being his 50th NRL game.
“We’ve been working very hard as a team over the past few weeks,” Ross said on Monday.
“We held onto the ball and I think we’ve shown that in the games where we complete over 80 per cent, we’ve won.
“The other two we completed about the 60 per cent mark, so I guess the simple thing around it is, hold the ball and we’ve got the type of players to win.”
Ross admits the team has been focusing on certain areas of the game.
“Wanting to scrap more than the other teams when the ball was on the ground, or when in a collision a point of contact and the numbers around the people, and being able to disrupt certain plays can go a long way defensively,” he commented.
“We had a chat about who we want to be as a team and what is the trademark we want to live by and I think we accomplished that on the weekend but we’ve still got to keep growing.”
Switching to the centres beside Ken Sio on the left side hasn’t been his usual position, but Ross is confident in his ability anywhere on the field.
“I became a winger via necessity in first grade… Reserve Grade I was playing fullback and in the centres, so I became a winger in order to play NRL and I think I’ve developed from there,” Ross maintained.
“Last year I played a bit of fullback and I really enjoyed that and centre is a position which I really enjoy as well, and you get to make some defensive decisions and get your hands on the ball a bit.
“It’s a position I’m hoping that if I continue to play well in, I might hold until the end of the year.
“Ken Sio and I have developed a good friendship over the past two years since he’s been here and side by side we trained a lot during the pre-season together because Tau (Moga) was injured.
“There’s a lot of trust there and we’re both very hard workers, we like to get the little areas of the game right and I think that showed on the weekend.”
The Knights have a short turnaround this week, as they travel to Melbourne to play the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park.
Ross knows after a loss against the Wests Tigers, Melbourne will be eager to get back to their usual winning ways.
“The short turnaround against the reigning premiers is going to be an extremely hard match, they’re coming off a loss that they would find disappointing against the Tigers who have been playing well this year,” explained Ross.
“I’m sure Melbourne will be a little bit upset with themselves, we’re going to expect them to be all guns blazing that’s for sure.”
Ross will be keeping an eye on Storm centre Young Tonumaipea.
“Every player has their individual strengths and weaknesses, so I’ll go and do my video on their right edge this week and I’ll be prepared,” he said.
And known as one of the Knights' more prolific try scorers, Ross admits while he loves to get a try, he’s focused on what he can do to help the team as a whole.
“Tries are good and I think that was something I was focusing on too much,” Ross stated.
“I’ve always said that rugby league has funny ways of giving back and before my 50th game on the weekend, I was able to watch my son go and play his first game of rugby league.
“To see him run around, it struck me at that moment, they are running out there not for money not for anything, they are out there just purely to have fun and to run around and I guess I took that into my 50th game and I’m ready to just do my thing for the team.”
