Press conference: Daniel Saifiti on Round 6
nib Newcastle Knights big man Daniel Saifiti was pleased with Saturday’s performance against the Brisbane Broncos in the 15-10 win at McDonald Jones Stadium.
“It’s our best win since I’ve been at the Club. It was such a tough performance against a tough team… I didn’t think they played bad, just that we played really well.”
Saifiti agreed with Nathan Brown’s comments stating that adding quality players to the roster such as Mitchell Pearce and Kalyn Ponga has allowed the Knights to take their offensive structure to another level, provided the forwards could maintain a high quality workload in the middle.
“The past couple of years we haven’t had that X-Factor with Pearce and KP (Kalyn Ponga) there. If I do my job, I am confident they can get us there.
“We took it personally (the losses in Rounds 3 and 4). Last week it was a pretty soft effort from us forwards. We made it a task this week to get over their forward pack and I’m confident we did that.”
Although the team is riding high, back into the top eight and winning two out of two home games so far this season, the 21-year-old prop is focused on this weekend’s coming match against the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park.
“They are a quality side. We are just going through our recovery (from a short turnaround). They had a tough game against the Tigers last week and they played really well, so we’re looking forward to a tough task.
“I’ve never won there. They’re a tough side and have been up there (on the ladder) for so long. They just do all the little things right and that’s where we want to be as a team.”
Saifiti believes that his performance on the weekend was his best of the season so far, with coach Nathan Brown personally issuing him the challenge to leave nothing behind.
“Browny (Nathan Brown) personally challenged me to have a dig this week, and I was pretty happy with my performance on the weekend.
“I think it was by a long shot (my best game this season). I just had to work on my defence, I am pretty confident with my attack… defensively I thought it was my strongest game this year.”
The prop is also looking forward to facing off against Storm heavy-hitter Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who he sees as perfect competition to benchmark his current performance.
“He is probably one of the best props in the competition if not the best. He is big but also plays with a lot of heart and I love playing against those types of players… if we aim up like we did against the Broncos I think we will give ourselves a good shot against the Storm.”
