The play that killed us

This is the play that killed us.

Ironically, just as this play is unfolding, Laurie Daley is talking about how the Eels will defend compressed and force the Knights to the sideline.

The Knights aren't looking for anything flash here - a short ball tight to a forward. However it is apparently knocked down by an Eels hand. On our outside we've numbered up fine - the Knights have a one-man overlap but there's nothing to worry about with the ball in the middle of our defence.

As the ball comes loose De Gois has the presence of mind to throw the ball wide and this is where Timana has what was the real brain explosion of the game. Rather than standing back and sliding so as we keep our defensive structure he rushes out of the line to try and prevent the ball from being spread any further. It's an incredibly risky decision at any time but when you're up by four with three minutes to go and the opposition is deep in their own half it's lunacy.

As you can see here Daniel Mortimer is forced to move up to counter Timana rushing out of the line. He probably should have held his position firmer and tried to force the play back in-field given the space on the outside but he's been hung out to dry by T. Luke Burt is then left three on one and no hope. I've pinpointed Hindy as well because it's another example of when there is a break, he immediately reacts and sprints after the play. In comparison, Kris who was on his outside just doesn't respond with the same kind of urgency. The tackle is eventually made by Tim Mannah who is another you can trust to respond in defence whole-heartedly.

From this line break the set ends with the flukey kick that results in the winning try. They should never have been allowed to get to that position.

"You are entitled to your opinion Clint, but Mahoney's passing is one area where he outranks Smith if there is one. Mahoney has one of the best passes in the competition for a Hooker. Smith's passing is good, it is clean and can make the necessary…"

Replies

Electricifying Eel June 22, 2010 at 11:04pm

Tahu can't defend other than putting bellringers on opponents. He never stays back and is a real liability in defense in these situations. 4 weeks off for him could help us defensively. Oh wait, Jono Wright ain't any better.
- YDIDISAYIDO > Electricifying Eel June 24, 2010 at 7:35pm
  
  That's ridiculous... Watch enough rugny league and you will see that most tries come at the expense of bad reads by centres and wingers. Teams score tries.. that's the game.
  
  Tahu is excellent in D. His mind was elswehere the other night but please... a liability.... you have that goldfish syndrome 1eyed posted in another therad:)
  
  reddy is the liability. Techinically a good tackler but not a good reader in D.
jamesy June 22, 2010 at 11:05pm

it's not our defence that killed us, it's our attack! we struggled to score 4 points against a pathetic knights outfit. We had plenty of chances in their half too, we just didn't have anything in attack. Mortimer and Keating were hopeless!
Bourbon Man June 23, 2010 at 9:26am

My biggest problem with this final 'big play' was that the Knights were given 6 more before the ball went out to De Gois! The ball was not played at, Newcastle just dumped the ball out the back and the ref ordered another set of 6. This would otherwise have been the 4th tackle and we WOULD have held them out!
- 1Eyed Eel > Bourbon Man June 23, 2010 at 9:56am
  
  Bourbs, I watched that bit of the play five or six times and I couldn't see anything but the camera angle was really bad and the ref was right there. Nobody complained either, so they're might have been a small touch in there.
Murf June 23, 2010 at 9:57am

Imo the play killed us was just before when KK kicked the ball dead. We were on the attack and had to finish the set with either a try, drop out or have the knights bringing it off their own line. We had the game won at that stage and If we had come up with any of these results we win the game, unfortunately we came up with the worst possble result of a 20 metre re-start that gave the knights cheap metres and the opportunity to go around us.
- Bourbon Man > Murf June 23, 2010 at 10:29am
  
  Isn't it amazing how, when confronted with analysis - video analysis no less - showing Tahu needlessly coming out of the defensive line with the opposition on their own 20m line, forcing and overlap which allowed the Knights a 60m gain upfield, it is still all KK's fault!!
  
  I'll admit, he was poor on Monday, but so was DM, JR and JH - all of whom are tasked with the job of setting up our play. Can we please try, just for one fucking second, to be a little impartial??
  
  P.S. the set on attack just prior to kicking the ball dead, Hayne also kicked the ball dead in the exact same situation - but nobody has said boo about that!!
Bourbon Man June 23, 2010 at 10:27am

It was a massive call though! If the ref was there, I do hope that the 'touch' was significant because at the time, I thought THAT was the call that cost us the game. I can accept the try - I thought that it was too difficult to definitively say the ball travelled forward to Paterson off Fa'aoso's leg, but would be pissed off if came from some petty decision farther upfield.
N1cK June 23, 2010 at 10:28am

i think this play shouldnt have mattered against a very poor newcastle we should have been able to put more points than we did by the end of the game. Whether you like our halves or not we need them to be able to start creating points soon because if we cant get over the line against that newcastle side what chance will we have against the dragons in a preliminary final. It will be less of a problem when Hayne is fresh but i see it as a big problem only having one point of attack. last year coming into the finals we had many hayne, mortimer, robo and kingston were all firing at the same time.
Murf June 23, 2010 at 10:39am

Isnt amazing how you jump to conclusions. where do I blame KK for the loss? The thread is titled 'the play that killed us'.IN MY OPION this play cost us badly. Im actually a big fan of KK and Im not blaming him individually, but all our halves were terrible on monday and this play highligted their inablility to shut the game down. The fact is if we had come up with a better option after that set, Newcastle wouldn't have found it so easy to go around us and end up attacking our line.