2006 Round 7 vs Melbourne Storm:
Melbourne 52 defeated Newcastle 6.
Melbourne were white hot, and the Knights were well off the pace, as the loss of Andrew Johns played a key role in the round 7 victory to the Storm. Johns was ruled out mid-week with an ankle injury sustained against North Queensland the week before, and without him Newcastle were little more than a training run for the Storm, who displayed their best form of the season. Fittingly it was the Storm's first home game of the year, after playing away from home so far in 2006 to avoid clashing with the Commonwealth Games.
Newcastle got off to the worst possible start when Kurt Gidley kicked off on the full. From the ensuing penalty, the Storm's latest fullback sensation Greg Inglis found space and coasted over to hand Melbourne a 6 point lead within the first minute of play. A 10th minute penalty to Cameron Smith extended the lead to 8-0.
Newcastle struck back soon enough, when a Jarrod Mullen grubber kick found space behind the Storm defensive line. Kurt Gidley was there to pounce, and the converted try reduced the margin to 2 points.
That was the end of Newcastle's resistance, however, as the Storm proceeded to run riot. Continual errors and penalties by Newcastle provided them with a glut of possession, and in the 20th minute Melbourne capitalised. In good attacking position, Cameron Smith ran the ball from dummy half, then grubber-kicked towards the wing. Greg Inglis got around Brian Carney with ease, and was able to ground the ball. A sideline conversion by Smith made the score 14-6.
A simple dropped ball by Anthony Quinn in the 30th minute gave the Storm a scrum feed on the Knights 40 metre line. A wayward Michael Crocker pass from the resulting backline movement came out smelling of roses, however, when the ball was regathered, then given to Greg Inglis, who flew down the left hand edge, past Brian Carney again, as well as a determined Danny Buderus chase, to score under the posts. The Melbourne lead further expanded when Steve Turner chased a kick downfield. An awkward bounce saw him beat David Seage to the ball to score, and the lead at halftime was 24-6.
If there was hope of an improved contest after the break they were short-lived, with Melbourne picking up where they left off. David Kidwell marched through non-existent defence in the 43rd minute to put the ball down under the posts, well and truly putting the game out of the Knights reach. 10 minutes later Ryan Hoffman gave a beautiful flick pass to Jake Webster, who raced 40 metres to score. Just prior to this Josh Perry was involved in a scuffle in which he kneed Nathan Friend, then as Webster scored the try Anthony Quinn came in with a cheap shot. The poor discipline by the Knights players threatened to turn the game ugly, but to the Melbourne players credit, they did not retaliate in either instance. Instead the incidents, particularly the Perry kneeing, were left in the hands of the match-reviewers.
Cooper Cronk found Matt King with a well placed bomb in the 61st minute to extend the lead to 42-6. Antonio Kaufusi made his way through some limp goal-line defence in the 71st minute, and then the rout was completed (and the 50 points brought up) in the 77th. Ian Donnelly hit the ball up right underneath the posts, lost the ball backwards, and Matt Geyer showed tremendous awareness to pick the ball up and score an opportunist try. The conversion left the full-time score 52-6.
Melbourne would have to be pleased with a dominating performance, whilst the Knights were dreadful in all faucets of the game. Constant battles with the referee and niggles in general play did not help their cause, likewise for the strange tactics which rarely saw replacement halfback Jarrod Mullen get the ball at first receiver. Newcastle were also without Reggan Tanner, who withdrew on gameday with a virus, meaning Milton Thaiday, who was going to be omitted with a knee-injury after originally being named at fullback, took a place on the bench. Newcastle's ability to win without Andrew Johns shows little sign of increasing, and on this performance the problem is bigger than ever.
What they said:
Michael Hagan:
"The energy we used up, and the build-up to the game last week was huge, and it probably had an impact on our performance tonight, which was very impatient and ill-disciplined at times."
"We had a few things that weren't ideal from our preparation, and there were some decisions from the referee that didn't help us, but I'm not trying to shift the blame. You won't hear any excuses from my end. We were poor in a lot of areas."
Cooper Cronk:
"We just played a real up-tempo game and they couldn't go with us."
Craig Bellamy:
"It is easily our best performance of the year and I said to our players, 'I think that was our best defensive performance since I came here (in 2003)'."
"I know they didn't have Johns, but they had a lot of good players. They might have scored a few more points had Joey played, but our defensive effort was tremendous. Sure we scored plenty, but it was our defence that laid the platform."