2006 Round 19 vs Melbourne Storm:
Melbourne 24 defeated Newcastle 16.
Melbourne did enough to take the two points from Newcastle in a tough round 19 clash at Newcastle, but not without a bit of controversy to rile the large home crowd. Newcastle were penalised while in possession midway through the second half when Anthony Quinn repeatedly mouthed-off at a touch-judge. From the resulting penalty, Melbourne scored what ended up being a crucial try. Debate raged over the merits of the penalty post-match, but there was no doubting it was yet another case of Newcastle making basic errors, and their opposition capitalising.
Newcastle started the match in fine form, when a Jarrod Mullen kick got a result in the 7th minute. Mullen first put Matthew Gidley into a half-hole, then from the ensuing play kicked back towards the goalposts. The kick was batted back by the Knights, then passed wide to Anthony Quinn, who found his way over in the corner. Andrew Johns could not convert into a strong wind, leaving Newcastle 4-0 up.
Melbourne replied quickly however, when Cooper Cronk somehow managed to squeeze over for a try in the 11th minute. Getting the ball from a Clint Newton dropped ball from the kick-off, Cronk looked to be heading for touch in-goal, but Anthony Quinn fell off the tackle, and Cronk was able to just get the ball down. Cameron Smith converted, giving the visitors a 2 point advantage.
Scores were locked up again in the 21st minute, when Andrew Johns kicked a penalty goal, but five minutes later the Storm regained the lead. From 20 metres out, Cameron Smith kicked from dummy-half and found Billy Slater steaming onto the ball. Slater was able to force the ball, and the conversion from beside the posts made the score 12-6.
Newcastle made the final scoring play of the first half nine minutes from the break, when Brian Carney crossed. Capitalising on a repeat set, Jarrod Mullen sent a beautiful pass over the 'up and in' Melbourne defence, and Carney was left with an unopposed run to the line. Johns missed again with the conversion, but Newcastle would not have been too displeased to only trail by two points at halftime, running into a stiff gale.
Scores stayed the same until Anthony Quinn was penalised in the 53rd minute, and Jeremy Smith scored from the next set. Smith gave a pass to David Kidwell who smashed into the Knights tacklers, but somehow popped up a miraculous pass back to Smith, who was able to accelerate past the Newcastle defence and run 20 metres to score. Again Smith converted, leaving Newcastle with an eight point gap to make up.
Newcastle closed that gap back down to two in the 71st minute when Anthony Quinn found himself in space, almost involuntarily, as a Melbourne tackler fell off the stationary Quinn, leaving him with a 40 metre sprint to the line. Quinn did very well to force the ball in the corner, and Andrew Johns' sideline conversion was a beauty.
Newcastle did have their chances to score the match-winning try, but couldn't crack Melbourne. With a minute left on the clock and the Knights hot on attack, Steve Turner intercepted a desperate Matthew Gidley pass, only to be caught by Jarrod Mullen 50 metres downfield. From the next play Reegan Tanner missed a simple tackle on Ryan Hoffman, and Hoffman crossed to seal the victory.
Newcastle played well in patches, but had only themselves to blame for failing to arrest their form slump, which now read at only one victory since round 11. Their once 150+ for and against now read at a poor 5, and the possibility of missing the top 8 looms large.
Perhaps fittingly, Jarrod Mullen was the Knights best, outplaying his more illustrious halves partner. Were it not for the injured knee of Kurt Gidley, Mullen would be in Premier League, as coach Michael Hagan continues to refuse to make a single change to a poorly performing side.
What they said:
Anthony Quinn:
"[On being penalised] I appealed to the touch judge after I had an arm wrapped around my neck - and an elbow. I knew he would have had a clear view. These days, you can't even look at touchies without something happening. I'll just have to keep my mouth shut from now on. I don't deny I did swear at him. In the heat of battle, everyone lets out a couple. They say they were looking at the ruck - in my opinion, they weren't."
Michael Hagan:
"[On Quinn being penalised] You obviously can't talk to an official at any stage, so we've probably got to wear that. But I don't think we had much luck either. There were a couple of calls I was a little bit puzzled by, but I'm not going to complain too much. Although I would say that with the Billy Slater try from a kick - I would have thought he'd at least had a look at that one. I thought he was probably a metre in front, to be fair. That's what it [video referee] is there for - to get them right - and if they've got that one wrong I'll be dirty."
"[On Melbourne] They're the most disciplined, consistent team in the comp. But we're not too far behind them. The winning and losing was important, but not life-threatening. It was an important game, important from coming off a bad performance and also seeing where we're at against Melbourne. I think we're a bit wiser on that, just a bit disappointed about not getting the two points."
Brett White:
"[Did he grapple Quinn?] Have a look at the footage. There was certainly no grapple. It's unfortunate he has to say things like that. It's disappointing when they still want to bring it up."
Matt Geyer:
"I just thought our defence was courageous out there. It's a bit of faith, a bit of self-belief. We do work hard. Craig's famous for it, making us have big off seasons. You can't have a good season without a good off season."
Craig Bellamy:
"It's a young team, but they've got that real strong self-belief, especially when they get inside our 20. We're just working for each other. Whatever they come up with, we just find a way to snuff it out."
"[On the minor premiership] We've got a game on Friday [against Cronulla]. That's the goal. If we start thinking about minor premierships, seven or eight weeks down the track, we'll slide. I'm not saying don't read newspapers. Everyone does. It's just a matter of filtering things that you need to know, things that you need to think about. You've just got to worry about next week."
"This was a real challenge for us. We haven't played away for five weeks, and we haven't played a day game for four or five weeks. To come to Newcastle - obviously they're looking to make up for last week. We knew we were going to run into a bit of an ambush. But we won another close game."