2006 Finals Week 2 vs Brisbane Broncos:
Brisbane 50 defeated Newcastle 6
Newcastle were obliterated off the park by a Brisbane side that was simply too good in every facet of play, in the second week of the finals series.
Newcastle, playing for a spot in the grand final qualifier, were extremely poor. They started with a good first 10 minutes, including a missed penalty goal attempt by Andrew Johns, but totally crumbled after that. They had 50 straight points scored against them, before at least avoiding the dreaded 0 with a late try.
The Knights initially stood up to some strong Brisbane attack, but ended up cracking in the 15th minute. Attacking inside the 20, Brisbane swung it wide. Justin Hodges hit the ball at pace, and although he was caught by Matthew Gidley, Brian Carney came in and left David Stagg with an open run to the line.
Brent Tate backed it up four minutes later with a try running inside off a Karmichael Hunt flick pass. The score looked as if it was staying that way until halftime - which Newcastle would have been happy with, but a double strike by the Broncos before the break snuffed out Newcastle's chances.
First of all a Darren Lockyer grubber found Justin Hodges - who snatched it out of Brian Carney's hands to score, then a Shaun Berrigan break from long range enabled him to find Karmichael Hunt on the inside, and Hunt strode across under the posts to make the halftime score 24-0.
Four more tries in 11 minutes after halftime made the result a humiliation for Newcastle. First Dane Carlaw dived over from short range; Petero Civoniceva did the same five minutes later; Darren Lockyer completed a movement spanning 50 metres; and to finish off Darius Boyd did the same in the 58th minute, with the best try of the game.
Eventually Kurt Gidley (Newcastle’s best by far) scored a well deserved try late in the match, in a play reminiscent of the week before.
Newcastle's mid-season faults came back to haunt them in an atrocious performance. It took the gloss off a successful season, that was a vast improvement over 2005. Fans will look forward to the prospect of further improvement in 2006 under new coach Brian Smith.
The loss took the record as Newcastle’s worst ever in a finals match, as well as the equal second worst finals loss of all time.