2007 Round 4 vs Melbourne Storm:
Melbourne 22 defeated Newcastle 12.
Newcastle took Melbourne close, but it was the Storm who prevailed in round 4 of the NRL. Newcastle went into the match after losing Andrew Johns to a worrying mid-week neck injury, but performed admirably against the competition favourites, and could have won had luck favoured them.
Melbourne opened the scoring with the first try in the fifth minute. Newcomer in 2007 Israel Folau took advantage of Adam MacDougall leaving his wing in defence, and crossed with relative ease.
Newcastle struck back quickly and efficiently though. First in the 17th minute Steve Simpson stepped right past Matt King to cross from close range. Then moments later in the 24th minute, after a landslide of possession, Danny Buderus provided a beautiful pass for Daniel Abraham to cross from close range without a hand being laid on him.
The Knights continued to dominate territory and possession, and it looked as if they had posted further points in the 30th minute. Newcastle spread the ball from a scrum on Melbourne's ten metre line, and Adam MacDougall made his way to the in-goal. Unfortunately for the Knights, Anthony Quinn did extremely well to hold MacDougall up, and force him to lose the ball.
Instead of an 18-6 lead to Newcastle, the break saw a 12 all scoreline when Matt King crossed from short range for Melbourne, thanks to a scintillating second man run from Billy Slater.
Melbourne scored soon after halftime when Anthony Quinn took advantage of a horror bounce for Kurt Gidley, from a regulation downfield kick. Gidley didn't show the urgency to get to the ball on the full, and the ball bounced perfectly for Quinn to cross. The rest of the match was a stalemate, punctuated by a short sharp downpour that made handling tricky, and a turn around in the possession stakes that saw chances hard to come by for the Knights. Eventually Israel Folau put the result beyond doubt for the Storm with his second try in the 77th minute.
The Newcastle performance was a gross improvement over the previous Monday night. With more penetration in attack (understandably lost when their halfback pulled out late in the week) they would have nailed the two points. Danny Buderus had an incredible game, considering it was his first of the year, and staked a claim to regain his test jumper in two weeks.
What they said:
Danny Buderus:
"I made one mistake. My main goal was not to make any."
Brian Smith:
"I thought we took it to them really well. Danny (Buderus) was outstanding and made a huge difference and I thought our middle was really good."
"Danny was outstanding, I've been in his fan club a long time. Straight off the bat, he made a hell of a difference. It's the first time since I've been here that I feel like we've got a footy team. We took it to them really well."
"We weren't good enough to get the jelly beans but if we continue to maintain that standard, we'll improve. If we don't, if we go back to being poxy, we'll be back to square one."
Craig Bellamy:
"I didn't want our blokes thinking Joey isn't playing so we'll relax now. I spoke to them about that, wanting our mentality to this game to stay the same whether Joey played or not."
"I was thinking 30 minutes into the game that I should have said nothing. We got off to a good start and then all of a sudden we pulled the gun out and started shooting ourselves in the foot. But, to our credit, when we got ourselves into trouble we defended very well."