2007 Round 15 vs Gold Coast Titans:
Gold Coast 28 defeated Newcastle 22.
A dramatic match ended with Newcastle going home empty handed, and Mat Rogers becoming the toast of town on the Gold Coast. It was the first time Newcastle had played a Gold Coast side since 1998, but the long-running jinx continued, with a last-second tackle by Rogers on Cory Paterson preventing Kurt Gidley from attempting a sideline conversion to enter golden-point time.
The first half was atrocious for Newcastle, with completions at an all time low. Matt Peterson scored in the fourth minute to get the Gold Coast off to a flyer, but Luke Walsh replied quickly when Kuyrt Gidley knocked the ball free from Preston Campbell on kick return.
Depsite the terrible handling on display by Newcastle, they restricted the first half scoring to one further try by the Titans, when Brett Delaney reached out to plant the ball in the 14th minute.
Newcastle would have been optimistic at the break that they could turn it around, but the second half went try for try - the Knights able to fight back, but never quite draw level. Matt Peterson scored first in the 43rd minute, courtesy of some fantastic footwork by Scott Prince. Newcastle hit back in the 52nd when Daniel Tolar found his way into a huge gap to run under the posts untouched.
Chasing a kick, Chris Bailey attempted a shoulder charge on Matt Peterson, but missed badly allowing Peterson to get away and pass to Mat Rogers who scored in the 55th minute. It took until the 66th minute for the Knights to hit back, through Adam MacDougall, who caught a Jarrod Mullen cross-field bomb.
What was probably the final nail in the coffin came in the 71st minute when Ian Donnelly offloaded close to the line to Matt Peterson to score. The sideline conversion by Mat Rogers made the score 28-18. Newcastle refused to concede though, and they returned serve in the 76th minute when James McManus showed brilliant finishing skills to dive over in the corner.
It lead to one final raid by the Knights - first Mitchell Sargent looked to have almost found a way across, then with no time left on the clock, Cory Paterson made it across the line, only for Mat Rogers to somehow force him back. Although they got close, the awful first half performance ended up costing Newcastle any chance of victory.
What they said:
Danny Buderus:
"I guess most teams are looking for spirit and that's one thing I know we've got an abundance of here at Newcastle. We're looking for polish and that's going to come with experience."
Brian Smith:
"I think the boys did everything they possibly could in terms of effort."
"We took some guys into the game that courageously took needles to get themselves in the right state for them to play. Despite that we were still coming over the top of them at the end."
John Cartwright:
"We blew a lot of opportunities, especially in the second half when we should have put them away."
"I think we suffered a bit of a let down after our performance last week against the Tigers, a lot of effort went into that and it was an emotional win in the end. I think we were a bit flat tonight, but it's always a good sign when you can come away with a win when you think you were a bit flat."
"They were very courageous, when we got 10 points in front I was hoping we'd win by 20."