2007 Round 17 vs Parramatta Eels:
Newcastle 34 defeated Parramatta 10.
It may have cost several fans cardiac arrests along the way, but round 17 saw Newcastle finally win a match by more than six points - and they did it in style, blitzing a blundering Parramatta outfit 34-10.
The match was significant as the first match-up between “coach-swap” participants Brian Smith and Michael Hagan, and Smith was the clear winner, the Knights out-pointing the Eels from kick-off.
Mitchell Sargent started the carnage in the third minute when he took advantage of an Adam Woolnough offload to crash over close to the line. Daniel Abraham sparked the next try in the 16th minute when he grubbered ahead on the 40 metre line. Adam MacDougall was able to regather the well placed kick, and pass inside to Steve Simpson who had open passage to the tryline.
It was in the final ten minute of the first half that Newcastle more-or-less sealed the match though. First Kurt Gidley added a penalty goal, then from the very next set Danny Buderus went straight up the middle of the Parramatta ruck and found George Carmont in support. Carmont raced away to score, and the halftime score was an intimidating 20-0.
McManus showed excellent evasion to dives over in the 47th minute, then George Carmont was on hand to take advantage of another exceptional play - this time a Cory Paterson offload right on the tryline - to score his second try in the 50th.
Parramatta finally got some points on the board through tries to Feleti Mateo and Krisnan Inu, but they were interspersed by Adam MacDougall brushing off some weak attempted tackles to score in the 66th minute.
Parramatta were awful in every aspect of play, but Newcastle were exceptional. The forwards consistently made it over the advantage line, and they showed plenty of flair to score six tries. Danny Buderus was again the choice of most as man of the match.
The win left Newcastle with a 3/4 winning rate on Monday nights, but it won’t get any easier with Melbourne again on the opening night of the week in round 18.
What they said:
Brian Smith:
"What you guys need to understand about this sort of job is that when you start off, you've got to learn to put emotion to one side and deal with what's got to be done."
"I've coached blokes who are my best mates, I've coached my own brother - at times, I've dealt with people I care about a lot - but you've got to put all of that sort of stuff aside and deal with things."
"As for going back to [my old] ground, if someone can organise for that game to be worth four points for us, or six or maybe eight, then it would have been real special."
"I would very much like to have been able to talk about Parramatta and their individuals, but we're just not capable of doing that at this stage. Ask me that question next year and I will be able to say, 'Yeah, we focused on this, that or the other'."
"It was (the best win) without any shadow of a doubt. They (Parramatta) looked a bit rusty and I thought our boys dealt with the (wet) conditions better."
Adam MacDougall:
[On Brian Smith] "He didn't mention the P-word, but we obviously wanted to get a good result for him. We knew this game meant a lot for him as a coach. Full credit to Smithy, as much as he would have wanted to win against his old club, there was no nerves or anxiety."