Knights bounce back at Brookvale

Newcastle have revived their season and snapped a four game losing streak, beating a directionless and ineffective Manly 26-12 at Brookvale Oval.

The Knights now sit in sixth position on the table with 20 points and seem to have re-gained the confidence they had early in the season. Manly on the other hand, without five-eighth Travis Burns and forward Steve Menzies, appear directionless, with this their third loss in a row.

The Novocastrians began the match strongly, keen to erase memories of their controversial loss to the Sharks last week, defending stoutly on their try-line before Brian Carney scored of the back of a smart set play in the 11th minute.

Captain Andrew Johns, attacking the short side, threw a cut out pass to Matt Gidley, before the former Australian centre found Carney on the inside of two Sea Eagles defenders, taking the score to 4-nil.

A barge over Anthony Watmough try in the 27th minute which gave Manly a 6-4 lead threatened to continue the trend of nail-biting Friday night matches. But the trend would not continue. From then onwards it was all Newcastle.

Just eight minutes later the Knights locked scores up at six when Matt Orford was penalised for a high shot of Newcastle’s teenage five-eighth Jarrod Mullen.

Mullen gained further retribution only moments later when he crashed over on the back of some impressive Knights forward play. Clint Newton threw a sublime cut-out pass to fellow second rower Todd Lowrie who broke up field. On the ensuing play Johns found Gidley, who sent Mullen to the line giving Newcastle 12-6 advantage.

Newcastle could have extended their lead further just before halftime when Gold Coast Titan-bound Irishman Carney kicked ahead a loose ball, but couldn’t regather with only open space ahead.

Just ten minutes into the second half Newcastle sealed the match on the back of some brilliant Johns play that resulted in two converted tries.

In the 42nd minute Johns sent fullback Nathan Hinton into the clear. On the next tackle Johns put George Carmont through a yawning gap in Manly’s defence. Johns’ conversion took the score to 18-6.

Seven minutes later Hinton claimed a Johns bomb under the posts to all but seal the match at 24-6.

A brilliant play from Manly in the 57th minute would prove to be the one highlight of an otherwise dull evening for the Sea Eagles. Feeding a scrum just inside his own half, Orford kicked ahead for flying fullback Brett Stewart who collected a kind bounce to score his 13th try of the season.

Manly continued to rally and attempt to mount a comeback but a lack of direction proved their downfall. On many occasions, they had attacking opportunities in the Knights 20, only to take a poor option.

The final score was reached two minutes before fulltime when Ben Kennedy was penalised for backchat in what was a running battle all night with referee Sean Hampstead.

The entire Knights team played well on the back of some vintage form from Andrew Johns. Their wingers, in particular the defence of Anthony Quinn who saved three certain Manly tries, continue their excellent form and sum up the never-say-die attitude of this team.

Manly seem to have lost their mongrel in a similar fashion to last season and will do well to regain their passion before the finals. That is if they get that far.

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