Mitchell Pearce painted a grim picture of what he believes has been the real difference between the Knights and the NRL's premiership heavyweights after a sixth straight loss on Saturday night to the Eels left his side's finals hopes on life support.
"The best teams have the sort of resilience and desire we showed tonight every week for 80 minutes," he said. "That's the big difference. Where was that effort from us over the past four or five weeks? How do you explain it? I can't. But when it all boils down, it's why we aren't going to make the eight."
Pearce said everyone was hurting after the 20-14 defeat to Parramatta at Bankwest Stadium left the Knights three points out of the top eight and needing four consecutive wins and other results to go their way to have any hope of playing finals footy.
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A far more likely scenario now is Newcastle will be without finals footy for the sixth consecutive year.
Prop David Klemmer, who was placed on report in the final minute for raising his forearm, was left frustrated and angry and didn't want to talk after the game, while back-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon was emotional and in tears.
Mitchell Pearce, centre, said the Knights had let themselves down, while Lachlan Fitzgibbon, left, was in tears after the match.Credit:AAP
Pearce said he was yet to process his side's likely fate.
"Ask me tomorrow how I feel," he said. "You train all year for it and we've let ourselves down. We let our standards slip these last six weeks."
It was billed as a must-win game for the Knights and their effort reflected it. But it still wasn't enough to get the job done.
Possession proved to be the key. The Eels had too much of it and the Knights not enough. The best stat to illustrate that was Parramatta had the ball for eight minutes longer than the Knights, which equated to 10 full sets more. When they did have the footy, the Knights were mostly rucking it out from their own end and struggled to leave an imprint on the Eels defence.
"We basically only had two good ball sets for 60 minutes there and we scored off two kicks. Other than that, I thought they pinned us in the corner a lot and when it mattered at the end when we were chasRead More – Source
Mitchell Pearce painted a grim picture of what he believes has been the real difference between the Knights and the NRL's premiership heavyweights after a sixth straight loss on Saturday night to the Eels left his side's finals hopes on life support.
"The best teams have the sort of resilience and desire we showed tonight every week for 80 minutes," he said. "That's the big difference. Where was that effort from us over the past four or five weeks? How do you explain it? I can't. But when it all boils down, it's why we aren't going to make the eight."
Pearce said everyone was hurting after the 20-14 defeat to Parramatta at Bankwest Stadium left the Knights three points out of the top eight and needing four consecutive wins and other results to go their way to have any hope of playing finals footy.
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A far more likely scenario now is Newcastle will be without finals footy for the sixth consecutive year.
Prop David Klemmer, who was placed on report in the final minute for raising his forearm, was left frustrated and angry and didn't want to talk after the game, while back-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon was emotional and in tears.
Mitchell Pearce, centre, said the Knights had let themselves down, while Lachlan Fitzgibbon, left, was in tears after the match.Credit:AAP
Pearce said he was yet to process his side's likely fate.
"Ask me tomorrow how I feel," he said. "You train all year for it and we've let ourselves down. We let our standards slip these last six weeks."
It was billed as a must-win game for the Knights and their effort reflected it. But it still wasn't enough to get the job done.
Possession proved to be the key. The Eels had too much of it and the Knights not enough. The best stat to illustrate that was Parramatta had the ball for eight minutes longer than the Knights, which equated to 10 full sets more. When they did have the footy, the Knights were mostly rucking it out from their own end and struggled to leave an imprint on the Eels defence.
"We basically only had two good ball sets for 60 minutes there and we scored off two kicks. Other than that, I thought they pinned us in the corner a lot and when it mattered at the end when we were chasRead More – Source
