Newcastle has scored its first win of 2024 with a gritty 14-12 victory over an undermanned Melbourne side.
Earlier, Parramatta and Manly played out one of the games of the season so far with the Eels triumphing 28-24, but the later match at Hunter Stadium was of a much lower quality.
Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga produced some fine touches at key moments to help inspire his side to victory as the Storm’s many injuries took their toll in a disjointed performance.
“It wasn’t a great win, but it was a win we needed,” Knights forward Tyson Frizell told ABC Sport.
Coach Adam O’Brien said he was “relieved” to get on the board, even if it was not the team’s most polished performance.
“We made it hard on ourselves in the second half,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“At the end of the day, we just needed to find a way to win one.”
Meanwhile, the Storm copped their first loss of 2024 after victories over premiers Penrith and the Warriors in the first two rounds.
“We basically got what we deserved after our first half,” coach Craig Bellamy said.
“We didn’t complete well and weren’t really thinking about our footy and it ended up costing us in the end.”
Melbourne was without a slew of players including suspended halfback Jahrome Hughes and injured forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona (hamstring).
Hughes will return after the bye week next round, and Asofa-Solomona is also a chance after taking to the field in the NSW Cup in the curtain-raiser to the NRL clash.
But Bellamy said he still has “no idea” when Cameron Munster will be back from his groin injury.
Re-live all the the action in our blog below, and check out all the latest stats in our ScoreCentre.
Key events
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‘We got what we deserved’: Bellamy
Craig Bellamy says he’s “disappointed” but is relatively circumspect about the reality of the game.
“Urgh, not quite sure,” he says of how he’d sum up that performance.
“Pretty disappointed with a couple of aspects of our play, but pretty happy with others.
“We basically got what we deserved after our first half. We didn’t complete well and weren’t really thinking about our footy and it ended up costing us in the end.”
He says there’s no point dwelling on the players who aren’t there, so he’s not going to blame the loss on that.
Melbourne has a bye next week, which gives some players more time to heal, but Bellamy adds he still has “no idea” when Cameron Munster will be back from his groin injury.
Relief the overwhelming emotion for Knights coach Adam O’Brien
There’s a recognition from the Newcastle coach that it wasn’t the greatest performance from his side, but he’s hoping breaking that duck can be a bit of a launching platform for the Knights.
“Relieved. We needed to win,” he says in his post-match press conference.
“We made it hard on ourselves in the second half. At the end of the day, we just needed to find a way to win one.”
Captain Kalyn Ponga says it was a sloppy game skills-wise, but it could be worse.
“I’d rather be talking about that than our effort. [Dropped balls are] easily fixed, but you can’t fix attitude.”
We’re waiting to hear from the coaches
I can’t imagine either Adam O’Brien or Craig Bellamy will be overly impressed by that effort.
Newcastle’s football manager Peter Parr tells ABC Sport he thinks the Knights played better in their golden-point loss to the Cowboys last week.
FULL-TIME: Newcastle beats Melbourne 14-12 in one of the bleakest games you’ll see
I can’t stress this enough, it wasn’t pretty, but the Knights do enough to get on the board in 2024.
“It wasn’t a great win, but it was a win that we needed,” Tyson Frizell tells ABC Sport.
The Storm outscored the Knights 12-0 in that second half.
“We were pretty complacent in trying to defend the lead,” Frizell says.
Both teams were in double digits in terms of incomplete sets, if that tells you anything.
Newcastle missed 40 tackles and the Storm whiffed on 32.
80′ Papenhuyzen misses the two-pointer
The Storm gets nowhere near the tryline in that set, so Ryan Papenhuyzen tries the 43-metre field goal from close to the sideline.
Maybe if it was right in front he had the distance but this one falls short.
79′ Storm need to go 100 metres in 100 seconds
77′ Storm drop it again
One of their last chances evaporates as Jayden Brailey crushes Harry Grant in a tackle.
WISHART SCORES OUT OF NOWHERE! Melbourne is still alive!
Replacement Storm halfback Tyran Wishart throws a dummy while standing still, but it’s enough to sell it to Jayden Brailey and Leo Thompson doesn’t close the gap from the weak side, allowing Wishart to go through and beat Kalyn Ponga to the tryline.
It’s 14-12 heading into the final four minutes.
74′ Harry Grant loses a captain’s challenge, but keeps his captain’s challenge
Grant chased through a Jonah Pezet kick and forced a Ponga error, but he was ruled offside. He challenged and the replay was inconclusive, so they still have a challenge but the on-field decision is upheld.
71′ What was that?!
Ryan Papenhuyzen throws a cut-out ball back infield to Tyran Wishart, who chooses to just let the ball hit him, rather than catch it.
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It did not.
66′ Tyson Gamble costs the Knights
The Storm break down the left and Kane Bradley knocks on. It looks like the same thing we’ve seen 100 times tonight, but Harry Grant nails his captain’s challenge, earning a penalty for Tyson Gamble absolutely crushing Ryan Papenhuyzen off the ball.
But Bradman Best forces the error from Eli Katoa with a ball and all tackle, so that’s another incomplete set for the Storm.
65′ Very ugly fall for Ryan Papenhuyzen
The Melbourne fullback leaps over Leo Thompson and comes down at a horribly dangerous angle.
Thompson is penalised and goes on report for tunnelling under Papenhuyzen.
63′ ANOTHER KICK OUT ON THE FULL
Jonah Pezet joins the list with some help from Knights winger Tom Jenkins marking with a foot out of bounds.
59′ Warbrick has lost his AFL skills
57′ Tyson Frizell saves the day for the Knights … twice
Tyran Wishart breaks through for Melbourne and tries to find Ryan Papenhuyzen, but Tyson Frizell chases back and drags down Wishart as Ponga covers Papenhuyzen on the outside.
Then they try an in-out play with Pezet and Papenhuyzen, but Frizell turns up again.
55′ Another miscue from the Storm just as something was building
Ryan Papenhuyzen breaks through from the middle and scythes across field to try to find Nick Meaney, but he flings the pass way behind him and Meaney can’t handle.
This has been such a messy match. Even the pitch looks slippery.
53′ The Knights attack from halfway
Tepai Moeroa gives away a penalty for ruck infringement and puts Newcastle on the front foot.
But Kai Pearce-Paul gets too ambitious trying to offload and loses the ball.
He’s convinced Kalyn Ponga to challenge it, and that’s a shocking call from the youngster. The ball was knocked by Moeroa, but there was no intent and he was barely hanging on to it.
Papenhuyzen gets a try on the crumb!
Jonah Pezet’s kick put Xavier Coates in a contest with Thomas Jenkins, who couldn’t handle and knocked it straight into the hands of Ryan Papenhuyzen to touch down.
It was a neat kick, but typical that the Storm’s first try would come from their opponents’ knock-on.
47′ Another Storm knock-on lets the Knights off the hook
Again it’s a mistimed pass from Trent Loiero in the link-man role, and Ryan Papenhuyzen can’t handle.
And Phoenix Crossland and Adam Elliott give it straight back.
This is not a high-class game of NRL football.
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