Round 11: Knights v Titans preview
Titans Look to Keep Strong Form Rolling Against Refreshed Knights Outfit
Through 10 rounds of NRL football, the competition ladder is as close as ever. 7 teams are tied with 5 wins each, while the cellar dwelling Tigers are only 3 wins out of the top eight after going their first 7 games without a win.
Two sides right in the thick of this tight squeeze for the 8 are the Knights and Titans. The Knights were showing promise early in the season, but have since fallen off the boil a bit, with their recent bye preceded by poor losses against the Cowboys and Eels. Newcastle have a tough schedule coming up; 5 of their next 6 games are against teams current in the top eight, so they will need to turn things around and fast if they want to avoid anchoring themselves near the bottom of the table.
The Titans on the other hand are playing some of the best football we've seen on the Gold Coast in a long time. While it may only be good for a 5-4 record, 3 of the 4 losses have seen them leading at half time, and in their last two wins they've shown a newfound ability to go on with the job. Facing the Knights this week and the Bulldogs next week before a bye in round 13, the Titans will be eager to continue their winning ways and establish themselves in the top 8 before the origin period.
In team news, Phoenix Crossland is back into the starting side at hooker for Newcastle, replacing the injured Kurt Mann, while Adam Elliott is back and will come off the bench.
For the Titans, Jayden Campbell remains at fullback as AJ Brimson continues to recover from a hamstring injury. Keano Kini drops back to the reserves after making his debut last week, with Kruise Leeming coming back onto the bench to make his fourth appearance for the Gold Coast.
Last meeting: Round 24 2022 - Titans 36 Knights 26
Who to watch: There's one player that immediately comes to mind when thinking of the Knights and over the years he's become quite the polarising figure among Rugby League circles. It's been great to see Kalyn Ponga back on the field after suffering yet another concussion issue earlier in the season, but his form since returning has been a mixed bag to say the least. In his first game back against his old club the Cowboys, Ponga was clearly a bit gun shy off the bat, but as the game went on he warmed into the contest and was looking close to his best in attack, clearly establishing himself as Newcastle's best option close to the line. The next week against the Eels was probably the wort performance of his career, making 13 tackles and missing 8 in a blowout loss. If Ponga continues to struggle at five-eighth, it isn't as simple as simply dropping him back to fullback due to the emergence of Lachlan Miller in the custodian role. He'll have a big job on the weekend against the dynamic Titans edges.
It was a shame to see new Titans recruit Sam Verrills go down early in the season with another long-term injury, but a silver lining has been the emergence of Chris Randall on the Gold Coast. During his time in Newcastle, Randall showed himself to be a solid if not spectacular option at hooker who was more than capable of holding his own defensively. He has certainly upheld that reputation at the Titans, making 266 tackles this season at an average of 33.25 per game, which is made even more impressive when you consider he's only played a full 80 minutes twice. He is also doing so at an efficiency rate 95.3%, only missing more than 3 tackles in a game once (during a 38-34 shootout victory against Melbourne). Coming up against his old club on Sunday, Randall will surely have some extra fire in the belly and be wanting to show Newcastle what they are missing out on.
Favourite: The Titans are 1.5 favourites in this one at the time of writing.
My tip: While I expect Newcastle to produce a much, much improved showing in front of their home crowd on Sunday, the Titans have been too good in recent weeks for me to tip against them. Titans by 8.
