The nib Newcastle Knights Jersey Flegg side pulled off their second win of the season on the weekend, placing them at the top of the 2018 Under 20s ladder.
On a hot afternoon at Cessnock Sportsground, the Knights managed to tough out the conditions to put 40 on the Wests Tigers to record a 22-point win.
Coach Todd Lowrie admits it was great to get another win, but ultimately it wasn’t their best performance.
“It was a big win, it was really hot and guys from both teams were battling a bit and we just managed to handle it a little bit better than they did,” explained Lowrie.
“While I was happy with the result, we didn’t really play that well and were well below our best.
“The standards that we set for ourselves were well below where we want them to be and we were just fortunate enough to pile on a bunch of points.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do and our ball handling in particular has got to have a hell of a lot of improvement.”
The Jersey Flegg coach says that while they are still a relatively new team, his side made silly mistakes that could have cost them.
“We were guilty of silly errors and lack of concentration,” he said.
“We weren’t making errors because we were trying things and our combinations, we were just making silly unforced errors which was the frustrating thing.
“Luckily we were able to do enough, score enough points and get the result.”
All in front of a home crowd with a three game fixture for the day.
“We played after the 16s and the 18s and a few parents stayed and watched our game so I think the boys enjoyed having the younger guys there,” claimed Lowrie.
“It was a good day for the Club.”
Despite Lowrie being unhappy with their efforts, he did mention some standouts.
“Beau Fermor was really good, he certainly had his best game for us and I thought Jirah (Momoisea) was really good in the middle."
“Mathew Croker was good when he came off the bench for us and got through the game unscathed.
“That’s his first game for the year so hopefully he can keep building on that.”
