Press conference: Jacob Lillyman on Round 5
The nib Newcastle Knights are back at home this week after three games on the road, set to play their Round 5 clash against the Brisbane Broncos at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday.
Red and blue forward Jacob Lillyman said the team will get a massive kick out of finally playing on home soil again.
“To be back here Saturday night against the Broncos, we consider this a massive game for us,” explained Lillyman.
“We’re all really looking forward to it and we just want to get out there and have a red-hot crack and hopefully walk off the field proud.”
Being a new recruit to the Knights, Lillyman has been impressed with the support shown by Novocastrians and believes it’s important to make sure they lock down the games at home.
“Running out in front of that vocal Newcastle crowd is something that we hold dear and it certainly helps us, especially in Round 1 in that tight game it helped us get home,” added Lillyman.
“We really feed off that energy playing at home, so we’ve got to bank as many wins there as we can.
“We’ve spoken about it before how much support we get in Newcastle and how our passionate fans are.
“We’ve had a couple of disappointing games back to back so we really owe it to them to come out and give them something to hold on to and be proud of their team.”
After last weekend’s 20-point loss to the Dragons, Lillyman is adamant they need to build some momentum.
“We were very disappointed (Dragons game), it’s not a performance that we can be proud of where some fundamentals of the game really let us down,” he said.
“Errors in yardage and good ball sets on our line, so that one certainly hurt.
“Our physical intent needs to go up and we’ll look to do that this weekend.”
Lillyman knows the Broncos forward pack will be a definite challenge on Saturday.
“They’ve got some new players with (Matt) Lodge and (Tevita) Pangai Junior who have really been aiming up and are certainly a good challenge through the middle.
“They come on to the ball early and they’re very powerful, so we’ve got to meet that challenge head on and that will go a long way to winning the game.”
