The nib Newcastle Knights NRLW side earned their third straight victory against the Parramatta Eels at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
A late try and conversion secured a Semi-Finals berth for our side after facing a tough battle against the Eels.
The NRLW Head Coach Ronald Griffiths and fullback Tamika Upton spoke after the game on the last-minute win over the Eels and achieving the finals finish.
ON THE WIN
"To say I've secured it is definitely not right. We've got 27 players that have been there since day one and substantial support staff that has done an exceptional job in the five-week block," Griffiths said.
"Importantly, it's the players who have set the standard since day one. Tamika can probably talk on the performance today and being able to come out of the back-end when things were tough.
"Conditions were tough and Parramatta always come out tough and we knew that from the get go, so our middles did a really good job in there and we came out in the second half and held on....those games are the kind of games you get up for because they really stuck it to us," Upton said.
"This Semi-Final has been a long time in the making, July last year they started. We're just the beneficiaries of the hard work and platform that was laid. Importantly for us, whether we make the semis or not, our community just want a performance that they're proud of and that's all we've challenged our players to do and the clubs got behind that," Grifffiths continued.
"I know the value of the club in the Newcastle area because I was born and bred here. To go behind closed doors and see what that means to the players and the players before [Old Boys] is something extremely special....it means a lot.
ON TAMIKA'S ROLE
"I think I've sort of taken on a different role here which I'm really excited about. Playing with new players and obviously different coaching staff. They've really challenged me to broaden my game a bit and I'm really loving it so far," Upton said.
"I just want to talk further about Tamika's role at the club. When she came to the club, she was at a real athlete level and we spoke about a few different areas where we can work on and challenge. We've done that over time and we'll keep growing," Griffiths said.
"Today we spoke about leadership and we've seen that on the field today. We're in the coaches box with 7 minutes to go and the Assistant Coach goes 'Tamika's got to take control here okay'...that's the sort of player we've got here. Her game will go to the next level, we've got no doubt."
ON STEPHENS DALY
"She's having a scan tomorrow, she's got a little bit of a knee complaint so those sorts of conditions out there today...it was a precautionary thing to send her off."
