Canberra remain in the hunt for the NRL finals after clinching a 28-22 comeback win against a Newcastle side determined to defy a week of off-field turmoil.
The Raiders were unconvincing on Sunday afternoon and still need to win their remaining games against Manly and Wests Tigers to have any hope of qualifying for the play-offs.
A 20-0 second half will give the Raiders confidence heading into the final fortnight of the regular season but in his first game back from suspension, coach Ricky Stuart would have been frustrated by his side’s slow start.
The Knights’ turbulent week was headlined by an NRL Integrity Unit investigation into co-captain Kalyn Ponga and Kurt Mann.
But just as they did after David Klemmer’s run-in with a club trainer, Newcastle managed to divorce themselves from the dramas off the field to ambush their opposition on it.
On the back of a perfect completion rate and some fruitful kicking from Anthony Milford, the Knights produced their best 40 minutes since the opening month of the season to lead Canberra 22-8 at the break.
Stuart shot down suggestions his side had taken the 14th-placed Knights lightly in their preparations for the game.
“It’s not that at all, respectfully,” he said.
“I’d leave a player out if I sensed any type of complacency and I know the senior boys would come to me, too. It was definitely not that.”
Stuart instead pointed to skill errors and ill discipline for the half-time deficit.
“Giving some penalties away on tackle one or tackle two after a kick chase, passing and hoping on some of those rucks, that isn’t the standard we want to play at,” he said.
Edrick Lee and debutant Krystian Mapapalangi were called into the side after Enari Tuala and Bradman Best were dropped for disciplinary issues and they formed a promising combination on the left.
On the other side, Dom Young bagged a double of his own to affirm his status as one of the Knights’ best players in a poor season.
But the Knights’ goal-line defence has been vulnerable all year and was twice penetrated by tries from kicks in the opening exchanges of the second half.
The game no longer on their terms, the Knights were unable to fight the Green Machine as it rolled forward.
Raiders prop forwards Josh Papalii and Joe Tapine combined to gift Jack Wighton the runaway try which sealed victory.
Knights coach Adam O’Brien said it was the gulf in experience between the sides, not the club’s difficult week off the field, that thwarted Newcastle.
“The (difference in) experience between the two teams probably showed in the second half,” he said.
“It’s a young team.
“The way we started after halftime, we didn’t start with the same intent that we did in the first half.”
Newcastle are now staring down the possibility of finishing the season with their second-worst home record in club history.
The Knights have won just twice at home this year, fewer than in their 2005, 2015 and 2017 wooden spoon seasons, and face in-form Cronulla in their last home game of the season.
Corey Horsburgh was twice placed on report, most notably for late contact on Knights halfback Adam Clune.
