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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
DAVID KLEMMER

DAVID KLEMMER: Fear of suspension won't change way I play

I know what's at stake with a possible suspension hanging over my head but I'm not going to curb the way I play against the Broncos on Saturday.

I'm aware that with my carry-over points, I can't afford even the slightest slip-up from now on or I'll be suspended and miss one of the the big games ahead. I know I need to be careful but it's not something that I'll stress over too much.

It's best not to even think about it because if I let it get in my head too much, I won't be concentrating on what I need to concentrate on.

David Klemmer

What I won't be doing is changing the way I play. I still want to be aggressive. I want to be fighting in tackles for a quick play-the-ball.

But I don't want to be sloppy with my defence and let a tackle slip up too high or get myself in a position where I could be pinged for a crusher, even though the majority of those are accidents anyway.

The bottom line is I've just got to be mindful of what I do without it taking up too many of my thoughts when I'm out there.

After missing last week's win over the Titans through suspension and another game a few weeks back because of concussion, there was no way I was going to be rested for this Broncos game. I'm feeling good and really excited to play.

The boys that have been given a spell like JSaif [Jacob Saifiti], Barney [Mitch Barnett], Brails [Jayden Brailey] and Hymel [Hunt] all deserve the time off and will benefit from it. But I can fully understand why Adzy [coach Adam O'Brien] has decided to keep everyone else going.

We are still a long way from where we want to be as a team and the more we play together the better.

The likes of Junior [Mitchell Pearce] and KP [Kalyn Ponga] want to play. They are like me, they love playing and I don't think you can look at it as an injury risk because there's a chance of that anytime you play or anytime you train.

If they were physically or mentally fatigued, then it may be a different story but after five wins in a row and with a heap more improvement left in us, everyone is just keen to get out there and compete hard and continue to build the momentum.

It's a great feeling to know we are playing finals footy again and given last year's experience when we went out fairly meekly in the first week, there's a real determination within the group not to see that happen again.

The Broncos will be a good test of our mentality this week. For the past four or five weeks, it's almost like we been playing sudden-death games every week given our battle to make the finals. This week, that pressure has gone.

But if we fall back into our old ways and let our guard down and go through the motions, the Broncos, with Alex Glenn playing his final game for the club, have the players to embarrass us.

That's the last thing we all want to happen.

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