Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
David Klemmer

DAVID KLEMMER: "We need to respect our fans far more than that."

What an absolute let down.

I don't think I have seen a group of players more filthy on themselves than us over the loss to the Wests Tigers last Sunday.

For me personally, it took a couple of days just to get over it and move on. To perform like we did and make the errors we made was bad enough at home in front of a great crowd. To do it in a milestone game such as Pearcey's [Mitchell Pearce] 300th made it a lot worse.

David Klemmer

It was inexcusable and only continues to highlight where we are as a club. It shows us we still have a way to go to shake off some of the scarring of the past.

But the great thing about our game is you don't get time to dwell for too long on the negatives before the next challenge comes along and losing last week makes Sunday's clash with the Dragons even more important.

We simply can't lose back-to-back games at home. That's been spoken about among the boys and our coaching staff this week. We need to respect our fans far more than that. Specifically, we can't dish up another error-riddled 80 minutes like we did against the Tigers.

From the players' perspective, the fact we are missing some troops is not an excuse and we won't be tossing it up as one.

We have a 'next man up' mindset among the playing group so that if someone goes down, there is someone there to come in and fill the void - someone with the confidence of all the boys to do a job and get the business done.

In saying that, there have been a lot of smiles around the camp this week knowing that Greeny [Blake Green] will be back on deck for us on Sunday.

The guy has been an absolute inspiration for all of us with the way he has gone about getting his knee right to come back.

It's been a long road for him - around seven months all up - and for a 34-year-old to be all-in and totally focused and committed to his rehab for that length of time is pretty special.

For the past couple of weeks, Greeny has been running the offence against the main squad in opposed sessions at training and we've been running pretty hard at him when we have had the footy as he gets his confidence back.

After sessions, he's been getting the younger boys running at him to get him used to the contact and help with his timing in defence.

He looks strong and just having him there with his experience and his talk will make a big difference to our mindset.

I'm not sure what sort of minutes he will be looking at first up but whatever Adzy [coach Adam O'Brien] decides, you can bet his contribution will make a difference to us.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Tyson Frizell come up against his old club. Friz has been outstanding for us in our three games and I reckon he would have had this one penciled in long ago.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.