Newcastle Knights

After leaving the field eight minutes into last Friday’s clash with the Roosters, following a high shot which saw him fall and hit his head on the ground, Ponga said the rugby league community has rallied around him this week, with Storm star Ryan Papenhuyzen – who has faced his own concussion issues in recent times – among those to reach out.

Ponga said while his desire is to play again this year for Newcastle, he isn’t getting his hopes up.   

With Sitili Tupouniua and Billy Smith gone for the season with knee injuries and Siosiua Taukeiaho out for at least a month with a facial fracture, the Roosters will need every ounce of their renowned fighting qualities to get to the play-offs for a sixth straight year.

The Knights have won just one of five since their round 13 bye and given up 156 points in the process, a worrying sign for Adam O'Brien, although with games against the Bulldogs, Tigers and Titans still to come they could yet get on a late roll.

Three days after helping Queensland win the Origin decider, Cherry-Evans was in fine touch at 4 Pines Park, helping Manly to score five unanswered tries in the final half hour and win for the sixth time in seven games at home this season. 

The two sides traded converted tries through the opening 20 minutes, but Manly pulled away in the final 10 minutes of the half thanks to a Saab try and Cherry-Evans penalty. 

Anthony Milford was sent to the bin just before the break for taking Reuben Garrick out off the ball. 

In the final nine rounds the Knights face only two sides currently inside the top eight, so there's good reason for optimism on the back of Friday's drubbing of the Titans.

One of those sides inside the eight is Souths, who head to Newcastle full of confidence after Mitchell's impressive return in the win over the Eels.

Both sides are missing key men on Origin duty but there's enough quality on show to suggest this will be a cracking contest in front of a big crowd in Knights homeland.

Lee set a Newcastle try-scoring record as the Knights romped to a comfortable victory with many of the club's greats on hand to celebrate Beanie for Brain Cancer round.

The 70th minute dismissal of Wallace for a lifting tackle further soured a dismal night for the Gold Coast, who were outgunned from the start and trailed 22-0 at halftime.

Both sides finished the match with 12 men after Newcastle prop David Klemmer was sinbinned for reacting to Wallace's tackle on Knights rookie Simi Sasagi.

The Knights launched their campaign with wins over the Roosters and Tigers before hitting the skids with seven straight losses while Gold Coast won two of their first four and pushed Parramatta and Canberra in the other two.

As they head into round 16, the Titans sit last, with a second wooden spoon in four years staring them in the face. The Knights are 12th, three wins outside the eight, but they can take some comfort in the fact their run home includes games against the Bulldogs, Tigers and the Titans again in round 24.

A stirring second half performance from the Knights, who fought back from a 14-0 deficit, threatened to snatch the win for the Raiders before Young came up with a grubber for himself to plant the ball down with a minute remaining.

It was a heart-breaking finish for the Knights, who got within reach of victory before Young, who played with Newcastle in his junior days, delivered under pressure to hand the Raiders their seventh win of the season. 

Led by the stoic efforts of Joseph Tapine and Jack Wighton, the Raiders can consider themselves a touch unlucky to have fallen by eight to the Eels, six to the Roosters and six to the Broncos over the past three weeks.

Prior to that, Ricky Stuart's men were superb in knocking off the Rabbitohs in Dubbo and the Sharks on the Shire but, at the end of it all, still head into Sunday's clash with just two Premiership points more than the Novocastrians.

Making just his second appearance for the Knights, Milford had a hand in three of Newcastle's four tries as they overcame an early 12-0 deficit to snatch just their second win in 10 weeks.

Leading 18-12 early in the second half the Warriors had put themselves in the box seat to notch a fifth win of the season but errors again proved costly and the opportunity was lost.

The Knights started well enough against Brisbane and looked to be dialled in but their hopes were dashed by a couple of controversial calls and a late Broncos stampede which blew the scoreline out.

Both sides will be desperate to turn their fortunes around and keep touch with the top eight and whoever controls the ball best and maintains their discipline will come away with the victory.