KNIGHTS fullback Shannon McDonnell saved the Knights from "torture" at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.
On the spot to shut down a potential matchwinning play for the Bulldogs in the final 90 seconds, scrambling to secure a ball kicked ahead by Jamal Idris, McDonnell said he did not know what to expect when the dreadlocked centre burst into space down the Dogs' right edge.
McDonnell's heroics meant the Knights hung on to win 20-16, but had Idris instead passed inside to unmarked winger Steve Turner, the former Storm speedster appeared to have a clear path to the line for a try under the posts and a simple conversion.
"I didn't know what he was going to do. I was showing him the sideline and if he wanted to take it, he could have a go, but I knew Turner was on the inside so I just wanted to make him play and go from there," McDonnell said.
"We didn't know what they were going to throw at us. We were under the pump a bit at the end there, the clock started ticking slowly, but we needed to pull off a big set in 'D' [defence] and I thought the forwards stayed tough and we grinded it out.
"It would have been torture if they scored, and we talked about that. We'd worked too hard and prepared too well to let it come away from us in the last five minutes, so we were stoked."
Knights coach Rick Stone did not second-guess Idris's decision but praised McDonnell's poise under pressure.
"That was a heart-wrencher, that's for sure. That happens in footy, and sometimes they go with you and sometimes they don't," Stone said.
"I thought Shannon McDonnell scrambled himself pretty well and handled the situation really well. The gods went with us, which is nice, but what comes around goes around usually in footy so maybe we'll get stung another day."
When he looks at replays of his kick, Idris will wonder what might have been been had he passed inside.
But Turner and Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore stuck solidly by the 19-year-old giant.
"I think Jamal obviously thought the kick was the best option but it's something we'll probably look at, whether he could have passed it, maybe he could have taken the fullback on, but that's football and we learn from those mistakes and we move onto next week," Turner said.
"Obviously Jamal thought that was the right thing at the time but it didn't come off this week; maybe it will come off next week.
"My eyes lit up and had the bounce of the ball gone my way we could have scored and might have won the game, but that's football."
Moore said the Bulldogs should not have allowed the game to be decided by that play.
"Look, it's easy after the event. There's a lot of other reasons why we didn't win the footy game," Moore said.
"It's something we maybe look at with Jamal, but as I say, there was plenty of other things throughout the game that contributed to us being in that situation in the first place."
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