A frustrated Adam O’Brien has declared claims the Knights are a “basket case” are “unfair” after a strong performance, albeit in a last-gasp loss to the Warriors.
New Zealand back rower Leka Halasima scored on the buzzer to snatch a 20-15 win after late drama at McDonald Jones Stadium, stunning the home crowd.
It came after a nightmare week for the Knights, with reports emerging O’Brien was set to be axed at the end of the season, with the club preparing to pay him out of his contract.
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Then Kalyn Ponga’s future came under the microscope before he silenced reports of a move, taking to Instagram to confirm he would see out his current deal.
Adding to the chaos, the Newcastle squad was hit with a virus which kept majority of the squad bedridden within 24 hours of their Round 20 clash.
Speaking after the loss, O’Brien was asked if he was proud of his squad’s performance despite the reports their coach was set to be sacked.
“Yeah, well they are not just playing for me, they are playing for our club, for their town,” O’Brien said.
“They have done that all year, these boys haven’t rolled over or turned it up once… the narrative out there that we are a basket case or whatever is really unfair.
“The injury toll is understated from you guys, like it has been huge and has been all year. But they haven’t lost their fight, they haven’t lost their competitive spirit, resilience.
“They have got it in spades, so you put that in a footy team, you can add some other stuff but that’s a key ingredient you have got to have.
“I reckon the town would have been proud of them.”
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Skipper Dane Gagai was also asked whether his team’s performance proved the squad were “behind their coach”.
“Well we all have a job to do, I know this bloke here always puts in 100 per cent,” he said.
“He’s up late at night cutting video, watching games, preparing us the best way he can. Us as individuals, it’s up to us to go out on that field and put in a performance where we can win.
“I don’t think you get that type of performance when there’s any division in the playing group of coaching staff, we all wear the same brand, same logo.
“We are all in this together and we all have each other’s backs no matter what and I think that showed tonight.”
O’Brien also revealed the extent of the virus that ripped through his squad, spending Sunday morning simply trying to work out who was healthy.
Tyson Frizell and Jacob Saifiti were the last two players to be deemed fit to play, with majority of the 17 playing without having eaten.
“Really proud of the playing group considering what they’ve been through in the last 48 hours, we had 12 of them in bed over the last 24 hours,” O’Brien said.
“For them to turn up today and put in that type of effort, I couldn’t be any prouder of them.
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“You think about losing in golden point, but that one there was different again. It’s a hard one to take.”
“It was a busy morning on the phone to docs and staff running around trying to get medicine and food, trying to get some guys to eat.
“The vast majority didn’t get to eat before kick off, they couldn’t hold it in. So it chopped and changed, I wrote the team sheet out about four times this morning.
“We would have had to forfeit if a fair few of them couldn’t take the field.”
O’Brien also made it clear the Knights also were to blame for their own misfortune, having bombed a handful of first half tries.
However, like the penalty which handed Tanah Boyd an opportunity to kick a matchwinning penalty, he still believed some calls went against his side.
“There’s some stuff there we have to own as well, we bombed two or three in the first half. We aren’t shying away from that,” he said.
“They proved costly the ones we bombed, but there was some stuff there that was hard to take in the second half.”
