A frustrated Adam O’Brien has called on his ‘distracted’ Newcastle Knights players to disconnect from social media following their lackluster 32-2 home defeat to the Bulldogs. The Knights, who were coming off a bye and riding a four-game win streak, delivered a subpar performance marked by 15 errors and the late sin-binning of Jacob Saifiti for a deliberate headbutt on Reed Mahoney.
In his post-match remarks, O’Brien criticized his players, noting: “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a performance like that, that’s gonna take some getting over.” He urged the team to “batten the hatches down, get off social media, and don’t read too much of what you guys (journalists) are going to write. Maybe we were reading too much of that leading up to this one about how good we were going. Now we’ll look inward and try to fix it. There were some guys there that clearly looked like they were distracted in their performances,” he added. “We lacked a bit of creativity on the ball. That looked like a team that had had a week off.”
O’Brien began his press conference by describing the night as a “bad, bad night. It’s a hard one to swallow … I’m just very disappointed.” He acknowledged the team’s effort but stressed that effort alone isn’t enough to secure a win. He praised their initial defensive work but pointed out that disallowed tries and opposition scores against the run of play deflated and frustrated the team, preventing them from recovering.
Particularly underwhelming was rookie fullback David Armstrong, who has been impressive since debuting and contributing to the Knights’ recent winning streak. Armstrong, replacing the injured Kalyn Ponga, made several errors, including dropping two key kicks and being out of position multiple times. This poor performance coincides with rumors of Armstrong potentially moving to the Sydney Roosters. O’Brien admitted that the transfer speculation might have affected the young player, saying, “Possibly. He’s only a young bloke. He’s been in four games, he’s been getting plenty of pats on the back. It’s all new to him. There’s all the speculation, contracts and management and all that. He’s young, he’ll learn from it.”
Knights’ captain Jayden Brailey also expressed his disappointment, especially given the home setting and the fans leaving McDonald Jones Stadium early. “Definitely not a nice feeling in the stomach tonight, especially here at home. It’s not good,” Brailey said.
