A frustrated Adam O’Brien has urged his ‘distracted’ Newcastle players to switch off social media after they served up a dismal attacking performance in a 32-2 home battering by the Bulldogs.
Coming off the bye, the Knights’ four-game win streak came crashing down in a sloppy performance highlighted by 15 errors and the late sin-binning of Jacob Saifiti for a deliberate headbutt on Reed Mahoney.
Knights coach O’Brien took aim at his players after the defeat, saying: “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a performance like that, that’s gonna take some getting over …
“We probably need 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.”
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O’Brien began his press conference after the game by labelling it a: “bad, bad night. It’s a hard one to swallow … I’m just very disappointed.
“I think there was plenty of effort, no doubt. But effort on its own is not going to win you the game. I do think the first 20 minutes we did a hell of a job defensively keeping them down their own end.
“We had a couple of tries disallowed, they got a couple against the run of play. I think that really deflated us, frustrated us, and we never overcame it.”
Particularly poor was rookie fullback David Armstrong, who has been a standout since debuting – with the Knights having won four-straight since he replaced the injured Kalyn Ponga in the number one jersey. He dropped two key kicks, was caught out of position on another handful of occasions, and was generally poor.
It comes after rumours this fortnight linking Armstrong to a move to the Sydney Roosters this season. Adam O’Brien told the Newcastle Herald recently that the club had already offered Armstrong a contract extension in a bid to stave off the Chooks – but tonight said the transfer gossip may have got in the 23-year-old’s head.
“Possibly,” O’Brien conceded. “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.”
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Knights’ skipper Jayden Brailey was similarly disappointed after dishing up an effort that saw plenty of drenched Newcastle fans trudge out of McDonald Jones Stadium with over 10 minutes to go.
“Definitely not a nice feeling in the stomach tonight, especially here at home. It’s not good,” Brailey said.