LeagueNews.co | Jason Patrick
A disgruntled Adam O'Brien has torn into his Newcastle players after they put on a lackluster show in a crushing defeat by the Bulldogs.
Fresh off the bye, the Knights' winning streak came to a crashing halt in a messy display marked by 15 errors and a late sin-binning of Jacob Saifiti for a blatant headbutt on Reed Mahoney.
O'Brien, the Knights coach, didn't hold back in his criticism, stating: "It's been a while since we've seen a performance like that, it's going to be tough to bounce back from ...
"We might need to tighten things up, stay off social media, and ignore what the media is saying.
Maybe we were paying too much attention to the hype leading up to this game.
Now we'll regroup and work on it."
"There were definitely players out there who seemed distracted out on the field," he continued.
"We were lacking some spark with the ball.
It looked like a team that had just come off a break."