LeagueNews.co | Cooper McEnroe
Adam O'Brien recently shared his heartfelt experience regarding the loss of his mother, Maree, in 2023 and how he struggled to cope with it until his wife's intervention. Last week, O'Brien stepped down as coach of the Newcastle Knights, completing a six-year tenure with the NRL club.
He will continue coaching for the remaining two games of the 2025 season before transitioning to new opportunities. At 47, O'Brien notably led Newcastle back to the finals in his first year as coach in 2020, marking the first top-eight finish for the Knights in seven years.
He regarded his career highlight as the team's achievement in the 2023 finals, where they secured ten consecutive victories, making it to the semifinals. Kalyn Ponga won the Dally M award that year, following a remarkable late-season performance.
However, during this impressive run, O'Brien faced the emotional turmoil of losing his mother. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he mentioned how he suppressed his emotions to shield his players from the grief he was experiencing.
"The hardest experience that I've gone through given the manner in which mum passed," he reflected. "That was hard and then making sure that I protected the players from it. Very few knew that it was happening." O'Brien often traveled to the hospital in Sydney at night and aimed to maintain a sense of normalcy for the team. He expressed sorrow that his mother was not there to witness their achievements: "I wish she was there to see it. This was the last club that she went for and she was so passionate about the place and obviously really proud that I was the head coach."
The coach acknowledged that it was only after the season ended, when his wife prompted him, that he began to confront his grief. "I was like the balloon in the pool, I just kept pushing it down just to focus on the playing group and the performances and luckily they were positive," he admitted. "I remember my wife telling me that she hadn't seen me really break down or deal with it, so it was probably over that pre-season that I started to deal with things."