Opinion
After seven consecutive losses and seemingly endless pain for Knights fans, Newcastle have ended that horrid losing streak with a 16-6 victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs.
That win wasn’t pretty and we blew other chances to seal it, but Adam Clune’s 75th-minute try was enough for Newcastle to win. The roar I saw from Adam O’Brien in the coaches box shows he has got the passion a coach needs to display for his team.
With our record now at three wins and seven losses, finals aren’t exactly out of reach and this win could start a turnaround. I can’t guarantee they will, as next week we’ve got Brisbane and they put Manly down 38-0, which is their biggest-ever win against the Sea Eagles.
O’Brien’s mission at the Knights is to turn them into a powerhouse team and a premiership force. In his first two seasons, he got us into finals and he’s the first coach to get us into back-to-back finals since Michael Hagan.
We all know the history of the Newcastle Knights’ struggles and rebuilding. I have written about it multiple times to the point it’s ancient history.
We aren’t rebuilding anymore. Nathan Brown’s mission was to rebuild the Knights and that’s what he did. Nathan Brown is a great coach, rebuilding specialist, great at recruiting talent and overall a nice guy but he’s not a premiership coach in the NRL. The team AOB has in Newcastle was mostly built by Nathan Brown.
I believe we got the coach for the job and I will say it again, sacking Adam O’Brien would be a massive error. One thing I believe is our juniors came through the system with the rebuilding mindset. With some ex-Knights players on staff like Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus, I believe they should teach the players what the Newcastle winning culture is all about.
Things like playing for the town, playing for the fans and turning Marathon into a fortress. It used to be the ground every opponent was scared shitless to attend. Back in our glory days, you weren’t playing a game of football against the Knights in Newcastle… you were in for a war.
The reality is for the Newcastle Knights we’re nowhere near premiership contenders and we have got a lot of work to do. I can’t put a timeframe on how long exactly it would take and the realistic factor needed to be put in place is this takes years, not weeks.
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