Newcastle Knights coach Adam O'Brien has voiced his frustration with his players following a dismal 32-2 home defeat to the Bulldogs. O'Brien urged his squad to disconnect from social media and refocus after a performance marred by 15 errors and the late sin-binning of Jacob Saifiti for a deliberate headbutt on Reed Mahoney.
Coming off a bye and riding a four-game winning streak, the Knights faltered in a sloppy display that left O'Brien visibly disappointed.
“It's been a long time since we've had a performance like that, that's gonna take some getting over,” O'Brien said.
“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.”
O'Brien didn't hold back, criticising his players for appearing distracted and lacking creativity on the ball.
“There were some guys there that clearly looked like they were distracted in their performances,” he noted.
“That looked like a team that had had a week off.”
Rookie fullback David Armstrong, who had been impressive since debuting and replacing the injured Kalyn Ponga, struggled significantly. Armstrong, strongly linked to a move to the Sydney Roosters during the week, dropped two key kicks and was caught out of position multiple times, contributing to the Knights' woes.
O'Brien acknowledged that the transfer speculation might have affected the 23-year-old's focus.
“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,” O'Brien said.
Knights' captain Jayden Brailey noted the fans' early exit from McDonald Jones Stadium with 12 minutes left to go.
“Definitely not a nice feeling in the stomach tonight, especially here at home. It's not good,” Brailey said.