Newcastle Knights coach Adam O'Brien has put his team on notice over a lack of grit during their Round 1 loss to the Canberra Raiders at home on Thursday evening.
Despite entering the game as heavy favourites, the Knights fell apart throughout what was a scrappy, yet not all that untypical Round 1 contest.
Neither team were at their free-flowing best, but the Knights were particularly bad, making errors at both ends of the park regularly throughout a game which looked a completely different team to the one which finished the 2023 season on such a high.
Speaking at the post-game press conference, O'Brien said the game was "easy to dissect" because his team seemed to want to be on the highlight reel rather than scrapping and fighting as the Raiders had done.
โOur game lacked any sort of grit, we were impatient. It felt like we wanted the highlight reel,โ O'Brien told reporters.
โWhereas the other mob, when you score four tries on the last play and they were scrappy tries. But that's what they wanted.
โThey wanted to come here and get in a scrap and I don't think we did and we got a lesson in what wins the first month of footy. That's high completions and working hard all the way through to the back-end of the set and not looking for the easy way out.
โIt's pretty easy to dissect from my opinion.โ
Newcastle's season-opening loss comes hot on the heels of the club making waves off the field during the off-season, where O'Brien was re-signed on the back of an exceptional 2023, while club also secured the services of Jacob Saifiti and Bradman Best long-term.
Neither player had a great deal of impact in the opening clash of the season though, with the Knights struggling for traction against a ferocious Raiders' side who had been written off by the majority ahead of the clash.
Things don't get any easier for the Knights either, who travel to Townsville for a clash against the North Queensland Cowboys next Saturday, before returning home to play the Melbourne Storm in Round 3.
