Knights coach Adam O’Brien is preferring to draw on the positives of his side’s heartbreaking 21-20 loss to the Cowboys, despite the result dropping Newcastle to 0-2 to begin the season.
O’Brien says it was a “tale of two halves” after the Knights couldn’t capitalise on a 12-0 half time lead.
The Cowboys were sloppy in the first half, committing 12 errors, but were able to work back into the game in the second half and force golden point which ended when halfback Chad Townsend slotted a field goal.
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For the Knights, it was a game that got away, considering they were the better side on the day however their coach says the performance will earn the club a “few admirers”.
“I’m really proud of them. To turn a performance around in seven days is quite good,” O’Brien said.
“Obviously there are things we need to get a whole lot better and smarter at but I think they’ll gain a fair few admirers from the grit they showed.”
The Knights proved in 2023 that the NRL season is a long slog, so two early losses isn’t cause for concern.
Newcastle had won just five of their first 15 games last season before a 10-game run lifted them into the eight.
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Of course, they won’t want to get into that deep of a hole this time around, but O’Brien is seeing some similarities already, believing these tough losses will only galvanise the team like they did in 2023.
“Last week we wanted to jump into the feeling of having those 10 wins,” O’Brien said.
The reality of that is that those wins are built on the back of losses like tonight.
“We had a game in Townsville (last year) that went down to the last 30 seconds, we had a golden point loss to Penrith and another one that went to the wire against Brisbane. They were the foundations and catalysts for the 10 wins.
“I think when we played that game against the Bulldogs (66-0, round 18), everone’s looking at the 66 but we were looking at the nil and that started a long time before that winning streak.
“We need to get past last year, I need to stop talking about it and we need to create the foundations for this season and tonight, we went a long way towards building those.”
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