It’s not often a coach praises his team after a 20-0 defeat, but that’s what Knights boss Adam O’Brien did following Newcastle’s loss to the Bulldogs.
The away sheds at Accor Stadium resembled a casualty ward on Sunday night after four Newcastle players sustained injuries against Canterbury.
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The Knights played 77 minutes with just a 15-man rotation after James Schiller (head knock) and Jacob Saifiti (torn calf) withdrew from the game in the opening stages. Throw in a dislocated finger to half Jack Cogger and a game-ending shoulder injury to forward Jack Hetherington, and you can see why O’Brien was proud of his wounded charges.
“When you look back later on . . . and see a 20-0 scoreline, you’re probably thinking that we didn’t play well, but I’m really proud of them,” said O’Brien, whose team endured almost 35 minutes with just one fit player on the bench.
“To go through what they did . . . personnel-wise, and then having young blokes step out of their comfort zone and, all of a sudden, they have to play 80 minutes for us. We can build on that performance.”
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“The foundations of being a gritty team are back and I don’t reckon we’ve had that for the first three weeks.”
Despite playing three minutes, veteran prop Saifiti actually tore his calf while he ran onto the field.
“He usually just gives one little blast of energy before he does the kick-off carry,” O’Brien revealed.
“He studies which side they (opponents) kick-off to as he wants that carry every week and when he wasn’t there, I knew something was wrong.”
O’Brien conceded that he expects Saifiti, Schiller and Hetherington to miss Newcastle’s upcoming game against the Wests Tigers on Sunday, but Cogger should be fit enough to play.
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