{"id":126403,"date":"2025-09-07T22:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T22:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126403\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T22:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T22:09:07","slug":"our-town-doesnt-put-up-with-bullst-obrien-departs-knights-with-nrl-wooden-spoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126403\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our town doesn\u2019t put up with bulls**t\u2019: O\u2019Brien departs Knights with NRL wooden spoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adam O\u2019Brien has fronted his final post-game press conference as Newcastle Knights coach, promising better days ahead following the club\u2019s fourth wooden spoon since 2015.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the 66-10 shellacking by the Parramatta Eels at Commbank Stadium, O\u2019Brien\u2019s disappointment was plain to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tough one to watch, I can\u2019t stick a ribbon on that, the people of our town don\u2019t put up with bulls**t,\u201d O\u2019Brien said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith some individuals and players leaving the club, on their last day, our town doesn\u2019t deserve a performance like that given what they sit through\u2014I can\u2019t lie, just bitterly disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0NRL team of the year 2025: Selections from Sporting News include James Tedesco, Isaiya Katoa<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s obviously the club\u2019s decision\u2019<\/p>\n

With conversations inevitably turning to the club\u2019s future, O\u2019Brien pointed to a swathe of missing players who will return to the field in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are better days ahead definitely, but I know it\u2019s hard to see at the moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s another half (Fletcher Sharpe), a fullback (Kalyn Ponga) and you add Dylan (Brown) to that, a starting back rower, a lock\u2014it\u2019s all excuses, but they are quality players, there\u2019s about six of them that will all jump back in.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked for his thoughts on who his successor might be at the Knights in 2026, O\u2019Brien once again played the diplomatic line while cautioning club powerbrokers against a complete overhaul.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously the club\u2019s decision, but what I\u2019m mindful of is that there is a bit of change in a number of departments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity for some fresh voices and a clean slate, but you don\u2019t want too much as well because there is some good work going on in the pathways and the development of our younger blokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really want to name names because it\u2019s none of my business now, it\u2019s a club decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut whoever comes in to take over, these boys need to use that performance (the loss against Parramatta) to fuel their pre-season and make sure they hit the ground running next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adam O\u2019Brien has fronted his final post-game press conference as Newcastle Knights coach, promising better days ahead following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-126403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}