‘I’m a bit hurt’: Knights coach slams his own fans over boos

Knights coach Adam O’Brien has slammed the club’s supporters who booed his side at halftime against Manly on Thursday night.

Knights coach Adam O’Brien has slammed the club’s supporters who booed his side at halftime against the Sea Eagles on Thursday night.

Newcastle were terrible in the opening 40 minutes to trail 16-0 at the break and as they walked off McDonald Jones Stadium the boos rang out.

But they returned a different side in the second half to score four tries and send the game to golden point before Kalyn Ponga crossed for the winner in the 83rd minute.

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O’Brien was animated throughout the game in the coach’s box and he was still fired up at his post-match press conference, where the first question was about the boos.

“It’s disappointing, truly disappointing,” O’Brien said.

“I know the scoreline is not what they want but to boo the effort that went into that first half from a really young team, the people that booed don’t know anything about rugby league. They were probably the ones that cheered at the end too.

Knights coach Adam O’Brien has slammed the club’s supporters who booed his side at halftime against the Sea Eagles on Thursday night.

“It disappoints me that they’d do that because I thought the first half we defended our hearts out. You’ve got to remember there’s a really, really young footy team in there against a very good opposition.

“I thought we were excellent in the first half. We made a few errors leading into halftime which gassed us a little bit which led to the last try. I thought we could have been going into the sheds at 12-0 down, but tremendous effort in the second half.

“With the booing, I know people are disappointed with us but they’re trying their backsides off, we don’t have a front-rower available and to lose Friz straight away, booing is a bit harsh.

“That’s up there with one of the best wins I’ve been involved in here. To have those kids out there, I know there’s only the one debutant tonight but there were a heap of guys with less than five or six games.

“I’m a bit hurt by the booing, we don’t want to let people down but I didn’t think I’d see that. I’ve seen bigger losses here over the years and I’m not sure they were booed, but anyway.

“I reckon this is the hardest time that I’ve been involved in at the club in terms of injuries and suspensions, like, it’s hard. But how we react and respond will see us through.”

Fox League commentator Andrew Voss criticised O’Brien’s comments on his SEN radio show on Friday morning.

“To say to Knights fans that they ‘don’t know footy’. I think he’d regret those comments today.

“He overstepped the mark last night. That was their 8th scorless half of the year.”

Knights skipper Kalyn Ponga also said it was one of the best wins of his career in Newcastle.

“If you take everything into consideration, young squad, debutant, fair bit of fight in that second half, fair bit of belief and trust in our processes,” he said.

“We tweaked a couple of things after halftime that obviously worked.

“It’s been a tough season… so it’s nice. There’s been some tough lessons this year but it’s good for the young guys to feel this feeling, footy is fun and joyful at times. I see how hard they worked, so now we just have to keep working hard.”

Originally published as ‘I’m a bit hurt’: Knights coach slams his own fans over boos