Nathan Brown: Newcastle Knights need this recession

NATHAN Brown reckons this is the ­recession Newcastle had to have. And, hey, it worked for Paul Keating, right?

NATHAN Brown reckons this is the ­recession Newcastle had to have.

And, hey, it worked for Paul Keating, right? With the Knights having now equalled their record for most consecutive losses — a run which hit 13 games against Manly — Brown stressed afterwards, several times, how this current darkness was the only way forward for his embattled club.

Indeed, the Knights coach added that it would eventually be youngsters like Jack Cogger, Sione Mata’utia and the Saifiti brothers who sparked an NRL revival like that under way at Canberra — who hours earlier across town smashed the South Sydney Rabbitohs 54-4.

“With what’s happened here over the past couple of years, we’re in a recession, aren’t we?” Brown said. “We’ve hit rock bottom.

“We know we’re going to finish bottom. We’ve known we’re going to finish bottom for a while now. But there is no other way for us as a club to get better than what we’re going through now. It’s where we had to go as a club to move forward.”

Knights coach Nathan Brown talks to Trent Hodkinson. Picture: Peter Lorimer

The coach also stressed it was wrong to blame the current crop of players for the club’s losing streak — which is now only seven short of breaking into the top four of the worst ever.

“It’s not fair to blame the players that are playing,” he said.

“That might sound funny, but those players don’t deserve to be held accountable.

“It’s not their fault we are where we are as a club. Or that the roster is how it is.

“Jack Cogger at 18, you can’t blame Jack. Or the Saifiti boys, Josh King, people like that. And I know the end result is going to be good. It may sound like a broken record but three years ago, four years ago, Canberra were in the same boat when (coach) Ricky Stuart first went there.

“Rick came in and people probably thought ‘oh, he keeps saying the same things’. But look at them now. That’s what great recruitment has done and some blokes gaining experience.”

Asked if he was worried what impact the current run of losses was having on a player like his teenage No.6, the son of 1980s ­Western Suburbs favourite Trevor Cogger, Brown added: “Jack must think first grade is a horrible place.

“He’s been out there now in four or five games where the score has been tough pretty quickly. But he’s a talented young player and good competitor. His dad was a tough ­competitor and he’s like his dad.

“And you might be surprised but we’ll have recovery tomorrow and the boys will turn up to training ready to go and get better. I just know we have so many young kids who are going to be good players.”

The Knights were without ­senior playmaker Jarrod Mullen and starting forwards Sione Mata’utia, Mitch Barnett, Sam Mataora and Robbie Rochow. Kade ­Snowden has also missed most of the year.

Originally published as Nathan Brown: Newcastle Knights need this recession