Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien has criticised the fans who booed his team at half-time before they launched one of the fightbacks of the season to beat Manly 26-22 in golden point on Thursday.
The Knights trailed 16-0 after 40 minutes, and their home fans, fed up after their team’s eighth tryless first half of the season, voiced their disapproval.
Newcastle responded with a four-try second stanza to take the match into extra time, before skipper Kalyn Ponga delivered the match-winning four-pointer in the 83rd minute.
“It’s really disappointing,” O’Brien said of the fans’ response.
“I know the scoreline’s not what they wanted, 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’re probably the ones that cheered at the end, and that disappoints me that they’d do that, because that first half, I thought we defended our hearts out.
“You’ve got to remember there’s a really young footy team there against a very good opposition.”
Manly coach Anthony Seibold was disappointed that his team let their first-half lead slip, and then blew a six-point advantage late in the game.
But he took his hat off to Newcastle, who climbed from 15th to 14th and ended a run of four successive losses on home turf.
The Knights celebrate after Kalyn Ponga’s winning try.Credit: Getty Images
“I was interviewed at half-time by Channel Nine, and I said Newcastle are a spirited team,” Manly coach Anthony Seibold said.
“They’ve made four of the last five finals campaigns, so they’re a consistent team. It’s hard to make finals year upon year, and they’ve shown that there’s a ton of class there and fight. We really suffocated them in that first half, but they didn’t give us any field position or make many errors in the second half.
“So they were always going to fight back.”
Newcastle sealed victory with Ponga’s first try of the season, after he kicked ahead and winger Fletcher Hunt batted the ball backwards for his skipper to race away and score.
It was the first time all night the Knights had been in the lead.
It was the eighth time in 13 games this season that Newcastle had been unable to post a point in the first half.
Manly had no such problems in running in three first-half tries, despite losing strike weapon Lehi Hopoate to an early head knock.
Hopoate appeared to have scored in the sixth minute when he won the race to a Tolutau Koula grubber kick, toed it ahead and dived on the loose ball.
Unfortunately, he concussed himself in the process, and the video referee ruled no-try.
Koula moved to fullback to replace Hopoate and wasted no time in backing up a Reuben Garrick break to score the game’s opening try.
Manly doubled their lead in the 27th minute when prop Toafofoa Sipley, back from suspension, crashed over after a quick play-the-ball and short pass from hooker Lachlan Croker.
Haumole Olakau’atu scores for Manly.Credit: Getty Images
Seven minutes later, back-rower Haumole Olakau’atu bulldozed through some flimsy defence to score.
When the two teams left the field for half-time, boos reverberated around the stadium.
The Knights finally gave the home fans something to cheer six minutes into the second half, when five-eighth Fletcher Sharpe raced away to score after an offload from back-rower Kai Pearce-Paul.
Eight minutes later, Knights half Jack Cogger launched a bomb and rookie Hunt leapt above Koula score his first NRL try.
Greg Marzhew takes on the Manly defence.Credit: Getty Images
Dane Gagai’s conversion reduced Newcastle’s deficit to four points.
Knights winger James Schiller, who had made multiple mistakes earlier in the game, then dived over in the corner in the 63rd minute.
With scores level, Talau stepped and weaved his way through the middle of the ruck to score between the posts in the 69th minute.
The Sea Eagles were unable to defend their lead, however, and Schiller broke clear with five minutes to play and linked inside with Sharpe, who finished off.
Gagai landed the pressure conversion to lock the scores up again, at 22-all, which took the match into golden point.
Then Ponga scored the game-breaker to clinch Newcastle’s fifth win of the season.
