Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien confident Knights ‘on path’ to lead title chase in near future

The Knights season may have come to an end, but Adam O’Brien insists his team’s finals effort was a shift in the right direction for the club.

Newcastle were eliminated from the finals series in a thrilling 28-16 defeat to the Cowboys at North Queensland Country Bank Stadium on Saturday.

O’Brien’s men climbed from 15th after seven rounds to rally into the eighth, with sights set on adding one more title to the club’s trophy cabinet.

“We’ve turned the corner a fit bit in terms of our DNA,” O’Brien said in his post-match press conference.

“We are proud that we are in finals but we are not content with that either.

“I don’t think tonight is the night to search for answers for why we got beat, but we are not content for just one week in finals.

“Each day we want to bring success to Newcastle and we would love to win a premiership. It takes time and a lot of effort.

“We are on the path. We have just got to stay on it.”

With three rounds until the conclusion of the regular season, the Knights looked uncertain to make the finals, joining a three-way race for eighth.

After winning four of their final five games of the regular season, with assistance from rival matches going in their favour, the Knights snuck into the eight.

But although the path to the finals was not as smooth as the side’s 2023 campaign, O’Brien noted areas of strengths that are promising signs for fans.

“Ideally, you don’t want to put yourself in a position where you have got to win every game at the back-end but some of it with us is because we didn’t have (key players),” he said.

“A chunk of high-quality players at the start of the year (were missing) and we had a tough start.

“We didn’t cave in and that is why we are here.

“It is never nice losing a finals game but we can look back at a season where we were gritty and tough all year.

“There were plenty of things said about us and no one really gave us much of a chance but we managed to stick together, stay united and fight.

“We want to be sitting here talking about a win but it is not through lack of having a go.”