Adam O’Brien has scoffed a suggestions Newcastle will be making up the numbers in the NRL finals series after the Knights secured seventh spot on the NRL ladder with a 15-14 victory over the Gold Coast Titans.
The Knights trailed 12-6 at half-time but hit the front in the 70th minute after a Mitchell Pearce try on the hour and a Jake Clifford penalty goal.
Jamal Fogarty nailed a penalty goal four minutes later to again draw level before Pearce slotted the match-winning field goal with seconds left on the clock.
Many pundits have suggested the premiership will be decided among the top six teams, but O’Brien was defiant when pressed on the Knights’ chances in September.
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“It’s a different competition once you get in the finals,” O’Brien said.
“If you get the finals you’ve got to be really, really good for a month.
“Yeah, so they can say what they want about us, I don’t really care.
“… We’ve got heart, we showed that tonight and if you’ve got that that goes a long way towards winning rugby league games,” he said.
“But yeah, I feel like we’ve got the personnel and we’ve got the juice in our legs to get a bit better and we’ll see where it takes us.
“It’s been a tough year but we’ve got a good group there who want to take it further.”
O’Brien added of Pearce, who was the difference between the two sides at Sunshine Coast Stadium.
“He was huge, he was really good,” O’Brien said.
“He shouldered a lot of the frustration with the team last week when we were dissecting our attack against the Bulldogs.
“I could see Junior was taking a lot of it on his shoulders and that wasn’t really right but the champions stand up in the big moments and that’s what he did.”
Meanwhile, the Titans’ finals hopes are on life support following their 14th loss of the season.
Justin Holbrook’s men must defeat the Broncos next Sunday and have other results go their way to make the eight.
