Straight-talking Newcastle Knights coach Nathan Brown has conceded his side lacked commitment in a 16-14 loss to the Penrith Panthers at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday evening.
Brown said the Knights were simply out-enthused by the Panthers, lamenting the absence of effort at crucial stages.
He used Penrith winger Malakai Watene-Zelezniak's incredible play to leap beyond the dead-ball line and tap the Steeden back for Frank Winterstein to score as an example of the difference between the teams.
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"We weren't quite there. I thought the best way to sum the game up was their try just before halftime [to Winterstein]," Brown said.
"The effort from their winger to get the ball back in – and we had a walker."
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— NRL (@NRL) March 23, 2019
That just happened!#NRLKnightsPanthers #TelstraPremiership pic.twitter.com/250aVlJQXz
Brown also highlighted Penrith five-eighth James Maloney's desperation in knocking the ball out of Newcastle winger Edrick Lee's hands to save a certain try in the second half as another turning point.
"When you've got Eddy [Lee] at 104, 105 kilos and Jimmy Maloney coming up with a one-on-one strip, you know [it's telling] – Jimmy's only a little bloke," he said.
"That was [representative] of us as a team. It wasn't any one person's problem, I just thought they beat us to the punch a couple of times in real key moments.
Annnnnd that's what you call a try-saving tackle 👏👏👏#NRLKnightsPanthers #TelstraPremiership pic.twitter.com/KgddWuoYzJ
— NRL (@NRL) March 23, 2019
"Were they that much better than us? No.
"... There wasn't that much in that game but I thought there were a couple of times where if we worked a touch harder, or individuals worked a touch harder, we might be sitting here with a smile on our face."
While disappointed, Brown noted the Knights still need time to gel given the number of new players in the squad.
"It's so early in the year," he said.
"This time last week, people were talking about the [how good] the Cowboys [were] and Brisbane were no good and all this, and then we saw what happened from round one to round two.
"We've got seven or eight new faces in our team, and building what we're building, it was never going to be perfect earlier [in the season], that's for sure.
"Some of the guys who were involved in moments they could have done a touch better, they still had plenty of good moments – the scoreboard suggests that.
"At the end of the day, we did get over the line a few times but just didn't get the reward for it."
Newcastle will look to return to the winner's circle next weekend when they take on the Raiders in the ACT.
