Adam MacDougall says Brian Smith not to blame for Knights' poor effort
ELDER statesman Adam MacDougall has absolved departing coach Brian Smith of any blame for Newcastle's 30-18 surrender to the Sydney Roosters at EnergyAustralia Stadium on Saturday night, suggesting all criticism should be directed at the players.
The Knights have been well beaten in successive games since news broke that Smith will walk away from the final year of his contract to sign a four-year deal with the Roosters.
That was the main topic of conversation after the match and will again be an issue Smith, the team and club management will have to deal with this week in the build-up to their game against the surging Eels at Parramatta Stadium on Sunday.
MacDougall had support from skipper Kurt Gidley and teammates including Jarrod Mullen and Richie Fa'aoso, who said it was up to the players to arrest the slide before their finals hopes slipped away.
"It was always going to be a dangerous game, with them playing in front of their coach for next year, so blokes are probably playing for contracts," MacDougall said.
"A bit of stuff's been in the press about Brian going there next year so they were always going to be pumped up. But at the end of the day, the coach can only get you to the white line before the game starts then it all comes down to us.
"People are going to say all that was a factor but at the end of the day, motivation of an athlete comes internally. We have to find the reasons why we're playing this game ourselves, and go out there with a little bit more energy and aggression and desire.
"People are jumping up and down and asking why we're losing games at the moment, but it comes down to the simple fact that we've been out-enthused.
"He shouldn't cop it . . . he's not out there making tackles or doing anything.
"There's no way that he should come in for any criticism or take any of the blame for that sort of performance. It comes down to us individually and we were just out-enthused and outmuscled by a hungrier side."
Gidley said Smith's decision, and who the Knights appoint as a replacement, had no impact on his performance but he could understand the public interest.
"The last thing I'm thinking when I'm out there playing is what Smithy's doing next year or who's coaching here," Gidley said.
"I'm out there to play footy; I'm out there to do my job. Fair enough, I'm disappointed in my game, but that's the last thing on my mind."
An equally exasperated Mullen said: "Mate, we're over it. It's well and truly sunk in now that he's going.
"It's not affecting our training at all, and I don't think it's affecting our performances. It's just the players' attitude and we have to pick that up."
Smith said it was impossible to tell how much the issue affected players on either side.
"I have no idea but I don't think it really matters. All that matters is how you play on the night, or on the day; they did and we didn't," Smith said.
Prop Fa'aoso offered no excuses.
"I can't put my finger on what went wrong but we need to turn this sh*t around because it's not good. We've got to do something," Fa'aoso said.
Brad Fittler, the man Smith will succeed at the Roosters, said the win was "a little bit sweeter" under the circumstances.
"We didn't really use it [as motivation]. But obviously, maybe in the back of their minds, I don't know, you'll have to ask them [the players]," Fittler said.
"But we were more focused on getting a bit of team morale, a bit of fight . . . Once you get that sniff, hopefully it turns into a few more games with that sort of intensity and spirit."
Roosters skipper Craig Fitzgibbon, who scored the first of his team's five tries and converted all of them in his return from a broken cheekbone, said the players felt partially responsible for Fittler's demise.
"If the club feels the need to change the coach, that's because you're not playing well as a team that's because something's going wrong so everyone's responsible for that," said Fitzgibbon, who will leave the Roosters at the end of the season to join English Super League club Hull.
"There's quite a few of us moving on now, that have been there for a long time, so it definitely affects you.
"We feel we deserve better for how hard we've been working at training and I think Freddy will back me up there.
"It's just turning up, doing our job at training, training hard, being positive through I suppose you can't say anything other than it was a sh*tstorm really for a while there but we've been nothing but positive, and we kind of deserve better for how close we're getting in games."
Herald
