Knights vow to fight out of hole

NEWCASTLE Knights have snatched wooden spoon favouritism from the Bulldogs by capitulating at the hands of Melbourne Storm.

Sunday’s 50-2 loss was the biggest of Adam O’Brien’s coaching tenure and capped off a stunning fall from grace for the Novocastrians.

The Knights sat atop the ladder after two rounds, but are now on the bottom for the first time since the mid 2010s, an era when they collected the wooden spoon for three consecutive years.

Newcastle has conceded a combined total of 119 points across its last three home games and has scored just 10.

“There’s no doubt that we’re lacking confidence,” O’Brien said.

“The only answer is to stick together and fight our way out.

“We’ll come out the other side.”

On the other end of the spectrum, the Storm have well and truly hit their stride in 2022 and their fans can just about book grand final tickets.

They’ve taken their game from brilliant to terrifying in the past fortnight and only Penrith appear capable of ending the bloodshed.

“The way we completed (sets) and still played footy, that’s the reason the score was what it was,” Storm coach Craig Bellamy (pictured) said.

Harry Grant was a menace through the middle of the park, while in his first game against his old club, Storm recruit Josh King ran for 212m.

For the injury-hit Knights, Kurt Mann and Dane Gagai joined the club’s busy casualty ward this week, while Sauaso Sue and Phoenix Crossland both went off for concussion tests on Sunday. Halfback Adam Clune is struggling with a knee complaint.

“There’s no consequence to poor (individual) performance because you can’t drop guys, because I can’t fill the 24-man team sheet,” O’Brien said.

“We don’t want people’s sympathy. We’ll get together and we’ll fight.”