There are concerns the Knights’ administration don’t have the track record to replace Adam O’Brien with the right coach amid reports assistant Blake Green is the leading contender.
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O’Brien is reportedly set to be paid out of the final two years of his contract at the end of the season, but who replaces him becomes paramount to that being the right call.
The Daily Telegraph’s Dean Ritchie revealed that Knights’ current assistant Blake Green, who has zero head coaching experience in the NRL is the man that will replace O’Brien.
“The man on the right Blake Green will be the next Newcastle coach, that’s the mail I am getting,” Ritchie said.
“Highly regarded in Newcastle, well liked and a coach of immense potential. I think you will find he will be the man.
“I did a bit of digging today and Adam O’Brien I think is safe for this year. I asked some well placed sources if there is any chance he could survive next year? They didn’t think that would be the case, but I don’t think they will sack him mid-season. That all depends on the results over the next seven or eight weeks.”
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However, Paul Crawley questioned if replacing O’Brien with someone already on his staff and with no experience is the right decision.
“You say he is your man, but is he the right man?” Crawley asked.
“He hasn’t got the experience to walk in there and take control. That would be my concern.
“He has been at the club and as I understand he is the attack coach at the moment.”
Gorden Tallis questioned how the knights will improve with a head coach that has already been a part of their poor 2025 season.
“Why aren’t they improving then?” Tallis asked.
“What I don’t understand is if he is the assistant coach and you are going to step up and be the next coach, aren’t your ideas already out there?”
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Crawley believes the Knights would be much better served with a coach like former Eels boss Brad Arthur.
“It’s not about who I want it is about who is best suited and if I was looking at where the Knights are at the moment, I would think an experienced coach would probably be a better fit for them to potentially tell the other guys to rack off and take charge,” Crawley said.
“A guy like Brad Arthur would be perfect.”
Ritchie believes it is a tough call to get rid of O’Brien, but there are doubts he can take the Knights all the way to a Grand Final.
“It’s a must because I will preface this by saying he has done a very good job, they have made the finals four out of the last five years and I think he is hard done by if they do give him the boot,” Ritchie said on NRL 360.
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“But they have finished seventh, seventh, 14th, 5th and eighth under Adam O’Brien, so the concern I have is that is he the man to get them to the next level?
“Is he the man to get them to weeks two and three in the finals and based on what we have seen no he can’t. He has got them there, but then they stagnate in week one of the finals and that is all the juice he can get out of the orange.”
However, Crawley believes the bigger problem is the administration at the Knights’ who have a history of not giving coaches the support to succeed.
“Are they going to make the right decisions?” Crawley said.
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“Do you have trust in their administration given some of their decisions in recent times that they are going to make the right decision?
“The concern for me is if Adam O’Brien had started his career at a different club, like would Trent Robinson be a three-time premiership winning coach if he didn’t start at the Roosters?
When Cameron Ciraldo was kicking of his career he had an opportunity to go to the Wests Tigers but he chose the Bulldogs because of what was there, Gus Gould, the system and he thought there is more chance of me having success there.
“My concern is are the knights capable of knowing what the right decision is firstly and secondly when that coach arrives will they give him the power to take control of that club, which would be the concern if it was an inexperienced young coach that hadn’t been there and he walked into that environment, you just wonder if he would be suffocated by the power above him.”
