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“Inflammatory”: Voss and Russell slam O’Brien's post-game comments
Nicholas Quinlan • June 6th, 2025 1:40 pm
SEN's Andrew Voss and Matty Russell have had their say on Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien’s comments after Friday night’s victory against Manly.
The Knights achieved a miraculous 26-22 victory against Sea-Eagles during golden point. This was after coming back from being 16-nil down at halftime.
During that half-time period, Newcastle fans could be heard collectively booing their team.
In his post-game press conference, O’Brien was critical of Newcastle fans for those jeers, saying that these fans “don’t know anything about rugby league”.
“It’s disappointing,” O’Brien stated.
"I know the score line is not what they want, but to boo the effort that went into that first half from a really young team.
“The people that booed don't know anything about rugby league and they are probably the ones that cheered at the end too.”
When asked by Voss whether fans should be allowed to boo their team’s performance, Russell was in firm support of the fans being allowed to do so.
“Absolutely,” Russell said on SEN 1170’s Breakfast.
“I have repeatedly said that the people of Newcastle, the Hunter are the best rugby league fans on the planet.
“When their team is running last, season after season, you still turn up and there’s still an atmosphere with more than 25,000 people there.
“Give me another club that could have three consecutive spoons and still attract 20,000 people as often as the Knights do.”
Voss would be in agreement with Russell and questioned why O’Brien felt the need to make an inflammatory comment about it.
“It’s a dark place for Newcastle, but for Adam O’Brien to say they don’t know footy?” Voss said.
“That’s a little inflammatory. I don’t know whether Adam would regret saying that today…you’re talking about a young team, like c’mon.
“What are we on about here.”
Newcastle’s next game will be against the Sydney Roosters at McDonald Jones Stadium next Saturday.
