Furious Newcastle Knights coach Adam O'Brien has lashed out at his players over their "sense of entitlement" after their shock NRL loss to the Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday.
The Bulldogs were near-perfect as they prevailed 18-12 in horrendous conditions at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle to secure their first win since June 8.
Newcastle would have gone back into the competition's top four with a victory, but are now sixth as they slumped to their third loss in their last four games.
O'Brien admitted he was "embarrassed" by the performance and apologised to the fans who came out to watch his side in the pouring rain.
When asked if it was the toughest day of his coaching career, O'Brien said: "Easily. I'm not talking about the injuries, I'm talking about the attitude of the team too.
"I'm embarrassed for the people who sat out in that rain for 80 minutes, it's just not good enough.
"The team needs to understand it's the NRL, you need to turn up. Any team can beat any [other] team. I didn't see it coming.
"I thought we had a really good week at training. But this sense of entitlement we've got at the moment - it's not so much our training, I think it's in and around our training, during our week that I need to get on top of.
"They're not outwardly saying that they're entitled to anything, I'm just seeing that the attitude, our starts and lack of complete ruthless performances, we've been really patchy. So that to me tells me you just think that things are going to happen."
The loss hurt even more as O'Brien confirmed hooker Andrew McCullough and utility Connor Watson would miss the remainder of the season with hamstring and Achilles injuries, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Penrith Panthers moved back to the top of the standings after a gusty 22-14 win over the Gold Coast Titans.
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