THE end of the season can't come quickly enough for the Newcastle Knights after their tale of woe continued with a 24-10 loss to a revitalised Canterbury-Bankstown at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
On a day when former Knight Jacob Kiraz scored a hat-trick against the club that released him in the pre-season, the majority of a 19,813-strong crowd were left with a sense of deja vu after Newcastle's eighth defeat in 10 home games this season.
Unbeaten competition leaders after two rounds, the Knights (12 points) have since lost 14 of their 17 ensuing games, plummeting to 14th on the points table, ahead of only Wests Tigers (10 points) and Gold Coast (eight points).
If they lose to the Tigers at Campbelltown on Sunday, they will drop a further rung on the ladder.
And given that one of their remaining five games is against the cellar-dwelling Titans (away), the wooden spoon is looming ominously on the horizon, especially with skipper Kalyn Ponga still sidelined indefinitely after a spate of concussions.
Knights coach Adam O'Brien refused to use Ponga's absence as an excuse, instead admitting Newcastle's "defence and our resilience and our character" were the real issues.
"It was a shock, something I didn't see coming ... I was really concerned after the first two sets of the game," he said.
Having steered Newcastle into the finals in his first two seasons at the helm, the former Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters assistant coach said his team had been training well but that was not transferring to game day.
He said the only option was to "stick tight and work our way out of it".
While his players are clearly struggling for self-belief, O'Brien insisted: "I still have confidence in my own ability."
He is contracted to the Knights for two more seasons and CEO Philip Gardner told the Herald last week: "Adam's position is certainly in no jeopardy."
"Previous to getting the job here, I was involved in four grand finals," O'Brien said.
"I know how those teams prepared. I know the systems that they used defensively.
"You don't unlearn that knowledge. Applying it, and getting it ingrained, is going to take some time ...
"We've got the right people in the joint, we just need to have a plan and coach the hell out of it. Hopefully we look back at this season as a season that helped us grow.
"Had we scraped into the finals this year, it would have stuck a Band-Aid on a problem that is still there."
Kiraz, who played NSW Cup for the Knights last year and was training with their NRL squad before being released to join the Bulldogs in the pre-season, flashed over for two tries in the first 10 minutes and made it a hat-trick four minutes after the break.
It was Canterbury's fourth win in the past six games under interim coach Mick Potter, who has steered them from last on the ladder to 12th since replacing Trent Barrett.
The Knights fielded a reshuffled squad, recalling halfback Jake Clifford at the expense of Adam Clune and reinstating winger Dom Young, who missed the previous game game with a rib injury.
Leading tryscorer Edrick Lee and experienced Hymel Hunt withdrew on Saturday because of injuries.
