KNIGHTS coach Adam O'Brien has welcomed the pressure as his team strives to end a dire run of results at home with a breakthrough victory against Gold Coast Titans at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday night.
In their past five outings in their own backyard, Newcastle have been thrashed 30-6 by Manly, 39-2 by Parramatta, 50-2 by Melbourne, 36-12 by Brisbane and 42-6 by Penrith.
That's an overall scoreline of 197-28 - or 39-5 on average - a sequence of consecutive hammerings that is unprecedented in the club's 35-season history.
On Friday night the stakes would appear to be even higher when the 12th-placed Knights play host to the Titans, who are languishing on the bottom of the ladder after losing 10 of their past 11 games.
Getting towelled up at home by heavyweight teams is one matter, losing to the competition cellar dwellers another altogether.
Both O'Brien and his Gold Coast counterpart, Justin Holbrook, are already under scrutiny after their teams have nosedived from finalists to easybeats in the space of 12 months, and it would seem reasonable to assume that whoever loses tonight will be on even thinner ice.
But O'Brien remains upbeat and insists that Newcastle can perform a similar resurrection to last year, when they won seven of their last 11 regular-season games to qualify for the finals with a week to spare.
"We need to accept the pressure, because what we're doing matters," O'Brien said.
"Otherwise, there is no pressure.
"If what you're doing doesn't matter and no one cares about it, well then there'll be no pressure.
"So our guys do care.
"We want to put in a strong performance.
"We're not content with where we're at on the ladder, or the performances that we've put in at home.
"Whether we're playing the Titans, who are closer to the bottom half, with us, or whether we're playing the ones up the top, we need to go out and play to our full potential.
"And I don't think we've done it, but I'm confident when we do, we can get the team on a roll."
O'Brien said the Knights were "in exactly the same spot this time last year - identical", presumably because after round 15 in 2021 they were also 12th on the points table.
But at the corresponding stage of last season they had an extra win in the bank, five from 14 games, as opposed to four from 14 this year.
Nonetheless, their mindset remains the same and the coach has no doubt the play-offs are still within reach, although it would require a remarkable turnaround in form.
"I'd say we've got an easier run [than last season]," O'Brien said.
"We're not away from home [based in Queensland] this year. We've got four of our next five games at home.
"There's something still to be done this year. We managed to show that last year.
"That's not dead and buried ... we've got so much footy left.
"We're in an identical spot. We've played all the top-eight teams.
"I'm quite confident we can get on a run."
To do so, the coach said his players would need to focus on the immediate task at hand, rather than the big picture.
"We put one foot in front of the other and see how we go," he said.
The loss of skipper Kalyn Ponga to a head knock he suffered in Origin II has done the Knights no favours.
Newcastle believe the Queensland fullback should be available to play against the Titans, but a category-one concussion ruling from the NRL bunker's doctor means he is ineligible. Tex Hoy will replace him as the last line of defence.
