O’Brien’s ‘more ready’ claim in shot at rivals

Newcastle Knights coach Adam O’Brien has fired a shot at the Cowboys, claiming his side is “more ready” ahead of their finals clash.
The Knights will travel to Townsville later in the week for the Saturday clash after just sneaking into the finals following a win over the Dolphins.
North Queensland had a similar late season resurgence, moving into a home finals spot after sitting seventh in round 24.
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Despite the Cowboys finishing fifth, O’Brien believes his side is better prepared for a finals fixture.
Knights coach Adam O’Brien.  Getty
“I was thinking about this a lot after the game, I think we’re a lot more battle hardened this year,” he told media on Tuesday.
“Last year … (we had) 10 winning games and we were a little more busted towards the end, we lost some key guys in Fitz (Lachlan Fitzgibbon) and Jacko (Jackson Hastings) and Kalyn (Ponga) with his shoulder.
“We’re in a much different spot health wise, I feel like we’re battle hardened.
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“We’ve been in some really tight contests, obviously a one-point game against Cronulla and I think six or eight points in Penrith.
“Again last weekend, handling a big occasion in front of a big crowd … I just feel like we’re more ready for a tight battle.
“More ready than the opposition are, they’ve had some big blowout scorelines and haven’t had a real tight contest for a while so hopefully that puts us in good stead.”
Since round 18, the Cowboys have played in four matches where the margin was eight points or less.
In that round, they lost by one point to Manly and in round 20 they defeated the Bulldogs by two.
The following match they beat the Sharks by eight and it was the same margin when they won against Melbourne in round 26.