Adam O’Brien’s much-maligned time as Newcastle head coach appears to be over, with O’Brien and Knights powerbrokers agreeing to a mutual early split that could happen as soon as this week.
O’Brien has been at the Knights since 2020, and while he’s taken the club to four finals in five years, most agree he’s done little to turn fortunes around in Hunter in any truly meaningful way.
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Even worse, the team seems to have regressed more recently and has won just six games in 2025. Now, with two matches left on the competitive calendar (for those teams not contesting finals), there’s every chance the Knights could slip behind the last-placed Titans and earn another wooden spoon in an era when they were meant to be challengers.
Things came to a head after the Knights were battered 46–12 by the finals-bound Brisbane. Club bosses had expected the Knights to be around where Michael Maguire’s Broncos are right now; to barely put up a fight was one last nail.
The Knights are going to pay O’Brien between $300,000 and $500,000 to end his Knights contract early.
The messaging from the club is that O’Brien is ‘standing down’ in a mutual deal.
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Current assistant and former five-eighth Blake Green is tipped to take over from O’Brien.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported controversial agent Isaac Moses was heavily involved in those negotiations.
Club chairman Geoff Coburn did recently tell the Daily Telegraph that they “hadn’t discussed Adam” and that he would be seeing out the final two years on his contract through to 2027.
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“That is the intention – that he will finish his two years. As a board, we haven’t discussed it,” he said.
That, of course, seems to have changed. Hopefully, Coburn was looped in.
