Wests Tigers ruined the 300-game party of Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce and it showed in the theatrical outbursts of Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien in his box.
The second-year Knights coach was ropeable as the Tigers grinded out a 24-20 victory at a packed McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday, responding to an abysmal first two rounds with an underdog win.
O'Brien couldn't contain his emotions throughout the Round Three clash, in which the Tigers established an 18-8 buffer, fell behind in the 70th minute and snatched the lead back through a David Nofoaluma try in the 73rd minute.
O'Brien stormed out of the box as the Tigers winger dotted down for the go-ahead try, fuming at his side's leaky defence.
"It's frustrating … It was an important occasion for us," O'Brien said in his post-match press conference.
"We desperately wanted to make this a memorable day for Mitchell, and I'm sure it still is for him. Obviously you want to get the win at the end of it. It was important, so there are some disappointed guys down there.
"The start of our sets, our errors - I think it was up around 17 errors or something like that. The first two weeks we haven't had any of that, and unfortunately tonight we had some individuals that had some concentration errors.
"When we managed to get into a bit of a groove, we could clearly see we were getting some joy.
"We just weren't prepared to stay there tonight."
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/newcastle-knights-mitchell-pearce-300th-game-adam-obrien-angry-wests-tigers/bebd23ef-5cb0-4fed-83fa-5419a495746d
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