The nib Newcastle Knights earned their first home win of the season with a 24-14 victory over the Canberra Raiders at McDonald Jones Stadium yesterday afternoon.
The team turned the scoreboard around in the second half with three quick tries before the 50th minute mark.
Head Coach Adam O'Brien spoke after the game on the win, Marzhew's debut and players returning from injury.
ON THE PERFORMANCE
"I'm really proud, I'm really happy for the players first and foremost. There's a fair bit of pressure that comes with wanting to please the town. For them to be able to fight the way they did and to see the joy of the people that just keep turning up...it's great," O'Brien said.
"We spoke at half-time about playing it up-tempo. We gave them [Raiders] two or three errors at our own end when we didn't defend, that was disappointing.
"I felt, and the players felt, the same that we were punching a couple of holes in them towards the back-end of the first half.
Best too hard to handle
"We wanted to start high energy with the ball but end our sets very clinically, set up our defence and don't get sick of sticking into corners.
"Our execution was an area that we had to own, but certainly our effort and execution has been with us the whole four games.
ON THE WIN
"It's massive, we made it a big priority that we wanted to win games up here in Newcastle. The town is a big driving force behind why we want to win, they're very passionate and they're a big part of this Club," Brailey said.
"To be able to go out there today and get a win for them and do the lap of honour, that's why you go through the tough times. It was a really nice moment."
Team Song: Round 4 win
ON PRESSURE
"The bigger the pressure, the bigger the reward. The better the feeling is. Especially us as a leadership group, we're working really hard about how we view the pressure," Brailey said.
"Last week, we didn't get the result but it was a good performance and today we got the result. For us, we know it's a very passionate town and we want to win every game at home.
ON MARZHEW'S DEBUT
"The amount of carries he had, the two tries and the metres, but I thought they put him under a lot of pressure with the high ball. I thought he was outstanding with that," O'Brien said.
"He's worked so hard, and he deserves it.
Marzhew hits back
"It would've been so easy for me to give him that debut jersey straight away because of that back of the field carry and he had that in the Trials, I thought he was great against Parramatta.
"There was some other stuff that he needs to work on and to his credit, he has. He won't forget his debut and neither will these guys."
ON DANIEL SAIFITI'S INJURY
"This has been a massive week for Daniel...earlier in the week, it wasn't looking great but he just worked (hard) and to their credit the physios and medical team have been outstanding," O'Brien said.
"We've had some busted bodies for a while and they've worked really tirelessly to try and get these boys out onto the field."
ON TYSON GAMBLE
"Tyson has been outstanding, a competitor. What you've got out there is a competitor and that's what he gives us," O'Brien said.
"We've got good depth in the spine, you'd like to think that we've learnt our lesson over the few years, where we've been missing spine members.
"Our depth has really been tested but I feel like having guys like him...we're very fortunate."
ON ROUND 5
"We're going to look at it as an opportunity, they're quality opposition (Manly), they've come off the disappointment of (Saturday) night," O'Brien said.
"It's an opportunity for us to really go out on a mission out there [Mudgee] and repeat what we did last night.
"On a whole, we need to get excited about our week."
