O'Brien no longer silent Knight on Brown signing

Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien has defended his club's signing of Dylan Brown on a mega-deal and explained why he would not speak about the coup 24 hours before the 26-12 win over the Dolphins.

O'Brien had copped flak after his pre-game press conference on Wednesday when he refused to discuss Parramatta playmaker Brown signing on a 10-year, $14 million dollar deal from 2026.

The Knights were superb in their home win over the Dolphins on Thursday night in Newcastle.

"That's what the whole thing was about. I know I was copping a little bit for not talking about Dylan Brown but my number one job yesterday was not to talk about next year when these guys were 24 hours away from playing," O'Brien said at his post-match press conference..

"I apologise if the media felt disrespected. I know it is your job to report on news and it is newsworthy. I get it, but what might have come across as disrespectful was coming from a place of respect.

"I was respecting a process of a 10-day cooling off period. I was respecting Parramatta.

"The last thing Parramatta wanted me doing during that period was talking about how we were going to play their player. There will be a point in time we need to talk about Dylan but yesterday wasn't that day.

"That has since been waived so I am happy to talk a bit more about it now."

O'Brien had also drawn criticism for not explaining to the Knights fans the Brown signing when the news broke, but the coach would have none of it."I know the red and blue army was mentioned and how they have a right to know," he said

"I know them pretty well. They'd be real disappointed in me if I was talking about next year when we had a game tonight.

"They have been through all that stuff before and don't want to hear about rebuilds. They want to win now. So do we.

"That is the reason for not commenting yesterday. I probably didn't handle it well by straight-batting it and I apologise for that but I don't apologise for shifting focus on what was the most important thing, which was tonight."

Knights legends, including Matthew Johns, have questioned the length of the Brown deal and the coach was quizzed on the naysayers.

"We're happy with our purchase," O'Brien stated.

"It's up to us and it's up to me to make sure that we get this right. It won't be up to Dylan and it won't be up to KP (Kalyn Ponga).

"We've got an obligation if a player of his expertise comes onto the market.

"It's what this town deserves. It was only 10 years ago they were on the first of three wooden spoons. We don't want those days back."

Captain Ponga was magnificent at fullback against the Dolphins and often played in the halves as a first or second receiver.

Five-eighth Fletcher Sharp was also dangerous in his running role.

"It's maybe a little bit of a window into what we're thinking down the track," O'Brien said.

"Kalyn and Fletch can play second and third layer, being fullbacks, so getting their hands on the ball at first layer makes us a bit more dangerous.

"We become more dangerous rather than being predictable with just having Kalyn out the back of all the shapes."