Adam O’Brien said part of the reason why he criticised booing Newcastle Knights fans was to protect his players after winger James Schiller was the victim of vile abuse on social media.
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Schiller and several Knights players took to Instagram to share the series of messages he received from one fan, which included telling him to “count your days”.
“I will f***ing end your life” the fan added, while another particularly explicit message ended with the user writing that they hoped Schiller would “choke and die”.
According to the ABC, the Knights also referred the messages to the NRL Integrity Unit, with NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo slamming the fan’s actions, labelling them abhorrent.
“Any type of abuse, be it verbal, physical or online has no place in society and we want to help eradicate it,” he said.
“I commend any player who speaks out. We will work with the relevant authorities to take the strongest action possible.”
The Knights had trailed Manly 16-0 at halftime before staging a second-half comeback and winning 26-22 in golden point.
Newcastle was booed off the field at halftime, which prompted coach O’Brien to leap to the defence of his playing group, declaring those that booed “don’t know anything about rugby league”.
Matty’s take on O’Brien’s jab at fans | 00:38
O’Brien apologised for those comments on Friday but also took the opportunity to provide further context for why he made them, including the threat levelled at Schiller.
“That’s worrying and that’s probably where I was coming from,” O’Brien said.
“I want to protect them, so for him to go through that over a couple of errors (is awful).
“It’s a game of footy and he’s got a family, so that’s partly the reason why you do you want to protect them.”
