Adam O'Brien wants Newcastle to play with freedom against Brisbane as they try to loosen up an attack that is the worst of any finals side in 14 years. O'Brien has resisted the urge to rest several of his big names in the finals round on Saturday despite being unable to move from seventh, instead trying to pump more time into Kalyn Ponga, Mitchell Pearce and Jake Clifford. The Knights have won their last five games to make the finals, but still average just 17.65 points per match to have them ranked 15th in the competition in attack. "We can play a little more free given the result doesn't change ladder position, but we dont want to be reckless and lose our momentum," O'Brien said. "We've played a little bit tight because we've essentially played knockout footy for five weeks. "If we dropped a game there for a while we weren't going to be able to make the eight so this is a little bit different. "It's not (being) reckless, or stupid. We're not going against the laws of rugby league, you still need to hang onto the ball and play smart. "But I feel it is an opportunity to fall into that stuff a bit quicker than they have been." "Some teams have had their spine intact all year and we haven't so that was another reason we had to play them," he said." They (Pearce, Ponga and Clifford) need to spend more time together ... it doesn't mean that they play the whole 80 (minutes) but they need to spend a bit more time together."
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