Bradman Best in brutal blow for Knights as Matty Bowen hits back at Newcastle coach

Newcastle's NRL finals hopes have been dealt a major blow with representative centre Bradman Best reportedly ruled out of Saturday night's elimination final against North Queensland with a hamstring injury. Best has struggled with hamstring issues in both legs this season and was only fit enough to play in State of Origin Game III, as the Blues won the decider to claim the series.

The destructive centre has been strong for the in-form Knights at the back-end of the season though, despite being limited to 17 games for Newcastle this season. And his loss represents a significant setback for Adam O'Brien's side, who are chasing a fourth-straight win, with versatile back-rower Dylan Lucas looming as a strong possibility to take Best's place in the centres for the must-win clash in Townsville.

The Best injury news comes after Cowboys great Matty Bowen rejected claims from Newcastle's coach that the Knights will be more battle-hardened for their finals clash with the Cowboys. The Knights snuck into the eighth and final playoffs spot on the back of three hard-fought wins against the Rabbitohs, Titans and finally the Dolphins, in the winner-takes-all round 27 clash last week.

Prior to their three-game winning streak, Newcastle went down by a point against the high-flying Sharks and O'Brien says the tough-run home has been an ideal preparation for the Knights' finals campaign. “I feel like we’re battle hardened... we’ve been in some really tight contests... we’re more ready for a tight battle, we’re more ready than what the opposition are, I think they’ve had some really big blowout score lines and haven’t had a real tight contest in a while,” O’Brien said.

However, Cowboys great Bowen - who played 270 games in a glittering for North Queensland - says Newcastle's tough run to the finals could also have a detrimental effect against his former club. “That can take a toll, that can take a toll at the backend of the year when you are playing those games,” Bowen said on SENQ Mornings. The question is just which Cowboys are going to turn up this week? We play good one week, we’re disappointing one week.”

The Cowboys have the best winning percentage against other top 8 teams heading into the finals series (70%) and put on probably their best display of the season to destroy the Bulldogs last week and clinch fifth spot. But as Bowen alluded to, the Cowboys have also been wildly inconsistent and have had a habit of leaking points.

Bradman Best out of finals clash against Cowboys

The home side will no doubt be breathing slightly easier at hearing the news that Best is out for the Knights after suffering what is his fifth hamstring injury of the season. But Newcastle still has the ever dangerous Kalyn Ponga at their disposal, with the reigning Dally M Medallist almost single-handedly getting his team across the line last week against the Dolphins.

Maroons great Corey Parker has warned that O'Brien's side can't be so over-reliant on Ponga though but loved that the Newcastle coach's comments had added some extra spice to the clash in Townsville. “There’s a little jibe there,” he told SENQ Mornings. "It’d be fair to say that the Cowboys, looking at the two teams and what they’ve faced, the Cowboys, they’ve been very inconsistent.

“Everyone has been crying out for a performance like what we’d seen on the weekend, they played a side that was the fairy-tale of the NRL and they absolutely took them to town. The Newcastle Knights, for me, they’re just too heavily dominant on one player... Kalyn Ponga is their man.”