Outgoing Newcastle captain Kurt Gidley has come to the defence of embattled head coach Rick Stone saying the buck starts and stops with the players.

“It’s our attitude to defending, it’s our attitude to training, turning up and wanting to be a better team and being better players,” Gidley said.

“I, 100 per cent, support Stoney as head coach.

“It would be tough as a fan to watch us at the moment, especially the past two games where defensively we’ve been poor to start the game.

“You can say it’s an attitude thing or a belief thing, whether it’s a confidence thing or all those things coming together.

“But the attitude part is a tough one to take. We need to turn up with the right attitude to make sure we want to be there.”