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Knights chairman Brian McGuigan hoped the sacking of coach Rick Stone sends a clear message that everyone at the club is accountable for their performance.
The Knights announced on Monday during a presentation on the club's strategic plan for the next three years that Stone had been sacked with six games left in this season and another year remaining on the two-year deal he signed 12 months ago to replace Wayne Bennett.
Former Knights, NSW and Australian captain Danny Buderus, in his first year as one of Stone's assistants, will take the reins as caretaker for the rest of the season.
After just two wins from their past 14 games, the latest loss a record 52-6 hiding by defending premiers South Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, the Knights' board of directors decided Stone's position had become untenable.
"It's an overall review that we are contemplating, not just the coaching, but also the players themselves because everyone in the team needs to be accountable ... the directors need to be accountable, and the management needs to be accountable," McGuigan said.
"We are the representatives of this district, and we are proud of this district, so we'd better lift our game and get some results."
Knights directors spoke about the coaching position via telephone hook-up on Monday morning then chief executive Matt Gidley advised Stone of the decision.
Players were notified immediately after Stone was told, and Gidley plans to address them before training on Tuesday morning.
"This is something we've been speaking about for about eight weeks," Gidley said. "The team started well but the team's been under-performing for a number of months now.
"We've been sitting and discussing what our plans would be if things didn't improve, and what path we would take, but we all hoped things would improve and we could get to the end of the season and see some performances, and some effort in the performances that we require.
"Given recent performances, it's fast-tracked things, so we've had to make some decisions.
"The board met this morning ... then we made the decision just after lunch with Rick.
"It was just the type of effort and spirit in the team which was clearly lacking. This is a difficult decision because Rick's a great man, he cares deeply about the club, he works incredibly hard, and it's difficult to make this decision.
"But if we're going to sit here and talk about building quality teams and world-class teams, we need to keep ourselves accountable to that ... and start the process of looking out at the market and seeing what type of coaches are available, and be really clear about the type of coach we think we need moving forward to deliver on some of the things that are in this plan."
