The foundation of the Newcastle Knights was dug out by Allan McMahon.
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He wasn’t just a coach; he was the architect of an identity. McMahon understood that in the Hunter, the jersey had to mean more than a contract. He built the club on the 3 Ts — Tackle, Tough, and Tomorrows — but added a fourth, invisible T: The Type.
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He famously told his players to ‘be the player everyone wants to play with,’ a recruitment filter designed to find guys who brought a raw toughness to the paddock. Touch one, and you got them all.
It’s a culture that never really left the steel city. Newcastle remains a proud, working-class town, a brilliant place to live where the club’s wonderful group of Old Boys still train together and watch their kids come through the local footy ranks together.
It’s a one-team region where the connection runs deep, and when the Knights are humming, there is simply no better place in the world to play rugby league.
Justin Holbrook didn’t take the express elevator to the top.
He earned his stripes and learned how to build a squad that fits that authentic Newcastle ‘Type’ through a brutal three-year stretch running the Under 20s programs at the Bulldogs (2011), Dragons (2012), and Parramatta (2013).
That kind of volume forces a coach to learn fast; cycling through that many young players in such a short window was a crash course in reading a locker room, figuring out what makes different personalities tick, and learning exactly what works when it comes to getting results without wasting time.
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When Newcastle shelled out the big bucks to secure Dylan Brown, it raised plenty of eyebrows across the game.
The scepticism only grew louder after the playmaker had a tough 2025 finish at Parramatta, shuffled all over the park before missing out on selection.
With the Knights’ attack looking stagnant and struggling to pierce a line, the question every fan was asking was simple: how exactly was this high-priced signature going to fix a side that had just crawled its way to the 2025 wooden spoon?
But the first change any outsider noticed about the 2026 version of the Knights had nothing to do with block plays or structural data. It was simpler than that. They just seemed happy.
Sir Alex Ferguson used to say that a happy team is a dangerous team, and when you think about it, good teams generally look the part.
Winning does that, obviously, but this goes deeper.
Everyone in footy knows someone who knows someone who can give you the real mail on exactly how a club is traveling behind closed doors. It doesn’t come from the official media channels; it comes from the ground up. It comes from the kit man, or the dad of a young bloke whose mate played Jersey Flegg.
And the word on the street right now is undeniable: the Knights are happy, they are winning, and Newcastle is flourishing.
The Knights have been in fine form. (Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
You see it the second they get off the team bus, and you see it all over social media. These blokes genuinely like each other.
Kalyn Ponga has a full-blown bromance running with Dylan Brown, and the old-school mullets are back in vogue if your name happens to be Fletcher. Legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson famously noted that it isn’t about how much talent you have, it’s about how well that talent fits together. Somehow, the gloom and doom of that wooden spoon season has turned completely into sunshine in the Hunter because the pieces are finally clicking.
The vibe is one thing, but the hard numbers tell the real story of this 2026 turnaround.
If you had told any Newcastle fan back in March that their blokes would be sitting fifth on 22 points with a positive 34 differential heading into the back half of the season, they’d have bitten your hand off.
After a dismal 2025 where they looked completely toothless in attack, the Knights have flipped the script entirely. They currently sit third in the NRL for points scored, racking up 392 points through a brand of footy that’s as entertaining as it is effective.
What makes that turnaround even more impressive is that it hasn’t been smooth sailing. The Knights have copped their fair share of adversity, with big-name stars like Kalyn Ponga, Dylan Brown, and young gun Fletcher Sharpe all spending chunks of time on the sideline.
In previous years, losing that much strike power would have caused the wheels to fall off completely. In 2026, the win column has just continued to tick over.
While the backline grabs all the headlines and holds the star power, it’s the engine room that has really overachieved this season.
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The Knights didn’t go out and break the bank for marquee big men; instead, they smart-shopped. Off-season buys Trey Mooney and Pasami Saulo, both brought up from the Raiders, have stepped up in a big way to become regular, hardened NRL players. Add in Harrison Graham, who has been more than ok since making the switch from the Dolphins, and you have a pack that refuses to be bullied.
When you couple those new faces with the proven upfront muscle of Jacob Saifiti and Tyson Frizell, alongside the lethal line-running of Dylan Lucas on the edge, you get a pack that is simply getting the job done week in, week out. They aren’t waiting for the flashy backs to save them; they’re winning the collision and earning the right to play.
That is where recruitment guru Peter O’Sullivan earns his money. He’s done a remarkably smart job assembling this roster, and you only have to look at a signing like Sandon Smith to see it. Smith has been the ultimate professional this season, providing a steady hand week in, week out, regardless of who is filtering in and out of the spine.
Holbrook showed exactly what he could do with a powerhouse roster when he took the reins at St Helens. Over in the Super League, he didn’t just win; he dominated, walking away with a staggering 80 per cent win rate and a Grand Final trophy in 2019.
That success earned him his ticket back to the NRL, but he walked straight into one of the game’s genuine poison chalices: the Gold Coast Titans. It’s often forgotten that he managed to drag an underachieving club back into the finals in 2021 but as is their way – he was moved on.
Newcastle coach Justin Holbrook. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Instead of kicking stones, Holbrook swallowed his pride, stayed relevant, and went back to work as an assistant under Trent Robinson at the Roosters. It was a masterstroke.
It kept his mind sharp in an elite system and paved the way for his ultimate homecoming. When the Knights job opened up for 2026, it wasn’t just another gig — it was a return to where it all began. Holbrook made his NRL debut as a goal-kicking halfback for Newcastle back in 1999, spending two seasons biding his time as an understudy to Andrew Johns.
He already knew what football meant to the Hunter; he just needed the chance to remind the town what it felt like to smile.
Now, the Knights sit in a beautifully healthy position as they round the turn for the gruelling run home. Kalyn Ponga has extended his stay in the Hunter, Dylan Brown is playing magnificent footy, and the entire joint is just plain happy.
Heck, the good vibes have trickled all the way down through the grades; the NSW Cup side, who also finished the 2025 season dead last, currently sit in equal second.
But the next month will give a much clearer picture of exactly what Justin Holbrook has under the hood. It’s a brutal, defining stretch: the Tigers on Sunday at 4:05 PM, into the Dolphins at home, followed by tough away trips to the Rabbitohs and the Sharks.
If you asked that very same Knights fan back in March what they would take right now, they’d be openly dreaming of a home semi-final. But rugby league is a funny game. What made us happy yesterday won’t stack up tomorrow, and the Hunter is about to find out if this newfound sunshine is here to stay.
The Knights face the Tigers on Sunday afternoon at 4.05pm. You can catch the game LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.