{"id":127984,"date":"2025-09-08T14:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T14:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/127984\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T14:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T14:49:08","slug":"phil-rothfield-says-the-knights-are-in-a-world-of-pain-heading-into-2026-wooden-spoon-kalyn-ponga-news-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/127984\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Rothfield says the Knights are in a world of pain heading into 2026, wooden spoon, Kalyn Ponga, news, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran journalist Phil Rothfield has declared the Knights are \u201cin a world of pain\u201d heading into the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Reports emerged on Monday that Roosters star Sandon Smith<\/a> had reportedly agreed to a four-year deal with Newcastle beginning in 2026.<\/p>\n

Smith is expected to play hooker for the Knights in a new-look spine that will also include Dylan Brown from the Eels, who will join Newcastle on a mammoth 10-year deal worth $13 million.<\/p>\n

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But the additions of Smith and Brown don\u2019t seem to have swayed Rothfield into thinking the Knights will improve in 2026, after they collected the dreaded wooden spoon this season.<\/p>\n

The Knights lost their last nine games of the season, including a 66-10 thumping at the hands of the Eels in Round 27.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reckon they\u2019re in a world of pain,\u201d Rothfield said on NRL 360 on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Josh) Hannay\u2019s knocking them back.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou manage Willie Peters,\u201d Rothfield said, speaking to host Braith Anasta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear he\u2019s not keen.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinus 300 for and against.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are in so much pain that footy club.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo green shoots, whatever you call them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh addresses toilet water saga | 02:27<\/p>\n

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But reporter Brent Read pointed out that Knights star Kalyn Ponga was missing for part of the season, with the fullback only featuring in 13 games in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have Kalyn for half the year. He\u2019s their best player,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you see them playing when he was on the field this year?\u201d Rothfield asked. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read was prepared to give Ponga the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was down on form but he\u2019ll be better next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran journalist Phil Rothfield has declared the Knights are \u201cin a world of pain\u201d heading into the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[89235,64,63,689,26501,7622,12729,89414,89232,2105,15897,89413,50759,673,4495,677,89415,13391,4571,85,51611,670,11737,13125,11103],"class_list":["post-127984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-addresses-toilet","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-brent-read","tag-canterbury-bulldogs","tag-daniel-ramus","tag-dreaded-wooden-spoon","tag-finals-issue","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-green-shoots","tag-hip-drop-drama","tag-injury-disaster","tag-new-south-wales","tag-newcastle-knights","tag-oceania","tag-pain-heading","tag-reece-walsh","tag-sandon-smith","tag-sports","tag-superstar-fullback","tag-sydney","tag-team-tips","tag-veteran-journalist","tag-wooden-spoon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}