{"id":144611,"date":"2025-09-15T09:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T09:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/144611\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T09:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T09:27:07","slug":"nrl-knights-old-boy-replaces-obrien-as-new-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/144611\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL: Knights old boy replaces O’Brien as new coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Holbrook has won the race to coach newly minted NRL wooden spooners Newcastle in 2026.<\/p>\n

The former Gold Coast coach had led a list of candidates to replace Adam O’Brien, with Knights assistant Blake Green and St George Illawarra assistant Dean Young among the other options.<\/p>\n

Holbrook is set to be the Knights new coach in 2026.\u00a0Photo by Chris Hyde\/Getty Image<\/p>\n

But the struggling club confirmed after a board meeting on Monday night that former Newcastle halfback Holbrook would return to NRL coaching next year, less than three years after being fired by the Titans.<\/p>\n

The appointment, which includes a three-year deal, was made on the recommendation of a five-member subcommittee that included the club’s last premiership-winning coach Michael Hagan.<\/p>\n

“Following a thorough selection process, Justin was unanimously chosen as the best candidate to lead the club into a new era,” the Knights said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

“We congratulate Justin on his appointment and look forward to his commencement as Knights head coach once his current commitments are fulfilled.”<\/p>\n

Since leaving the Titans, Holbrook has worked at the Sydney Roosters as assistant to head coach Trent Robinson.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old had been contracted with the Tricolours until the end of next season but Robinson previously indicated the club would permit him to leave for a head coaching job.<\/p>\n

Holbrook had a 37.8 per cent win-rate across three seasons at Gold Coast, but led the perennial strugglers to their most recent finals berth in 2021.<\/p>\n

He was controversially axed by the Titans in mid-2023 while the club was still in finals contention, to clear the way for Des Hasler’s ultimately ill-fated stint.<\/p>\n

Before that, Holbrook coached English side St Helens between 2017 and 2019, winning coach of the year in his final season and guiding the side to grand final glory.<\/p>\n

At international level, Holbrook coached Papua New Guinea for three games in 2023.<\/p>\n

He will be tasked with restoring hope to a Knights side that endured a dismal 2025 campaign, posting the worst attacking record in the league and conceding 66 points in their final game of the season.<\/p>\n

O’Brien’s departure was announced with two games to play in his sixth season at the helm.<\/p>\n

On top of Holbrook’s to-do list will be getting the best out of marquee recruit Dylan Brown, who arrives at the club in 2026 on record-breaking money.<\/p>\n

Holbrook made his NRL debut at the Knights, where he was understudy to Andrew Johns, and has an understanding of what makes the footy-mad city of Newcastle tick.<\/p>\n

That connection, along with his noted abilities as an attack-minded coach with strong man management skills, have earned him another chance at coaching an NRL club that needs fresh ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Holbrook has won the race to coach newly minted NRL wooden spooners Newcastle in 2026. The former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-144611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144611","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=144611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}