{"id":445494,"date":"2026-01-29T16:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445494\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:34:22","slug":"tex-hoy-earns-chance-at-nrl-return-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445494\/","title":{"rendered":"Tex Hoy earns chance at NRL return – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Newcastle Knights<\/a> fullback and five-eighth Tex Hoy<\/a> has returned to Australia<\/a> after a stint in the English Super League<\/a>, and will chase a return to the NRL<\/a> with the Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Newcastle Herald are reporting the 26-year-old versatile spine player has signed a train and trial contract with the Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It will give him a chance to push his case for either a development or Top 30 spot at the club, with Hoy impressing previously during his 29-game stint with the Newcastle Knights<\/a> before he moved to England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There he played 24 games for Hull FC<\/a> in 2023 and 2024, before a mid-season move saw him head to the Castleford Tigers<\/a> until the end of 2025 where he racked up another 35 games.<\/p>\n

The former Knight has footwork and a good turn of pace, and could well impress coach Anthony Seibold<\/a>, although any eventual signing would likely see him play NSW Cup<\/a> given Luke Brooks<\/a> is the club’s five-eighth, and one of Lehi Hopoate<\/a> and Tom Trbojevic<\/a> will already be not playing at fullback.<\/p>\n

Hoy, who is a Newcastle-born player, also has interest from the local competition in a move that could pique his interest.<\/p>\n

While Hoy will likely chase an NRL<\/a> future first, the publication are reporting the South Newcastle Lions – who are Hoy’s old club – have also made inquiries about his availability.<\/p>\n

If he joined that club, he would have familiar company, with another ex-Knight returning from the Super League<\/a> in Lachlan Fitzgibbon<\/a> also to play there this year.<\/p>\n

Fitzgibbon though, speaking to the publication, said Hoy still has plenty to offer at NRL<\/a> level.<\/p>\n

“Whether he comes back to the local league, if he comes back to Souths, I’d welcome him with open arms,” Fitzgibbon said.<\/p>\n

“But where Tex is, at this stage of his career – he is coming out of a professional environment at Castleford, and he was playing some good footy over there, and Tex is a good footy player.<\/p>\n

“I still think he has got a lot to give.”Whether that’s at the NRL<\/a> level, which I believe it is, hopefully he can fight his way back into an NRL<\/a> system and be back playing NRL<\/a>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Newcastle Knights fullback and five-eighth Tex Hoy has returned to Australia after a stint in the English…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-445494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445494","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=445494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}