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\n The Knights have won four games in the absence of superstar fullback Kalyn Ponga, who suffered a hamstring injury in the Round 2 defeat of Manly.
\n \u00a9NRL Photos
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The whispers and words spoken outside Newcastle\u2019s inner circle suggest the Knights are not expected to win without talismanic captain Kalyn Ponga and star recruit Dylan Brown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jacob Saifiti has not been listening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is too busy leading.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And on Sunday, the former NSW front-rower led the Knights to a comprehensive 32-12 victory over 2025 minor premiers Canberra in front of a sell-out crowd of 23,002 at McDonald Jones Stadium.<\/p>\n
Stretching back 304 days to a 26-22 extra-time victory over Manly on June 5 last year, the Knights ended a seven-game losing streak on home soil to move to second spot behind unbeaten leaders Penrith.<\/p>\n
Backing up his brutal performance in Newcastle\u2019s 24-16 win against Canterbury at Homebush eight days earlier, Saifiti ran 19 times for 174 metres against the Raiders and made 31 tackles in a dominant 65 minutes in the middle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n The Knights have won four games in the absence of superstar fullback Kalyn Ponga, who suffered a hamstring injury in the Round 2 defeat of Manly.
\n \u00a9NRL Photos
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Without Ponga and Brown, Newcastle have now beaten two of the top four teams from last season in consecutive weeks, and Holbrook believes the leadership of senior players like Saifiti, Tyson Frizell and Dane Gagai have helped make that possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cJacob had a great pre-season, he really bought into the change to the pace of the game, and he\u2019s handling it, and he\u2019s dominating it,\u201d Holbrook told NRL.com. \u201cHe\u2019s really leading our side by example, and the boys are following him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saifiti has endured more than his share of struggles in his past 10 seasons in Newcastle, including wooden spoons in his first two NRL campaigns (2016-17) and another last year, but has embraced the changes Holbrook has made since taking the reins last November.<\/p>\n
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Young at his best<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a completely different side. Our head coach and our assistant coaches are all new, we\u2019ve got new performance staff, and obviously some new players,\u201d Saifiti told NRL.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur biggest strengths this year are how connected we are as a group and the belief we have in the systems that Justin\u2019s put in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe buy-in from the players and the club has been unreal, and we\u2019re reaping the rewards now. It\u2019s still a long season, it\u2019s only round five, but there\u2019s some good signs there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown is expected back from a knee injury in two weeks and Ponga (hamstring) is on track to follow two weeks later.<\/p>\n
Winning without them has helped build morale, Saifiti said, but he warned the Knights could not afford to drop their intensity when their star team-mates return.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s massive for our confidence. When they come back, obviously they\u2019re not going to make our team worse, they\u2019re going to make us better,\u201d Saifiti said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what happens is, you get those players back, the shoulders relax and you think you don\u2019t have to work as hard doing your job. So when they come back, we have to maintain that hunger and desire, then who knows what can happen this year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Frizell, who also acknowledged the efforts of emerging team leaders like Phoenix Crossland and Mat Croker, said the Knights had \u201csimplified our game and played to our strengths\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s chipping in right across the board, and some of our leaders that are still in the side are playing well,\u201d Frizell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers like Jacob, \u2018Crokes\u2019 is doing a great job through the middle there, Phoenix is playing busted, and \u2018Gags\u2019 was unreal today out on the edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCollectively, as a group, we\u2019re all chipping in, and it\u2019s not just one single person that\u2019s leading the way. Everyone\u2019s doing their job and it\u2019s making things a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saifiti said the Knights were more disciplined than the Raiders, which went a long way towards them posting their fourth win from five starts this season.<\/p>\n
He praised the selflessness of fellow leaders, such as Frizell, for helping him take advantage of a productive pre-season and making a solid start to his 11th NRL season in Newcastle.<\/p>\n
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\n Tyson Frizell has helped lead the Knights to second spot on the NRL ladder after five rounds
\n \u00a9NRL Photos
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\u201c\u2018Friz\u2019 has been enormous for us off the bench,\u201d Saifiti said.\u00a0\u201cSomeone like him probably should be starting, but he said to \u2018Coach\u2019 in round one, I\u2019ll happily come off the bench, which says a lot about him.<\/p>\n
\u201cGags is 35 this year and you saw what he did tonight, then you\u2019ve got emerging leaders like Bradman, Crokes, Phoenix, Dylan Lucas, all stepping up and doing their job, and that makes my job as a leader so much easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy with my start to the year, and I\u2019m building off last year. I missed a lot of footy, and as a club we\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0go too well, but I thought the games I did play in, I was\u00a0pretty strong, then I had a big pre-season\u00a0and carried that into this season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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