{"id":606490,"date":"2026-04-14T15:28:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606490\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:28:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:28:38","slug":"revival-of-nrl-spoon-winners-is-no-shock-to-roosters-the-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606490\/","title":{"rendered":"Revival of NRL spoon winners is no shock to Roosters | The Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AngusAngus Crichton (centre) is not surprised by Newcastle’s resurgence under coach Justin Holbrook. Photo: Mark Evans\/AAP PHOTOS<\/p>\n

Newcastle’s early-season surge from wooden spooners to top-four contenders has caught most observers in the NRL off guard.<\/p>\n

But not Sydney Roosters forward Angus Crichton, who says it’s no shock to see new head coach Justin Holbrook turning the Knights into surprise contenders.<\/p>\n

Holbrook spent time as an assistant under Trent Robinson, overseeing the Roosters’ attack before being parachuted in as Adam O’Brien’s long-term replacement.<\/p>\n

The Knights sit fifth – outside the top four by virtue of their for-and-against – having begun the season 4-2.<\/p>\n

Their rise under Holbrook is all the more impressive considering the ex-Gold Coast and St Helens coach has been without fullback Kalyn Ponga and five-eighth Dylan Brown for the last four weeks.<\/p>\n

\"CoachCoach Justin Holbrook has taken the Knights from wooden spooners to top-four contenders. (Darren Pateman\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Brown is expected to return for Sunday’s clash with the Roosters at Allianz Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He (Holbrook) is a really good man manager who knows how to get the best out of his players,” Crichton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think what’s impressed me is seeing him happy, you see a lot of head coaches will be great assistants, and they’ll go across and (lose that).<\/p>\n

“I guess it helps when you’re winning and he’s learned a lot from his first head coaching gig (in the NRL) to come back and getting another opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m so happy for him, he’s a great bloke, I’ve got a lot of time for Justin so it’s going to be a good test for us \u2026 hopefully they won’t be doing a great job on Sunday.” \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Roosters (3-2) sit eighth after six rounds following a come-from-behind 34-22 win over Cronulla in Perth last week.<\/p>\n

Crichton was dissatisfied with how his side started a game which has sparked furious debate about the NRL’s interpretation of its disruptor rules. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re so far from our best, nowhere near where we want to be,” Crichton said.<\/p>\n

“We’re super aware of that and we’re not running around thinking we’re world beaters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Some of our timing and shape is not in the right spot at the right times.” \u00a0<\/p>\n

Australian Associated Press<\/p>\n

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Loading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angus Crichton (centre) is not surprised by Newcastle’s resurgence under coach Justin Holbrook. Photo: Mark Evans\/AAP PHOTOS Newcastle’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-606490","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\/606490","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=606490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}