![\"Adrian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790450179_670_4ab4a6c753559951c26e831e823d71d29090f818.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
September 27, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n
Save<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n For the best part of an hour, the only sound was Wayne Bennett\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n Few can command a room quite like the master coach, and those who had come to hear him speak about his remarkable life in rugby league, at a charity lunch for the Cure the Future foundation at Doltone House last December, were hanging off every word.<\/p>\n Bennett always makes you lean in to listen. On this occasion even more so, partly due to the subject but also the fact that the PA system barely carried his voice across the room.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a point for a week or two where I didn\u2019t want to coach any more. I really didn\u2019t,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cI felt I didn\u2019t have it in me.\u201d<\/p>\n Bennett was talking about his time in Newcastle, specifically the fallout from the catastrophic injury Knights forward Alex McKinnon suffered in a tackle against Melbourne in 2014 that left him a quadriplegic.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a moment that almost broke Bennett. And the club.<\/p>\n There have been many dark days at the Knights since their last premiership in 2001. There have been five wooden spoons, a turnover of seven coaches and enough turmoil off the field to the point that, at one stage, there were genuine concerns the Knights could fold.<\/p>\n It took the intervention of the NRL, and then the Wests Group, to secure Newcastle\u2019s future after mining magnate and owner Nathan Tinkler left the club on the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n Every NRL club has its dramas, but the Knights have had more than their share over the last quarter of a century. Their two premierships came with Andrew Johns at the helm, but replacing an Immortal \u2013 perhaps the greatest halfback of them all \u2013 would prove impossible.<\/p>\n When the class of 2001 moved on or retired, they were never adequately replaced. Not all of those to subsequently wear the jersey represented it appropriately, with Dane Tilse, Danny Wicks, Russell Packer, Zane Tetevano and Jarrod Mullen all sacked over off-field matters.<\/p>\n The high point was the 2013 preliminary final under Bennett, but no one could predict what was to come. The Knights lost to the Roosters, Danny Buderus retired and Packer was punted before the first day of pre-season, for a drunken assault that resulted in two years behind bars. Things didn\u2019t get much better once the football restarted the following year, with Mullen pinging his hamstring and Darius Boyd checking himself into rehab.<\/p>\n Worse was to come when McKinnon suffered his life-changing injury, at a time when Tinkler stopped paying his employees.<\/p>\n You know a club is broken when seven-time premiership coach Bennett, unable to fix it, walked away prematurely.<\/p>\n All of which makes the club\u2019s resurrection, just a season after finishing last, all the more noteworthy. It\u2019s one nobody saw coming.<\/p>\n It happened on the watch of recycled coach Justin Holbrook, whose own playing career as a halfback at the Knights was restricted to five appearances due to Johns\u2019 presence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a stable roster just waiting to be coached,\u201d Holbrook said after replacing Adam O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n The only notable addition to it was Parramatta playmaker Dylan Brown, who required a $13 million contract to lure him to the worst team in the competition. After rupturing his ACL following 15 games for the Knights, his absence has been felt as much as his presence. Yet despite that and countless other injury setbacks, Holbrook\u2019s heroes have somehow progressed all the way to Sunday\u2019s preliminary final against Penrith.<\/p>\n They have done so playing a brand of football that has resulted in them scoring more tries from their own side of halfway than any other team. Kalyn Ponga has been at the forefront of it all, producing form every bit as stunning as during his storied run to the 2023 Dally M medal.<\/p>\n Which is why, after years of questions about his loyalty, the captain recommitted to the club long term.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously it\u2019s about the community and the people within it,\u201d Ponga said of the decision to stay put. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to leave that. I just thought there was an opportunity to win here.\u201d<\/p>\n Suddenly, a club that didn\u2019t know how to win doesn\u2019t know how to lose. Newcastle took out the Harold Matthews premiership, made the SG Ball decider, finished runners-up in the Andrew Johns Cup, and made the preliminary finals in the NSW Cup and Laurie Daley Cup tournaments. When the Australian Schoolboys side was named there were six Knights, more than any other club.<\/p>\n And the NRL side isn\u2019t content with what it has achieved so far.<\/p>\n \u201cThe belief\u2019s there, it\u2019s exciting times,\u201d said star centre Bradman Best. \u201cWe\u2019re here to do special things.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cone team, one town\u201d philosophy was on full display during an open training session on Wednesday. About a thousand Novacastrians skipped school or work to witness preparations for the Panthers clash.<\/p>\n Theirs is a team that embodies their working-class values, yet still has the flair required to progress deep into September. Like Johns, Fletcher Sharpe is the son of a local coalminer.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring pre-season [the team] went down and spent a bit of time underground,\u201d Sharpe said. \u201cIt was a unique experience, but one that puts into perspective how lucky we are. And it\u2019s something we\u2019ve spoken about all year \u2013 getting into the community and making them a part of the club and the team, and going out there on a weekend and representing those guys.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell you what, it\u2019s not something I could do every day, going down there and working under there, so it makes you super grateful for the position that you\u2019re in, getting to go out there on the weekend and hopefully playing a style of footy that represents them. I think we\u2019ve been able to do that this year, which is good.\u201d<\/p>\n Johns, who was pessimistic about the team\u2019s chances when its campaign kicked off in Las Vegas, has become a believer.<\/p>\n \u201cA few months back, I found myself thinking about it, and I honestly thought \u2018when are we going to compete for a grand final again? Is it going to be in my lifetime?\u2019 That\u2019s what I was thinking, honestly,\u201d Johns said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then watching this team and the way they\u2019ve improved, it\u2019s given everyone hope. If not this year, then in the next couple of years, without a doubt. There\u2019s a premiership window and it\u2019s open.\u201d<\/p>\n The seeds of the revival were planted early in the pre-season. Holbrook and his two assistant coaches, Brett White and Steve Hales, spent more than two months living together in a three-bedroom rental on Bar Beach.<\/a> It was there that they devised an attacking brand of football that has taken them all the way to the penultimate game of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at the strike we have in our team, we have threats all over the park,\u201d said winger Dom Young.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where we are on the field, we\u2019re always ready to strike and that has made us exciting to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Wayne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/f084c8508a66b20dda5f19a03b6a70c16854288e.jpeg\")
Wayne Bennett attempts to focus his troops after the emotion of Rise for Alex Round in Newcastle in 2014.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/acca6e367e1687ece061118413c8866ee61d7ecf.jpeg\")
Andrew Johns celebrates the 2001 grand final win.Nick Wilson<\/p>\n![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/a438716bb0e74a32f001147cd4af3c36912fe111.jpeg\")
Alex McKinnon and Wayne Bennett
\nat a press conference for the Rise for
\nAlex Round in 2014.Kate Geraghty<\/p>\n![\"Newcastle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1561a6246fa8c0e72dbc3a585e2f118ecb411d3e.jpeg\")
Newcastle captain Kalyn Ponga.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n![\"Knights](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/23dd7b03032971d22e6dd41c7de28e8de1a69f5a.jpeg\")
Knights coach Justin Holbrook has had an immediate impact on Newcastle in 2026.NRL Imagery<\/p>\n![\"Players](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bfe84daa005b0ba8dc27c639a6bbf3a44353c211.jpeg\")
Players greet fans at an open training session this week.Dean Sewell<\/p>\n
![\"Bradman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790450185_36_d985209bf861bf37f7cfe1fa90f1b9593838769e.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n