{"id":911961,"date":"2026-10-01T07:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/911961\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T07:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:16:17","slug":"nrl-2026-newcastle-knights-coach-justin-holbrook-takes-playful-shot-at-roosters-coach-trent-robinson-ahead-of-grand-final-assistant-crowd-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/911961\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Newcastle Knights coach Justin Holbrook takes playful shot at Roosters coach Trent Robinson ahead of grand final, assistant, crowd support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knights coach Justin Holbrook has taken a playful shot at his old boss, Trent Robinson, in the lead-up to Sunday\u2019s grand final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Get the expert take on NRL Grand Final Day with FOX LEAGUE\u2019s extensive coverage, plus full and mini replays available post-game on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

The coaches faced off one last time at a press conference on Thursday before the decider at Accor Stadium.<\/p>\n

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Holbrook had two stints under Robinson as his assistant coach between 2014 and 2017 and during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.<\/p>\n

The Knights coach was asked about facing Robinson and his former club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great time working at the Roosters. They used to have a good staff, a good club, not sure what\u2019s happened to them,\u201d Holbrook said with a smile.<\/p>\n

Holbrook\u2019s mood on Thursday summed up the way his Knights have been feeling throughout the finals series.<\/p>\n

After defeating the Rabbitohs, Warriors <\/a>and Panthers, the players were seen bouncing around at training like they were having the time of their lives as finals underdogs.<\/p>\n

Robbo not giving up on Watson return | 00:53<\/p>\n

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Holbrook was also asked what he learned under Robinson during his two stints at the Roosters and he quickly came back with: \u201cNo, no, none.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned heaps, I\u2019ve been reading it all this week… but no, look, he\u2019s a great guy, Robbo,\u201d Holbrook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s well-respected and well-loved in the game and a great mate as well, but we\u2019re not mates this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holbrook then revealed his soft spot for his old club, saying he would be supporting one Rooster team on grand final day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a good club, the Roosters, and I\u2019m happy to cheer their NRLW team in the earlier game, so we\u2019ll go for the Roosters there and then jump ship back to the Knights for the men\u2019s. So there you go, I\u2019m a nice guy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Robinson was also in a jovial mood as he sat near his opponent and former workmate, who he said would have made it to the top with or without him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really good mates, good things happen to good people and he\u2019s deserved everything that\u2019s happened up there at Newcastle,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story\u2019s not about us. We will be good mates no matter what happens on the weekend, it\u2019s about how our teams play. He was going to get it with or without me.\u201d <\/p>\n

Newcastle Knights coach Justin Holbrook was all smiles at Thursday’s press conference.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n

Holbrook was credited with turning English Super League giants St Helens around and led them to the 2019 premiership<\/a> before coming back to Australia to coach the Titans.<\/p>\n

Hindsight says he was unfairly sacked by the struggling Gold Coast franchise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty easy choice to get him back in 2024 when the Titans didn\u2019t end as he wanted,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always been a great coach. You look at his success through the junior grades and his demeanour, it\u2019s always been a real positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a clear knowledge of footy and there\u2019s a good man in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Thursday\u2019s press conference, Robinson was asked if he and the Roosters were bothered at all by all the support and attention the Knights had received since qualifying for their first grand final in 25 years.<\/p>\n

“Not sure what’s happened to them!” | 00:38<\/p>\n

Robinson admitted Newcastle\u2019s success was good for the game, and said Roosters supporters would be seen and heard on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a great community, and it\u2019s great to celebrate. You don\u2019t look down on that. The support that we\u2019ve had, the Roosters supporters, it\u2019s been incredible to see the jerseys and they\u2019ll be out there on Sunday,\u201d Robinson said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so proud of all of our supporters where they are in Australia and overseas, and we hear them and we\u2019re going to play for our community as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Holbrook knows the Newcastle support alone won\u2019t get his team over the line against the more fancied Roosters outfit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to go over to New Zealand two weeks ago and we had the whole country going against us and we were good enough to win. So we know that it\u2019s not going to affect the Roosters one bit,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knights coach Justin Holbrook has taken a playful shot at his old boss, Trent Robinson, in the lead-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-911961","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\/911961","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=911961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}