had all the chips stacked against them and still managed to beat Penrith<\/a> in a win some commentators called the best they\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\nNewcastle was left with 12 men on the field after Phoenix Crossland was sent off. But the Panthers failed to score a point in the second half despite the overlap, and two Sandon Smith tries sealed an epic Knights win.<\/p>\n
Late in the contest, before the second Smith try and as the Knights were desperately clinging to a narrow lead, Penrith threw everything it had at the opposition defence and went achingly close to scoring a try that could have won the game.<\/p>\n
Panthers wrecking ball Moses Leota charged full-steam at Knights captain and fullback Kalyn Ponga, but was floored by the superstar\u2019s left shoulder despite holding a significant weight and momentum advantage.<\/p>\n
Johns, who is tipping Ponga to be man of the match in Sunday\u2019s grand final and add a Clive Churchill Medal to his Dally M gong from 2023, reckons that was the moment that epitomised Newcastle\u2019s spirit this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about his tackle on Moses Leota?\u201d Johns said on Wide World of Sports\u2019 NRL Tips.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen Moses get folded.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s a moment you go, this represents the turnaround of the Knights from struggling to belief and confidence… and also the elevation of Kalyn to be that great leader; that tackle epitomises the change in the Knights, and change in Kalyn Ponga.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newcastle is the fairytale story of 2026.<\/p>\n
The Knights were the worst team in the competition last year and many were tipping them to collect it again this year. Injuries to key men throughout the campaign threatened to derail Holbrook\u2019s men.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo Dylan Brown \u2013 we know the money he\u2019s on ($1.3m a year) \u2013 no Jacob Saifiti, and no Trey Mooney,\u201d Johns said of some of the big names missing from the finals.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/18ede2f9f9dfb317e2cbae8feec98b20af3cc78ebf713c151769f56ff8e7c134.jpeg\")
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Kalyn Ponga floors Moses Leota in the preliminary final.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you might be missing $2.5 million or more of the salary cap.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut these young guys \u2013 Cody Hopwood, young (Lachlan) Crouch \u2013 geez they\u2019re playing well. The workers are getting through their work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roosters legend Brad Fittler was the coach that took the Tricolours to that wooden spoon in 2009, before being ousted and replaced by Smith.<\/p>\n
While he appreciates the fairytale story of the Knights this week, he is happy his old team is flying under the radar.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, you think of Newcastle, all the storylines,\u201d Fittler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is talking about the Roosters. Nice way to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the coach (Trent Robinson) has been there three times and won three of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nine\u2019s experts have predicted the NRL and NRLW grand final winners, as well as the Clive Churchill Medal winner for NRL\u2019s best afield.<\/p>\n
Clive Churchill Medal tips<\/p>\n
Sam Walker (David Middleton, Mathew Thompson, Ben Glover)<\/p>\n
James Tedesco (Brad Fittler, Paul Gallen)<\/p>\n
Lindsay Collins (The Mole)<\/p>\n
Mark Nawaqanitawase\u00a0(Ruan Sims)<\/p>\n
Fletcher Sharpe (Peter Psaltis)<\/p>\n
Kalyn Ponga (Andrew Johns)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brought to you by Newcastle legend Andrew Johns is convinced the whirlwind rise of the Knights can continue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-913665","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\/913665","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=913665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/388527d701b0fac0a820ca63619e1c75463eb5517e6bc7c4787257095d97047a.jpeg\")
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