{"id":916949,"date":"2026-10-05T12:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T12:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916949\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T12:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T12:10:14","slug":"nrl-grand-final-2026-newcastle-knights-press-conference-after-loss-to-sydney-roosters-justin-holbrook-kalyn-ponga-video-replay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916949\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL Grand Final 2026: Newcastle Knights press conference after loss to Sydney Roosters, Justin Holbrook, Kalyn Ponga, video, replay"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may not have known it looking at him or listening to him, but deep down Justin Holbrook was \u201ccrushed\u201d after Newcastle\u2019s 19-18 grand final loss to the Roosters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And he wanted everyone to know something else.<\/p>\n

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As miraculous as his team\u2019s run to the grand final had been considering where they found themselves this time last year, the Knights weren\u2019t just grateful to be here.<\/p>\n

Sure, they weren\u2019t expected to be here and they certainly weren\u2019t expected to win. Just like they weren\u2019t expected to beat the Rabbitohs, Warriors or Panthers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously threw everything into this week,\u201d Holbrook told reporters in his post-game press conference. <\/p>\n

\u201c(There was) a lot of talk the last couple of weeks (that), \u2018Oh, that was your grand final last week. That was the one the week before\u2019… we\u2019re not idiots. We know today\u2019s a grand final, and we were ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knights certainly were ready to go, jumping out to a 12-0 lead and nearly tackling their way to a remarkable, backs-against-the-walls win despite fighting for every inch of field position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were flying off their line and it was so hard to get out of our own end,\u201d the Knights coach added.<\/p>\n

\u201cFull credit to the Roosters. They played a really controlling game but for us to nearly be able to pull off a win at the end there or give ourselves a chance, it\u2019s so pleasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

GF PLAYER RATINGS<\/p>\n

ROOSTERS: Recruit goes down in NRL folklore; star changes the game<\/a><\/p>\n

KNIGHTS: All-time \u2018one-man freak show\u2019; Origin star goes missing<\/a><\/p>\n

‘It shouldn’t have been close’ | Debrief | 12:11<\/p>\n

The numbers spoke volumes of just how hard the Knights were made to work to get within a point of the Roosters, who had 51 tackles inside Newcastle\u2019s 20 compared to six for last year\u2019s wooden spooners. <\/p>\n

The Knights made 99 more tackles than the Roosters and missed 47 too, but that was more a product of sheer exhaustion as the Newcastle players continued turning up.<\/p>\n

Holbrook said he told the players after the game he had \u201cnever watched a harder game of footy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just felt for them. We were coming off our own line facing baseball bats there. If you can win anything on heart and effort, then we definitely won that because it was the hardest game of footy I\u2019ve ever coached watching our side just get the ball coming off our own try-line the whole time. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut again you don\u2019t win off being proud, you win off being the better side and we weren\u2019t the better side today and we didn\u2019t win.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE GF NEWS<\/p>\n

\u2018HURTS SO MUCH\u2019: Ponga left shattered, consoled by Holbrook in heartbreaking scenes<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018LOVELY\u2019: Robbo\u2019s classy gesture to luckless Roosters star<\/a><\/p>\n

Ponga: “It hurts so much!” | 00:31<\/p>\n

No one play summed up Newcastle\u2019s courageous effort better than the one from Kalyn Ponga, who ran across the field in cover defence to stop a potential try but instead pounced on a Mark Nawaqanitawase bat-back to run away and score.<\/p>\n

That never would have happened if Ponga wasn\u2019t in the position to make a play in the first place. Holbrook called it a \u201cphenomenal\u201d moment from his skipper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love everything about him,\u201d Holbrook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love the way he leads our team. It\u2019s so infectious. I said to him a few times this year, \u2018If we\u2019re going to get to the end of the year and give it a shot, he\u2019s going to have to be our best player\u2019 and he handled that fine. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I wasn\u2019t worried about this week. I got asked that many times, \u2018Is it overwhelming?\u2019. Is it was never overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE GF NEWS<\/p>\n

\u2018SIN BIN ALL YEAR\u2019: Teddy fumes as controversial Ponga call burns Roosters<\/a><\/p>\n

EMOTIONAL TEDDY: Moment that brought Roosters superstar to tears<\/a><\/p>\n

Robinson on GF win: “There’s pure joy!” | 14:14<\/p>\n

Ponga, meanwhile, was highly emotional after the loss and was pictured being consoled by Holbrook in the sheds. But the Knights superstar said the overriding emotion was gratitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful for this week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to see the spirit, the pride of our community, the connection that it\u2019s brought to so many people. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think as players, we probably didn\u2019t get to experience it as much as what the community did. Obviously, you don\u2019t want to drown yourself in it because you can get lost a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I know speaking to people in the community, just the connection that it\u2019s brought, they\u2019re so proud. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal is to win a premiership. Newcastle people are tough and they had to do it tough yesterday with something that happened and our thoughts are with those people as well with the tragedy that happened as we were leaving. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut our community just rallies around each other. Nothing with this week was a burden on us. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone said before the game it was a distracting. Fortunately we get to be in this position. We get to experience what we experienced this week and it\u2019s definitely a feeling that I\u2019ll chase again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You may not have known it looking at him or listening to him, but deep down Justin Holbrook…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-916949","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\/916949","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=916949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}