DCE\u2019s all-time redemption as Ponga emotional after Knights heartbreak<\/a><\/p>\nKnights captain Kalyn Ponga reacts as full-time sounds in the NRL grand final.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
Newcastle fans have proverbially lived many lifetimes in the 25 years since their last grand final appearance in 2001.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been Hazem El Masri from the sideline; Joey\u2019s neck needing retirement; Brian Smith; the bushranger Kirk Reynoldson and the contract clause they wouldn\u2019t let him trigger; Danny Wicks\u2019 drugs; tubby Tinkler and the mythical millions; Wayne Bennett and the only club he never quite mastered; Alex McKinnon, a genuine tragedy by any Benaud measure; Nathan Brown\u2019s big head and little head; wooden spoon after wooden spoon; Mitchell Pearce and the marriage which wasn\u2019t quite; Kalyn Ponga\u2019s strawberry milkshake.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a helluva lot.<\/p>\n
But the fans stayed with them, when the mind and money dictated the smarter option would have been to walk away. The Hunter\u2019s footy team has a way of uniting a community like no other team in the NRL, with apologies to the Warriors and Cowboys. When the Knights are good, the town\u2019s good.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to argue the Knights might have found themselves this year on the other side of the world after opening the season with an upset win over North Queensland in Las Vegas. There was a glint in Ponga\u2019s eye. He looked different, a leader rather than the one made to before his time.<\/p>\n
His grand final effort was otherworldly, best shown by his side\u2019s second try, a 95-metre runaway effort in which he made a lung-busting run just to be in position to get the ball before streaking away.<\/p>\n
But the truth to Newcastle\u2019s revival might have been closer to home.<\/p>\n
Roosters crowned 2026 premiers | 03:28<\/p>\n
To get out of the pits and from the bottom of the ladder, new coach Justin Holbrook took them down the pits. He showed his players who they represent, the blue collared miners liable to Monday mood swings on the bounce of the ball or a baffling bunker call. Alongside them, something clicked.<\/p>\n
The NRL\u2019s zany season has also helped.<\/p>\n
The first half of the year when the six-again bell tolled relentlessly suited the Knights. They had bought in a largely run-first Dylan Brown on a mega $13 million, 10-year deal to play halfback. Some of the Old Boys couldn\u2019t see the sense in it. But the set restart expansion suited Newcastle, whose speed was a bigger weapon in 2026 than rugby league\u2019s traditional smarts and strength.<\/p>\n
Ponga: “It hurts so much!” | 00:31<\/p>\n
The Knights gritted their teeth just long enough, and at the right time of year, to tackle their way to a grand final and within one bounce of the ball from an unlikely premiership.<\/p>\n
Who knows what would have happened if Billy Smith hadn\u2019t managed to keep a fingertip on a ball as he was driven sideways over the tryline? Or if Daly Cherry-Evans\u2019 kick didn\u2019t cannon into the apex of the post and crossbar before Mark Nawaqanitawase\u2019s second, and decisive try? Or if Cherry-Evans had scuffed his field goal attempt like he did in the first week of the finals against the Panthers?<\/p>\n
Logic tells you they shouldn\u2019t have been here, but somehow they were, without their entire starting front row of the suspended Jacob Saifiti and Phoenix Crossland as well as the injured Trey Mooney. Throw in their first choice No.7 in Brown, who did an ACL in the first year of his mega deal.<\/p>\n
Knights support heartbroken after defeat | 05:22<\/p>\n
The grand final stats were galling in the Roosters\u2019 favour: possession 57-43, almost 700 more running metres, an extra 10 metres per set on average, 126 less tackles, so on and so on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to the boys, \u2018I\u2019ve never watched a harder game of footy\u2019,\u201d Holbrook said. \u201cI\u2019m so proud, but you just felt for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were coming off our own line facing baseball bats there. If you can win anything on heart and effort, we definitely won that. It was the hardest game of footy I\u2019ve ever watched as a coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a gutsier performance from blokes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is why the Knights might have lost on the biggest day, but still somehow won.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re the NRL\u2019s purest team who are the greatest reflection of their community, bar none. It\u2019s hard not to be endeared to the Knights just because of who they are, which is why more than 10,000 people lined the streets of Newcastle yesterday to send them off for what has been one of Australian sport\u2019s unlikeliest tales before tragedy. If you weren\u2019t a Rooster, you were a Knight, for the night at least. They might have done something not even Anthony Albanese can do: unite most of the country. Most importantly, they\u2019ve united their region.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we represented them proudly,\u201d Ponga said.<\/p>\n
They did. And on Sunday night, they started helping the Hunter heal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richie Benaud, as was his way, put it in perspective better than anyone. A dropped catch was not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-917213","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\/917213","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=917213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791221293_544_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n