Our next head coach

Who should be the head coach in 2026?

  • Blake Green

    Votes: 5 5.9%

  • Brian McDermott

    Votes: 14 16.5%

  • Brad Arthur

    Votes: 13 15.3%

  • Willie Peters

    Votes: 40 47.1%

  • John Morris

    Votes: 18 21.2%

  • Justin Holbrook

    Votes: 42 49.4%

  • Des Hasler

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • Sam Burgess

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • Billy Slater

    Votes: 6 7.1%

  • Other (name below)

    Votes: 1 1.2%
  • Total voters
    85
On the Daily Telegraph

After severing ties with three assistants Brett White, Michael Monaghan and Jim Lenihan last week, Hannay has added O’Brien’s former offsider Brian McDermott to his coaching unit for 2026.

McDermott has overseen Newcastle’s defence and has been hired to add a harder edge to the Titans
 
Blake will be one of the assistants if he doesn’t get the head coaching job. So it won’t be a whole new team.
 
Defence wins games said:
If McDermott is gone, we need a tough defence coach as after the head coach, this is the second most important position in the coaching team.
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sign AOB as defensive coach 🤣 but in all seriousness knowing that isn’t an option, it’s the only part of his coaching you can’t fault, plus he was a defensive assistant before newy i believe
 
Reading into it - if the Cheika/Green thing has legs it's probably an indication Green thinks the club is leaning towards Holbrook. Not sure why he'd be wanting to partner up with another coach all of a sudden otherwise, especially one he has no prior history with.

If Holbrook comes in as a renowned attacking coach that puts Green in an awkward spot, if he's even kept around at that point. If I'm Holbrook I probably don't want to be looking over my shoulder all the time when the club was apparently lining Green up to replace AOB in a couple of years anyway. Doesn't really foster the most security or stability for a new coach.

If Cheika comes in the Knights will need strong tactical assistants alongside him which they clearly do view Green as so he's an easy fit for a prominent role on that staff, possibly even an upgrade to an "associate head coach" type role rather than just a standard assistant. Same goes from Cheika's perspective, the big question mark on him is obviously going to be the tactical side so get the guy the club clearly rates highly in that area on board. Mutually beneficial alliance.
 
mullenmagic said:
That gives more credence to the Cheika link IMO. I reckon he'll only be a short-term coach (IF he ever gets a chance) and the Knights were planning on Green taking over after AOB's contract ended anyway. Could have Cheika for 2 years as some sort of cultural reset while Green takes on the more tactical side and gets a couple more years of seasoning. Think that's more interesting to me than either Holbrook or Green alone, but maybe that's just because it's the biggest swing and not necesarilly a good thing.

Toohey straight up said "no" when asked if Cheika was a chance a few days ago, though.
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A friend of mine is a family friend of Cheika. He approached the knights back in July about coaching. He was keen for the job but the knights aren’t.
 
I was of the opinion that these interviews were just going to be PR exercise and that the job is Green’s.

However, I think the performances over the last few weeks has really pissed off a lot of people even the rusted on fans. So much so, that I think they may not feel that can get away with just hand-balling the job to Green.

If that’s the case, the Cheika / Green partnership might be seen as a way to appease fans. You get a “big name” endorsed by the Johns brothers, with Green taking over officially in a couple of years.
 
mullenmagic said:
Toohey straight up said "no" when asked if Cheika was a chance a few days ago, though.
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IMG_6291.jpeg

Barry Toohey saying no to Cheika coming as Knights coach was “Just an opinion.”
 
relicorange94 said:
View attachment 7782
Barry Toohey saying no to Cheika coming as Knights coach was “Just an opinion.”
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Years ago when the Knights were in need of a new coach, they looked at the Knights values and the type of players we had. They weren’t glamorous players mainly but they were gritty, tough and fought for every win.
The administration went after someone who understood all that and came up with Mal Reilly who was very fit for purpose.
I am not sure that the current administration have considered all of this and are looking beyond their noses.
The choice of this coach will be the defining issue in the Knight’s history over the next 3-5 years, or beyond.
Let’s hope the administration is not blinkered to another short term fix, again.
We have seen how that has worked out over the last couple of decades.
 
If they give it to green, it's not going to be a popular choice with anyone but the players. Fans won't want a coach with no experience like AOB when he came here, even less than AOB really, quite a lot less.

You can just see the media pile on as well, Knights had several candidates with experience but gave it somehow to a coach who has never lead a team before at any level. Especially if the results don't come early next season. If that happens, DB will be copping it, coach will be copping it, club will be copping it, Ponga leaving stories will be rampant, what a time to be a Knights fan!

I think a coach with experience buys the club some wriggle room, a green coach (no pun intended) means the pressure is going to be on from the get go. No, they simply have to go with someone with NRL or at least head coaching experience after the AOB failure. Anything else would be amateur hour continued!
 
mullenmagic said:
Reading into it - if the Cheika/Green thing has legs it's probably an indication Green thinks the club is leaning towards Holbrook. Not sure why he'd be wanting to partner up with another coach all of a sudden otherwise, especially one he has no prior history with.
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Exactly my conclusion mate. First thing I thought. Reads as very desperate and that he basically knows he’s not getting it.

I think Holbrook is going to be our next coach.
 
www.newcastleherald.com.au

Knights coach watch: candidate interviewed, but is Cheika the one?

The mostly rugby union coach has an interest in rugby league.
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au

Herald article that makes the case for Cheika.
Says we have tried supercoach (Bennett), top assistant coach (O'Brien), leading ESL coach (Brown) and promoting from within (Stone).
Says Cheika is a motivator and man manager who has achieved remarkable things like coaching Argentina to wins over Aus and NZ in a 25 year coaching career.
Says Cheika has met with Green to discuss a joint bid.
Says Cheika has by far the most impressive resume as a head coach.
 
This club needs an attitude change. A complete reboot of culture.

The club struggles the most with culture and a winning attitude. Unfortunately the club is stuck in a losers mentality/rut. We had that great run to the finals a few years back, that should have spurred us on. Something to latch on to and buy in to. The next season we came out starting to try and play the same way and had some losses.

Someone in the club must have been putting the hand break on and saying no, we can't play that way, that isn't us, not the Newcastle way. Broke the confidence of the playing group again and we went back to struggling again.

I'd say our next head coach it is more important to have a man manager that can have a great impact on the culture at the club, vs just a tactics head coach.

If Cheika can bring that, and let Green and other assistants do more of the heavy lifting with strategy/tactics, then maybe that could work.
 
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Billy said:
www.newcastleherald.com.au

Knights coach watch: candidate interviewed, but is Cheika the one?

The mostly rugby union coach has an interest in rugby league.
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au

Herald article that makes the case for Cheika.
Says we have tried supercoach (Bennett), top assistant coach (O'Brien), leading ESL coach (Brown) and promoting from within (Stone).
Says Cheika is a motivator and man manager who has achieved remarkable things like coaching Argentina to wins over Aus and NZ in a 25 year coaching career.
Says Cheika has met with Green to discuss a joint bid.
Says Cheika has by far the most impressive resume as a head coach.
Click to expand...
Argentina had already beat every tier one nation before Cheika took over, and beat NZ just a year or so before he became their coach. They had been World Cup semi finalists well before he was involved.
 
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