The pre-season 2026 thread

McEwen started at Penrith as a 14 year old.
In SG Ball for us he was voted Knights best and SG Ball player of the year for the comp.
He made the NSW under 19s for 2 years in a row and some say he was the best forward.
He doesn't have much of a Flegg record because all his games of Flegg were when he was Ball aged.
His reserve grade games started when he was Ball aged for a few games, and all the rest when he was 1st year of Flegg aged.
I'd love to see Jermaine and Mat McEwen both in Flegg next year for at least 1 game, but that's not going to happen - he is Flegg aged, but never playing juniors again.
 
Vagabond89 said:
According to Chammas, Best will be named for the Ashes tour. So will be late starting pre-season. Pretty good considering he had a fairly indifferent year.
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Well deserved.

Definitely not Bradman's strongest season which is understandable given the circumstances however he was a defensive rock and ended up with 6 tries, 7 assists and 160 avg running metres from 18 appearances despite being in the worst attacking structure in the comp.

Not bad when you consider a Dally M centre of the year spot was just handed to a bloke who managed 3 tries, 12 assists and 107 run metres from 21 appearances in a top two team.
 
Vagabond89 said:
According to Chammas, Best will be named for the Ashes tour. So will be late starting pre-season. Pretty good considering he had a fairly indifferent year.
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Congrats to him, probably got there slightly;ty by default this year but deserved it previous years.
Hopefully he doesn’t get to disrupted with ashes tour then his baby as he will need to be firing for our points to bne flowing next year if we can get those halves in sync

Besides him, probably only be Brown and maybe Phoenix also on rep duties so its good for Holbrook to have almost everyone to get prepared
 
jamesgould said:
I think Les said something like that? Or he was the single biggest factor.
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for bad outcomes, from where Im standing, leaving McEwen in the starting side for as long as he did, watching McEwens defence deteriorate, was imo probably the greatest contributing factor to us getting the spoon. Go back and watch the last 2 months...
Tobe Fair i think Les was having a go at AOB and his player rotation.
 
Tobe Fair said:
for bad outcomes, from where Im standing, leaving McEwen in the starting side for as long as he did, watching McEwens defence deteriorate, was imo probably the greatest contributing factor to us getting the spoon. Go back and watch the last 2 months...
Tobe Fair i think Les was having a go at AOB and his player rotation.
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Makes more sense from @Les Misérables now I read it like that. 👍🏼
 
Asking that much of McEwen when there were other options - even with the injuries to the pack - is pretty emblematic of late era AOB.

Totally out of ideas & energy. Cody Hopwood getting a debut because he basically demanded it is actually pretty alarming. It’s good to see from Cody but on NSW Cup form he wasn’t the most deserving player.

Basically points to AOB not being across how the NSW Cup players were going and not really giving real consideration to who should get a game besides guys who’re already entrenched.
 
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Celticman98 said:
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Wow, I am so glad I have been able to listen to Jenkins’ point of view.
It has confirmed my worst suspicions about the coach and club in Newcastle atm.
And what surprised me was how much accountability Jenkins took for him leaving, but also how rotten the Knights environment is on a human level.
So, I am in a better position to understand why so many of our young players, men players and female players are scratching to leave a really unhealthy and stuck club.
Newcastle earned the wooden spoon in 2025, it had to be the only outcome

I feel some sympathy for the players who are genuinely putting in and love the club.
It is very obvious that many aspects of the club need to be stripped back, almost to bedrock, a true vision and values re established, including how coaches genuinely connect with players on a professional and personal level, all players need high level involvement with the community, and the West board to participate in contemporary management where their members have little if any involvement in the day to day running of the club.That they stick to their roles and stay away from day to day things, letting responsible football staff do their job.
Wow, Joey was right, Newcastle has huge issues which will take time to get right.

So we start at day 1 again in the 2026 pre season with a mountain in front of us.
 
I will say, on what I saw from Jermaine, I reckon he can probably be brought along a little faster than a player like Sitili was by the Roosters. He was ground down by playing 80 minutes so many weeks in a row, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they should specifically limit him to 20-30.

They could consider something like what Madge does with Piakura and Willison, where Piakura starts and basically just plays until Madge thinks he needs to come off, then Willison moves to that edge. Could maybe do that with McEwen and Friz.

Or the reverse, they could start games with Friz, bring him off after 30 minutes, and put Friz back on to play the last 20 in the middle.

Starting McEwen maybe gives more of a feel for how close he is to becoming a week to week 80 minute back rower and accelerates his progress towards getting there.

The key thing is identifying where he is, where you think he can get to, and what the best way to get him there is. Every player is different. I’m just pretty confident if the demand is that if he’s a starter he has to play 80, the clock is ticking on his form massively deteriorating before the halfway point of the season.
 
MullosLefttoRight said:
Well deserved.

Definitely not Bradman's strongest season which is understandable given the circumstances however he was a defensive rock and ended up with 6 tries, 7 assists and 160 avg running metres from 18 appearances despite being in the worst attacking structure in the comp.

Not bad when you consider a Dally M centre of the year spot was just handed to a bloke who managed 3 tries, 12 assists and 107 run metres from 21 appearances in a top two team.
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I think the change of coaching environment will do Bradman the world of good.
Congratulations Bradman, something good out of our 2025 humiliation.
 
Just reading that Bradman, Jermaine and Mat McEwen and Fletcher Hunt are all training with the Newcastle Yowies for the Koori knockout - coach is Ron Griffiths.
Bradman is expected to drop out if selected for the Kangaroos.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Or the reverse, they could start games with Friz, bring him off after 30 minutes, and put Friz back on to play the last 20 in the middle
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This is what I'd be doing on the assumption that the new middle options step up and friz isn't required to start there. 50 minutes of McEwen to go hard against tired defenders would be great viewing.
 
Vagabond89 said:
According to Chammas, Best will be named for the Ashes tour. So will be late starting pre-season. Pretty good considering he had a fairly indifferent year.
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Hopefully he doesn’t get a taste of playing in a team surrounded by superstars and no salary cap and decide to sign with the Broncos NRLW too
 
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