Justin Holbrook discussion

Newygirl said:
Can they all **** off with this ****.

As a Novacastrian, I want their style to be winning.

If I never hear blue collar town again It will be too soon.
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He can pay lip service to keep the chronically-stuck-in-the-90s fanbase happy all he wants if they’re winning games. Just hoping there’s a more relevant plan for how footy is played in 2026 underneath it.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Yep I think that's very fair. A clear best 6 spines (side note: that Dolphins spine likely costs them only a bit over $2 million, cumulatively), and then it should be the case that we should be somewhere just after that if the coach knows what he's doing at all.

That's what's crazy about the NRL, it's the most important part of the team and no one seems to be able to get and keep a stable combination together... except the team which finishes in the top three almost every season. With Brown & Moses broken up, Tricky and Nicho are the longest tenured halves combo (since late 2023), next would be Isaiya Katoa and Kodi Nikorima, who play for a club that is only three years old lmao. And that's just halves.

Get a good period of continuity, and that correlates strongly with good regular seasons, and at least a chance at winning something, even for clubs that aren't thought of as being on that 'top' tier, and/or you're doing it without a ridiculous Melbourne-style quartet: Mahoney/Moses/Brown/Gutho; Cook/Reynolds/Walker; B Brailey/Nicho/Kennedy; Granville/Thurston/Morgan/Coote.

And in a comp full of clubs which can not get any spine continuity going at all, we have probably been the absolute worst for it.
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Woah Woah, slow down egghead.

Are you trying to say that you don’t think this rotating combination of spine players wasn’t a recipe for success?

KP
Pearce
Brailey
Watson
Green
McCullough
Mann
Miller
Hoy
Crossland
Milford
Clifford
Hastings
Clune
Cogger
Gamble
Sharpe
 
www.newcastleherald.com.au

New coach reveals plans to turn Knights back into a premiership force

'Opposition teams used to fear going up there.'
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au

Article about Holbrook.

The new information I think is that it says Green and McDermott are almost certain to leave and says Holbrook wants his whole coaching team to work together, but we don't know who he plans to bring in.
Says Green is linked to Manly and McDermott to Titans.
 
Chatgpt reckons we will be in the top 8, pushing the top 4 if our players pan out well, mainly Hopwood becomes a high minutes player, and we stay a lot more fit and uninjured.
 
Les Misérables said:
I personally think Smith is a better half than Brown. Perhaps not as stylish and physically gifted, but Smith is a baller, he is highly energetic and versatile player maker. There's plenty of growth in that profile.
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Missed this part.

I've always been impressed with what I've seen from Sandon even before there where whispers of us getting him (example: here I am when I was in peak "fed up with Kalyn" mode saying we should punt him and spend his money on Sandon + a forward or two - https://marathonstadium.com/threads/kalyn-ponga-discussion.16289/page-123#post-676896).

I think "better" than Brown is a bit much, but definitely what's stuck out every time I've seen him is he really gets after it and you can see he's really really chirpy and competitive. He's also made some pretty horrific mistakes in first grade so far and bounced back, and also if someone stitched a highlight reel together you can find a few go ahead sideline conversions in the back end of tough games. He has *a lot* to work on, but I think there's a real chance he brings what you need when Brown is your big money 6, and if we've just found an 8 year halves pairing I legit will not be surprised.

He looks to me like he wants it. He wants it bad. He's not waiting around behind DCE for a year, he thinks he's ready now and he's going to go somewhere else to prove it if he has to. To plenty that may read like entitlement from a back up player, but I like that we're bringing this sort of confidence and attitude into the joint. I'm pretty stoked he's basically just fallen into our lap. He's not moved for that much more money than what Easts offered, he's moved because he wants to play first grade.
 
Billy said:
www.newcastleherald.com.au

New coach reveals plans to turn Knights back into a premiership force

'Opposition teams used to fear going up there.'
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au

Article about Holbrook.

The new information I think is that it says Green and McDermott are almost certain to leave and says Holbrook wants his whole coaching team to work together, but we don't know who he plans to bring in.
Says Green is linked to Manly and McDermott to Titans.
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Sounds like the same rhetoric we get from every coach before they stride into town.
 
The thing with the assistant coaches is that a lot of head coaches don’t have “attack” or “defence” assistants, they’ll have positional group assistants instead. That’s the structure Andrew Webster prefers at the Wahs for example. So it really depends on the structure Holbrook wants.

I will say that the “forwards” coach on the 2023 Warriors (Justin Morgan) is available, there’s one I’d look at, for that role specifically. We’ll want to transition a lot of young forwards into the team over the next few years, which is a role he had at the Storm before that. I don’t think our forwards are as good at attention to detail stuff, particularly on the attacking side of things, as they should be. He just got sacked from the Cowboys by Payten, but I think Todd is an idiot (he’s got the club to turf everybody on the staff *except* their ‘defensive contact’ coach, which is like us sacking every assistant except the attacking assistant), so I read nothing into that.

I read Holbrook as a coach we want hands-on with the attack, style of play, gameplanning, etc, working closely with the key playmakers of course, with assistants who are good at drilling down on attention to detail stuff across both attack in defence. Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
 
I wonder what Holbrook thinks about Garth Brennan?

I remember an article about Brennan helping Holbrook settle in at the Titans.

O'Brien didn't like the coaching style of Brennan or Steve Simpson.

I think Brennan has agreed to coach Tigers NRLW next year, and Simpson has agreed to coach the Hawks, but I don't see why that couldn't change.
 
Billy said:
I wonder what Holbrook thinks about Garth Brennan?

I remember an article about Brennan helping Holbrook settle in at the Titans.

O'Brien didn't like the coaching style of Brennan or Steve Simpson.
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Seems like AOB didn’t like a lot of things about a lot of people given the high turnover of staff while he was here: junior coaches, conditioning staff, assistants, media guys, etc
 
Holbrook and Parr have both talked to journos on the record for articles but nothing on video. Doubt the Sydney media cares enough about the Knights or Holbrook to make the drive up here for a presser during the finals. None of the big journos even bothered to come up for AOB's farewell one.
 
Is it common for a newly appointed coach to do a presser straight away? I don't think AOB did one until the start of pre-season in 2019.
 
Billy said:
I wonder what Holbrook thinks about Garth Brennan?

I remember an article about Brennan helping Holbrook settle in at the Titans.

O'Brien didn't like the coaching style of Brennan or Steve Simpson.

I think Brennan has agreed to coach Tigers NRLW next year, and Simpson has agreed to coach the Hawks, but I don't see why that couldn't change.
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We could use some old boy involvement at the Knights atm.
 
mullenmagic said:
Holbrook and Parr have both talked to journos on the record for articles but nothing on video. Doubt the Sydney media cares enough about the Knights or Holbrook to make the drive up here for a presser during the finals. None of the big journos even bothered to come up for AOB's farewell one.
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Probably not but I think this is something the club should doing for the members and fans, not the media.

After the **** they dished up this year, I’d hope they’d come out and thank all the people for their support for showing up every week despite the crap they had to endure. Frankly it’s the least they could do.

At least give people some sort of positive message heading into next year and assure people they’re confident of turning things around.

Their members and fan engagement is awful compared to most clubs and it needs to improve. Along with a lot of other things. They won’t though because they know people are still going to show up regardless
 
Very difficult to argue with many points provided here.
Clubs on the move would be doing all the positive, proactive things.
We have been a “stuck” club for decades now and like Labor politics in Newcastle, the Knights administration know their fans are rusted on.
But it does show how little the club values its supporters, doesn’t it?
Nothing new to view here almost!
 
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