The pre-season 2026 thread

Positions settled upon we can agree on.

1. Ponga.
2. Young.
3. Best.
4. Sharpe.
5. Gagai.
6. Brown.
7. Smith.
8. Safiti.
9. Crosslands.
10. Psaulo.
11. Lucas.
12. Mcewen.
13. Mooney.

14. Gamble.
15. ESL.
16. Hopwood.
17. Frizzell.

Normal font, locked in, in italics up for grabs but who I would put in there.

Jones / Cant / Croft just are not first graders and shouldn't be in our best 17, maybe to give McEwen/ESL/Hopwood a spell here and there during the season, or even to start the season and use them as a yard stick for them to surpass.
 
This article.
newcastleweekly.com.au

Holbrook still mulling about Knights’ halves puzzle

It’s no secret Justin Holbrook has a couple of tough decisions to make before a ball is kicked in anger in 2026.
newcastleweekly.com.au newcastleweekly.com.au

Main point, “not ideal Kalyn has not been training, Fletcher has been training at FB.”

Hopefully KP is back to full training soon so then he can work out what the best option Smith or Fletcher.
 
frankLauda said:
This article.
newcastleweekly.com.au

Holbrook still mulling about Knights’ halves puzzle

It’s no secret Justin Holbrook has a couple of tough decisions to make before a ball is kicked in anger in 2026.
newcastleweekly.com.au newcastleweekly.com.au

Main point, “not ideal Kalyn has not been training, Fletcher has been training at FB.”

Hopefully KP is back to full training soon so then he can work out what the best option Smith or Fletcher.
Click to expand...
Surely we could get say Votano or Hunt to fill in for a few reps to see Sharpe in these other positions.

If Sharpe was the long term, all players fit, preferred halves partner for Brown, it doesn’t make much sense to be giving him a summer of reps at FB. I think Smith has first crack.

Think Holbrook is just keeping some cards close to his chest, has his plan, but doesn’t quite want to have the whole comp know of his plans.

Did Campbell or Brimson get much of a go at 14 when he was there?
 
If I believed in conspiracy theories I'd be thinking we are getting Ponga as fit as he could possibly be and taking zero chance he reinjures himself so he has the best chance to find a new club or code, and we might just say the guy training in his spot will move to halfback.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
Did Campbell or Brimson get much of a go at 14 when he was there?
Click to expand...
Yes.

So he okayed them moving Fogarty on - they had Sexton coming through and wanted to get Brimson into the halves with him, and Campbell at 1. And I guess he had a lot of confidence he could get what he needed out of Sexton, who was a teenager at the time I believe.

But Brimson is not good at 6, so he ended up giving up on that and playing two real halves (eg Sexton and Tanah Boyd), with Brimson going back to 1, and Campbell usually at 14.

May have cost him his job, because the club wanted him to get their big money spine guys Brimson and Campbell both in the starting team, and he just refused. AFAIK he never even considered the Campbell at 7 thing as a solution.

If he had his time again I'm sure he makes sure they keep Fogarty.
 
If he hasn’t done the reps in pre season at fullback I would be very tempted to start the season with sharpe ponga can have as much time as he needs to get 100% the field is not suited to ponga with the smaller width with the new rules if being able to have 6 reserves you could have him to cover a halves/fullback shuffle if required
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
May have cost him his job, because the club wanted him to get their big money spine guys Brimson and Campbell both in the starting team, and he just refused. AFAIK he never even considered the Campbell at 7 thing as a solution.
Click to expand...
he didn’t consider it as an option because i think he was smarter than that! how many years on and they still aren’t getting their moneys worth out of either and JC is still not a 7
 
I feel like I could easily name the side AOB would have picked for round 1.
Holbrook might end up in exactly the same place for round 1.
But it is clear that he is running Gagai and Schiller on the left and different combinations we haven't seen before so he can judge for himself who he thinks should go where.
He has talked about watching footage of Sharpe and being excited by his potential, and I'm sure he will have had a similar look at all the players during the off season.
He'll have some ideas he will be trying out in training for sure.
 
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