‘We don’t care’: Knights coach’s powerful response to question... and cheeky Ponga moment

The Newcastle Knights weren’t supposed to be here.

They weren’t supposed to be in the top eight, let alone the grand final.

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Yet here they are, just 80 minutes away from the unlikeliest of premiership victories and coach Justin Holbrook had a powerful message in Sunday’s press conference when asked how his team has proved they don’t need big-game experience to go all the way.

“We don’t care about that,” he said after Newcastle’s upset win over Penrith.

“It’s just a narrative that people want to create. We had belief in the way we play and I believed that we could win whoever we played.

“We know we have to play well, right? So it’s not about disrespecting the opposition. The opposition are unreal.

“We’ve had to get better every week and we’ve got to get better again next week against the Roosters. But we’re confident in our side and that’s why we’re playing next week.”

Sure, the Knights have the man who was sitting next to Holbrook in Sunday’s press conference, Kalyn Ponga.

But it was Sandon Smith who stole the show with his two-try heroics, while young second rower Jermaine McEwen also had a breakout performance to haunt his former side.

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It is one of rugby league’s ultimate underdog stories and from the early hours of Sunday morning it seemed like the universe was conspiring against the Knights when trains from Newcastle to Sydney were disrupted by a failed freight train at Warnervale.

It meant hundreds of Knights fans were left stranded, with Transport for NSW left apologising for the inconvenience. Holbrook, on the other hand, was in awe of a supporter base that continued to turn up last year even when Newcastle won the spoon.

“It feels unreal. It felt weird for me,” Holbrook said.

“I got emotional after the game, but just seeing the players do what they did, in particular in that second half.

“It was a combination of everyone just thinking about what they were able to do, thinking about the how many fans came down and the trains stopped and the buses and the traffic and it took them four hours to get here and then for the players to win a game like that.

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Holbrook ran around the field after the game to thank the fans in a moment he described as “special”.

“We want to make our community proud, our Hunter region and for the boys to deliver that performance is just awesome,” Holbrook added.

“It was so good to see them all hang around and that’s why I acknowledged them. We went down to 12, but then all of a sudden 30-odd thousand make you feel like you’ve got 14 on there. The boys didn’t let it affect them and what a win.”

It was not the first time the Knights have had a player sent off this year, with Jacob Saifiti also given his marching orders against the Warriors.

It is part of the reason why Holbrook believes his team was well-equipped to handle the adversity.

“I think we needed half time. I needed it just much as the players, but what helped us was we’d been in this position a few weeks ago,” he said.

“We played the Warriors over there and we went to 12 and our attack didn’t miss a beat, so we knew we could come up with some attack, we just had to work so hard in defence and the boys have done that.

“We’ve done it three weeks in a row now and (there were) just so many big efforts and big plays.”

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Holbrook was not asked directly about Phoenix Crossland’s hip-drop tackle and whether the Knights hooker could be at risk of missing next week’s grand final, but he was more generally asked how the 26-year-old was faring in the aftermath.

“He’s an emotional guy. He’s awesome. He’s been so great every week for us this year,” Holbrook said.

“Hopefully he’s okay. Hopefully Nathan’s okay.”

There was one light-hearted moment at the end of the press conference as a journalist tried to get Ponga to give himself a rap for his big hit on Moses Leota.

“Nah. I’m not gonna say anything,” Ponga said to much laughter.

“I got lucky. I’m not gonna say anything... I’m not gonna say anything. I got lucky. I think he slipped.”

“He said when we walked in I hope they bring that up,” the Knights coach joked.

Vibes are immaculate in Newcastle at the moment and entering next Sunday’s grand final under no pressure at all, who is to say the NRL’s ultimate feel-good story won’t have a fairytale ending.