Knights CEO: The first thing Newcastle must do following wooden spoon

As the Justin Holbrook era officially nears its start date for the Knights, club CEO Peter Parr admits the club needs to earn the respect of the competition following a dismal 2025.

Having averaged only 14.1 points per game, the Knights would finish last on the ladder, prompting the club to part ways with former coach Adam O’Brien.

In his place, the club have hired former Gold Coast Titans coach Justin Holbrook to help kickstart their push up the ladder.

Entering his second stint as an NRL head coach, the former Knights player has set about trying to ensure the club can be one that Novocastrians are proud of.

But while there is still plenty of improvement required to get the Knights, the former Cowboys Director of Football is confident that the 50-year-old can help earn some stripes back from their rivals.

And based on what he seen this pre-season, this might be the first of many pre-seasons that Holbrook spends in charge.

“We want to improve, we’re coming off a really, really poor season,” Parr told SEN’s Kick Off.

“The first thing we’ve got to do is improve. I don’t think we can have too many lofty ambitions right at the moment.

“We’ve got to earn our stripes back and earn some respect back from the rest of the competition.

“But I have enormous confidence in Justin Holbrook. He’s an impressive bloke; he’s got great clarity about what he expects from the team.

“And I couldn’t be happier with Justin and what he has done since being at our club.

“I think right at the moment, he is the ideal person for our club.

“And my expectations and gut feel is that he’ll be (the) coach here for a long time.”

The Knights officially begin their season on Sunday when they take on the Cowboys to open the 2026 NRL season in Las Vegas with kick-off at 1:15pm AEDT.

And SEN League will be LIVE from Allegiant Stadium with Jimmy Smith, Chad Townsend and Tim Mannah on commentary for the double header beginning from 12pm on SEN’s radio network and on the SEN app.