Why Kemp is happy to be wrong about the Knights

The rise of Newcastle under Justin Holbrook continued on Friday night with the first-year coach at the Knights winning his first NRL finals game.

Travelling up the F3 Freeway to take on South Sydney in an elimination final, the Novocastrians delivered an upset at Allianz Stadium, winning 20-10 against the Rabbitohs.

This sees the Knights win their first away final since 2013 and a far cry from the same side that finished wooden spooners 12 months ago, resulting in a parting of ways with coach Adam O’Brien.

As a result of their surprising run up the ladder, Denan Kemp admitted he was completely wrong about his assessment of the club going into 2026.

“I gotta be honest, like every sign I got wrong,” Kemp said on SEN’s Saturday League Kick-Off.

“Every call about the Knights in the preseason, I got wrong. I can't tell you how many calls I got wrong about the Knights.

“What's going on with their spine? How are you gonna make that work?

"The forward pack, it's too young, it's too inexperienced.

“Trey Mooney, he's their main signing; can he carry them through the season?

“Jacob Saifiti, he needs to step up. He has moments where you can see the greatness in him and then other moments where he's inconsistent.

“If you could have 10 calls you made about the Knights at the start of the season, 10 of them I got wrong.

“I couldn't be more wrong and I couldn't be more happy that I was wrong because they're so exciting.”

But the most pleasing thing for Kemp in their speedy resurgence has been doing it their way rather than trying to imitate other sides.

“What I love about it is that we often go through generations where whatever the best team is doing, every team just copies it,” he continued.

“It's like, OK, what have the Melbourne Storm been doing? OK, that's what we need to do; we need to do what the Melbourne (way), and you're never really gonna replicate what the best of the best do.

“The Panthers are that team at the moment where everyone's trying to go, ‘OK, we're trying to get really, really fit, high pressure in defence, our outside backs make a lot of metres’.

“What I love about the Knights is Holbrook's gone, ‘No, I have a very specific type of footy I like to play’.

“Essentially saying I have two front rowers on my wings. It is brilliant, smart coaching, and it's also coaching to the team that you have.

“Understanding that that forward pack is young, understanding that it may not be as dominant as, say, other packs, but I'll tell you what, what I need is I need a middle that can defend its backside off, and then I've got two front rows on the wing that are gonna make 200 metres each.

“I've got a fullback that is arguably one of the best ball-playing fullbacks we've ever seen. It's nothing short of brilliant.

“Holbrook is the Coach of the Year. It's not even a question anymore for me.

The Knights will now go on to play the loser of the qualifying final between the Warriors and the Dolphins.

That takes place at Go Media Stadium in Auckland on Saturday afternoon, with SEN League having live coverage of the match across our radio network and on the SEN app.