Justin Holbrook Guides Knights To Six Wins In 10 Games — Knights Vs Titans

The knights vs titans meeting at Magic Round arrives with Newcastle carrying a six-win, four-loss record from its first 10 games under Justin Holbrook. That is a sharp turn from a 2025 regular season that left the Knights fighting to avoid last place, and it sets up Sunday’s clash against a Titans side that sat in the same second-last spot they finished in last year.

Holbrook's 6-4 Start

Newcastle’s first 10 weeks under Holbrook have produced six wins despite injuries to Fletcher Sharpe, Kalyn Ponga, Dylan Brown, Tyson Frizell and Dylan Lucas. That record has kept the Knights clear of the weekend-long scramble they faced last year, when they entered the final round needing to beat Parramatta or hope the Titans lost.

Bradman Best will miss Sunday’s game with a calf injury, but his comments captured why this stretch carries weight inside the club. Watching Gold Coast win last season “lit a fire in my belly,” he said, and he added, “We just don't want to be in that position ever again.”

Last Year's Wooden Spoon Race

The pressure point came fast in 2025. Gold Coast had finished 12 of the previous 14 rounds at the bottom of the ladder before the end of the regular season, then upset Wests Tigers on the penultimate day. Newcastle then fell 66-10 to Parramatta in Adam O'Brien's final game as coach, leaving the Knights to finish with their only weekend in last place.

Best did not hide how much that sequence stung. “It was disappointing,” he said of the finish, and he described the mindset around relying on other results as “the easy option, thinking like that.” When Gold Coast won and Newcastle lost, “it was hard,” he said.

Magic Round Pressure

The Titans have their own strain to carry into Magic Round. They entered round 11 in the same second-last spot where they finished last year, which keeps this match tied to the same part of the ladder that haunted both clubs late in 2025.

For Newcastle, the next step is simple enough: keep the line-up stable where possible and protect the start Holbrook has built. Best put the club's view on last year plainly: “It's tough when you get the wooden spoon, not only for yourself but your family. You bring everyone into it. There's a bit of an effect with that. You definitely want to change that.”