Twelve months ago, the Knights were heading for the wooden spoon. Holbrook must be coach of the year

Even before the weekend, there can’t have been much doubt about Justin Holbrook winning the coach of the year award.

Newcastle’s climb from the cellar to the finals is a credit to what Holbrook has done with substantially the same roster.

Almost every player has improved under Holbrook, who, having started his playing career at the Knights, clearly understands the unique characteristics of the place.

Individuals do their thing – Fletcher Sharpe’s 55-metre dummy half run on Sunday, beating six tacklers to score, is a season highlight – but a year ago, players like Sharpe, Dom Young, Greg Marzhew and many others were struggling, were making errors and were low on confidence.

Losing Dylan Brown and Dylan Lucas this month to season-ending injuries was meant to burst the Knights’ bubble, but they’ve kept moving forward.

Holbrook, who won Super League titles with St Helens and coached the Gold Coast to their single finals appearance in the past decade, is competing only with the Warriors’ Andrew Webster and the Dolphins’ Kristian Woolf for coach of the year (Wayne Bennett, who has got a lot out of the injury-hit Rabbitohs, is worth an honourable mention).

Considering Newcastle’s output relative to their on-paper strength, and his ability to turn average players into good ones, Holbook should be a shoo-in.

At the other end of the scale, the 2025 coach of the year, Ricky Stuart, and premiership winner Michael Maguire have had the underperforming rosters of 2026.

They can’t have gone from geniuses to dunces just like that, can they?

Maguire bristled at questions about the Broncos’ effort in losing 40-6 to the Warriors on Saturday. He has a point. Reece Walsh also suffered a season-ending ankle injury during the game.

Rather than come off immediately, he saw an attacking opportunity, instinct took over, and he bolted away from the trainer. He caught the ball and, in his desperation, threw an intercept: six more points to the Wahs.

It was indicative of Walsh’s season: no lack of effort, just trying too hard to do too much.

Maguire wasn’t yielding any unifying explanation for Brisbane’s season, but captain Patrick Carrigan was. What’s wrong with the Broncos, Pat? “Stupidity.”

The elusive secret, then: how to coach stupidity out of rugby league players.