Last year, I was scathing about my own club. But this dressing room photo sums up Knights revival

September 17, 2026 — 5:00am

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There’s a photo in the Knights dressing room up in Newcastle that sums up their fantastic rise from wooden spooners to possibly a preliminary final in less than 12 months.

My great mate Danny Buderus has been assistant coach this year on Justin Holbrook’s staff. “Bedsy” told me this week that all the way back in round one, under the bright lights of Las Vegas, is when they actually realised they might really be onto something.

The Knights arrived in Sin City not so much under scrutiny as written off entirely. There was just so much uncertainty around their spine, how star signing Dylan Brown would fit in, how they would play and, of course, they were wooden spooners after all.

And I was asking all these questions.

So when Kalyn Ponga played with a determination and a look in his eye that no one had really seen before, and Newcastle upset the highly fancied Cowboys 28-18 at Allegiant Stadium, the celebration photo afterwards told everyone at the club about where they were heading.

Ponga, club officials tell me, had been completing a post-game interview, and so he was slightly late to walk over and join his teammates. You can’t see the captain’s face in the photo, but you don’t need to.

Every other player’s face – pure exhaustion and exhilaration – tells the story. Which is why the Knights had that photo blown up and plastered all over their home dressing room, and took it down to Allianz Stadium last week for their rollicking week-one upset of the Rabbitohs.

The plan is to take the same shot over to Auckland’s Eden Park for Sunday’s sold-out semi-final against the Warriors – where I think the Knights can leave 50,000 rabid Kiwi fans heartbroken with another finals upset for the ages.

Frankly, I’m stunned at how quickly the club has risen from the depths we hit last year.

It was almost exactly one year ago that I was writing cranky columns about how to rebuild Newcastle from the ground up – but only after rediscovering the Knights’ DNA........

© The Age