Roosters v Knights in 2026 NRL grand final as Newcastle’s improbable run captures the spotlight
The Sydney Roosters and the Newcastle Knights meet in the NRL grand final on Sunday night, a match that, regardless of the on-field outcome, will be remembered for the Knights’ presence in the decider.
Newcastle arrive as outsiders after finishing seventh and producing three finals upsets against South Sydney, the Warriors and Penrith on their way to the title match, one year after their wooden spoon season. The club’s brief eras of success — led historically by Andrew Johns and capped by Darren Albert’s late try in the 1997 ARL premiership and a 2001 NRL premiership — stand in contrast to “two and a half decades of mediocrity” and a broader period of relative irrelevance for the Knights.
The narrative around Newcastle is also intensely personal: coach Justin Holbrook’s return has been framed as the “resurrection of coach Justin Holbrook after his assassination on the Gold Coast,” and the season has been threaded with affectionate, idiosyncratic refrains such as “better than Lego” and the demolition of the big penis. For younger players the occasion is almost mythic—Fletcher Sharpe, 22, the five-eighth from Cessnock, has had to learn about past Knights teams second-hand, while Tyson Frizell will play his first grand final after 305 NRL games.
Several Knights now face the match with limited historical burden: backrowers Jermaine McEwen and Francis Manuleleua and prop Cody Hopwood are playing without the weight of long-held expectation. The team’s composure under Holbrook was on display in wins in Auckland over the Warriors and a victory over Penrith in which they finished with a man down, aided by moments such as half Sandon Smith’s tap against Penrith.
Kalyn Ponga’s recent form, including what the report describes as his destruction of Moses Leota last week, is cited as a key source of attacking threat for Newcastle. The combination of Ponga’s bravery and Smith’s decision-making are presented as central to the Knights’ capacity to compete on the grand final stage.
The Roosters are described as “built just for this occasion,” boosted by the recruitment of veteran half Daly-Cherry Evans and a late-career revival for James Tedesco, alongside the emergence of centre Robert Toia and prop Naufahu Whyte, both named in the Dally M team of the season. Tiny playmaker Sam Walker and rugby-bound winger Mark Nawaqanitawase are singled out as two of the NRL’s more flamboyant talents, although the Roosters will be without utility Connor Watson because of last week’s concussion.
The NRL decider follows the NRLW grand final, where the Roosters meet the defending premiers Brisbane, and that women’s match will be marked by the retirement of Broncos’ half Ali Brigginshaw, described in the piece as the greatest player the women’s game has seen. Supporters from Penrith and the Dolphins still have representation on grand final day through Penrith’s NSW Cup winners meeting Queensland Cup champions Redcliffe in the state championship curtain-raiser, with fullback Jaxen Edgar noted as another product of the Panthers’ talent pathway. Peter V’landys complimented the AFL on their decider’s average audience of 4.52m — “supercharged by Kylie Minogue” — and the piece says that was an early concession suggesting Sunday’s NSW-centric showpiece will attract a lower viewership than Brisbane’s AFL victory over Fremantle.
The Roosters’ NRL grand final against the Knights follows the NRLW final featuring the Roosters and Brisbane, and when the day’s program reaches the main event the Knights’ unofficial anthem — the Screaming Jets’ song Better — is expected to sound: “They said you’d never get anywhere, well they don’t care and it’s just not fair, that you know, and I know better.”