Three ‘hybrid halfbacks’: How Newcastle sparked one of the game’s great revivals

Exactly one year ago, the numbers were just as ugly as Newcastle’s attack. Not to mention Fletcher Sharpe’s ruptured kidneys.

The Knights’ 14.1 points per game last season cost Adam O’Brien his job as they picked up the wooden spoon.

Their woeful offence often hurt to watch and made for the second-worst return in club history since 1991. That was a time when defensive lines only had to stand five metres back from the play-the-ball.

Now? They’re a bit busted, and facing a star-studded South Sydney on Friday night without key men Dylan Brown, Dylan Lucas, Jacob Saifiti and Trey Mooney.

But broken? Hardly. Not with Justin Holbrook unfurling an attack that scores more points (26.4 points per game) than any Newcastle outfit since Andrew Johns was in his prime.

According to AAP, that upswing of 12.3 points per game is the fourth-largest attacking turnaround from one season to the next in rugby league history.

Largely forgotten among 114 Novocastrian tries this year is the consternation and confusion of how their playmaking spine would fit together at all.

Johns himself was as cynical as any of the ‘hybrid halfback’ role described when Brown inked his record $13 million, 10-year move to the Hunter.

‘What the hell is a hybrid halfback?’ is the family-friendly version of the Immortal’s first impression of that one.

Knights captain Kalyn Ponga has his own numbers to explain one of the NRL’s more remarkable transformations, where he, Sharpe, Brown and Sandon Smith have all combined as a rare attacking force.

“We took a different approach to most teams when Justin came in; obviously, we haven’t got the traditional No.7 controlling the team with the fullback and five-eighth floating around him,” Ponga says.

“For us, it’s almost like we’ve got three No.1, three No.6’s, three guys playing that kind of rule because that’s what suits their game. It’s a lot of numbers, isn’t it?

“I look at it a little bit like the model the Storm have had for a while with guys like [Cameron] Munster and Jahrome Hughes. They have quality players who have started out with strong fullback backgrounds, and have worked out how to fit them into the spine.

“So far it’s been a lot of fun playing with a new style of attack and how to make it work for us.”

It’s kept working too since Brown suffered a cruel ACL rupture the last time Newcastle played Souths in round 21.

The Knights have kept their gloves up with a 3-4 record since that seismic day and kept scoring points too, albeit while conceding 90 across last-start losses to Manly and the Warriors.

No side has come close to the 30 tries Newcastle have scored from inside their own half this season. It is as clear a pointer as any to the way Holbrook has the Knights playing with more width than most sides, and encourages them to chance their arm more often too.

No one outside the Knights sanctum anticipated such success so quickly in such unorthodox fashion, particularly considering Ponga and Sharpe hit the training paddock last summer coming off serious injury lay-offs.

In Sharpe’s case, a lacerated kidney and damaged spleen suffered in June last year meant he did little more than light walking as exercise for more than three months before reporting for pre-season.

But from the moment Newcastle’s new-look spine and no-frills pack hit Allegiant Stadium and rumbled over the top of North Queensland, the Knights have been upbeat and entertaining.

“It was honestly a bit surprising how quickly it connected for us,” Ponga says.

“I think maybe because we all came in with an open mind. No one had an ego about it, like ‘I have to be second receiver or first receiver’ or anything like that. And we still have to get ourselves around the park, which the coaching staff have stressed to us.

“We have our structure that we play within. But we do have our run strengths as playmakers, and you have to play to your strengths right? So the licence we have to do that, I think it suits the players we have, and the freedom gives us confidence to play that way too.”

The frustrations of 2025 are mercifully staying in 2025. For once, so is what felt like annual speculation around where Ponga’s future lay.

The Knights knew the depths they plunged last season had changed the landscape. Those long-running fears and rumours of Ponga moving on for greener pastures were more real than ever.

Instead, Holbrook’s arrival and sweeping changes throughout the club had Ponga sold like never before as well. By April, he had inked a new three-year extension and is now tied down until the end of 2030.

“I could just see and feel a lot of change at the club pretty quickly,” Ponga says.

“It’s been a fun season even with a fair bit of injury and adversity, and I’ve got a real belief in what we’re building and how we’re playing our footy.”

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Dan Walsh is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement