Newcastle Knights 2025 NRL season scouting report: Best 17, every player’s contract status, rookie watch
For Adam O’Brien and the Knights, plenty relies on Kalyn Ponga and finding a consistent spine combination to support him. PAMELA WHALEY analyses their best 17, rookies to watch, biggest issues and more.
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The Knights are running it back. Again.
Time will tell whether the continuity will pay off for coach Adam O’Brien, whose side’s ceiling is, not for the first time, all but limited to how high Kalyn Ponga can take them.
O’Brien will also be under intense pressure to assuage one of the fanbase’s biggest gripes: finding a spine that can string more than four games together.
Answer that, and it just might transform Newcastle from a middling team, to the top. Pamela Whaley dissects what’s in store for the Knights in 2025.
Free agency wrap and rating
The Knights are at a crossroads with their roster.
After letting go a handful of players at the end of the season, including home-grown hero Daniel Saitifi (Dolphins) and Enari Tuala (Bulldogs), they’re in the midst of a player turnover. They’ve tapped another group of off-contract players on the shoulder for the end of 2025, signalling their intentions to renovate the squad.
Hooker Jayden Brailey and halfback Jackson Hastings are among them, which would free up significant cap space, while the club has all but lost out on re-signing star prop Leo Thompson beyond the end of this season.
The problem is, there are so far no clear understudies for Hastings or Brailey beyond 2025 if either should leave, which opens up crucial gaps in the spine and no obvious replacements.
Bradman Best and Kalyn Ponga remain their highest profile stars but they desperately need help in the halves.
RATING: B-
Coach status and safety rating
Adam O’Brien is heading into his sixth season at the Knights and except for 2022, has taken the team to the finals every year in charge.
The issue is how the Knights go to the next level.
If the question is have they improved or established themselves as competition heavyweights, the answer is ‘not yet’ for both, which is the concern.
By now, they have had several roster changes but have not yet pushed for a premiership.
Their highest paid players Ponga and Best are at the peak of their powers and need support now to win a title.
Middle of the road finishes and an overreliance on Ponga with no big additions for 2025 is a recipe for pressure on O’Brien’s back.
His head was on the chopping block back in 2024 before a remarkable on-field turnaround earned him a three-year contract upgrade, which keeps him locked in until the end of 2027.
That contract gives him enough security for 2025 but that won’t stop fans calling for change if they have a poor season.
RATING: B-
Likely debutant(s)
The Knights debuted a handful of young stars in 2024 including David Armstrong (who has since been released to the English Super League) and speedster Fletcher Sharpe who made an immediate impact, while others like centre Kyle McCarthy will be a slow burn for the future.
Rising 19-year-old forward Jermaine McEwen is closing in on an NRL debut after moving into the top 30 squad this season. Signed for the next three years, McEwen has starred through the lower grades and represented the NSW Origin under-19s side for the past two seasons.
Teenage prop Cody Hopwood has also started his first NRL pre-season after winning player of the tournament for the Australian Schoolboys last year and progressing through NSW Cup.
He recently re-signed with the club until the end of 2028, showing just how valuable he is to the Knights’ future.
As for club debutants, the club has a high opinion of former Canberra winger James Schiller, while Matt Arthur will get the chance behind the ruck at some point this season.
Who takes the next step
Fletcher Sharpe. The 20-year-old made his NRL debut at fullback midway through last year and starred so spectacularly, he forced his way into the team once Ponga returned to the field. He played 12 games and scored 11 tries in his rookie season, which included the last seven games of the year on the wing. If all is right with the world, a big pre-season should be enough to land him a starting spot on the wing for round one, and another year of development for one of the game’s genuine excitement machines.
Three burning issues
CONSISTENT FORM
A lot of the issues at Newcastle were taped over with a top eight finish this season, but fans are tiring of the middling success. They want a title.
They pushed North Queensland in the elimination final at Townsville but the Knights are still a way off being a premiership force in the NRL, and for the past two years now they have left their top eight push to the final rounds.
Mid-season form needs to improve to avoid another battle for the top eight in 2025.
HALVES
The constant merry-go-round of halves combinations continued at the Knights this season. Across the year, a combination never lasted for longer than four games, which causes a huge amount of uncertainty and distraction within the team, and of course, the attack.
It showed on the field. They struggled to score points and finished with the second worst attack above the Wests Tigers across the year.
And with no notable signings in the halves, Jack Cogger, Hastings, Tyson Gamble and Phoenix Crossland will again fight it out in 2025 to fill out the spine, along with Brailey and Matt Arthur at hooker.
MUCH ADO ABOUT PONGA
Without a doubt, the star fullback is one of the best players in the NRL.
But he needs help to bring success to Newcastle, with support players around the spine and up front to give him time and space to do what he does best - win.
The Knights desperately need Ponga fit and on the field in 2025, and after withdrawing from Kangaroos selection and then backflipping on the decision only to be overlooked for the jersey, it will be interesting to see whether he puts his hand up to play State of Origin this year.
Crystal ball
Ponga’s brilliance offers the Knights a lot of grace on the ladder, but there’s real issues at Newcastle that need to be fixed. Without a notable or even obvious halves partnership any team would struggle, which is what the Knights are facing again in 2025. Hamstrung by salary cap constraints, it will be another mid-table finish for the Knights who just may do enough to scrape into the top eight again, but likely won’t.
2025 odds
Winners: $51
Minor premiership: $51
Top 4: $10
Top 8: $3.50
Most losses: $8
*Odds courtesy of TAB
Originally published as Newcastle Knights 2025 NRL season scouting report: Best 17, every player’s contract status, rookie watch
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