+34
How Roosters reject turned Knights hero... and star partner’s stunning rise from darkest moment
Sandon Smith is desperately trying to avoid one comparison in the lead-up to this week’s grand final against the Roosters. Get the expert take on NRL Grand Final Day with FOX LEAGUE’s extensive coverage, plus full and mini replays available post-game on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo?
WHAT'S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au. The Newcastle No. 7 is on the verge of history as he attempts to join Immortal Andrew Johns as the second player to win a premiership while playing halfback at the Knights.
“We’ll look at those 1997 and 2001 grand finals and we’ll draw a bit of inspiration from those guys because they were the pinnacle of this club and they paved the way for us. ” It’s unfair to compare Smith to Johns as players but the 23-year-old will become only the second halfback to represent the Knights in a grand final on Sunday night.takes a look at the journey he’s taken with teammate Fletcher Sharpe as they look to take down the more fashionable Roosters halves in the decider.
Many think the Knights have simply jumped out of the ground in the finals but the players insist that’s not the case. Smith was a new guy in the squad, at the start of a four-year deal after being let go by the Roosters, when he was ripping in a training, trying to impress. It was then that he noticed just how galvanised the playing group was despite coming off a wooden spoon season months earlier.
Smith was only getting to know his new teammates in the pre-season but sensed that he had walked into the right club.
“Since November 1, when we came in, we had full belief in the team that we had and the style of footy that we wanted to play, which can trouble anyone in this competition,” he said. “We know people have counted us out all year, with the few guys that have come here sort of not wanted by their previous clubs, but it just shows the type of group we are.
Roosters star’s emotional Robbo moment after brutal double GF snubthat he sensed the team was on the right path before it upset the Cowboys in the opening round in Las Vegas.
“We were going out for dinners and getting together every night and it was almost like there wasn’t a time where we weren’t together as a playing group. “We had that balance of enjoying Vegas but also focusing on the job at hand and I think that’s going to be so important this week.
” Despite only dipping out of the top eight from rounds seven to nine this season, the Knights have never really been thought of as title contenders and won’t be again when they face the might of the Roosters. Smith feels the Knights’ bond, which started in the pre-season, has been underestimated by those outside the club.
“They’ll probably write us off again this weekend, but it doesn’t bother us at all, it doesn’t change anything for us, which is powerful when you feel a group come together and don’t let any external factors impact it,” he said. He wasn’t supposed to be walking the same path as Johns did in 1997 and 2001.
His four-year contract is estimated to be worth $2 million, and it’s proved to be a masterstroke by the Knights.ruptured his ACL in Round 21, Smith was handed the task of helping not only run the footy side but also keep it in the top eight. Fox League’s Cooper Cronk was a consultant at the Roosters when Smith was only young and learning how to become a first grade halfback.
He understood why the Knights decided to pluck the little playmaker from the Chooks and bring him up north.
“He was best on ground on Anzac Day once and has had a couple of good moments but just couldn’t consistently put back-to-back weeks and seasons together. ”Since Smith was given Brown’s No. 7 jersey in Round 22, he knew it was him and Sharpe who would be the Knights halves for the remainder of the season.
Smith and Sharpe have formed a great friendship since becoming teammates late last year, but importantly for Knights fans and the club, they’ve got it right on the field. They’re getting the best out of each other because they’re different players, which is often overlooked as a crucial ingredient for a successful halves combination. Sharpe looks like a five-eighth and plays like one.
It means Smith can run the team around the park while Sharpe can focus on what he does best, which is simply carry the ball and look for opportunities in vulnerable defensive lines.
“Sharpie’s a top fella. We’re good mates off the field and we’ve been able to connect over these past eight weeks or so. I’m super excited for us both to go there and have this opportunity to go there in the six and seven in a grand final,” Smith said. NRL Grand Final up for sale?
| 00:56 He may have had the game of his life against the Panthers on Sunday but that performance came off the back of months of hard work behind the scenes.
“Sandy’s been great for the spine, allowing KP and me to play our natural game and he just controls the team and gets us around the park. Smith has been the talk of the town in Newcastle, and the NRL in general, since his heroics in the With the Knights down 14-6 at halftime, and playing with 12 men after Phoenix Crossland’s send-off, Smith overshadowed superstar teammate Ponga, who was also brilliant, in the second half.
He started a backline movement which helped the Knights score right after the break then scored two tries of his own to sink the Panthers. They were both crafty halfback tries, using quick-thinking to outsmart the more fancied and finals-hardened Penrith outfit. His second try, an intercept, sealed the game and created one of the most memorable scenes in rugby league history as a sea of Knights fans cheered him towards the tryline as he ran away with the game.
In 2024, Smith was put in a similar position at the Roosters when he had to fill in at halfback for Sam Walker against Penrith in the first week of the finals. Last week’s performance against the same club showed just how far the man from the Central Coast had come.
“He sat in that role behind Dylan Brown to start with, but what he did on the weekend, you can’t do nothing but tip your cap to that out of respect for him,” Cronk said. Cronk called the game on Fox League and described it as the best second-half performance in finals history from Newcastle.
“He’s been a bit of a role player, just giving the ball to Kalyn, Fletcher Sharpe, Dane Gagai and Bradman Best, but he’s proven that if you take your eyes off him he might just be able to do something. “Everyone’s got a role in a team and guys that are seen as utility players probably don’t get the opportunities but when Smith has got his he’s done something that said to Justin Holbrook that he could wear the No. 7 when Dylan went down.
”Smith has gone from Roosters reject to Knights saviour in the space of 12 months, but Sharpe has taken an even rockier path towards Sunday’s grand final. Sharpe, like Smith, is having a career year in 2026, but last June, Sharpe faced a worrying situation regarding his health after a heavy tackle against the Dolphins in a match in Perth Sharpe thought he was only coming off for a regulation HIA, but went downhill fast and before he knew it he was in hospital with a ruptured spleen and a lacerated kidney.
He told foxsports.com.au that he was “thinking a variety of things” as he lay in bed not knowing how much trouble he was in.
“There were some pretty dark days when I was over there. You’re on the opposite side of Australia and you’re speaking to different people and they’re telling you different things about what you should do and what’s best for your health,” Sharpe said.
“That was the weirdest thing. I guess everything felt okay, but the insides of me were not doing what they were meant to.
“You speak to surgeons and then you’re rushed in for emergency surgery over in WA and then you’re speaking to a whole bunch of people and they’re telling you things that you don’t want to hear. ”Sharpe said he felt better, mentally, once he got back home and spoke to specialists and the medical team at the Knights who reassured him that he would make a full recovery.
But it took him time this season to gain his full confidence back, knowing he’d cop plenty of knocks to the body.
“It definitely took a while throughout pre-season to get confidence back. I was just glad I could get that good post-Christmas time in and start getting it back,” he said.
“It definitely took a while , even into the season. I don’t think I started playing probably my best footy until midway through. ” Sharpe has proved himself as a dangerous ball runner this season and has amassed and impressive 35 tries from 52 career games which is a fine strike-rate for a half.
The Roosters halves, Daly Cherry-Evans and Sam Walker have played a combined 29 State of Origin games between them – or 29 more than Smith and Sharpe, if you want to compare the pair. But Smith and Sharpe are riding a wave of form at the moment and no-one knows what the limit is for the pair which is the scary thought for the Roosters and their confident supporters.
“He will need to go to another level to beat the Roosters,” Cronk warned. Smith only moved to the Knights because Cherry-Evans signed with the Roosters and now he must take him down in his final NRL game. He said he sees the occasion as a “great opportunity” and he had the same attitude about Cherry-Evans as he did Nathan Cleary the week before – he’s not bothered by his reputation.
“Obviously, me and Sharpie, we’re enjoying playing footy with each other at the moment. We have a great little combination going on there, so they won’t faze us, it doesn’t change anything for us,” Smith said.
“We know what we can do for our team and individually. If we can focus on our role and do our job, it will put us in a great position. ”While Smith never likes to focus on his opposite halves too much, Sharpe is wary of Walker and his instinctive play.
“They’re classy players. Cherry-Evans has obviously been playing at the highest level for a long time, then Sammy Walker is just a freak,” he said.
“He can pull some things out of the bag that no-one else can, so we know we’ll have to be on our game against those two, but Sandon and I, our game doesn’t change. “We don’t have to try and be them or be someone that we’re not. We’re confident in our footy and we know what that looks like, so we’ll get another good week of preparation and hopefully we’re ready to go down there on Sunday.
” The 35-year-old Gagai has admired, from the centres, the way the written-off young halves pairing have conducted themselves under enormous pressure.
“In order to steer a team around the park, everyone needs to know what they’re doing so it’s a credit to them,” he said. “The decision and choice-making comes down to those boys and they’ve been obviously making some pretty good choices which has helped us get to this position now. ”When the team bus leaves Newcastle this week, the streets will be lined with well-wishers and the weatherboard houses will be painted red and blue.
Panthers fume after controversial try | 00:35 He’s had to put up with a lot, along with other Newcastle supporters over the years but the unwavering support is what got the team over the line against the Panthers and they’ll need all of that in the decider.
“It hasn’t been the easiest to be a Knights supporter during my lifetime and the community has never wavered with their support for us. They’re always filling out Mac Jones throughout the tough times and it’s just super pleasing that we can bring some success back to the town. They deserve it as much as us,” Sharpe said.
“It’s crazy to think about to be honest. Even getting back to Newy on Sunday night at 10pm, it was pouring rain and the streets were just filled with our fans. Smith knows he and his teammates will decide the mood of a whole city for weeks after Sunday’s game.
“They’re such a great fan base that we don’t feel the pressure of the town in a negative way. We embrace it and we love it,” he said. , everyone in the rugby league world felt that was a big achievement and that they could be proud of their season. Obviously since then the side has proved it had other ideas and went on to beat the teams that finished first and second in the regular season.
Sharpe said they weren’t patting each other on the backs after the Souths win and the squad wasn’t satisfied at all.
“I think it’s probably the outside people who haven’t been putting so much pressure on us, but within the four walls, it’s something we’ve spoken about since the finals started,” Sharpe said. “We knew it was do-or-die from the start, and we had the belief the whole time that we could go all the way, so we’ve been putting pressure on ourselves. “I think it’s got the best out of some players, so it will be no different on Sunday.
You’re fighting for that trophy and it’s what we’ve worked hard for all year. ”Knights skipper Kalyn Ponga said there’s been pressure on his side all season under the expectation of winning.
“Our goals are the same as theirs, it’s no different. You don’t go through what you go through to get bailed out in the finals, so I feel like the pressure hasn’t changed,” he said. Smith said there was no point in being satisfied now that the Proven-Summons Trophy was just 80 minutes away.
And at roughly 9.30pm on Sunday night, Smith might have to get used to being mentioned in the same sentence as the Immortal Johns for the rest of his life.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Newcastle Knights reach 2026 NRL grand final, face Sydney RoostersThe Newcastle Knights will meet the Sydney Roosters in the 2026 NRL grand final after a dramatic preliminary final win over the Penrith Panthers, their first decider in 25 years.
Read more »
Matty Johns Names Kalyn Ponga Best in World as Knights Face Roosters in Grand FinalNRL legend Matty Johns declares Newcastle Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga the best player in the world, suggesting he is the key to the Knights overcoming the favored Sydney Roosters in the upcoming grand final.
Read more »
NRL grand final: Newcastle Knights face Sydney Roosters as neutrals weigh class warfareThe Newcastle Knights meet the Sydney Roosters in the NRL grand final, with the Knights chasing a first premiership in 25 years and the Roosters aiming to spoil the party.
Read more »
Sydney Roosters and Newcastle Knights Name NRL Grand Final Squads Amid Injury ConcernsThe Sydney Roosters and Newcastle Knights have announced their squads for the upcoming NRL premiership final. Key concerns include Phoenix Crossland facing judiciary action for a hip-drop incident, leaving the hooker spot uncertain, while Connor Watson must pass an independent medical assessment after failing a head injury assessment in the preliminary final.
Read more »