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Find your frequency hereThe moment that sparked Newcastle’s remarkable comeback
Nicholas Quinlan • June 6th, 2025 9:56 am
SEN’s Andrew Voss and Matty Russell could hardly believe what they witnessed during Thursday night’s match between Manly and Newcastle.
The Knights overcame a 16-point half-time deficit to win against the Sea Eagles to send the match to golden point.
From there, captain Kalyn Ponga would score a try to secure the 26-22 victory in front of the Knights fans at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The turnaround was considerable given Newcastle has struggled to score all season. The Knights are currently 17th in points scored despite having played one or in some cases two more games than the rest of the competition.
It left Russell and Voss to wonder what actually happened for the Knights to produce this result with Russell still in disbelief.
“Has there been a bigger contrast between the first and second halves by a team in terms of attack?” Russell said on SEN 1170’s Breakfast.
Voss, however, puts Newcastle’s turnaround down to a moment at the start of the second half as the Sea-Eagles tried to put the game beyond doubt.
“They flicked a switch,” Voss explained.
“Manly (were) so on top, 16-nil to start the second half and Daly Cherry-Evans pulls the trigger on a 40/20 attempt early in the count. Nails it.
“But ball came short of the 20-metre line by deadset two centimetres. It was the right call by the touch judge but definitely didn’t go.
“In the next set, in about play three, suddenly they (Newcastle) had depth and speed and went left and Dylan Lucas on the left edge went, ‘Oh gee, that looked good’.
“Then they went right…and then on the third play, they score a 50 metre try.
“And from there, they never stopped.
“Now incredibly last night for a team that scored 26 second-half points, I think by the end of the game, they only had 11 tackles inside Manly’s 20 all night.
“So, all their attacking clicked from long range which was quite incredible.
“I can’t think of a greater contrast.”
