With Newcastle players arriving for day one of pre-season, Holbrook's first move was to make clear last year's wooden spoon was irrelevant.
"There was obviously a lot of outside noise," five-eighth Fletcher Sharpe recalled.
"But Justin sat us down and said: 'Look, I don't really care about what happened last year - it's a new year and looking at the squad in front of me, I know we can take it all out'."
Brought in after Adam O'Brien's Newcastle exit, Holbrook immediately made his mark.
"He said we had to come together and buy into a style. And we can win the comp," added halfback Sandon Smith, who had worked with Holbrook at the Sydney Roosters.
"We bought in from November 1.
"It wasn't a moment throughout the season where we thought, 'Oh wait, we can actually do this'. It was built into us from the first day."
Ahead of Friday night's elimination final against South Sydney, Holbrook's Newcastle turnaround is statistically one of the greatest in NRL history.
And at the centre of it all is Newcastle's attack, with players quick to heap praise on assistant Stephen Hales.
Newcastle were kept scoreless in 11 halves of football in 2025, and had the NRL's worst attack.
Such is the improvement, the Knights are scoring an extra 12.3 points per game this year.
Only three sides in the game's 118-year history have had a greater increase, with Parramatta in 2001 the last side to have such a dramatic rise.
While Newcastle scored five tries from the other side of halfway last year, this season they have the most in the NRL with 30.
And 63 tries have also originated from outside the attacking 20-metre zone, compared with 18 last season.
"It's a fun style to play," Sharpe said.
"I remember at the start it seemed expansive and off the cuff, but the whole team bought into it.
"It allows our strike players on the edges to get plenty of ball and do their thing.
"It's probably a style not everyone plays, so it gives a difference and plenty of variety too, which you need at this time of year."
Remarkably, Newcastle are having less play-the-balls on the opposition tryline and running similar metres per game to last year.
But they are far more efficient and have a willingness to shift more often from their own end, giving their fast and powerful outside backs early ball to play with.
Wingers Dom Young and Greg Marzhew have 62 linebreaks and 44 tries between them.
Kalyn Ponga remains at the heart of the attack, but hooker Phoenix Crossland believes the rise of Sharpe has taken some pressure off the Newcastle No.1.
"We're attacking nothing like we used to last year," Crossland said.
"That happens with new coaches and fresh ideas, with boys buying into our system."
Impressive too is the fact the rise has come with Newcastle rarely at full strength, with Sharpe, Ponga and the now-injured Dylan Brown having stints out.
"The strength of our coaching staff is just letting individuals express themselves," Ponga said.
"Every team's got systems, but what they've done a good job of is just giving you that belief that you can play your footy.
"That's just the way that they frame everything up, that there's no limit on what you can be."
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