KNIGHTS discard Zac Hosking has admitted he felt he had a point to prove returning to Newcastle with reigning premiers Penrith on Saturday to face the club he always dreamt of playing for.
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A Newcastle lower-grade player for the best part of five years, Hosking departed the Knights after the 2021 season - in which he won the club's NSW Cup player-of-the-year award - because he wasn't offered a full-time contract to try and crack the NRL side.
The forward, who had always juggled football with work as a carpenter, had all but given up on pursuing a professional career until Brisbane offered him a train-and-trial deal that summer.
"I guess you could say I had a bit more fire in the belly to have a win over this club. I never got an opportunity here, so it was good to get it over them," Hosking said after Penrith's 16-15 victory over Newcastle.
Asked if he had a point to prove playing at the ground he once hoped to debut at wearing a red and blue jersey, Hosking said: "Yeah in a way."
"I don't want to make it too dramatic, but I guess so. I had to move to Brisbane to get my crack and I'm pretty happy with where I've ended up. I suppose there is a little bit of that there," he said.
An edge-forward, Hosking had to wait until round four to play NRL but has now featured in Penrith's past four games.
The 26-year-old made an immediate impression at the club during the pre-season and has backed it up with handy showings in the trials and regular season.
"When someone comes to a group, you want them to be a really good person to buy-in and the way he has fit into the culture and how hard he works, it's no surprise he is performing well," Panthers co-captain Isaah Yeo said.
"First of all, just a really good fella, but out on the field [he] does a lot of that scrappy work ... but obviously runs those really good lines as well. He has been the ultimate teammate."
Hosking, the son of former Manly player David "The Mule" Hosking, said it was "unreal" to get a win in front of about 40 family and friends he got tickets for. The victory also came on his mum Belinda's birthday.
The Central Newcastle junior copped "a bit of lip" from Knights players but gave as good as he got. He remains close mates with those he played in the lower grades with, including Mat Croker, Jack Johns and Dylan Lucas.
"It was a funny old week," he said.
"It was a dream come true as well, for us to ... share an NRL field together.
"We thought we might've done it in the same jersey, but we ended up doing it in opposite jerseys.
"That's footy, we'll take it."
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary, who played with Hosking's dad at Manly in the early 1990s, said the back-rower was a "great story" and a "really good lesson, for everyone really, to keep going".
"He couldn't quite make it here at the Knights, but ... I always kind of followed him because I played with his old man. I saw him at the Broncos last year and thought, 'yeah, I think he has got something'," Cleary said.
"Obviously losing [Viliame Kikau] last year, we were never going to be able to replace him, so we got a few guys in and he has just taken his opportunity when 'Marto' [Liam Martin] got hurt. He picks himself at the moment.
"Some of the games he has played in this year ... huge games where he has played every minute. He is doing really well and I'm happy for him, because he deserves it."
Hosking, who returns to Newcastle weekly to see his partner and work on a house he is renovating, said he had already learnt a lot in his time at Penrith.
Having almost nailed a spot in the 17, he is daring to dream of a potential premiership run.
"I don't look too far ahead and sometimes it is hard not to think like that," he said.
"It is the ultimate goal to be able to lift the trophy at the end of the year, but [I'm] taking it week by week and ... not getting too far ahead of ourselves, because as you saw tonight we nearly got our pants pulled down.
"We were very lucky to come out as winners."
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