Trey magnifique: Knights hail their new tryscoring sensation

They are calling him 'Try Mooney' in Newcastle. 

Recruited from Canberra to bolster the Knights’ engine room, powerhouse prop Trey Mooney has emerged as a tryscoring machine for his new club. 

Mooney scored the first and, most importantly, last of Newcastle’s seven tries in their 42-38 victory over Souths at McDonald Jones Stadium, giving him five in eight appearances for the Knights.

Mooney crashed through Souths forwards Bronson Garlick and Sean Keppie to open Newcastle’s scoring in the fifth minute, then seven minutes from full-time, took an offload from halfback Dylan Brown to touch down for what proved to be the match-winning try. 

“It’s awesome. We expect that every week, players playing their roles, and I was in the right spot this week, so it was good,” Mooney said after the 14-try thriller. 

Outside backs Dom Young (9), Greg Marzhew (8) and Fletcher Hunt (6) are the only Knights players to have scored more tries than him this season.  

In his Knights debut at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Mooney’s 72nd minute try sealed Newcastle’s 28-18 victory over North Queensland, and he has since added four-pointers in losses to Wests Tigers and Sydney Roosters. 

“It's not in our structure. It’s not an idea for me to be scoring tries,” Mooney said.

“But you know what, if the opportunity presents itself, and I’m in the right spots at the right time, and if I’m doing my job, then those opportunities will keep presenting themselves.” 

The 23-year-old former Australian Schoolboys representative felt “greedy” having five tries to his name while fellow front-rower Jacob Saifiti remains scoreless. 

“Me and ‘J-Saf’ have got a bit of a battle for tries at the moment and I think I’m winning, so it’s good,” Mooney said. 

After Latrell Mitchell’s converted try gave Souths a 38-36 lead with less than 10 minutes left, and some inspirational words from captain Kalyn Ponga, Mooney never gave up hope of snatching back the lead and securing a much-needed win. 

“KP’s words behind the tryline were like, ‘we’re still in this game and this game will be won by our defence’, and it showed towards the end,” Mooney said. 

“Francis [Manulelua] came on and forced an error, then we were lucky enough to get a try, then you saw towards the end, there’s six people in the corner stopping Latrell.” 

Knights coach Justin Holbrook said Mooney, whose only absence this season was against the Bulldogs because of a one-match suspension, had been “enormous” all year. 

“Jacob Saifiti is trying his backside off and can’t get a try and Trey’s getting them all,” Holbrook said.

"They’re doing a tremendous job for us, and we need them to. If these guys (Newcastle’s outside backs) are going to shine the way they do, they (Mooney and the forwards) have got to do their job, and they’re doing that – and Trey was terrific.” 

Apart from his try brace, Mooney ran for 143 metres and made 32 tackles with no misses. 

“He’s worked really hard, and he’s getting those tries through his hard work and effort,” said centre Bradman Best.

Stuck behind the likes of Joseph Tapine and Josh Papali’i at the Raiders, Mooney joined the Knights on a four-year deal to try to establish himself as an NRL middle forward. 

“It’s been good so far,” Mooney said. “There’s definitely a lot of take-aways and a lot of things to improve on, and the main thing I can focus on now is to try to get better each and every week.”