Incoming Knights assistant Brian McDermott spent five years in the Royal Marines before playing rugby league professionally.
His stint in the United Kingdom's special operations commando force no doubt laid the foundations for the success he has enjoyed as a player and a coach.
It's a career that includes 251 Super League appearances for the Bradford Bulls and more than 400 games as a head coach, including an eight-year stint at Leeds Rhinos where he helped deliver four premierships.
So it's no surprise that Knights coach Adam O'Brien singles out "resilience and toughness" as key attributes of his new right-hand man that he can help instil in a playing group that this year struggled to stay in the fight.
"Anyone that's not familiar with Brian, it won't take you long to get to know what sort of man he is," O'Brien said.
"He's won four titles with Leeds; so he knows what winning looks like, he has had to start up a franchise in Toronto, but what you see with him is what you get.
"He will be very strong culturally with standards. He will be great for our group, he's a man's man, and he will be great for me."
McDermott, 52, who previously headed up Canadian expansion franchise Toronto Wolfpack, has been helping Fiji at the World Cup.
Following the Bati's narrow 24-18 loss to New Zealand on Sunday morning (AEDT), he is expected to depart England for Australia and Newcastle in the coming weeks.
McDermott replaces 43-year-old Willie Peters, who left the Knights at the end of last season to take his first job as a head coach at Super League club Hull KR.
McDermott is the most experienced assistant O'Brien, now entering his fourth season as head coach, will have had at the Knights since David Furner's year-long spell at the club in 2020.
"We were scouting around looking for someone to come in and look, there's a heap of younger coaches out there, but I'm a young coach and I was really set on bringing in some experience," he said.
"We've had long, long discussions, a lot of emails and Zoom calls and he is just the right fit for us. I'm excited to bring him on board."
Newcastle completed their coaching team with the appointment of former Manly assistant Michael Monaghan as NSW Cup coach.
The first batch of players returned for pre-season training last Tuesday.
Kalyn Ponga and Bradman Best began training early with the group, mostly made up of younger players who featured in the Jersey Flegg (under-21s) side this year.
More NRL regulars are expected to commence training today and every player bar Dom Young will be underway by next week.
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