"Good on him, it's been a good move for him, he does well in the first year he's at a new club.
"We'll target him when we can, but he'll know each and every one of our plays.''
Holmes expected Maloney to receive a warm welcome from Sharks fans, especially given he was happy to remain at the club, only to be squeezed out as part of a swap deal with Penrith's Matt Moylan.
Star return: James Maloney has been in fine form for the Panthers.
Photo: NRL Photos
Moylan will wear the No. 6 jersey in a spine coach Shane Flanagan hopes will be the combination used for the remainder of the season. Josh Dugan will play fullback, Chad Townsend halfback and Jayden Brailey hooker.
Holmes, who played fullback last year and hoped to remain there, despite the summer arrivals of established No.1s Dugan and Moylan, said he took a couple of weeks to come to terms with being plonked back on the wing, but was determined return to his best.
For the second time this season, Holmes failed to run for 50 metres against the Dragons last Friday night.
"I haven't performed too well lately so I need to step it up,'' Holmes said.
"Flanno made the decision at the start of the year [to move me], I need to live with that and do what's best for team. He sees me doing that on the wing.
"We haven't been playing too well as a team. The main thing is our discipline.
"We're piggy-backing teams out [of trouble] and it doesn't allow the back five to get involved because we're not starting off from kick returns, we're starting off from scrums or dropouts or kick-offs.''
Holmes, who hails from Townsville and was briefly linked with an early move to North Queensland for the chance to wear Lachlan Coote's No 1 jersey next year, said his plans were to see out his deal in the Shire, and continue to study the game's top fullbacks, including Dugan and Moylan, as well as Billy Slater and Darius Boyd.
The Queensland and Kangaroos flyer and former star touch footballer helped launch a new Touch premiership at League HQ on Wednesday, said Dragons ace Matt Dufty and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck were two players who would have been well suited to the neighbouring code.
Meanwhile, Flanagan said Sunday's spine was the one he wanted to persevere with the rest of the season, and it was Moylan's wish to try and excel in the halves, not fullback.
Comments disabled
Christian covers rugby league for The Sydney Morning Herald.
Morning & Afternoon Newsletter
Delivered Mon–Fri.
