Newcastle Knights

Inaugural season: 1988

Home field: McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle, Australia

Owner: Wests Group

Team colors: Blue, white, and red

Overview

The Newcastle Knights is a professional rugby team that plays in Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL). The Knights began play in the late 1980s and soon built a strong following among their hometown fans. During the mid-1990s, professional rugby in Australia underwent a period of change as rival leagues squared off for dominance across the nation. Newcastle earned the admiration of local fans by staying loyal to its longtime league and rewarded them with the first premiership in its history. As the NRL emerged from the turmoil in 1998, the Knights remained one of the league’s top teams and won another championship in 2001. The best player in Knights history, Andrew Johns, has also been recognized as one of the all-time greats in Australian rugby. In 2012, Johns was named as one of the Immortals, a rare honor given to only thirteen players in history.

History

Rugby developed from English football—or soccer as it is called in North America—in the early nineteenth century. The sport got its name from its birthplace, the Rugby School in Warwickshire, England. Rugby is similar to football/soccer in that players must get the ball into an opponent’s goal area to score. However, in rugby, players are allowed to use their hands to run with the ball, and opposing players can tackle the ball carrier. As the sport spread across the British Empire, it grew in popularity in the colony of Australia, where numerous amateur teams were formed in the late nineteenth century. In 1908, a group of the best Australian rugby players joined to form the country’s first professional league, the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL).

Eight of the nine teams that played in the inaugural season of the NSWRL were located in Sydney or its suburbs; the Newcastle Rebels were the only team from outside the nation’s largest city. Newcastle is a coastal port city about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of Sydney. The Rebels lasted just one season in the NSWRL before leaving to form its own league in the Newcastle area.

Over the course of the twentieth century, the NSWRL became the predominant professional rugby league in Australia, with teams exclusively based near Sydney until the early 1980s. In 1982, the league added teams in Wollongong, a city about 40 miles (63.5 kilometers) south of Sydney, and in Australia’s capital of Canberra. The Canberra Raiders were the first NWSRL team located outside of the state of New South Wales.

Newcastle had been asked to join the NSWRL in place of Canberra, but declined the invitation. In 1987, the league expanded again, but this time Newcastle decided to field an expansion team. Newcastle entered the NSWRL in 1988 along with teams from Brisbane and the Gold Coast region. The franchise chose the name Knights and adopted a logo of a medieval knight’s helmet with a red plume. At first, the design was set against a shield, but later versions lost the shield and simply featured the knight’s helmet.

Upon entering the league, Newcastle was received warmly by hometown fans in the industrial port city. The Knights started slowly, but earned their first trip to the finals series in 1992 and another in 1995. The finals series is a postseason tournament among the regular season’s best teams that acts as the league playoffs.

As the Knights were beginning to gain traction in the standings, Australian rugby was in the midst of a power struggle that would change the sport forever. A rival league backed by the American-based media giant News Corporation formed to take on the NSWRL. This new league, dubbed the Super League, was to begin play in 1997. In response, the NSWRL rebranded itself as the Australian Rugby League (ARL) in 1995 in an effort to appeal to a more national audience. While many of the league’s high-profile teams jumped ship to play in the Super League in 1997, Newcastle remained in the ARL, a choice that endeared the team to its fanbase even more. To compete against the Knights, the Super League established its own team in Newcastle. However, the Hunter Mariners, named after the surrounding Hunter Valley, did not catch on with local fans who remained loyal to the Knights.

Newcastle finished the 1997 ARL season 14–7, with one draw, and advanced to the grand final, the league’s championship game. The Knights faced off against the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in a hard-fought battle for the title. Newcastle clawed back to tie the score with five minutes remaining, and won the game with just seven seconds left on the clock.

After just one season, the two-league experiment proved to be financially unstable, and the ARL and Super League decided to merge in 1998, reforming as the National Rugby League. With the merger, the Hunter Mariners folded after just one season. The Knights continued to become one of the league’s best teams, making the finals series each season from 1997 to 2003. In 2001, Newcastle finished 16–9 with one draw and again advanced to the grand final against the Parramatta Eels. This time, it was the Knights who jumped out to a lead and withstood a spirited second-half comeback to win their second championship, 30–24.

Newcastle continued to play before an enthusiastic fanbase, even as the team’s fortunes took a downturn in the mid-2000s and 2010s. The Knights finished 8–16 in 2005, earning the wooden spoon for finishing in last place in the NRL. Despite rebounding to make the finals series four times between 2006–2013, the Knights fell to the bottom of the standings, capturing three consecutive wooden spoons from 2015–2017. After suffering a period of financial losses in the mid-2010s, the franchise was purchased in 2017 by the Wests Group and operated by the Western Suburbs (N’cle) Leagues Club Ltd. The team plays its home games at McDonald Jones Stadium, a 33,000-seat venue in Newcastle.

Notable players

The greatest player in franchise history is undoubtedly Andrew Johns, whose legacy can be seen in both the team and league record books. Johns played with Newcastle from 1993–2007, and is the team’s all-time leading scorer with 2,176 points, a mark that was best in NRL history at the time of his retirement. Johns has since been passed by three other players as of 2023. His 197 goal kicks are also a club record and were fourth in league history as of 2023. A goal kick occurs when a player drop kicks the ball over the crossbar and through the goalposts.

Johns holds the top five spots on the team list of most points in a season and for most points in a single match. His 23 points scored in his first game in 1994 was voted by fans as the greatest debut in the modern era. During the 1997 grand final game, Johns made a key play to set up the winning score as time ran down. He was named the Dally M Player of the Year three times, winning the award for best player in the regular season in 1998, 1999, and 2002. In the Knights’ 2001 grand final victory, Johns was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal, an honor presented to the game’s best player. In 2012, he was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame and named an Immortal, a select honor achieved by only thirteen players in history as of 2024.

Akuila Uate began his career with Newcastle in 2008 and left the team in 2016 as its all-time leading try scorer with 110. A try is scored when a player touches the ball down on the ground in an opponent’s goal area. Uate led the NRL in tries scored in 2010 with 21, a figure that is also tied for the most tries scored for the Knights in a single season. He shares that mark with Timana Tahu, who played with Newcastle from 1999–2004 and again from 2012–2014. Tahu scored 21 tries in 2002 and is second on the all-time franchise list with 93 tries scored.

Kurt Gidley was with the Knights from 2001–2015, and is second on the team list with 1,228 points scored. Adam MacDougall had two stints with Newcastle from 1997–2003 and again from 2007–2011. Nicknamed “Mad Dog,” MacDougall’s hard-nosed style of play made him popular among the team’s fans. His 87 tries are third in franchise history. Darren Albert played only six seasons with the Knights from 1996–2001, but it was his game-winning try in the waning seconds of the 1997 grand final that won Newcastle’s first championship.

Bibliography

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Coomer, John. “Newcastle Knights: All-Time Greatest XIII.” Rugby League Opinions, 2 May 2017, rugbyleagueopinions.com/newcastle-knights-best-players-greatest-team-all-time-nrl-history/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Dillon, Robert. Hard Yards: The Story of the Newcastle Knights. Fairfax Media, 2018.

Griffiths, Ellie. “A Brief History of Australia’s National Rugby League.” Culture Trip, 14 Dec. 2016, theculturetrip.com/pacific/australia/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-national-rugby-league-australia/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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“Newcastle Knights Logo.” 1000 Logos, 2023, 1000logos.net/newcastle-knights-logo/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Santarossa, Adam. “Hunter Mariners: League on Their Own.” Newcastle Herald, 23 July 2015, www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/3232578/league-on-their-own/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

“Truly Immortal: Johns’ Debut Crowned Best of Modern Era.” National Rugby League, 23 July 2020, www.nrl.com/news/2020/07/17/best-debut-of-the-modern-era-have-your-say/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.