The Knightmare is finally over for Newcastle

May 23, 2014. That date should be burned into Newcastle Knights fans’ memories for the rest of their lives.

It’s a significant date in the club’s history, the date when Nathan Tinkler finally relinquished control of the NRL club. It’s a date that should be celebrated for years to come, just behind the club’s two grand final wins.

However, just over three years ago, on March 31, 2011, it was all a different story. Tinkler arrived in his shining white armour, on his immaculate (and monstrous) steed and rescued the club from oblivion.

He took control of the Knights, with 97 per cent of members endorsing him, on the back of his successful takeover of the Newcastle Jets.

The Knights were in trouble, allegedly in millions of debt, and the fans had had enough. A proud club, one with fanatical and unwavering support, were ready to embrace private ownership for the first time in the club’s history.

Tinkler promised the best. He wanted to build the club into a formidable force. He targeted the very best. He brought in the NRL’s hottest coach, Wayne Bennett, and threw money around. He dropped ticket prices, he introduced affordable club memberships and he gave a city hope.

Tinkler also drank beer, loved the horses and was an electrician by trade, who just happened to have come across a substantial amount of money. He was one of the fans, a down-to-earth Aussie bloke. He was also a chronic gambler.

In the background there were sinister works at play. Everyone knew Tinkler was after Newcastle Port’s fourth coal loader. That was a no-brainer. Everyone knew that he had probably only acquired the Jets and the Knights to gain popular support for his investment. But no one really bothered to think about what might happen if he wasn’t granted that development project. That, or they more likely chose to put it out of sight, out of mind.

It’s now three years later and the Knights haven’t won a premiership, the Jets haven’t looked likely, Newcastle has no additional coal loader, Tinkler’s empire has crashed and the club is in turmoil. That turmoil has been existent for quite a while now.

At the start of 2012, Tinkler was on a roll. But over the next year his empire started to unravel, culminating in a plethora of legal battles and burgeoning debt.

His 19.4 per cent stake in Whitehaven Coal plummeted amid a drop in commodity prices and demand. But that’s talk for an economist. If you want to know more, check out the Four Corners expose from July last year or, better yet, get yourself a copy of former Fairfax journalist Paddy Manning’s Boganaire.

Basically, Tinkler’s wealth dropped from more than a billion dollars to just $400 million in a year, according to BRW. And he had left a trail of debt in his wake.

Reports emerged of unpaid taxes, wages and employee entitlements – the list goes on. Legal battles not only included small-time businesses, but the Australian Taxation Office and NSW government as well. Now, Tinkler has lost control of the Newcastle Knights.

Throughout this entire saga, a local newspaper was reporting on Tinkler’s fall from grace with dignity and a fair hand.

The Newcastle Herald‘s reporters, namely Donna Page, Robert Dillon, Brett Keeble and sports editor Kevin Cranson, delivered article after article on Tinkler’s business dealings. Admittedly, it sold newspapers, and created many a front page, but it was in the public interest.

As a result, the Herald‘s relations with Hunter Sports Group (HSG) – Tinkler’s company overseeing ownership of the Jets and the Knights – soured, for matters that had nothing to do with sport.

Tinkler, already a well-known critic of the media, had apparently directed his company to blindside the Herald. At times relations were untenable, at other times they were manageable. But at stages HSG dropped to unthinkably low depths to exert power over the community paper.

Journalists weren’t informed of press conferences, access to players was effectively non-existent and communication resorted to the form of text messages.

Players were told they weren’t allowed to talk with Herald journalists – Jets scribe James Gardiner was even refused access to Emile Heskey when the marquee signing first arrived in town, despite every other media outlet being on site for the momentous day.

It was an attack on a paper that had served its community and its sports fans for an eternity.

At the head of it all was HSG chief executive Troy Palmer, Tinkler’s right-hand man. He did his best to keep journos off the trail of any mishap that affected either the Knights or the Jets.

To their immense credit, Herald journalists refused to budge. And their editors supported them whole-heartedly. They trusted their source, they knew they were right, and they stuck to their guns.

However, the fans took a different view. Many lambasted the paper at times for what they felt were ‘sensational’, ‘destabilising’ and ‘un-Novocastrian’ articles.

And in the end, who can blame them?

Sports fans are more passionate about their vocation than any other hobby group. They’ll love their club to the death and they’ll stick with them through anything. And the general public also has a tendency to distrust journalists. There are enough bad ones out there to warrant the viewpoint.

So when the Herald ran reports and the Knights hit back with inflammatory press releases about “false reports in the local media”, there was only one loser. If you’re a hardcore Newcastle fan, chances are you sided with Tinkler and HSG over the Newcastle Herald at one stage or another.

The Herald journalists should be commended for their stoic refusal to get drawn into the game HSG wanted to play. They should also be praised for standing their ground, even in the face of fan backlash.

They should be laughing now that Tinkler has gone, but I don’t think they will be. They’ll be relieved they don’t have to deal with HSG, at least on the Knights’ side, but they won’t be cheering at the Knights’ predicament.

They wanted this partnership to work as much as anyone. What HSG and Tinkler quickly forgot was how much support they received from the Newcastle Herald when they were attempting the initial takeover in 2011.

Luckily, former Knights chairman Rob Tew had the sense to enforce precautions in case Tinkler pulled out of the club. A bank guarantee was put in place, to be renewed each year. If Tinkler failed to produce the guarantee – $20 million for the first two years, $10 million thereafter – the Knights Member’s Club would be entitled to buy the club back for $1.

Even a week before it was made public knowledge that HSG had no chance of renewing that very bank guarantee for this year, Newcastle Herald journalists were afforded the same old lines.

“Business as usual” was the constant reply from HSG, with assurances from Troy Palmer that the bank guarantee would be in place by the cut-off date.

As everyone knows, it never eventuated. Tinkler couldn’t stump up the $10.52 million, and the Member’s Club attempted to buy back the club for $1, which was their entitlement.

Protracted negotiations have ensued and, as always, the Newcastle Herald has reported the facts to the confused, angry and frustrated fans.

The paper serves the Newcastle public, and community. The Daily Telegraph it is not.

But the problems for the Knights aren’t over yet. Not by a long shot. There’s still the small matter of the Member’s Club and the NRL looking over the books. What they find is anyone’s guess. There are reports that the debt could be as much as $20 million.

Whatever happens, Tinkler is unlikely to go quietly. He never has.

Janek Speight was employed as a journalist with The Newcastle Herald for three years, from 2011-2014