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The Newcastle Knights are the best club in NRL history. Here's why

Roar Guru
15th April, 2017
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Newcastle could benefit from an NRL draft system. (AAP Image/Darren Pateman)
Roar Guru
15th April, 2017
43
5114 Reads

Rugby league is hard.

It seems easy passing balls, holding balls, kicking balls, endlessly talking about balls, and ultimately, having balls. While it may seem easy on paper, there is a lot that goes into it.

Just ask any player, supporter, or administrator of the Newcastle Knights.

And if a team does not do well, their supporters are going to go online and go to absolute town on said players, administrators, and even their fellow supporters.

That my friends, putting aside open heart surgery and those army guys out of The Hurt Locker, is the most pressure you can experience in the world, a type of pressure that we in Newcastle seem incapable of handling.

However, beneath the endless injury list, drug scandals, and singular win in the last two seasons, there is a semblance of a good club, and according to some (including this writer), the best club in the NRL.

And so, with that in mind, here are my top five reasons why the Newcastle Knights is the best club in the NRL.

1. Andrew Johns
It’s easy to forget, but as recently as ten years ago, the greatest player to ever grace a rugby league field pulled on the red and blue of the Knights, and would mesmerise the masses with his artistry, skill, brutal force, absolute wonder, and enormous rump.

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Remember when Ray Warren would be beside himself with joy calling an Andrew Johns play? I do. Still brings tingles down my spine.

And while debate rages as to whether Thurston is now better (he’s not) because he has more Dally Ms (Johns should have had five, prove me wrong), it’s also easy to forget that everything Thurston does now is simply what Andrew Johns did then, but not as well.

Thurston doesn’t have the added pressure of carrying an entire team on weakened knees, a broken back, and a displaced disc at the C4/5 level.

There aren’t many clubs in Australia that can lay claim to having had the best player ever play their whole career for them.

But the Newcastle Knights can.

Andrew Johns while playing for the Newcastle Knights in 2006.

2. The club colours
It’s a little known fact (and by fact, I mean something my cousin said to me that I’ve accepted as truth) that in 1988, when the Broncos and Knights were entering the comp, both sides wanted the Maroon and Yellow colour scheme.

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But in a tradition that was maintained some thirty years later in beating the Knights to Jack Bird, so too did the Broncos get the rights to the Maroon and Yellow.

So, apparently, at the last minute, the Knights decided on Red and Blue.

You honestly can’t picture them appearing any other way. And while we’re at it, how good is the red and blue?

Barcelona look stunning, Boston Red Sox are just eye-catching, Newcastle United were on point.

The Knights with those blue and red stripes just scream: class. And it’s a darn good thing those jerseys scream that, because lately, their play does not.

3. Crowds
Here’s a number for you: 21,412. That was the crowd figure for Good Friday’s game against the Roosters. Another game that we ultimately lost.

Bandwagoners? Pfft, not around here. Simply sheer, unadulterated, blind loyalty and faith, to a club that continues to cling onto that bottom ladder rung, hoping that we aren’t the first team to finish 17th in a 16-team comp.

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The team that has one win (and that sweet, sweet draw) in their last 33 games (don’t forget people, we also lost our last two games of the 2015 season, thanks for coming), we still draw a crowd.

The idea of attending the game is so engrained, that even when we are in the midst of a 20-game losing streak, the dried-on fans will look at the paltry 15,000 crowd attendance, and declare: that’s rubbish, it’s a nice sunny day, there’s nothing else on, there is no excuse not to have over 20,000 here today.

And that chant: “New-ca-stle.”

You’ve heard it. You’ve likely even made fun of it (“you-can’t-score, you-can’t-score,” yes, very funny, how long did that take you to think of, please stop saying it, because we know it’s true, and it hurts).

But you can’t tell me that when a 90-year-old grandmother starts chanting “New-ca-stle” and everyone else joins in, you don’t for a brief moment wish you too were a Knights fan chanting something so simple, and so heartfelt.

When it starts, and that chant hits its height, I wager there is nothing short of crack cocaine that replicates the same feelings of excitement and exhilaration.

“New-ca-stle, New-ca-stle, New-ca-stle.”

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Give it to me!

4. The emblem
Look at it, it’s still the original, and the best.

It hasn’t changed in the thirty years of existence.

While the Broncos have gone from a bucking bronco to a Godfather-style horse’s head, the Raiders are more the Hulk with horns and what in the name of all that is good and pure is going on with the Roosters these days, the Knights have stood firm over thirty years to remain true and faithful to the original: a Knight in all his magnificent, simple glory.

And others have learned.

Canterbury returned to their roots, and I have no idea what Parramatta were thinking with their efforts before going back to the original, proving all the more why the Knights have been on a winner from the get-go.

People will relate to the original, because it gives them a sense of familiarity and history, a link to the originals, and as the Knights celebrate thirty years of competition, and (ahem) 20 years since their first premiership, that original emblem stands proud.

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And speaking of the original premiership.

5. The 1997 grand final
Don’t. Even. Pretend. Like you don’t agree that was the greatest grand final ever (again, comments below).

Brings a tear to my eye, and it’s one of only three things in this world that still makes me cry (the ’97 grand final, the end of Braveheart, and Edward Scissorhands – I don’t care what anybody says, the Edward Scissorhands ending is sad, he’s up there in that house, on his own, creating snow, forever).

Let’s re-live Ray’s sweet, sweet, sweet words:

“There’s 20 seconds on the clock”

Seriously people, I’m getting goose bumps just typing this. Keep going Rabs:

“Albert, he will play it, 21 metres away … “

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I can actually feel the tears coming:

“Down the blind, Andrew Johns, inside for Darren Albert … Albert’ll score, Albert’ll score, Newcastle! Have won the grand final.”

Honestly, I need a moment.

Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m crying. I’ve actually worn out that part of my 1997 ARL grand final VHS tape (remember VHS?) more than a 15-year-old’s copy of the police interrogation scene in Basic Instinct.

And that’s my list. I’m sure fellow Knights fans have their reasons.

What about the other teams? Are there reasons you can point out as to why your team is the greatest in the NRL?

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Let me know and, in case you weren’t aware, you can comment below.

And let me know on Twitter @Kdogroars

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