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Opinion
After a tight and suspenseful thriller the Newcastle Knights clipped the Gold Coast Titans 15-14 thanks to a matchwinning field goal by Mitchell Pearce with 17 seconds left on the clock.
After running down two separate six-point leads from the Titans, the Knights took the lead via Jake Clifford slotting a penalty goal, only for Jamal Fogarty to mirror him and ratchet up the suspense.
Then came Pearce’s field goal – the 100th scored by a Knights player against the Titans – to win the game for Newcastle and seal their fate at seventh for the second year in a row.
After a roller-coaster of a season, the Knights managed to find their way into the eight with five wins on the trot. Considering Mitchell Pearce and Jake Clifford are 6-0 as a halves pairing, one may ask what would have been of this season had the Knights been at full strength from the onset. But then other teams like the Roosters still step up with injuries, so we can’t make any excuses.
Newcastle managed to make the eight for the second year in a row – the side hasn’t made back-to-back finals since 2002-03. We needed to learn to win clutch games, and we have. I just hope none of my fellow Knights supporters suffers any heart attacks along the way. My heart only beats this fast when I’m either powerlifting or watching a movie based on a Stephen King novel – I guess we can add watching the Knights play in a tight game to that list as well.
I feel like slowly but surely our winning culture is coming back. Adam O’Brien’s mission is to bring it back, and that’s exactly what he is doing. It’s a long process, and we’re getting there. As a Knights fan I’m very proud to say that we’re in the finals again – although I don’t know how far we will go, and I won’t make any predictions.
To all Knights fans, whether we’re friends or acquaintances or even if we don’t see eye to eye, let’s be proud of how far we have come, from being a team that won only one game in 2016 to a side that’s made the finals in back-to-back years.
Ahead of the 2018 NRL season the Newcastle Knights signed Mitchell Pearce on a multimillion-dollar deal. He was signed as a premiership-winning general who would attract other quality soldiers to the cause and lead a young team of potential future stars out of the doldrums and onto many glorious victories.
If there was any doubt that Phil Gould is one of the shrewdest operators in the business, the Bulldogs general manager has proven it once again in the past week.
Many assumed Tyrell Sloan was a given to become St George Illawarra’s long-term fullback, but another Dragons flyer has made no secret of his desire to own the No.1 jersey.
If there’s one thing that rugby league players love, it’s a tradition.
Mitchell Pearce has been granted his release from his final year with the Newcastle Knights to finish his career over in France with the Catalan Dragons.
Mitchell Pearce has likely finished his time in the NRL after Newcastle finally granted the premiership-winning halfback a release on Monday.
