Get-together for cream of schoolboys footy

Knights juniors Danny Buderus, Owen Craigie, Matt Gidley, Leigh McWilliams, Jarrod O'Doherty and Dan Quinn were in the 1995 Australian Schoolboys team who completed an undefeated tour of England and France.

All went on to play in the NRL, and all but McWilliams have confirmed their attendance for the September 22 reunion, at which the Australian Schoolboys will launch their commemorative history book In A Class of Their Own.

They will join other players from the class of '95 including Trent Barrett, Nathan Cayless and Andrew McFadden, and team manager Phil Tobin from All Saints Maitland.

Members of the first Australian Schoolboys team to tour England in 1972 will also be feted.

That team was coached by Roy Masters and included Royce Ayliffe, Ian Schubert and Maitland's own Robert Finch. Tobin, an Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League life member, said all four were confirmed starters for the reunion.

"It will be a great opportunity for former Australian Schoolboys players, coaches and officials to catch up with each other. We're anticipating a huge attendance, with the 1972 and 1995 teams being absolute stand-outs," Tobin said.

Teammates in Newcastle's 2001 premiership-winning team, Buderus (242 games) and Gidley (221) are two of the five most capped players in the Knights' 25-year history and went on to carve out long and illustrious representative careers with Country, NSW and Australia.

Buderus, who just completed his 13th season, will play his 14th next year and needs just eight games to pass Andrew Johns (249) and become the club's all-time leader.

Gidley was one of five inaugural inductees to the Knights Hall of Fame this year and is the club's chief executive officer.

Craigie is the only player in Australian Schoolboys history to be selected for three years in a row. He represented from St Mary's Gateshead in 1994, and from St Francis Xavier's Hamilton in 1995 and 1996.

Craigie joined the Knights in his teens from Tingha, the tiny town near Inverell that also produced celebrated former NRL stars Preston Campbell and Nathan Blacklock.

The skilful centre was a member of Newcastle's 1997 ARL premiership-winning team among 76 appearances for the Knights in a 153-game, 10-year career (1995-2004) that included stints at the Tigers and Rabbitohs.

■ Some well-informed types around town who once enjoyed close ties to the Knights heard a loud whisper last weekend that former coach Brian Smith and the Sydney Roosters were close to announcing a mutual separation.

That tip was proved to be spot-on yesterday when the Roosters became Smith's sixth former first-grade club, after Newcastle, Parramatta, Bradford (UK), St George and Illawarra.

The postscript to that mail is that Smith will be announced soon as the new coach of the New Zealand Warriors. Given his proven track record of rebuilding clubs in serious need of a makeover, Smith and the Warriors would be a match made in heaven.

■ A couple of chips off the old "Choc" will run around for South Newcastle against Belmont North in the under-10s Newcastle schoolboys grand final at Waratah No.2 on Saturday.

South stalwart John "Choc" Anderson's grandsons Oliver and Joseph will be teammates for the young Lions against the Sharks.

The sons of former Knights hard man Glenn Miller and former Knights junior Greg Fleming, who played 71 first-grade games for the Western Reds and Canterbury Bulldogs in the 1990s, are also members of the Souths team.

■ Robbie Rochow will return to bolster Newcastle's NSW Cup team for their qualifying final against North Sydney at Kogarah on Sunday.

Rochow played the last eight games with the Knights' NRL squad but he spent most of the season in NSW Cup, meaning he has qualified to play in the finals. Fellow forwards Matt Hilder and Joel Edwards were not so fortunate, so the Knights must continue without them.

Kevin Naiqama will play fullback and his brother, Wes, has been moved to the centre to replace Siuatonga Likiliki, who has been ruled out with a knee injury.

■ Grand final winners Peter Sterling and Terry Hill will be special guests of the Excalibur Club for their presentation lunch at Fort Scratchley Function Centre on Friday, September 21.

Sterling won four titles with Parramatta in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1986, and Hill won with Manly in 1996. The former NSW and Australian representatives, who used to co-star on The Footy Show, will share tall tales and true from their careers on and off the field.

The Excalibur Club will present their annual Knights player of the year award.

Tickets are available until Monday, September 17, by contacting Cain Rowston (0418 787 760).